It’s about time to start thinking about and implementing those 2020 New Years resolutions for your business too. Is growing your Pinterest traffic on that list?
Did you know that as of April 2019 there were over 2 BILLION monthly searches on Pinterest?
If you ask me, that’s reason enough to craft a winning Pinterest strategy. You should know that Pinterest made some major changes (with more planned for 2020).
In this guide I’m here to show you the best Pinterest SEO tips and tricks for 2020 so you can kick off the New Year with a bang.
First let’s walk through a few facts and statistics about Pinterest that are important for bloggers and internet marketers to understand.
The big picture
We mentioned that Pinterest has over 2 billion monthly searches, but in 2019 they also had 291 million monthly active users. And get this: Pinterest added more users in the U.S. than Facebook and Twitter combined from 2017-2018 (according to eMarketer).
Call it like it is: discovery tool versus social site
Although Pinterest is classified a social site by many, it is more of a search engine. Data would suggest that Pinterest users derive a lot more satisfaction and sense of accomplishment from spending time on the site. In fact, Pinterest users are twice as likely to say their time on the platform is well-spent.
While are taking breaks from social media platforms—a trend which inevitably continues with New Years Resolutions—Pinterest users in the other hand, are in full-on discovery mode. They are searching for new products, new brands, new ideas, and planning for the new year ahead! There is my first tip hidden in here! The change of seasons and holidays, especially New Years, drives people to make plans and create new boards on Pinterest. Creating on-brand holiday content is a key strategy in growing your Pinterest traffic.
Pinterest reaches 83% of women in the U.S. from 25-54
Are women in this age group part of your target audience? Craft your messaging appropriately.
Note this does not mean that 83% of women are using Pinterest. However, Pinterest based images dominate Google’s image results which can drive traffic to Pinterest, and your site. Did you catch tip #2? Capitaving images are KEY. Tip #2 is to make sure that you have full-resolution and pinnable images to drive the most traffic! Women are searching for products, and data shows that they are responsible for most of the household spending too.
50% of new signups in 2018 were men
Are men part of your target audience? Male Pinterest users are also on the rise.
Average spending from Pinterest feeds is around $60
Yes, this is far more than other social platforms, so people are searching and spending.
Traffic is ready and plentiful, so let’s talk about how to grow your Pinterest traffic in 2020.
- Leverage the following tab
- Use Hastags
- Get found in search
- Get found in the home feed
Leverage the Following tab
In 2018, Pinterest rolled out the “following” tab which exclusively displays content from people you follow. These are going to be people/brands that your target audience knows and trusts the most.
So how do you get content in this feed?
You need to grow your list of followers! Keep in mind a follow for a follow is typically how it works.
Here are some ideas:
-When you see a board to follow on your feed (and it’s relevant), follow them!
-Pin content other than your own (can’t stress this enough) that is relevant
-Repin from the “trending” pages and accounts
-Interact with pins through comments (they must be thoughtful and authentic, not “spammy”!)
-Follow your competitors’ followers
-Make it easier for your audience to follow you by installing a “follow” button on your website
-Experiment with Pinterest promoted pins to grow your following
-Run a contest on your blog to gain new Pinterest followers
-Take the necessary steps to ensure you have the most pinnable content (read on for more tips…)
Pinterest announced not long ago that the first five pins of the day (after midnight) are prioritized in the following feed… so choose your pins and repins wisely!
Use Hastags
….And how to find the best hashtags and use them in your pin description.
Hashtags are somewhat new to Pinterest, but function much like hashtags used on other social platforms. Choosing a hashtag on Pinterest is similar to choosing the best keywords for your pin. Both serve as a way to relate your audience with keywords.
In order to get a better understanding of the keywords most relevant to your content, the best place to start is the search bar. Begin by typing “#” and then the sample keyword you want to use in the search bar. You’ll notice Pinterest will provide popular suggestions and variations of that keyword directly below the search bar.
So here I have run a sample search on “DIY gifts”
As you can see here some popular variations are below the search bar, starting with “for friends”. When you click on any one of those keywords, you will be taken to a separate category of pins related to that topic.
These suggested keywords should guide your use of hastags. Make note of they keywords that “fit” your content can also be used as hashtags.
Next you will go to your post and add hashtags to the pin description. Do not replace the keyword rich pin descriptions with hashtags! Add several new hashtags that include the keywords that you identified.
Continue this process, and again as you type the keywords, you will see different widely used hashtags pop up with the number of current pins using that hashtags. You will find that some hashtags are very widely used (in the hundreds of thousands) while others are more narrow. The best strategy is to include hashtags that are both broad (widely used) and specific to optimize your reach.
You may also choose to organize your content using a hashtag that is unique to you or your brand. So for instance, you could use your name or the name of your brand. This will allow someone to search and find your content specifically.
Once you have assigned hashtags to your content, you can click on one of your pins and then one of your hashtags to find related pins. From those pins you will be able to see what your industry and other hashtags pinners in your content niche are using to reach their audience.
One thing to note: the hashtag feed is prioritized by “best” and to some degree newness—not necessarily the most widely used or pinned! We will get to the “best” part later in the post, so read on… If you are using the app on your mobile device you can gather additional insight into the trending hashtags that you may also want to add to your pins.
Get found in search
Remember Pinterest is a search engine. Much like google and other search platforms, the algorithm for choosing how and which pins are displayed is complex. There are 4 known factors that help determine if your pins show up in the Pinterest feed. These factors are domain quality, pinner quality, pin quality, and relevance.
Luckily all four of these are very much in your control!
When it comes to domain quality, Pinterest is tracking pins from your site, and how often they are shared to determine whether it is a source of good content.
In order to build trust from Pinterest, you will need to clam your domain and enable rich pins on your account.
To claim your website on Pinterest, perform the following steps.
- Log into Pinterest and click the three dots to open your menu
- Select “Settings”
- Select “Claim”
- In the Claim website area, entire your website and click “Claim”
- Then select “Add HTML tag”
- Copy the tag and select “Next”
- Go the index.htm file on yor website and add the tag to the <head> before the <body> section
- Go to Pinterest and select “Submit” and then “Done”
Next enable rich pins.
Rich pins are pins that include extra information, embedded right on the pin.
For example, product pins include pricing, availability, and locations to buy versus article pins which show the headline, author and description. Rich pins are key because they make your content seem more professional and trustworthy, but they also provide more text-rich keywords to surface in search. To make things even easier, rich pins pulls the metadata directly from your website. So if you update a blog post with a new title and description, these updates will be transferred automatically to rich pins linked to that URL.
To get started click here for the the Pinterest tutorial on how to enable rich pins.
Now as for pin quality and pinner quality…
You must be a consistent pinner. Pinterest would much rather you pin and repin 50 times per day for a week versus pin 300 pins in a day. There are plenty of sites that will manage your Pinterest board but the easiest thing to do is schedule your pins to ensure consistency. You may have heard that the optimal time to pin is in the evening. While that may (or may not) be true, consistent pinning is certainly the key to growing a Pinterest following.
You may have also heard there is a debate on the importance of automated versus manual pinning. What we do know is that manual versus scheduled pins are not directly tied to the Pinterest algorithm so much as other factors like domain quality (pinner quality), images and keywords. Our recommendation is to try a combination of both manual and scheduled pins. As for optimal timing, there is also a difference of opinions on the best time to pin. Most sources say between 8 pm and 11 pm, as well as between 2 am and 4 am Eastern Standard Time are the optimal time to pin. I have personally found that evening is best, between 8 and 10 pm Eastern Standard Time. It is generally recommended to avoid pinning and posting content while people are at work.
Don’t forget to pin content other than your own as well! Check out the “popular” category on Pinterest or visit repinned.net for pins that are getting a lot of engagement by category.
Finally, you must create high quality pins the ensure plenty of saves and repins. Easier said than done right? Below I’ve provided some quick tips but be sure to check out my blog post 11 Simple Ways to Get 1000 New Pinterest Followers in 1 Week. In the post I outline actionable steps for producing high quality pins and driving better engagement on Pinterest.
– Write actionable, compelling blog post titles. For example: “25 Ways to Save Money Every Week”
– Produce pin worthy graphics. Hire someone on Fiverr if you need to in order to create high-quality images that are optimized for Pinterest. FYI the recommended image size on Pinterest is 600 x 900 px. Pins that are larger than 600 x 900 px will not be distributed as broadly.
– Write compelling descriptions
– Use hashtags
Get found in the home feed
Your home feed is a personalized collection of pins that are intended to be of interest to you. These pins include: repins (based on who you are following), related pins, and interest pins based on topics that are of interest to you.
Do keep in mind though that because Pinterest prioritizes pins by quality and to some degree newness, they are tracking what is popular and re-pinned on a daily basis. It is still a good idea to go back and optimize those pins from time to time to extend your reach. Using great keywords and captivating images directly ties to the algorithm to improve your reach. The smart feed is evaluating images, domain authority, and keywords, so make sure you are taking the right steps in creating pinnable images.
You will need to optimize your board and pins for search which starts with keyword optimization.
Go ahead and type some sample keywords in the search bar and Pinterest will suggest other keywords as you type.
Click on some of the pinners and boards that pop up. Do they have a lot of followers and are they using the target keyword(s)?
If the answer is yes to both to these questions, you are going to want to create a board with that keyword phrase. In general, the tips for creating compelling keywords (for both board and pins) are very similar to the rules in creating ideal hashtags.
In this article, I showed you several way to grow your Pinterest traffic in 2020 taking account for some recent changes to the algorithm. Now the ball is in your court! It’s your turn to clean out those boards and pins, optimizing your images and using keywords/hashtags that allow your content to be located. Here’s to a pin-worthy new year!
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