How to Get Pinned at Pinterest

How you handle the images on your site is going to directly affect your "pinnability" at Pinterest. Use these four tips to enhance your chances of getting pinned.

1. Always include a photo with every post or article.

This should be obvious since Pinterest is a site for collecting images, but there are lots of great posts on the web that don't have an image at all. Adding an image to a post should be a natural step in your blogging or article writing. Don't skip it. Content is king. But images are part of that content.

These kinds of posts are simply not going to get attention without photos:  tutorials, crafts, recipes, DIY, home repairs, repurposing, home organization.

2. Add keyword text or your post title to your image.

Even better than borrowing someone's Creative Commons licensed photo from Flickr or Comfight, use your very own image. Don't get scared here. You don't have to take a photo neccesarily. An image can be a graphic rather than a photograph.

I love the free backgrounds at Background Labs. Open those with Paint or Gimp and add your own embellishments or text.

In fact, for factual posts that don't lend themselves well to a pinnable photo, creating a catchy logo for your post is a great technique. Use some of your keywords or your title on your graphic, and it is likely to be pinned. 

Look at the example for 22 Tips to Organize your Craft Room.

See how the text works well with a vivid image to say exactly what the post is all about? The post is not about buttons. But the buttons draw your attention because they are so gorgeous. The words tell you clearly what this photo is introducing. This is a brilliantly pinnable graphic!

3. Don't link your images.

Many blogging platforms default to automatically linking every image to the image URL. Override that default by deleting the link. Your photos don't need to be linked to anything (normally).

Imagine this scenario:  

A reader loves your image, clicks it, and lands on the image URL. The she pins it. Great! You're on Pinterest. 

No, not great. The image now shows the image URL as the reference, not the blog post where you want visitors to land. Many readers will not be savvy enough to hunt down the original post; others will simply be too lazy. That's lost traffic.

4. Don't let the picture tell the whole story.

Remember you want to drive traffic back to your blog post or article. If your photo tells the whole story, there is no need to visit the site for detailed directions, a printable pattern, a list of materials, a recipe, or an explanation. Simple ideas that can be expressed in a single photo get lots of repins at Pinterest, but I doubt they generate much traffic.

Take for example, this pin:

What a great idea, right? But now that you've seen it, you can do this on your own without ever visiting the blog post. The picture did all the talking.

It is getting repinned all over Pinterest, but I doubt that it's garnering the traffic that the photo below is getting. 

 Here is an example of a photo that makes you click to see the original post:

A reader sees this image and the text and thinks, "What? A bracelet made from a toothbrush? That's crazy! How did she do that? I've got to see this one!" And she clicks to see it.

This is a perfectly pinnable image.

It has text that states what you're seeing.
It doesn't tell the whole story.
It's vivid and colorful.

Depending on your niche, you may need to nudge your readers to join Pinterest and begin using the new website. 

1. Include a link to your boards at Pinterest and encourage readers to follow you.

Pinterest offers logos you can use alongside your normal social media icons such as Google +1, Twitter, and Facebook.

2. Add a Pin It button to your posts.

How to do this will vary depending on your platform. Do some research and find out how to add it to your blog or site.

3. Write a post about Pinterest, explaining it to your readers.