How to grow your blog traffic with Pinterest

As a new blogger, I can understand your frustration in trying to grow blog traffi with Pinterestc. It can be very difficult when you’re first starting out to get your name out there. What I’ve found in my past 3ish years of blogging is that Pinterest is one of the best ways to grow.

The thing I’ve realized over the years is that there are certain platforms that are worth your time, and others that are not. Sure Instagram is fun and beautiful and a great way to find pictures of future travel destinations but at the end of the day I don’t see much traffic from it. While I do see some traffic from Twitter, again, it’s not necessarily a platform that will bring me continual traffic.

After a lot of research, I realized that Pinterest was one of the best platforms for continual traffic without the maintenance that other platforms like Facebook and Twitter would take.

In one month I managed to grow my followers from 40 to 918 (and growing). While it’s not many in the grand scheme of things, it is 850 more people that would see and possible share my content. This is an important fact to consider when trying to grow your blog traffic with Pinterest.

Below I’ve laid out some methods that I’ve tested and have worked for me over the past years to help you in your effort to grow your blog traffic with Pinterest.

| Canva |

If you haven’t heard of this website I’m about to change your life (blogging life that is). Canva.com is one of the most amazing free resources you can find out there. If you’ve ever seen beautiful images with text overlays, this is likely where it was created.

There are so many different layouts and templates that you can use – in fact it’s how I created my logo! The website is incredibly user-friendly and easy to use.

I don’t post a blog unless I’ve included a Pinterest-friendly image with it. The goal at the end of the day is to get people sharing the posts and the best way to do this is by giving quality images optimized for the platform. The more your image stands out, the likelier people will be to click on it.

| Rework your boards |

Make sure your boards and their titles correspond. Make it easy for people to find what they are looking for. Pinterest functions in a similar way to Google as your pins and posts are found through Keyword searches. Make sure you’re optimizing your boards for this.

Also, don’t be afraid of having too many boards! This is the one piece of advice that I’m still trying to work on. I want to create a brand and a feel when people come to my Pinterest account, there are some bloggers that do this really well.

One way to do this is by changing the main image people see when viewing your board. To do this click the “edit” button for your board, go to the cover section and press change. This will bring you to all of the photos you have saved to this particular board and you can change it to whatever you want.

| Pin everything |

Obviously, you’re not going to grow a following if you don’t start pinning your own work. Don’t forget to go back to older posts and pin them frequently so they never become lost. This will bring them back to the forefront and again, if it’s great content, people will notice and click on it.

I have Sumo as a social plug in that makes it easy (hopefully) for people to pin images right from my blog post. People are lazy, you want to make it as easy for them as possible to do anything on your blog – trust me.

If you’re pinning posts from your blog don’t forget to make them Rich Pins. Basically this is a code that gets embedded to your website that will attribute any photos pulled from your website back to you from Pinterest. You can find more about how to make Rich Pins here.

 | Link up |

Being able to share on other Bloggers Pinterest boards gives you access to a completely new set of audiences, it’s another great way to get noticed.

One thing I’ve done and notice people doing is creating collaborative boards. Create a space where people can share their great posts or get connected with a board where you can do this. Travel bloggers are some of the greatest supporters when it comes to others’ work so take advantage of it. Help doesn’t come for free though, make sure you’re giving back as well.

| Follow |

Go out and follow as many people as you can in a day. I think Pinterest cuts you off at about 300. Sure this may not be as ‘authentic’ as you’d like to grow your social media following but I’m going to be honest – this method is the one that worked for me the most.

As soon as I started going out and following relevant, sometimes irrelevant pinners I started to notice not only my followers increase but also the amount of traffic that was coming to my blog.

Here’s how I see it – sometimes when you’re new in the market people don’t know who you are or how to find you. When you go out and follow a bunch of people you’re going to get noticed. If you’re producing good content they will follow you back.

I don’t really see it as a way of cheating, I just see it as a way of getting ahead quicker. Once you hit a certain point you’ll naturally  see your more followers because people are taking notice.

There you have it – my proven methods that have helped me to increase traffic to my blog in just one month!