Oh Pinterest, what’s going on? When I scheduled this post on my content calendar, I had a plan to write a great “how to” post about driving traffic to your blog using Pinterest. I planned to detail the importance of branded board covers, pinning consistently, joining group boards and Facebook groups. I wanted to show you analytics and statistics on how this greatly improved not only my Pinterest views, but the traffic to my blog in a short time.
However, shortly after I started writing, Pinterest switched everything around. They developed a new algorithm as well as new Best Practices for Success on Pinterest. In reading the new guidelines and terms of use, I realized I would be doing you a disservice if I only focused on board covers, consistent pinning, and group boards, because with these changes and new algorithm, those strategies are simply not enough.
Don't get me wrong, you still need to incorporate the above techniques when first starting out, however these techiniques alone will no longer skyrocket your blog traffic. Each one is a great starting point, but now that Pinterest has changed, you simply need to implement more strategies.
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In my post, “How to Skyrocket Traffic to Your Blog”, I detail my initial techniques for growing my blog traffic through Pinterest. I invite you to read that post to help you get started, but for now, I need to dive into all the changes, and the best approach to navigating this new algorithm.
Before Pinterest made changes, my blog traffic and Pinterest views steadily increased day-to-day. However, since I am a firm believer in honesty and transparency, I must tell you with this new algorithm I have seen a slight decrease in monthly views and blog traffic.
Look, just before all the changes went into effect, I had just over 300k monthly views at the beginning of April.
One month later, I have dropped down to 212k monthly views.
I experienced drastic changes with my blog traffic as well.
April 1st
May 1st
As you can see over the past month, my views and traffic significantly decreased. Now, I must confess this decrease in numbers is twofold.
First, my family schedule has become super busy this past month, so I haven’t been able to give Pinterest and my blog the amount of attention I was giving it previously. (If you are familiar with my blog then you know I am all about family and self-care. The blog, stats, and social media will all be there tomorrow, but moments with family are precious).
Second, my lack of pinning as aggressively as I was before April has played a part in the decrease, however in the midst of my family time, I missed the important changes that came from Pinterest, so my strategy and methods were antiquated and not a match for the new algorithm.
I have since gone back to the drawing board, learned about the new algorithm, and now I have a new approach that seems to be working so far. Therefore, here are the new and improved ways to find success and explode blog traffic using the new Pinterest.
1. Focus On Your Followers
If you haven’t noticed, you now have a new “following” tab at the top of your board.
This tab is chronological and shows the pins of everyone you are following. Pinterest's new algorithm is putting emphasis on your followers. The new measures will take into account how your followers interact with your pins and this will determine where they land in the feed.
To find success on Pinterest, you need your followers to re-pin and engage with your pins in the first few days after posting. Be sure to pin content that your followers like and find relevant. This will help you in this new Pinterest game.
Furthermore, find those in your niche and follow/engage them. On your blog and other outlets, encourage people to follow you on Pinterest. By gaining followers through these channels, you can ensure that your audience is interested and relates to you pinned content.
2. Timing Is Everything
As with any method, timing is now crucial to your success on Pinterest. According to Pinterest best practices, they recommend you pin during peak times, which is usually the evening and weekends in the USA. Furthermore, Pinterest is now prioritizing your first 5 pins of the day.
What exactly does this mean? This means you need to make your first 5 pins your best pins of the day and Pinterest further urges you to share your own content.
However, don’t just save your pins to your “Best of” board. In order to be successful with the new Pinterest algorithm, be sure to pin your first 5 pins (and all other pins) to relevant boards in order to receive priority distribution and increased exposure.
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3. Create New Pins For Your Blog Posts
Pinterest now prioritizes pin that come directly from your own site or blog. This means that you need to not only share your content on Pinterest, but also create new and different style pins for your blog posts.
The days of “branded” pins seem like they are coming to past. Pinterest is now pushing and prioritizing new and different pins for blog posts. Not only should your pins look different, but also each pin needs a different description in order to increase your reach.
Remember the idea behind Pinterest is to not only get re-pins, but it’s to create a pin and description so enticing that those re-pins turn in to click-throughs, driving people to your blog and in best case scenario converting that visitor to a subscriber or client.
4. Pin Regularly And Consistently, Every Day
I am proof that pinning regularly and consistently pays off, and proof of what happens when you slack off for a few days. Pinterest Best Practices says 10-12 pins per day, however I can tell you in trying that best practice I did not see any increases.
It seems pinning 50-100 times per day is the standard, and it works because this method helped me grow my reach quickly. I tend to stick closer to 50 than 100, because depending on the resource you read, some say more than 50 pins does more harm than good.
With the new change, there doesn’t appear to be any significance to whether you manually pin or use a scheduler like Viraltag. You just need to be consistent and pin every day, multiple times a day.
5. Optimize SEO
The titles of your board, keywords, and descriptions matter. Make sure you include keywords in the names of your boards as well as to your pin description to strengthen your SEO. The more relevant the keyword is, the better your SEO.
However, be careful because there is such a thing as too many keywords. According to this new algorithm, too many keywords can actually cause your post to be buried within the app, thus decreasing your exposure.
If you are new to Pinterest or if you are like me, wondering what happened to your account, these are the 5 action steps you must take today if you want to explode your blog traffic. I don’t know about you, but these changes have me rethinking my whole strategy.
I have a few items to tend to on my Pinterest account, such as optimizing my board titles, creating new pins, and of course getting back to pinning consistently. However, I still have great faith in Pinterest as it relates to gaining blog traffic, and I encourage you to try it.
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I want to hear from you. How do you feel about the new Pinterest algorithm? Comment below.
Author Bio
LaWann Moses is a life coach, author, and speaker from Delaware. She has a passion for inspiring, encouraging, and empowering girls and women to make self-care a priority. LaWann believes love is the greatest gift you can give to yourself and others.
On her blog, MOcha Masterpiece, LaWann empowers women to create unique plans for success and make self-care a priority. Her blog features topics such as self-care, self-love, success, blogging tips, featured spotlights as well as product and book reviews. LaWann’s ultimate goal is to reach the complete woman while recognizing that we are all different so everyone’s path to success will be unique.
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