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I started this blog this year and it has grown quicker than I ever could have imagined.
I knew I wanted to make money from this blog and help others to make money too. Within 3 months of starting, I got into Mediavine’s new Journey program.
I have also grown my Pinterest to almost 400,000 monthly impressions in 2 months with hardly any followers.
When it comes to blogging, Pinterest is the best “social media platform” to post on. I think by now most people know that Pinterest is more of a search engine than a social media platform.
Pinterest is great for a number of reasons:
- It is specifically designed so people can click through and go straight to your website.
- It is great for evergreen content, so your pins will still show up months or years later.
- Anyone can start posting and followers don’t matter!!!
Mistakes I made
Coming up with a Pinterest strategy that WORKS takes time and a lot of testing. I started this Pinterest account in April and in June I am just now seeing some traction.
PINTEREST TAKES TIME!!
It is hard to commit to something when you are not seeing the results you want and that also make it easy to lose motivation.
Which is why instead of sticking to my main strategy, I made the mistake of keyword stuffing in the beginning thinking that was going to help my results.
It didn’t.
Pinterest honestly takes around 6-8 months to see real results which is why I’ll tell you what is working in the short term for me and how I know it will end up working in the long term.
Keyword stuffing your posts by just listing out all the keywords you want to go for is bad practice on Pinterest. It can:
Negative Impact SEO: Keyword stuffing can negatively impact your SEO efforts. Pinterest’s algorithm is designed to recognize and potentially penalize content that is trying to manipulate search rankings through excessive keyword use. This can lead to lower visibility for your pins and profile.
User Experience: Overloading your pins, boards, or descriptions with keywords can make your content less readable and less appealing to users. This can decrease engagement, as users are less likely to interact with content that appears spammy or difficult to read.
Violates Guidelines: Pinterest has community guidelines and best practices that discourage keyword stuffing. Violating these guidelines can lead to penalties, including reduced visibility or even suspension of your account.
Trust and Credibility: Keyword stuffing can harm your brand’s trust and credibility. Users may perceive your content as low-quality or deceptive if it’s filled with irrelevant or excessive keywords.
So do not keyword stuff! You need to write titles and descriptions that use the keywords you want to rank for in sentence form.
The other huge mistake I made when I started was thinking I could convert my old personal Pinterest account into a business account for this niche and it would work.
My other Pinterest account had nothing to do with this niche and made Pinterest confused so it wasn’t pushing out my content. I wasted a whole month trying to grow that Pinterest account and it was a losing battle.
Take the time to start a new Pinterest account, it is much easier to curate the content you want when it is fresh. It also means Pinterest will know you are a creator rather than just a consumer and they will know to push your content in front of an audience.
My Strategy in 2024
I do intense keyword research even before I write blog posts. On Pinterest, keyword research is so incredibly important.
There are several ways to find keywords on Pinterest. Here is a full list of how I find keywords:
How to find keywords
Pinterest Search Bar:
- Autocomplete Suggestions: Start typing a keyword related to your niche in the Pinterest search bar. Pinterest will display autocomplete suggestions based on popular searches.
- Related Searches: After performing a search, scroll down to see related search terms. These are keywords and phrases that users frequently search for in connection with your primary keyword.
Pinterest Trends:
- Visit the Pinterest Trends page to see trending searches and topics on Pinterest. This tool provides insights into what is currently popular and can help you identify relevant keywords.
Explore Popular Pins and Boards:
- Look at pins and boards that are performing well in your niche. Analyze the keywords used in their titles, descriptions, and hashtags. This can give you ideas for keywords that resonate with your target audience.
Pinterest Ads:
- Use the Pinterest Ads Manager to explore keyword suggestions. When creating a promoted pin, you can access keyword suggestions and related terms that Pinterest provides based on your initial input.
Google Keyword Planner:
- While not specific to Pinterest, Google Keyword Planner can help you find relevant keywords. You can then test these keywords on Pinterest to see how they perform.
Pinterest Analytics:
- If you have a Pinterest business account, use Pinterest Analytics to see which keywords and terms are driving traffic to your pins. This data can help you refine your keyword strategy.
Optimizing my boards, titles, and descriptions
When starting a brand new account on Pinterest, you should start with around 5 boards that you can maintain regularly. Each of those board titles and descriptions should be optimized with RELEVANT keywords.
When you start a new board, you should pin 20-30 pins of content that is already ranking well in Pinterest so the board has relevant and keyword-optimized pins already in it.
This allows Pinterest to know what the board is about and what you will be pinning to this board.
Focus on creating high-quality, engaging content with natural keyword usage. This approach will help improve your Pinterest SEO, enhance user experience, and align with Pinterest’s guidelines. Here are some best practices:
- Use relevant keywords naturally within your pin descriptions, titles, and board names.
- Create detailed and informative descriptions that provide value to users.
- Use a mix of broad and specific keywords to reach a wider audience without overloading any single piece of content.
- Regularly update and optimize your pins and boards to keep them relevant and discoverable.
Pin Design
Do not skip on creating pins that look pretty. Create templates that you can use over again and switch out the images and change the text. It saves so much time in pin creation.
Use bright colours and pretty pictures. On a page with thousands of other pins, you need to find a way to stand out. You can do that by creating pins that look good. Pins that look good will get clicks.
Use bright colours and contrast in your pin design!
This is my top clicked pin and it is bright and has a bold text overlay. You should do something similar!
Unique URLs
Do not pin to the same URL over and over again. Pinterest will deem this as spammy and will shadow-ban your account. Make sure you only create 3-4 pins per blog post and space them out about a week apart and then leave them alone for a few months before creating new pins for them.
Pinterest values new pins to show to users so make sure you are creating new pin designs for your older blog posts when it is time to start making new pins for them.
Conclusion
Pinterest takes time to see real results. Use this blog post to avoid the mistakes I made when I first started.
Give yourself 6-8 months to see results from Pinterest.
Pinterest and blogging in general is a long game. You are trying to create sustainable businesses and blogs, not short get rich quick.
Take the time you need, you will see results!
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