Pinterest Tips

Pinterest is known as a social network based on pictures. In fact, it's a powerful search engine and a valuable source of traffic.

I opened a Pinterest account more than a decade ago but was rather skeptical. It's based on images, and I am very strict about using images for whatever reason if the copyrights are not clear. In my opinion, they were not. Everybody pinned just anything, no matter what, and each pin is a file of its own, which makes it a duplicate. Still, I shared some Public Domain pictures to get the feel of working. Another problem with pinned images on Pinterest is links pointing to the web pages with pinned images. They are marked by a nofollow tag, which essentially should not bring any SEO benefit. Pinning content just to put it in front of potential visitors for a few seconds in their feeds didn't sound attractive to me. I focused on Google.

After several years of ups and downs with Google, I decided to give Pinterest another try. If nothing else, in the meantime, I noticed Pinterest is much more of a search engine than a social media service. I have also noticed pins of several images are placed in Google's search results pretty high. I offered help to some of my friends who have content with a lot of images. As you already know, Pinterest is all about visual results. My initial plan was to invest half an hour per day to create three original pins and evaluate results after one month. This was in July when my old account had less than one thousand visitors per month. Only a few of them actually clicked on the content promoted under the pins.

Here is what I have learned, and I am willing to share at the moment.

Pinterest is not much of a social network

Yes, sure, Pinterest has options of liking, reppining, commenting, and saving other pins. You can follow other users, and they can follow you back. In reality, there is not much interaction with other users. If you want interaction, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), Plurk, or Bluesky are much better options. If you follow somebody, it's not very likely they will follow you back, so don't bother with that. It's much better to focus on creating quality pins.

My Favorite Social Media Is:

Most of social media is total waste of time

Pinterest is a very good search engine

I noticed that when I was searching for specific images. I found out that Pinterest, in many cases, offers better results than Google. You can use Pinterest directly, or you can find pins in Google's search results under the tab of images. In both cases, these images can bring you valuable traffic if they are linked to your websites. Users who are willing to click on the image are, in general, also users who are more likely to click on advertisements on the website. This means money.

Pinterest has very simple SEO rules

If you want to place your pin high in the search results, you should follow next steps:

pin a quality image in vertical (!) orientation,
name it using a descriptive keyword,
describe it with another (related) keyword and try to include some kind of call-to-action in the description,
place a link where the place for the link is already waiting (the link should lead to the webpage with the pinned image),
use all possible tagged topics (ten topics may sound too much, but still try to use them all - just be creative).

As I discovered, about 80 percent of users don't do any of these steps. They just use the add-ons in their browsers, click and forget. This is good news for me. The very first moment after publishing each of my pins, I am already ahead of 80% of them.

My results on Pinterest

After my first month, my traffic (I am talking only about impressions, not actual clicks) rose from one thousand per month to three thousand per month. The next month, it rose to almost ten thousand. There were also a few repins, saves, and outclicks. Then, the rise stopped. It was September when the so-called seasonal searches started to dominate. I decided to invest extra energy and start creating six pins per day with half of them being 'seasonal' (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine, etc.). Each pin, on average, takes ten minutes of my time. This includes keyword research, writing, and often some technical things related to images.

Now, after four months, my account has way over 50 thousand impressions per month. Even more important is that there is a constant action of saving and repining with about three pins per day. This is as much as I created when I started with the experiment. Two of the promoted websites have significantly higher traffic, which proves interest works as a good source of traffic. With these parameters, I expect the traffic from Pinterest will beat the traffic from Google in the next three months.

If you would like to share some of my adventures on Pinterest, follow me here. I will follow you back. But don't get me wrong - the number of followers is not crucial. Sure, if you have ten thousand active followers, they might mean something in the first few hours after publishing your pins, but essentially, a good pin will get visits months and years after being published. Constant pinning is by far the most important factor for success. Quality pins (originality, good keywords, attractive images) will take care of the next step with repinning, saving, liking, commenting, and eventually boosting your traffic.

At least as far as I know.

Have fun with pinning, and see you there!

Updated: 11/22/2024, mihgasper

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mihgasper 25 days ago

I personally know just a few occasional users of Pinterest and thy mostly use it for inspiration.

I wouldn't be so sure about the artists engaging in debate only. I have seen a few of them being very aggressive and not noble at all. But yes, Pinterest certainly lacks heated debates similar to Twitter. This is a big plus in my opinion.

mihgasper 25 days ago

I think so, yes. Or, at least for some people. On second thought, I know quite a few people who are 'window-shopping' by touching stuff. They are looking through their sense of touch which obviously makes them relaxed. Pinterest has the touchy part as well.

DerdriuMarriner 27 days ago

The computer crashed before I completed another component of my observation and question below.

Could the "pure mechanics" of "people who love window-shopping" come at least somewhat from those who are art-lovers and experimental artists and wannabe artists?

Artists engage themselves in debate but with an ever-artistic purpose, without gratuitousness, perhaps unlike those who "on other networks, on the other hand like to exchange opinions and many of them actually log in to argue with others."

DerdriuMarriner 27 days ago

Thank you for your comment below, in answer to my previous observation and question.

Your theory convinces me!

Images defer to window-shopping, much less difficult, methodical, stressful, even tedious than information-shopping, don't they?

mihgasper 28 days ago

It's just my theory ... I believe Pinterest was originally designed more as a social network, but then the pure mechanics changed the coarse ... People who are the most active on Pinterest are just like people who love windowshopping. They go around, click what they like and ignore the rest. They are not much about a debate. People on other networks, on the other hand like to exchange opinions and many of them actually log in to argue with others. You won't find that on Pinterest.

DerdriuMarriner 28 days ago

The last paragraph to your subheading, Pinterest is not much of a social network, advises us that "Yes, sure, Pinterest has options of liking, reppining, commenting, and saving other pins. You can follow other users, and they can follow you back. In reality, there is not much interaction with other users. If you want interaction, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), Plurk, or Bluesky are much better options. If you follow somebody, it's not very likely they will follow you back, so don't bother with that. It's much better to focus on creating quality pins."

Is it known why Pinterest-ers cannot be counted upon to follow one another?

mihgasper on 11/23/2024

Examples of call to action are: 'visit the link below', 'read more', 'use this coupon for discount', 'save it for further use', etc., essentially anything which gives the Pinterest's bots a signal that the visitor found something useful and is willing to learn more. In consequence, your pin will be placed in better positions than the pins by users without interaction.

mihgasper on 11/23/2024

Hi, Veronica. I would be glad if you give me a follow. The power is in numbers. All the best!

DerdriuMarriner on 11/23/2024

All the images and information are generous in their explanations and suggestions.

In particular, the second subheading, Pinterest is a very good search engine, impresses me with its generous helpfulness, particularly with its observations that "If you want to place your pin high in the search results, you should follow next steps:
pin a quality image in vertical (!) orientation,
name it using a descriptive keyword,
describe it with another (related) keyword and try to include some kind of call-to-action in the description,
place a link where the place for the link is already waiting (the link should lead to the webpage with the pinned image),
use all possible tagged topics (ten topics may sound too much, but still try to use them all - just be creative)."

The third step intrigues me. What is either a general example or an example from your Pinterest account of "some kind of call-to-action in the description"?