How To List A Blog On Pinterest Profile
Having a kickass Pinterest profile is a crucial foundation for a Pinterest account that drives traffic to your blog.
I had only been blogging for 6 months when I hit 20k monthly visitors from Pinterest to my blog for the first time. And, as I've discovered, traffic from Pinterest lasts – my traffic from Pinterest has been steady for the past 6 months, even though I've cut way back on the amount of time I devote to growing my Pinterest account: from 1 hour a day to 1 hour a week.
I've set up my Pinterest account to drive traffic to my blog organically, and it all starts with my Pinterest profile!
Did you know that Pinterest ranks its users based on how much engagement their content & profile receive? Every time someone clicks into one of your boards, or looks at your profile and decides to follow you, or gets sucked into a Pinterest hole and obsessively repins everything in all of your boards(don't act like you've never done this. I CAN'T be the only Pinterest addict here)Pinterest is silently giving you a nod of approval.
And, as I've discovered, traffic from Pinterest lasts – my traffic from Pinterest has been steady for the past 6 months, even though I've stepped way back: 6 months ago, I spent an hour on Pinterest a day.
Now? I spend an hour on Pinterest a week.
In my Pinterest series, I'm sharing tons of tips for driving traffic to your blog from Pinterest. This post will focus on the best Pinterest tips for building an awesome Pinterest profile!Having a kickass Pinterest profile is a crucial foundation for a Pinterest account that drives traffic to your blog.
So today, we're going to dive into how to create the kind of profile that attracts engagements like the Kardashians and drives traffic like the mall cop in my hometown.
These Pinterest tips aren't just targeted at beginners: a lot of experienced Pinterest users overlook these simple yet important steps! If you've been on Pinterest for a while already, challenge yourself to audit your own Pinterest account with a critical eye to identify areas for improvement.
To help you implement the tips in this post, I've created a free, printable 5-Step Pinterest Profile Makeover checklist! Sign up for it below and I'll also send you a little 5-day Pinterest Makeover email course to help guide you as you work through each of these steps for fine-tuning and perfecting your Pinterest account.
Here's a rundown of what you'll find in this post.
How is Pinterest different from other social media?
Most people lump Pinterest in with other social media platforms, but that's not really accurate: Pinterest is very different from other social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. For one thing, there are no live stories (shocker, I know).
For another thing, I can't figure out how to actually get much meaningful traffic from all of those social media platforms combined – while Pinterest drives 500+ people to my blog each day. But really, the big difference is that Pinterest isn't a social media platform at all. It's a visual search engine.
Once you stop thinking of Pinterest as a social media platform and start treating it like a visual search engine, your Pinterest strategy will start to come together.
But unlike Google, Pinterest isn't all about SEO and keywords – although that's a big part of it. It's a visual search engine. So SEO and keywords will get you halfway to driving traffic to your blog from Pinterest – but the quality of your visuals will get you the rest of the way!
No, you don't have to be a graphic designer to drive traffic to your blog with Pinterest. But you DO need to have eye-catching, well designed, effective graphics. If you're the type of person who uses Microsoft Word to edit their photos and you don't recoil in horror at the sight of Comic Sans (shudder), you might want to outsource your Pinterest graphics to someone else – or at least, use pre-built templates.
Another way that Pinterest is different from other social media platforms? Followers don't matter as much as you'd think.
I've had a steady 20k monthly visitors to my blog from Pinterest over the past several months, even as my Pinterest followers have grown from around 1,000 to 7,000. That's not to say that followers don't matter at ALL, but you're just as capable of driving big traffic to your blog at 1,000 followers as someone with 10,000 followers.
It also means that building a following on Pinterest doesn't need to be your main priority. Most of the tips in this post will help you build your following organically, which means free time to focus on other strategies for driving traffic to your blog from Pinterest.
Why does having a good Pinterest profile matter?
I strongly feel that a kickass Pinterest profile is a necessary foundation to a highly converting, high-performing, traffic-driving Pinterest profile. It's kind of like a house, or so I hear from people who aren't riddled with student-loan debt (*sob*).
Or, in terms that I can understand, it's like makeup: a gorgeous face of makeup starts with a flawless, blemish-free foundation. Sure, my metaphor may be a bit literal, but I'm a blogger, not a poet, OK?
To me, a polished Pinterest profile is step 1 of a rock solid Pinterest strategy. It's what I cover with all of my Pinterest Consultation clients before we even start to talk about creating pins or traffic strategies.
So why is your profile so important? Here's the thing. With a beautiful Pinterest profile that reflects your blog,not only will you naturally attract followers in your niche, but you'll be appealing to Pinterest's search algorithm – which is what matters when it comes to driving traffic to your site.
Let's drill into that algorithm thing. Ugh, sounds technical. Gross, right?
Y'all, my eyes start to glaze over when someone says the word "algorithm" too.
But in this case, it's not just a useless start-up buzzword: gaming the Pinterest algorithm is crucial to your success on Pinterest. Is "gamify" still a relevant buzzword? That was like, THE buzzword when I moved to San Francisco. Then it was being the "Uber" for everything. Now it's probably all-knowing robot drones. Who knows.
Anyway, here's why we care about the Pinterest algorithm:
When Pinterest serves up your content in a search result – whether it's a pin you've created, a pin you've shared, or your actual profile or boards – they're evaluating several things:
- How many of your followers are engaging with the content you pin: clicks, enlargements, follows, "likes," or whatever brand new engagement magic they've come up with in the past 24 hours
- How many people that aren't following you are engaging with the content you pin
- How often a Pinterest user that clicks through to your profile from content you've pinned follows you
I couldn't tell you exactly what kind of secret algorithmic magic Pinterest uses calculates those things – first of all, that's their secret sauce and if I could crack it, I'd probably be a billionaire, and second of all, that sounds like a lot of math so no thank you – but I can tell you that all of these things are important.
Basically, if Pinterest thinks people like your stuff – regardless of whether it's your content, or other people's content – they'll serve your profile, boards, and pins up as suggestions and search results more frequently.
You want to be sending all kinds of signals to Pinterest that you're a high quality user wholotsof people think is great. It's like dating, only with a lot less heartbreak and ice cream.
If you're familiar with SEO, this aspect of the Pinterest algorithm should sound familiar. It's the same principle that applies when someone clicks onto your site from a Google search result and then stays on your blog for a long time, doing engage-y stuff like clicking onto other pages from your blog.
Interactions like that signal to Google that your page is serving up high quality content, and makes it more likely for Google to return your page to its users. Same principle, only with your Pinterest profile and content, not your blog.
So how does this lead to traffic on your blog? We've already talked about how Pinterest is the dark horse of the social media world, a search engine masquerading as a social platform, and followers don't matter. What matters is search results and suggestions. Ahh yes, it's all making sense now.
Pinterest is a search engine, so you want your content rank in its search results and be served up as suggested content.If Pinterest thinks the content you share is good, more people will see it – both followers and non-followers.
Those people are searching for questions that your blog answers, who regularly engage with content just like what you post. You need to dominate those search results and suggestions to drive traffic from your blog.
And the more people engage with your Pinterest account, the more you'll show up in search results and suggestions. And the benefits will spill over to affecting content that links to your site.
Put simply:having a good Pinterest profile means more exposure for your content. More exposure to your content means more chances for people to click through to your site. That's why a good Pinterest profile is the foundation of good Pinterest strategy: it gives your content a chance to get seen.
Does that translate into traffic? Yes – as long as the content that's being served up in Pinterest's search results is high-quality, beautiful, and optimized for Pinterest.But that's another post… which will be coming very soon.
For this post, we're focusing on the basics: having a really good Pinterest profile that people want to follow.
Checklist for a Good Pinterest Profile
Now that I've (hopefully) convinced you that having a beautiful, polished Pinterest profile is important for success on Pinterest, let's talk about practical application. What does it all like,mean?
I've got a printable 5-step Checklist that every Pinterest user should, at minimum, be meeting if they want to grow their blog traffic from Pinterest.
You can download this checklist in its full version, as well as a 5-Day Pinterest Makeover Email Course, by signing up below.
Step 1: A high quality, eye-catching profile picture
Your profile picture has a big job: it needs to communicate your brand, your niche, and your personality in about 1 second. That's not the easiest task.
A lot of Pinterest users will use only your Profile Picture and title to decide whether or not to follow you – and they'll make that decision in a split second.
Lose their interest or fail to ~inspire~ or excite them, and you've lost a potential follower, re-pinner, and reader of your blog.
Exposure on Pinterest is useless if you don't have a profile that makes people want to follow you – and your profile photo is the first visual representation of what you have to offer to a potential follower.
Guidelines for a Good Pinterest Profile Photo
- Avoid logos.
People want to follow other people, not brands. So your profile picture should show who YOU are.
- Avoid selfies.
You may look cute AF, but unfortunately, selfies on Pinterest come off as unprofessional and amateur.
How can you tell a ~professional blogger~ on Pinterest versus a regular user? A regular user will have a selfie as a profile picture. Great for them, not great for you.
Step up your game and have someone else take a photo of you!
- Use a clear, bright photo that clearly represents you & your blog's niche.
If you write about food, have a picture of you eating something. If you write about adventure travel, have a picture of you doing something adventurous.
If you write about travel, have a picture of you off having a fabulous adventure. Don't just find a photo that you look "cute" in – your adorable Facebook profile photo is NOT necessarily the best Pinterest profile photo!
- Use a photo that looks good even when shrunk to a tiny size.
Most Pinterest users will see a teeny, tiny version of your photo. So even if it looks good on your actual Pinterest profile, shrink it down to the size that Pinterest will be serving up when recommending you to other Pinterest users to see if it still communicates your personality, niche, and blog (or take a look at the upper right corner of Pinterest when you're logged in, which shows a teeny-tiny version of your profile photo).
This is why photos that have a lot of background don't really work well – it should be a very clear photo of YOU, without a lot of "stuff" going on in the background.
Step 2: A keyword-rich, personality forward title & description
Your profile description should clearly state your blog's niche and contain a little bit of "flair" to show your personality. Make it funny if you can! But make sure crucial keywords like "travel" or "blogger" are in there somewhere too,.
I know it's challenging to fit both personality and relevant keywords into one tiny limited-character description, but don't forget: you have both your title, AND your description. So if you state that you're a Travel Blogger in your title, you don't necessarily need to reiterate it in your description, too.
Remember that actual users will probably only look at your title and quickly skim your description; the Pinterest algorithm is looking for keywords. So you have to walk that fine line of having the right keywords while also not being boring or sounding like a robot who only speaks in SEO.
I think the above example from It's Five O'Clock Here strikes the perfect balance.
Step 3: Niche boards with keyword-friendly titles & descriptions
Boards are a key part of Pinterest success. Your Pinterest profile should consist of boards that are directly related to your blog's niche – and nothing else.
It should NOT reflect your interests personally – your decorating tips, recipes, and hairstyle inspiration pins belong on your personal Pinterest profile, NOT your blog's Pinterest.
One of the first things I do with my Pinterest Consultation clients is to evaluate their mix of boards. I'm looking for things like:
- Are there boards that could be combined?
More boards is not always better, and having boards that are too specific may run the risk that you won't be able to find enough content to regularly fill it up.
If you aren't pinning to a board regularly, it may be too specific. Consider rolling it into another board. For example: If you have a lot of individual country boards, why not make a continent or regional board instead?
- Are there enough boards to represent the interests of your followers?
It's kinda like Goldilocks: you want to have not too many boards, but not too few boards, either. Otherwise, there's not enough of a draw for people to follow you.
Your boards should match the interests of your core followers (insofar as they relate to your niche, that is).So if you have only destination boards, consider adding boards for food, drinks, hiking, packing tips, or whatever else you write about or that your readers are interested in!
All of your boards should havekeyword rich board titles that make it 100% clear what the board is about rather than something cutesy or whimsical. So "Travel in Europe" is a far better board name than "Land of Croissants and Cobblestones" or whatever.
Not only is this important for search results and Pinterest SEO, but it's also important for potential followers who aren't going to take the .5 seconds to click through a suggested board to actually see what it's about. They'll have about 3 seconds to decide if they want to follow your board or not: don't make them hesitate.
You also want to make all your board names sound like they go together by using similar naming conventions, like a keyword.I use "travel" because I'm ~creative~.
And finally, add a keyword rich description to EVERY board that you create. Nobody reads these. Like, ever. They're pretty much only for Pinterest's algorithm. So you want to stuff it full of keywords. Don't even worry about being blatant. Just stuff them in there real good.
Step 4: Attractive, matching cover photos
Each of your boards should have a cover photo. They should be gorgeous, fit your blog, go well together, and clearly convey the subject of your board.
Avoid making them all look exactly the same – variety is far more visually enticing! Instead, use a variety of photos in different colors (t hat fit your blog, of course) to add visual interest, plus some text on top with your board's name in big, clear, easy to read letters. Doesn't have to be complicated: you're aiming for pretty, visually enticing, and clear.
A good cover photo is:
- Super easy to read.
Avoid small letters. Avoid anything other than just the title of the board in clear, large letters.
- Pretty & eye catching.
Use a good photo for each of your covers. Don't worry about copyright issues here – Pinterest lets you select anything that's on their site to use for a cover photo, so you can use someone else's photo if it fits.
Step 5: High quality content regularly shared to your boards
You don't just create boards with beautiful covers to sit there empty! You've gotta fill those boards up with beautiful, high quality content that is relevant to your site's niche.
Here's a few guidelines for the content on your Pinterest boards. You'll want to go through with a critical eye and remove any pins that aren't up to these standards. Why?
Because the Pinterest algorithm is analyzing your every move!Oooh, creepy.Not really. But they are analyzing the pins on your board and doing things like averaging your re-pins to judge whether your board is good enough to recommend to other Pinterest users.
So every so often – and particularly if you've never done it before – you should go through and DELETE all of the non-performing pins in your account. Judge it with a very critical – like, ruthless – eye.
- Pinterest Tip: Use the "Organize" button to prune your boards. You can move, delete, or copy 50 pins at a time!
Here are the pins you should be pruning:
- Remove horizontal pins.
Vertical pins are king on Pinterest, and horizontal pins don't generally get much traction. Remove horizontal pins from your boards.
Speaking of which: I shared a tip for making vertical pins from horizontal images in this post!
- Remove "ugly" pins.
You know what I mean. Ugly is subjective, but I'm referring to Pins that aren't visually appealing or just don't fit in with the best pins in your account.
Judge your account from an outsider's perspective with a critical eye and remove the ones that aren't up to snuff.
How many pins should a board have before you make it public?
When you first create a board – with a clear name, a cover photo, and a keyword-rich description, of course – you don't want it to be available to the public just yet.
Why? Because it's empty. If someone clicks onto your profile and finds a bunch of empty boards, it's a huge turnoff. They won't want to follow you!
Instead, you'll want it to be "secret" first, while you add content to fill it up.
When you reach 20-50 high quality pins, it's safe to make it public. You want whoever clicks onto that board to be wowed by how beautiful and cohesive it is and follow it immediately – and then pin a bunch of stuff from it onto their own boards, thus building up tons of magical Pinterest SEO juice and sending all kinds of sexy signals to Pinterest that you're asuperhigh quality Pinterest user!
If you have any boards with under 20-50 pins, I would recommend making them secret – or spending a few minutes finding gorgeous content to fill them up!
You've got your work cut out for you. Go forth and make your Pinterest profile as awesome as you are!What questions do you have about making your Pinterest profile look amazing? Drop me a comment below!
To help you up your Pinterest game, I've also created a handy printable worksheet to help you makeover your Pinterest profile! And to help you implement each of the 5 steps, I'll pop into your inbox each day to walk you through it (and cheer you on)! Sign up below:
Stay tuned for the next installment in the Pinterest Makeover series!
FOLLOW US!
Oh hey, since this post is all about Pinterest, how about sharing this on Pinterest?
Our Top Travel Tips & Resources
Here are our favorite travel tips & resources for saving money and planning travel logistics! For more tips, check out our travel tips resource page or our guide to planning a trip.
- Booking Flights: To score flight deals, search on Google Flights or Kayak. Money-saving tips: fly mid-week or on the weekend; fly carry-on only on a budget airline; and take red-eyes or early morning flights.
- Accommodations: We usually stay in budget-friendly vacation rentals, boutique hotels or private rooms in hostels. We use Booking.com to book hotels (we love their flexible cancellation policy) and Hostelworld to book hostels (low deposit, easy change/cancellation, and excellent reviews). For vacation rentals, we prefer to book using VRBO because they've got lower fees and better support than Airbnb, and we're not fans of Airbnb's unethical track record. You can also book vacation rentals on Expedia and Hotels.com. We also use TrustedHousesitters as both hosts (for our home and our fur-child) and travelers!
- Travel Insurance: We always, always, ALWAYS buy travel insurance for international trips, and we STRONGLY suggest it - visit our Travel Insurance Guide to find out why. We recommend either World Nomads or SafetyWing for international travel insurance. SafetyWing is one of the few policies that covers Covid-19, and they have excellent monthly policies that are perfect for Digital Nomads and long term travelers!
- Travel Credit Card: We book all of our trips on our favorite travel credit card. Not only do we earn cash back that we can spend on more travel, but the card offers fantastic travel perks like travel insurance, trip delay and cancellation coverage, lost baggage reimbursement, and rental car coverage, which helps protect us on our travels. Learn more here.
- Vaccines & Meds: We use the travel guides on the CDC website to research recommended medications and vaccines for international trips. We always recommend getting every vaccine recommended by the CDC! You can get them at your primary care doctor's office or a walk-in pharmacy.
- Tours: We love booking guided tours, especially food tours and walking tours, to get a local's perspective and a history lesson while sight-seeing! We book our tours using Viator and GetYourGuide.
- Transportation: We use Rome2Rio to figure out how to get from place to place using public transit, and book local transportation online using Bookaway wherever we can. When we book a rental car, we use Kayak to compare rental companies and find the best deal.
- Luggage Storage: Whenever we're checking out early or taking advantage of a long layover, we use LuggageHero to safely store our luggage while we're running around. Use the code PRACTICALW for 2 hours of free luggage storage on us.
- What to Pack: Here are the travel essentials that we bring on every trip. We also have packing lists for hot weather, cold weather, and many more. Take a look at all of our packing guides!
How To List A Blog On Pinterest Profile
Source: https://practicalwanderlust.com/pinterest-profile-makeover/
Posted by: sanderlinrame1970.blogspot.com
0 Response to "How To List A Blog On Pinterest Profile"
Post a Comment