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Pinterest is my main man.
If you want to get down with traffic strategies in 2017 and into 2018, you better believe Pinterest is number one on my list.
No, Iâm not going to waste your time going on and on about my long and loving relationship with Mr. Pins, but I will say: if you have NO IDEA WHERE TO START WITH HIM, youâre not alone.
And honestly, having a half-assed Pinterest strategy is worse than having no strategy at all.

So hereâs what weâre gonna do.
Below, Iâm going to share 66 things Iâve done over the last two years to jumpstart my Pinterest marketing strategy. Some are easy five minute fixes, and others youâll spend a whole weekend doing. Iâm not going to waste your time. Iâm not going to ask you to sell your email address in exchange for a spreadsheet.
– although yes, there are downloads below, but I link directly to the .pdf or spreadsheet file like some kind of animal –
All 66 Pinterest marketing tips are organized by in groups by topic:
1. What you can do to set up – or rebuild – a good account foundation
2. Curating the types of content youâll be pinning, and the boards youâll pin them to
3. The importance of extending your branding to Pinterest
4. Making your website Pinterest friendly
5. Your new Pinterest SEO strategy, aka how to rank high in Smart Feed
6. Expanding your reach to get Pinterest followers
7. Ways to save time and cut the fat out of your Pinterest strategy
8. What to do if youâre not seeing results
9. And some boney-bonus tips
Yes, this is gonna be a long post. I tried to make it as skimmable as possible.
Iâve linked my own Pinterest profile multiple times, too. While I do want you to follow me (#duh), I also want to show a real-life example of wtf Iâm talking about in each tip.
So. Letâs get started.
1. Use the official verification tool to confirm your website address.
Completing the verification process enables analytics, the /source/yoursite.com page, and adds your info to the bottom of all pins coming from your domain:
2. Enable Rich Pins.
Rich Pins are ameeeeezing, and hereâs why: The beauty of Rich Pins is that their metadata can be updated. Prior to Rich Pins, parts of Pinterest were static graveyards full of dead links, and outdated information. Now – for example – if you change the price on a product, every single Rich Pin of that item on Pinterest will automatically update.
3. Donât use a blurry or noise-filled webcam photo as your profile pic.
You donât need a professionally styled photoshoot to come and play, but make sure your face is well-lit and clear.

LEFT: cute, but not Pinterest friendly! It’s lit weird, has that webcam blur, and needs less đ
RIGHT: a good example of “you don’t need to get fancier than your iPhone.” It’s brighter! Vertical! I have a neutral expression!

4. Not sure where to find people to follow on Pinterest?
See who your favorite entrepreneurs are already following by visiting their profile, and clicking the âFollowingâ tab (duh).
5. To see what content your readers are already pinning, visit /source/yoursite.com:
6. Please donât be like everybody else!!
Donât feel pressured to write the formulaic âIâm a #girlboss who helps other #girlbosses improve their blog and bizâ bio, or align your brand under the same fonts and colors as everyone else’s pins.
When it comes to Pinterest account strategy, don't feel pressured to create the formulaic #girlboss profile. Click To Tweet7. Make sure youâre tracking your analytics from the very beginning.
Pinterestâs analytics are great – but they only show 30 days of historical data. If you donât know where to start when it comes to data tracking, check out the spreadsheet I use for my account here! No opt-in required.
Curate Your Content
aka: How to Pin Successfully
8. It doesnât matter what time you pin.
The Smart Feed shows âbestâ pins first, not ânewestâ – but pin schedulers help maintain a regular schedule, and ensure youâre pinning consistently:
9. Write a full description for the content youâre pinning from your site.
Pinterest only shows a short preview, but stores a full 500 character description for EVERY pin created. Take advantage of that! We may only see the short preview, but the search algorithm and Smart Feed will read all 500 characters.
10. Donât waste your time with a million lifestyle boards – unless you want to.
11. Learn where to find high-quality content.
If you want to use Pinterest to drive traffic back to your site, youâve gotta keep the good stuff coming. Only follow people you can repin content from. Make a short list of search keywords you can use regularly to find new content.
12. Create secret boards for stuff your readers probably donât care about.
It makes cleaning up your boards much easier for future you. I also like to keep a secret âcontent ideasâ board for one-day inspiration. Take a look at my secret shame:
13. Only pin content that aligns with your brand.
Quality over quantity. If you’re struggling to curate new pins to share every day, consider looping the pins you already have.
14. Donât forget to check your notifications bubble.
It took me a long time to warm up to being fed content Pinterest thought I would like through the Smart Feed; I still check what the people I follow are pinning regularly – mostly because it saves time when Iâm looking for stuff to repin.
15. If seasonal content works with your brand, take advantage of it.
Start repinning Halloween stuff in September, and Christmas content right after Halloween. Youâll likely see an uptick in your analytics.
From Pinterest:
Year after year, the holiday season on Pinterest just gets bigger. In 2016, 20% more holiday-related Pins were saved to Pinterest boards than in 2015, and this year weâre expecting more growth than ever. Interest is already rising, with nearly double the number of Christmas searches this April (up 95%!), compared to 2016. Pinners tend to start searching twice as early as people on other platforms, because Pinterest helps them decide where to shop and what to buy.
16. Create a board just for your content, and set it as your first board.
Add this board to your Showcase, too. Showcases are a semi-new feature, and can be created (or updated) through your Settings page.
Extending Your Brand to Pinterest
and how to leverage it for more views
17. Be attractive.
Your pins should be tall, pretty (whatever that means for you), and easy to read.
18. Test for different screen sizes.
Make sure your pins look good on mobile AND desktop. And on a different sized tablet, if you can swing it.
19. Aim for multi-dimensional pins: use more than one color, and keep it bright.
20. Use the stock photos everyone else ISNâT.
Expand your horizons past Unsplash, and check out places like Kaboom!, Death to the Stock Photo, and Bloguettesâ Stock That Rocks.
21. Choose attractive board cover photos.
You donât need to waste time creating your own (unless thatâs something that would make you feel good to do), just make sure that all the covers compliment one another, and thereâs a general color theme to be had.
22. Make sure itâs easy to pin content from your site.
Install a plugin – whatever you need to do – and hand your device to someone who doesnât build websites. Ask them to pin something from your website, and watch their process.
23. I review my content every quarter, add optimize for Pinterest where I can.
For example, if a post retrospectively has an ugly image, Iâll update it to something that might perform better. Iâll also add additional backlinks and link some of my newer content: itâs good for SEO, which makes it good for Pinterest, too.
Here’s the evolution behind The Secret to My Pinterest Success:
24. Add links to your Pinterest profile to multiple places in your site design.
Make it SUPER obvious, top and bottom.
25. You can use the following HTML code snippet to hide Pinterest optimized (tall, infographic, etc) images in your blog posts:
26. Install a social share plugin to offer social proof to your visitors.
Itâs human nature: weâre more compelled to share a piece of content that is ALREADY popular. I use the Monarch sharing plugin, but Filament.io (now ShareThis) works great, too.
27. Make sure all your images have Pinterest friendly ALT text.
28. This is kind of an old-school tip, but Pinterest has a widget builder.
The widget builder can be used to display certain boards (or your whole account) on sites other than Pinterest. If it works in your post, you could create a widget for one of your related boards, and throw er in there.
29. Ask your readers to âTry It!â on Pinterest at the end of your blog post.
This is a feature that is still semi-new, but it does count towards the Smart Feed weight of your pin. Repins + likes + âTried It!âs = a winning recipe.
Rank High on the Smart Feed
Your new Pinterest SEO Strategy!
30. Organize your boards by importance, and then topic.
HEREâS WHY: Pinterest doesnât care, but Google does. Placing boards with keywords important to your niche at the top of your Pinterest profile may result in a Google ranking for those keywords.
31. Use NICHE KEYWORDS and PERSONALITY in your Pinterest profile bio.
Weâre at such a dime-a-dozen point with creative and online entrepreneurs, one extra-nichey keyword in your bio (mine: intuition, coven, new media witch) could result in extra eyes on your profile via search.
32. Create boards around the same topic, but then drill down into specific terms and words.
For example, I repin a lot of content for bloggers. I do have a âBlogging for Beginnersâ board, but I ALSO have: Blogging Productivity, Simplify Your Business, Social Media Marketing, Pinterest Tips, etc. You donât need to limit one pin to one board: repin a piece of content to as many boards make sense.
33. When it comes to naming your boards, go for function over form.
Target your keywords (âHalloweenâ) and stay away from cutesy, hard-to-search-for stuff (âthe spookiest time of the year!â)
34. Not sure how to find keywords to target?
Use Pinterestâs search bar, or the keyword suggest feature at the bottom of your board.
35. Know what determines how well your content performs.
Hereâs what I mean: the time you pin content doesnât matter. Deleting old pins doesnât matter. The things that do matter are: the quality of your domain, your overall pin quality (the number of pins you have vs. how many clicks and repins they get), your quality as a pinner (you need to pin high quality content regularly), and relevance.
36. Target long-tail keywords in your blog posts.
The more content rich your post is, the better chance you have at getting found on Pinterest (and Google, but thatâs a different post for another time.)
37. Donât be intimidated by the Smart Feed!
It just pulls pins from three different sources: repins from the people you follow, pins that are related to the content you click on or search for, and pins that are related to your interests.
38. Make sure all of your boards are filed under a category, not just âOther.â
Expand Your Audience Reach
and Get More Pinterest Followers
39. Join Group Boards!
This is the easiest and most efficient way to expand your reach and potential audience. Make sure the Group Board is targeted to the type of content you pin.
40. Post your content to multiple boards at multiple times throughout the day.
Keep your pin alive by getting as many different sets of eyes on it as you can (aka donât spam THE SAME BOARD over and over.) I used to subscribe to the one-and-done strategy (one pin, one board, done forever), and it got me absolutely nowhere.
41. Connect with the brands you mention in your pinned content.
You never know, they may choose to use your post in their own promotions!
42. Join targeted Tailwind Tribes to expand your audience reach even more.
43. Create your own Group Board
Extend invitations to other creators in or adjacent to your niche. Make sure your Group Board is (you guessed it) TARGETED. If you have multiple topics you want to include, create more than one board!
44. If youâve linked another blogger inside your post, tag them!
Aim for the social networks you share the post on (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). They may retweet, repin, or otherwise reshare.
45. Concentrate on boosting your engagement rate, NOT your follower count.
The Smart Feed wants pins that are getting clicks and repins. Pinterest doesnât care if you have a million followers if theyâre ghosts that never click on or repin your content.
46. Forget about opt-ins for a minute, and put a call-to-action at the bottom of your post, asking your reader to pin your content.
Pinterest is going NOWHERE anytime soon; this is not a Snapchat, Instagram, or Vine situation. If youâre posting a recipe or DIY, ask your readers to click the âTry It!â button on Pinterest.
And, if you’re still not getting results…
47. The most important thing is: donât get frustrated!
Pinterest is a fickle bitch, and sometimes, the minute you stop trying is exactly when one of the things you pinned eons ago will take off. Have patience, and be consistent. Youâll get there.
48. Take no prisoners when it comes to refreshing your content.
Create new images for your blog posts (keeping Pinterest the target priority), and repin your posts everywhere: your blogâs board, your Group Boards, your related boards, etc.
49. If youâre not already using a scheduling tool like Tailwind, make the jump and try out a 30-day trial.
When I first started using Tailwind, my stats jumped by 30% in one month.
50. Already a Tailwind convert?
Make sure youâre regularly going in and scheduling re-pins of your blog posts for the future. I also recommend checking out the Suggestions pane to see if you have any boards missing descriptions, etc.
51. Constantly be improving your content (writing, headlines, branding, etc).
52. Adjust your pinning and repinning strategy as needed.
One size does not fit all for everyone, and you may need to tweak some things, despite what others are doing.
Hereâs a what is currently working for me: I browse Pinterest from my desktop computer for a few minutes every day. When I find something I want to repin, I click the Tailwind button to save a copy to my drafts. Once a week – or every hundredish drafts – I’ll go in and schedule everything. This works out to me having to refill my queue every 30 days or so.
By using the “save draft” feature via Tailwind, it ALSO saves me from tearing my hair out trying to batch find content to pin đ
53. Connect with other bloggers in Facebook Groups.
My favorites are Regina’s Humans of Online Business, and Being Boss. There are also groups dedicated to growing your blog with pin-for-pin and click-for-click threads, but I would tread lightly with those.
54. Donât rehash the same shit over and over.
Create new content, with fresh ideas that havenât been beaten with a dead stick a thousand times. If you want to do the âHow to Start a Blogâ post – great! – but put a fresh spin on it. Make people want it.
55. When youâre ready to level up, try creating a Promoted Pin.
Spend less time on Pinterest
Make your process more efficient!
56. Use the Board Lists feature in Tailwind to make repinning to Group Boards more efficient.
The more time you can save on repetitive tasks like this, the more time you can spend growing your Pinterest account elsewhere. Here’s some more info on Tailwind.
57. Donât spam your own content! Not a good look.
58. You donât need to be pushing out hundreds of pins and repins a day.
If you want to, go on with your bad self, but it isnât necessary to growth. Start with getting out 20 high quality pins per day, and work your way up to 60.
59. Sneak organic pinning into your day when you can.
In a world full of automated processes, Pinterest loves organic activity. If you have 10 minutes to kill, spend it pinning a couple things.
60. Forget deleting low-performing pins.
Itâs a WASTE OF TIME, and you may be shooting your future self in the foot. You never know when an old pin might go viral.
61. Focus on value, always.
BONUS TIPS CUZ PINTEREST IS MY JAM đ
62. Pin the kind of content you would have found helpful one year ago.
63. Stay away from pin-for-pin threads or âPower Groups.â
This is empty engagement, and while the numbers may look enchanting now, you never know when itâs gonna come back and bite you in the ass.
64. If you delete a board, remember…
All of the users that decided to follow that one board (rather than your whole account) will be removed from your âFollowersâ list, too.
65. The Pinterest Engineering blog on Medium is definitely worth a browse.
66. Remember that Pinterest is more of a search engine than a social network.
Your two priorities should be offering valuable content (for your readers), and concentrating on keyword optimization (for your own success).

This is the best and most comprehensive Pinterest guide I’ve ever read! Definitely saving it to my favorites, thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I will try some of these today!
Many thanks fo a good post, shell implement some of this!
Hi Sydney,
I totally agree with tip #39 where joining group boards can help drive traffic for bloggers. I’ve been using that strategy for a long time now and it is still effective. What’s your favorite strategy that gets results for your blog?
Valerie