Pinterest isn’t your typical social network. In fact, they don’t really even consider themselves a social network. Regardless of that, Pinterest has roughly 300 million monthly users and they also happen to be one of the biggest image search engines on the web. That means Pinterest has the potential to send your website lots of traffic! I’ve done some experimenting with Pinterest over the years by trying different image styles, color combinations, and more. Below I’m going to show you exactly how to get started with Pinterest and hopefully skyrocket your incoming traffic from the popular social network.
Good Pin-Worthy Images – Considering that Pinterest is primarily a visual image-based platform, it should come as no surprise that your success on the site will directly correlate to the quality of your images. Today, given the level of quality pins being shared on the site, the bar has been set quite high. So, what does a “pin-worthy” image look like? Here are some things to consider:
1. Vertical Image – 600×900 seems to be the most typical size used, but Pinterest recommends any image size with a 2:3 ratio.
2. Vibrant Colors – Pinks, reds, and oranges tend to work well on Pinterest, but you should also try experimenting with other colors to make yourself stand out more.
3. One Focus Element To Catch Attention – Depending on the type of content you’re promoting, you may want the text to be the focal point of your image. However, if you’re promoting something like a recipe then the image should take center stage.
4. Branded Image – Take some inspiration from other images but develop your own style and make them
5. Readable Typography – Cursive fonts look pretty but they’re not user-friendly. We’re not coming up for logos of death metal bands here.
Good Description – Remember when I mentioned that Pinterest was also a huge search engine? Well, a big part of its algorithm comes down to the descriptions you use – Just like Google! You need to write descriptions that do the following:
Here’s a quick example. Let’s say I was sharing a pin for an article about how to start a blog. I might write something like Learn how to start a blog that grows in record time | Click the image to start reading | #BloggingTips #StartABlog #BlogTips. While this is a fairly short description, it covers everything I mentioned in the bullet points above.
Utilize Pinterest Analytics
Did you know Pinterest has their own analytics platform? This platform gives you access to some incredibly useful data and best of all, it completely free! You just need to sign up for a business account here. Once your account is setup you can view the analytics on this page. You’ll be able to view impressions, saves, and other metrics on one very easy-to-read graph. You can also utilize several different filters to see how each of your pins is performing. Personally, I like to look at how individual pins are performing so I can take note of what stands out about them (design, copy, topic, etc). Ultimately, your goal should be to find what works and do more of it.
