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As a new blogger, I knew that getting traffic to my site was going to be crucial for growth. I’ve been in marketing long enough to know how important SEO is for bloggers, but I didn’t fully understand how to use Pinterest as a traffic strategy until I started experimenting with it myself.
Sure, I’ve browsed it for recipes and cool inspirational stuff, but I’d never really used the platform for business before. So I did what most people do, jumped in and started without really knowing what I was doing. Boy was that a mistake! If you’re trying to figure out how to use Pinterest for your business, there are a few things I wish I knew before I started.
How to Use Pinterest (Quick Answer)
Pinterest works as a search engine where users look for ideas, solutions, and inspiration. To use Pinterest effectively, you need to focus on keywords, create multiple pins for each piece of content, and stay consistent over time. Unlike social media, Pinterest growth comes from search-based content that gains traction gradually.
How to Use Pinterest: It’s not Social Media, It’s a Search Engine
When I started creating pins for my first few blog posts, I thought I was doing the right thing. Create pretty images, use a catchy headline and then wait for the traffic to start coming in. Only that was far from what happened. One of the biggest mindset shifts I had when learning how to use Pinterest is understanding that it functions as a search engine, not a social platform.
Pinterest is a search engine, much like Google. People come to the platform with a particular idea of what they’re looking for.
- Clothing
- Supplements
- Programs
- Books
- Whatever floats their boat.
In order for my pins to be seen by my target audience, I needed to learn how to use SEO to drive traffic. Search Engine Optimization is basically the words and phrases people are typing into Pinterest to find things. This is where Pinterest keywords come into play. These are the exact words and phrases people are typing into the platform to find solutions.
Creating pins that weave in natural keywords your audience is searching for helps your pin rank higher, making them far more searchable to your ideal audience. This is a core part of any Pinterest marketing strategy, especially if you’re creating content designed to attract leads or sell digital products.
Easy ways to get keywords on Pinterest
Pinterest actually makes it pretty easy to find search terms your audience may be looking for. If you go to the search bar and type in your basic keyword or keyword phrase, it will give you a drop down of what other search terms are being used with that keyword. If you’re new to Pinterest marketing, this is one of the easiest ways to understand what your audience is actually searching for.
Let’s take “Pinterest” for example.
When you type this in, you’ll see the drop down gives you more in depth keyword phrases that are being used. These are also ranked in order of popularity with the top line being the most searched for phrase on the platform.
In order to get a pin seen that relates to Pinterest, you would want to use one of these phrases to help refine your pin topic.
Another way to search for keyword phrases is typing in your search term and see what pins pop up. You’ll see from this search term of “sell digital products”, there’s a bunch of coloured bubbles at the top. This helps you see what other phrases Pinterest users are searching for such as:
- Sell digital products online
- Start selling digital products
- Websites to sell digital products
- Selling digital products on Pinterest
Spending some initial research time finding Pinterest keywords will go a long way in ensuring your pins actually get seen.
BONUS: A great tool to use that speeds up the search process of finding highly searchable keyword phrases is Pin Inspector. Instead of manually looking on Pinterest and recording all of the phrases, this tool does it all for you in an instant! Use code PIN20 and get $20 off the price
Your Board Titles Really Matter
When I first started my account, I wasn’t really paying attention to board names. I just thought of them as a way to categorize my pins, which is technically true. But your boards are part of your overall Pinterest marketing strategy, and they help Pinterest understand what your content is about.
When I started creating board titles, I started with a random assortment of names I thought made sense, like:
- Digital Marketing
- Make Money Online
- Passive Income Streams
- Side Hustles
At first glance, there’s nothing wrong with these board titles, right? They seem pretty standard. But what I didn’t realize was that board names are also searchable! Doh!! I needed to think of my boards in very much the same way as my pins. One thing I did that I’m sure a lot of new businesses do is create wayyyyy too many boards. I think I started off with like 25 different boards which in hindsight, is insane for a new user.
Boards should be specific, but you also shouldn’t have boards that are way too similar to each other. (Side Hustles For Beginners / Side Hustles For Moms) This can make it hard for Pinterest’s algorithms to know which board matters most for the keywords you’re using. I actually believed I needed dozens of boards in order to do Pinterest right, but you really don’t. 5-10 really detailed, specific boards go much further than 30 random ones.
As an additional piece to this, you shouldn’t lump all your interests, business ventures, etc into one account. This can make it extremely hard for Pinterest to categorize your account in the right places. If you’re a freelancer selling services it wouldn’t make sense to have boards filled with recipes or beauty products. While these more generalized industries can bring in more views, consider they are likely NOT your ideal clients.
Why It Takes Time to See Results On Pinterest
Unlike social media, Pinterest is very much a strategy that requires patience. One thing that surprised me when learning how to use Pinterest was how long it actually takes for content to gain traction. If you consider its similarities to Google, pins can take a while to be indexed and for them to catch on.
Which means time.
In the beginning of your Pinterest marketing strategy, you may feel like all you’re doing is creating pins that go nowhere, but it takes on average 3-6 months for a pin to start circulating and gaining views.
Yes… Three to Six Months.
In my early weeks I spent a ton of time creating pins then waiting for my metrics to show an increase in views and clicks. It became an obsession waiting to see if a pin would catch or not.
All it really did was make me anxious and frustrated that my pins weren’t moving. Once I realized how long it can take for results, I backed off watching the data and tried to look maybe once a month or so.
If you aren’t prepared to be patient with success, then Pinterest might not be the platform for you.
You need more than 1 pin for growth
I hope it goes without saying, but Pinterest is certainly not a “one and done” platform. Each landing page you’re driving traffic to – whether that’s a blog post, a freebie or a digital product should have multiple pins with multiple different angles to it. Think about it. Not everyone in your ideal audience will relate to a pin in the same way. Some may need curiosity to spark a click while others need to see results. For example, here’s two pins different pins specifically for this blog post:
Pinterest is a platform that requires “fresh” pins. On Instagram or Facebook, you can post the same reel over and over again and get different results. On Pinterest, each pin needs to be different. Now before you blow a gasket over how many pins you need to create, fresh pins are simple to do, but it’s more than just changing colours or background images.
In order for Pinterest to count your pin as “fresh” it needs slight copy tweaking as well. Changing a headline from “Easy Side Hustles From Home” to “Simple Side Hustles For Working Moms” can be all it takes to be considered fresh.
One of my favourite tools to help with creating multiple pins and variations is Maven, a custom bot that’s a powerhouse with SEO and what to post on Pinterest. I feed Maven my actual blog posts, and it helps me with Pinterest keywords, headlines, descriptions and more! This is especially helpful if you’re building content that leads to digital offers or other passive income streams.
It’s even helped me straighten out my board titles and downsize them when I had way too many! Maven is the perfect Pinterest strategist for anyone learning how to use Pinterest for business.
If you’re like me and would rather not spend every waking moment on the platform, having a good scheduler makes easy work for your Pinterest growth. I use Metricool for most of my social media content, but specifically I use it to schedule my pins. It’s waaaaayyyyy cheaper than Tailwind, and it can actually schedule much faster too..
This fantastic video from Mad Pin Media shows exactly how to use Metricool to its full advantage for scheduling dozens of pins at once.
Clarity Matters More Than Pin Design
I might get the Pinterest managers out there angry at me, but your pin design is NOT as critical as you’ve been made to believe. Yes, design is important, but clarity of the pin itself is a must. You can have the most beautiful looking pin out there, but if it doesn’t clearly show why you’d want to click it, no one ever will.
The problem with newer Pinterest users is they try to make their pins super detailed with script fonts, multiple fonts or just cramming it full of text.
Pinterest likes clarity. It wants to make things easy on its users so they have a great user experience. When it comes to designing your pins, keep it simple. A simple bold headline, 1-2 colours, 1-2 fonts. (Avoid script fonts for small text, and be very limited using it in your headlines.
It’s a myth that your pins have to be branded to your business fonts and colours too. Pinterest users aren’t brand loyal, they’re solution loyal. If you scroll Pinterest yourself, you’ll likely see certain pins jump out at the page more than others. Pay attention to what catches your eye and reverse engineer that for your own use. One of the great features in Pin Inspector is you can actually see what colours are being used for top searched pins for a keyword.
Here’s a search for the keyword phrase “sell digital products online.” It ranks the pins in order, same as they would appear on Pinterest. But now you can see what the main colour for each high ranking pins are.
It’s better to have pins that are clear and direct than to have pins with heavy design elements and tons of words.
Pinterest Solves Problems
One of the last things I learned about Pinterest is that it’s not just a place for recipes or inspiration quotes and memes. People are going to Pinterest in search of answers. They aren’t going to look for specific brands or labels. This is why learning how to use Pinterest effectively comes down to creating content that solves specific problems. Whether you’re trying to figure out how to sell on Pinterest or simply grow your traffic into real income streams, your content needs to align with what people are actively searching for.
Let’s say I’m looking to understand how Pinterest marketing works. Chances are I’m going to Pinterest in search of an answer to that, regardless of how it’s delivered (course, pdf, service) Better yet, people come in search of solutions in the form of “How To’s”
- How to start a side hustle
- How to be a freelancer
- How Pinterest works for bloggers
- How to cook a chicken
- How to build a fence
If you look at your pins in a “How To” kind of way, it makes it a lot easier to create great headlines that attract people to you. (This also helps give you great blog ideas and titles to use, if that’s your thing). If you spend some time searching your specific niche on Pinterest you’ll start to see all the various ways a “how to” statement is used on pins.
Pinterest Tips For Beginners That Actually Matter
These simple Pinterest tips can make a huge difference in how your content performs over time.
- Focus on keywords, not just design
- Create multiple pins with multiple angles for every piece of content
- Be patient and give your pins time to rank
- Keep your boards specific and relevant
- Prioritize clarity over aesthetics
Learning how to use Pinterest properly has completely changed the way I approach content and traffic, especially when it comes to building systems that bring in consistent leads and income. It’s not about posting randomly and hoping for results, but about building a simple Pinterest strategy that works over time.
