Pinterest is an incredible search engine that you can use as a FREE marketing tool for your website. However winning on Pinterest takes more than just creating an image and adding it to your favorite Pinterest board. Use this simple Pinterest tool to multiply your efforts– and increase Pinterest traffic!
Disclosure: Some of the links on my site are affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase from one.
Why Pinterest?
As a website owner, you’ve probably heard of SEO and how important it is to use Google search results to drive traffic to your blog. Pinterest can be an equally powerful player. The best part? You have even more control of your Pinterest search results to help increase your Pinterest traffic.
Pinterest is much more visual than your typical Google search. Think of your Pinterest pins as your curated “best of” lists that send users directly back to your website. Pinterest is where your target audience is looking for seasonal content, DIY projects, home inspiration, recipes, parenting tips, and more.
New Pinterest Guidelines for 2020
Pinterest just released a major update to their recommended best practices. They are now giving priority in the search feed to fresh content. What does this mean? You need a variety of unique images leading to each URL of your website. Gone are the days of creating one ‘pinnable’ image and encouraging all of your readers to use just that one; instead, Pinterest wants to see a variety of great visuals that improve the reader experience.
Why You Should Create Multiple Pin-worthy Images
When I read the new guidelines, my initial gut reaction was to throw a fit. I already spend a lot of time planning content, writing content, making a variety of visuals, pinning the “optimum” image to pinterest, embedding the pin in the post, etc. etc. etc. And now Pinterest wants me to make even more of those specific pin-worthy images? ugh!
Here’s the good news… after I calmed down and came back to my senses, I realized it isn’t actually going to be that much more additional work. AND I agree that it can greatly improve the user experience on Pinterest. We’re all drawn to different visuals and providing readers with options of which picture to save with your post helps them pick the one that sparks the most a-ha moment with them. Plus the more pictures you have shared on Pinterest, the more people you have the chance to reach. Boom! You just increased Pinterest traffic.
How To Create Pin-Worthy Images
Are you feeling stuck on just how you’ll create all those unique images for each post? You can repurpose the same picture in multiple ways with creative cropping and text overlays.
Let’s say you’re a food blogger who has the perfect recipe for fluffy homemade pancakes. Here are a few pictures that would all work well on Pinterest. You may also opt to include an action shot while mixing or cooking them. I suggest taking multiple pictures, especially in the beginning, while you learn which styles work best for your brand. You can also use these extra pictures across Facebook, Instagram, etc.
After you’ve taken your pictures, use those images to create alternate versions for Pinterest. Typically images with titles/teaser text do better on Pinterest, so while you may opt to include one or two pictures of the pancakes alone, the majority of your images will need to be edited. Here are a few I made to promote the pancakes.
Note: I included one pin that is text only as an example of one style option. Text-only pins work for some topics, but for recipes pictures are preferred because we eat with our eyes before our stomach. If you notice, I used the same photograph in the third and fourth pins to show how one picture can be used multiple ways to create two fresh pins.
How To Use Tasty Pins To Offer Variety
Now that you’ve created a variety of pin-worthy images, where do you put them?? You most likely wouldn’t want to include all of those in your blog post. Enter my new friend… Tasty Pins! Don’t let the name of this one fool you, it’s for bloggers of all types and not just food/recipe ones.
Tasty Pins has three key components that made it a no-brainer for me.
- Create ready-made Pinterest descriptions for your readers. You can craft the perfect description that accurately describes the pin, saving your readers a step and making it super quick and simple for them to re-pin. A great description will help your pin perform better in the Pinterest search results.
- Use ALT text for SEO optimization. If you’ve followed my other SEO guidelines, then you know that every single image on your blog should have ALT text that describes the image. This alt text can be used by Google, as well as screen readers, to improve search ranking.
- Hide Pin-worthy images. Now that you’re creating multiple images per post, Tasty Pins allows you to hide those images so they don’t clutter your post. The image choices will only display when a reader goes to pin your content.
A Few Screenshots
Tasty Pins is unbelievably simple, I promise. When you upload pictures to your post, you can add additional information that’s ready-made for Pinterest. You can also opt to tell Pinterest NOT to offer that image as a choice for pinning.
Then at the bottom of each post, you can add those additional Pinterest images you created that weren’t already used in your blog post. This is where you get to really provide the variety for your readers. Some topics will of course lend themselves to more pictures than others.
Gotta have it?
Click here to grab it for yourself; satisfaction guaranteed!
On the fence? Read other great testimonials and I think you’ll find this is one of the best ways you’ll spend $29 on your site all year.
Bonus Recommendation
As you grow your Pinterest strategy, you may decide it’s easier to schedule your pins in advance vs. pinning on the fly. I use and highly recommend Tailwind. You can use Tailwind to schedule your pins to multiple boards and re-pin them automatically in the future. Because Tailwind is an official Pinterest partner, you can rest assured that you’re always receiving advice, training, and tools on current best practices.
As an added bonus, Tailwind is more than just a scheduling tool; it’s also a powerful network for bloggers. You can share your blog posts with other business owners in your niche so they can share your posts with their followers too. This is also a great way for you to find other related content to share with your audience. Collaboration over competition is always the way to go. Checkout Tailwind Tribes to learn more.
See Tasty Pins In Action
If you’ve made it this far, go on and click the Pinterest share button to save this post on Pinterest and see Tasty Pins in action. Ta-da!
