Six Tips for Growing Your Blog with Pinterest | “So You Wanna Start a Blog?” Series

In case you missed previous “blogging” related posts, you can check them out here:

• The 5 W’S You Need to Ask Yourself Before You Start
• Which Blog Host is Right for Me?
• The Importance of the First Impression
• Planning Your Content & Editorial Calendar
• Growing Your Blog Through Social Media
• Why You Need a Media Kit (and What Should Go On It!)
• Dealing with Negativity
• My Favorite Blogging Programs & Resources
• Six Ways to Take Your (Blog) Photography to the Next Level
• BLOGGING TOOLS & ESSENTIALS: WordPress Plugins That Make Blogging Life Easier
• Blogging Tools & Essentials: BLOGSTOMP
• Let’s Talk SEO

Of all the social networks out there, Pinterest is, BY FAR, my biggest referral source for blog traffic. It’s not my largest referral source altogether (search engines are, which I spoke about last week), but as far as social traffic, Pinterest comes in first.

I’ve received a lot of questions from readers and bloggers about tips for growing their blog with Pinterest. And let me be the first to admit, I am not an expert at this… BUT, these tips that I’ve implemented over the years have helped grow my blog, BIG TIME. I’ve been able to grow my readership through Pinterest and really love using it to share my content (and the content of others!). 

Once again, there are COUNTLESS ways to really up your Pinterest game, but I wanted to keep it simple and basic for you guys for today. So, here are six ways you can use Pinterest to grow your blog!

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1. Make sure you have a VERTICALLY oriented “featured” image clearly identifying what the post is about.

EVERY single blog post needs to have AT LEAST one image… you can have multiple images, but you need AT LEAST one. Bare minimum. And, if you only have one image, it needs to be vertically oriented. I, personally, prefer for the first image in all my posts to be my “featured” image and to be the main, vertical image…

This is the “hero” image. This is the image that describes your post or at least gives the reader an IDEA as to what the post is about.

For Pinterest, this is the image that is going to show pinners what they’re clicking through to… Vertical images show up much clearer and larger on Pinterest vs. horizontal images.

Here are some examples of “Hero” images from other posts to give you an idea of what I’m talking about…:

2. If applicable, include text ON the image describing the post.

I pretty much have text on all of my featured images in posts that are NOT style posts. So, for example, the main image on THIS blog post has the title of the blog post so that when someone pins it, it’s clear as to what the post is about.

It also helps to give people, again, an idea as to what the post is about.

Another example:

3. Rename the “ALT” text on all of your images to describe what the image is about.

When you upload your images to your blog, there will be a back end area of the image that has text fields for things like “description, keywords, and alt text.” By default, the alt text is usually the “title” of the image. So, it could look something like, “fall-outfit.jpg.” BUT, if you rename the alt text of your image to the title of your blog post OR you include some keywords to describe the image and the post, you’re going to not only give yourself some search engine optimization boosts, but that’s the text that Pinterest defaults to when an image is pinned. So, that way you’re controlling what text is getting posted!

Here’s what I mean:

4. Make sure to have social share buttons identifiable and accessible on all blog posts.

This is going to be different depending on the type of blog host or theme you have. For me, since I am on self hosted WordPress.org, I use a plugin called “add this.” It allows me to add social share buttons to the bottom of all of my blog posts making it easy for people to share my posts on social media… especially Pinterest! This is just in case someone doesn’t have the “Pin It” pinmarklet installed in their web browser.

5. Have clearly labeled boards on your Pinterest account and pin your blog post pins to those boards.

In your own Pinterest account, it’s really important to have category specific boards clearly labeled and organized. I also like to have a board specific to certain topics and I try to limit my own posts to those boards. For example, I have a board just labeled “still being molly style” for all of my style posts. I have a blogging board for all my blog-related posts, money for money-related posts, etc.

6. It’s not about you. Pin OTHER people’s stuff, too!

I try to spend at least 5-10 minutes a day on Pinterest sharing and pinning relevant content. Since Pinterest changed it’s algorithm (the way things appear in your feed), new pins aren’t as likely to show up right away. So, I try to keep my account active with new content on a regular basis to not only grow my Pinterest following, but also keep everything feeling fresh!

PLUS, if I come across a blog post, article, image, etc. on the internet or on another blog that I love, I always make sure to share the love and pin it! It’s so important!

Now what about you? What do you think? What Pinterest tips have you found work best for you? Any tips from this post that you’ll give a try?

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