7 Reasons Why Pinterest isn’t Growing your Blog Traffic

Last Updated on December 6, 2020 by ellduclos

A common question I get asked in Boss Girl Bloggers is “how do I get more blog views?” and my number one answer is ALWAYS Pinterest. Why? Because Pinterest currently brings me over 100,000  page views monthly and it is continuously growing!

When I mention this I get shocked responses from bloggers who had no idea that it was possible to get this much blog traffic from Pinterest! 

What happens next is that bloggers will then create a Pinterest account and try to master it without taking the time to learn how to use it properly.

“How come my blog traffic isn’t growing? Why can’t I get my pins to convert to clicks? What am I doing wrong with my Pinterest account?”

Today I want to share 7 reasons why your Pinterest strategy isn’t working. If you try to fix these 7 mistakes you may just see an increase in blog traffic thanks to Pinterest!

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Disclaimer: Affiliate links are used! If you purchase via my link I get a small commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I love and use. You can read my full disclosure policy here.

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7 Reasons Why Your Pinterest Marketing Strategy Isn’t Working

Your Pinterest account isn’t set up properly

If you are using Pinterest to try and grow your blog traffic then it is essential to make sure your Pinterest is set up properly. YES, there is a proper way to have it set up. Let’s talk about some of the major keys to setting up a Pinterest profile properly.

Having a business account

You want to make sure your Pinterest account is a business account. It’s SUPER easy to convert your current account to a business account without having to start over. It is completely up to you if you want to start fresh or just convert your current profile to business. To convert or sign up for a business account, go here.

Claim your website

This part gets a lot of users stuck. It can be tricky to claim your blog on Pinterest but I will try to make it easy. First things first, you will go to your profile settings and then hit “Claim” – It will ask for your website url and you will put it in, they will then give you a code to insert into your blog header. This is the tricky part. 

**NOTE – not all blog platforms allow you to do this. If you are on a free platform, chances are you can’t claim your website on Pinterest/set up rich pins which can lower your Pin’s reach and chance of growing your blog traffic. This would be a perfect time to go self hosted! Siteground is the self host I use and if you sign up for their “grow big” plan they will help you with the transfer process! Their customer support is amazing. You also want to make sure you own your domain name. If you are using blogger and don’t own your domain name you can purchase your domain for super cheap from Namecheap.

If you are self hosted there are a few ways you can claim your website on Pinterest:

• Install the “Insert headers/footers” plug-in and place the code in the “header” section of the plug-in.
• You could go to your wordpress dashboard > appearance > editor and place the code manually into your theme. You’ll want to place it after the “< head > “ code which is usually found in the theme header section. 
• OR you could install the YOAST SEO plug-in and claim your Pinterest in the social media section of that plug-in.

I personally claimed mine with option #1! 

Set up rich pins

Once you claim your website you can then set up rich pins which is super easy! You just use this pin validator and they will email you once you are approved for rich pins! Once approved, your blog post pins will slowly start to convert into rich pins. Having rich pins will give your pins more authority and expand your reach. It also provides more details on what the pin is about (especially recipe pins).

Have a profile picture

It’s pretty important to have a profile picture for your Pinterest account. This could be a brand image, a personal photo of yourself that shows your personality, your blog logo! I find that having a personal image of myself was the best way to go.

Have keywords in your profile description and name

I will be talking about Pinterest SEO a little later on, BUT Pinterest is a visual search engine therefore, just like google, keywords are ...KEY (; 

Here is an example of myPinterest business name & description:

As you can see, I used the key words “Personal growth, self care and self improvement”

This has helped me rank 3rd when searching “Personal Growth”:

It is important to make sure your Pinterest profile is set up properly to rank in searches!

Board Covers

Next you want to set up your boards & board covers! If you are big into “branding” like I am then you want to have “branded” board covers to make your profile look clean and organized!

You don’t NEED to have board covers, BUT it is a nice touch! I created my board covers on Canva. Once you create the cover you upload it to the board and then set it as your new board cover– make sure NOT to delete this pin from the board because that will remove your board cover.

 

Set up your profile cover

If you are trying to create a “branded” look then your profile cover plays a huge part! You can choose which ever board you wish to set as your profile cover, but I chose to upload an animated graphic I created.

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You aren’t consistently pinning your own blog pins

This is where most bloggers struggle when it comes to growing their blog traffic with Pinterest. They decide to pin their blog post pin once and hope it takes off! Well, sometimes that works but for the most part you need to pin your own pins on Pinterest consistently! 

How many pins should I pin daily?

The answer varies from account to account. I personally pin 5-7 new pins daily. I talk about my daily pinning strategy in detail in my Pinterest course. 

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You aren’t creating fresh pins often enough

Another reason your Pinterest marketing strategy is struggle might be because you don’t create new pins often enough. I used to create a set of pins and then continue to re-pin that same pin design constantly for months. That stopped working. Pinterest actually LOVES when you create fresh pins. This is when you design a new pin for the same blog post. Don’t be afraid to create multiple pins for one blog post! I actually create a new pin design every week for my high performing blog posts. It makes a heck of a difference!

Here are examples from the past 3 weeks for the same post:

 

 

You can see that I keep the same “branded color scheme” and fonts but switch up the design a bit. If you want you can also switch up the words to see which titles drive more clicks and which designs bring you more reach! With Pinterest you are constantly tweaking your strategy to continue your growth.

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Your pin designs are slacking

It’s time to get REAL and honest with yourself. Are your pin designs slacking? In all seriousness we aren’t all graphic designers, I get that! BUT the truth is, if you want to grow your Pinterest and get clicks on those pins you are pushing out then you NEED to have decent pin designs! Take a look at your designs and evaluate them.

• Are they easy to read?
• Are they messy?
• Do they stand out?
• Are the titles click worthy?
• How are the images you are using?

I’ll show you some of my first ever pins (I cringe looking at them):

EEEEK – maybe it’s not AWFUL, but the font looks messy and not as “professional” as my newer pins. This pin didn’t get much attention compared to my newer pins.

Here’s another bad boy!

Again, not horrible but it still looks messy and overwhelming on the eyes!

Now I am going to show you some of my newer pins and you can see, hopefully, my improvement:

 

My font is easier to read, it doesn’t look as messy, and I started to pay attention to my brand more.

Here are some of my favorite resources for creating pins:

• Canva – I love Canva because they have so many Pinterest templates to choose from that are the perfect pin size! Ideally your pins should be 600 x 900 to catch attention in the Pinterest feed. I recommend the desktop version since the app is constantly glitching and driving me insane.
• Creative Market – There are tons of awesome stock photos on creative market that I use to create my pins.
• Ivory Mix – another awesome place to get pretty stock photos to create pins
• 86 Customizable Pin Templates

Having attractive, high quality pins will increase your pin’s reach which will help your pin go viral!

Here are some analytics of pins I created that prove pin quality matters:

I find that some of my top performing pins are those related to relationships. (apparently my Pinterest audience loves this because every time I put a pin out with this title, I get clicks!) Always put out content that brings you the views! Once this pin went viral I created another one and that one took off too.

Here’s another popular post that takes off every time I create a new pin for it.

So if you are thinking to yourself “I need to blog about blogging in order to get blog traffic with Pinterest” …WRONG! In fact, my “blogging about blogging” pins don’t get nearly as much attention as my lifestyle pins do. As you can see, they get saved but the click through rate isn’t as strong as my lifestyle pins.

This all brings me to my next point….

You aren’t paying attention to your analytics

If you want to grow your Pinterest and blog traffic with Pinterest then you NEED to pay attention to your analytics! That’s the only way you will see growth. You want to pay attention to what works and what doesn’t.

So what are some important analytics to pay attention to? 

Some people would say monthly Pinterest views don’t matter, which I totally understand.. However, if you are getting Pinterest views then that means you are getting eyes on your pins! You can’t have “clicks” if you aren’t getting Pinterest views. Pinterest views and pin clicks go hand in hand. I will say though, Pinterest clicks are MORE important because that means BLOG TRAFFIC! Don’t worry, just because you have 500,000 Pinterest views doesn’t mean you are going to have 500,000 monthly blog views.

I have reached out to other active bloggers who swear by Pinterest to compare their monthly views and blog traffic and I have yet to find one who’s monthly Pinterest views add up to their blog traffic from Pinterest. SO DON’T STRESS IT. 

You can also get tons of Pin impressions and no clicks which is why creating attractive pins with catchy titles is so important!

Look at your pinterest anaylitcs > website > clicks and see:

1. Which pins are bringing you the most clicks 
2. Which boards are bringing you the most clicks 

Keep creating new pins for those pins that go “viral”. If you see that a pin is getting you clicks it means that you are capturing your audience’s attention and that’s the kind of content they are attracted to!

Keep in mind Pinterest views and Pin clicks/impressions are constantly going up and down because viral pins do eventually taper off. That’s why you need to continue creating pins that are similar to the pins that are going viral! IT WORKS. 

Again I go over all of this in detail in my Pinterest e-course

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You aren’t using proper Pinterest SEO

Another reason you might not be getting blog traffic from Pinterest is because you aren’t using good Pinterest SEO strategies. Like I mentioned before, Pinterest is a visual search engine. Using keywords in your Pinterest descriptions is so important if you want to rank in searches.

Here are a few examples of how I have pins that rank:

Keyword search: “How to look like a pro blogger” – the first pins to pop up are some of mine!

Keyword search: “Journal prompts for self discovery”, my pin pops up 3rd.

Keyword search: “Daily habits for happiness”, my pin popped up 7th

The more you rank in searches, the more chances you have of getting that blog traffic. In my Pinterest e-course I talk about how to do keyword research and how to rank higher on Pinterest! If you aren’t using keyword descriptions then you are using Pinterest wrong as a blogger/business owner.

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If you are ready to start your Pinterest journey with me I have an affordable Pinterest e-course that is only

This course goes in depth about my strategies including :

• The pinning strategy that brings me results in 2021
• Where to pin, how to pin, how many times to pin, ideal times to pin
• Creating viral pins
• Keyword research and Pinterest SEO
• How to make sales on Pinterest

& more! 

Grab it now!

I know Pinterest can be overwhelming and time consuming. If you don’t have the time but still want to invest, it might be worth it to hire a Pinterest manager! I do strategic Pinterest managing & I would love to work with you! You can e-mail me about it – Pinterestwithell@gmail.com

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I hope you found this post helpful!!! Can’t wait for you to take your blog to the next level!

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• 2021 Content Marketing Strategy
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