Is your head spinning from hearing everyone talk about how they get loads of blog traffic from Pinterest?

If you answered yes to this question, then you, boss lady, are in luck! I am going to be telling you my biggest secrets on why Pinterest might not be working for you and what the heck you can do about it.

Before I tell you about the Pinterest secrets and mistakes that you might be making, I want to first invite you to sign up to the all new freebie I just created for you.

You can sign up to the free 6 figure blogger masterclass here:

Now, are you ready to find out why Pinterest isn’t working for you?

Then let’s jump in!

#1. You Haven’t Set Up Your Pinterest Account Correctly

The first reason why Pinterest might not be working for you is that you haven’t set up your Pinterest account correctly.

Don’t worry, it’s not your fault. There actually isn’t a lot of information out there that tells you how to do this for new bloggers.

But like I said, It’s your lucky day because I’m going to show you how.

SETTING UP YOUR PINTEREST PAGE CORRECTLY

The first thing you need to do is set up your Pinterest profile if you do not have one. If you already have one don’t skip ahead there are some important aspects of Pinterest that you need to action manually and may not have done already. 

YOUR PINTEREST ACCOUNT

Setting up a Pinterest Account 

• Go to https://www.pinterest.com/ to open your Pinterest account 

• Click on the Create A Business Account option which will take you to a second login / account set up screen 

• Use the e mail address associated to your business / blog 

• Create a secure password

• Next select your preferred language and country 

• Add your Business Name – this should be the blog / brand / business name, not your personal name 

• Select the most appropriate field under the ‘Tell Us About Your Business’ section

Type in your website URL

• Claim your other accounts, Instagram, YouTube and Etsy

• Answer the question if you would be interested in running ads in the future (it doesn’t matter what you answer here, if you have a business account you can set up ads at a later date even if you select ‘no’. 

• Then choose the topics that best describe your business 

• Next you will see a Get your handy browser button window. This is the Google Chrome extension which is a great tool so I advise you not to skip this and click on Get It Now and install the extension. It will be very helpful later when you are pinning from your website! 

• Now your account is created, and you will have to follow the steps later in the eBook to set up your profile correctly, your boards and optimize your Pinterest for search. 

CONVERT TO A BUSINESS ACCOUNT

If you already have a Pinterest account set up then you should convert this to a Business Account. 

If your Pinterest account is a personal account that you have only used for saving wedding inspiration, and cat memes then it will be simpler to start a fresh new business account specifically for your blog rather than converting your personal account. 

you have been using the personal account for blogging purposes or have been actively saving pins and pinning to boards related to your blogging niche then go ahead and convert this. But make sure to read this eBook in full and complete all the steps to correctly clean up your Pinterest so it is optimal for your blog.

The business account will give you the following:

• Analytics for your Pinterest account 

• Ability to promote your pins

• To convert to a business account, go to https:// Business.Pinterest.com, 

o Click the red ‘Convert Your Existing Account’ button.

o Select your ‘Business Type,’ and update your ‘Contact Name,’ and ‘Email Address,’ if necessary.

o Update your Profile Info

o Agree to the Pinterest Agreement, then click Convert My Account 

SET UP RICH PINS

Pins provide more information to each of your pins, includes your blog name, description text and website link. This tells Pinterest more about your content, and ensures Pinterest knows if its quality content.

Instructions to set up https://business.pinterest.com/en/rich-pins 

• Note it can take a little while for these to get verified.

YOUR PINTEREST PROFILE

Once your business account is set up, or converted you need to make sure that your Pinterest profile is correctly laid out. 

EDIT PROFILE

• To edit your profile, go to the arrow at the end of the navigation bar, then select Settings. 

• In Edit Profile section you can now edit all of the information about your profile.

• Make sure your profile image is the same as your other social profiles. A personal photo of you tends to be better than a logo. 

• Check your profile name and URL are easy to find and relate to your blog name. Pinterest will automictically assign you a URL, make sure this makes sense. For example my Pinterest URL is https://pinterest.com/bossladybloggers , however it may have assigned me something like https://pinterest.com/blb313 which does not relate to my blog or business. You can adjust this to be relevant for your blog. This is especially important if you are converting from a personal account. 

• Write a short description about your blog, this should follow the same format as your about page. What do you do, who are you, how you can help your followers? This description should also use relevant keywords that relate to what your blog is about. 

• Add keywords to your display name. Then when someone searches for a specific topic in your niche your name is more likely to pop-up. As I mentioned Pinterest is a search engine, not a social tool so apply all the same principles you learnt in the SEO module here. E.g. In mine I have Business and Blogging Tips, so people searching for this might find my profile in the search results. 

• Add a call to action in the description. This is another place to include a call to action to join your email list. 

• Add your location.

ACCOUNT SETTINGS

Next go to the Settings / Account Settings option. Here you can adjust Basic Information including language, location, email address, contact name, your business type, and login options. If you started a new account then this should all be set up correctly but if you are converting an account check all these settings are correct. 

CLAIM

Claiming your website allows you to get attribution and Analytics for your content which may already appear on Pinterest, it is important to claim your URL so that Pinterest knows it is yours. 

You can also use this area to set up an RSS feed to Auto Publish from your website and to claim other profiles, Instagram, YouTube and Etsy. 

NOTIFICATIONS / PRIVACY & DATA / SECURITY

 Check through each of these Settings Options to ensure you are happy with the notifications you will receive, have personalized your search and added any security to your account. 

I suggest switching on the Two Factor Authentication in the Security section. 

SET UP FEATURED BOARDS

Featured boards appear at the top of your profile and you need to set these up manually as they do not appear automatically when you create your Pinterest account. 

The Featured Boards that you select to appear here should be your 5 most important boards that you want people see first when they visit your Pinterest Profile. For example: If you have a clothing company, you could use this to showcase new arrivals. Or for a travel company, upcoming trips. Or simply Latest Blog Posts, or Freebies. 

Instructions: https://business.pinterest.com/en/blog/your-big-beautiful-new- showcase

PINTEREST BOARDS

 Now your profile is set up you need to create a set of boards that you can pin yours and other people’s content to. 

Pinterest boards are a way of organizing the content that you pin to your profile. Let’s think about your boards as categories and topics, typically the ones that your target audience is looking for. This might (and probably should!) align with some of the categories that you have on your blog. 

You want to make sure that someone coming to your page is not put off because the content is not what they are looking for. For example, if your blog is about financial advice, your readers probably won’t be interested in your outdoor garden inspiration board! 

PINTEREST CLEAN UP

 If you already have a Pinterest account that you are switching to a business account, you will need to do some clean up on the existing boards on your profile and the content you have pinned. 

Work though each of these steps to clean up the content on your profile: 

• Hide all the boards that are unrelated to your blog niche. You don’t have to delete them, just set them as secret boards. 

• Go to your Boards page, click on the pencil icon on the bottom right of the board you want to edit / set to secret. Then go to Visibility and tick the box to Keep This Board Secret

• Update the boards you want to keep In the edit board section for the boards you want to keep that are related to your niche make sure they are named correctly, have keyword rich descriptions, have the correct category, include a cover image or pin, and you have added any collaborators (relevant if more than one person will manage you Pinterest profile.

• Clean up the content on the boards Portrait images and pins are preferred. Make sure your Pinterest page is visually appealing and followers will want to return and pin from it for their own inspiration. To mass delete on one board use the Organize option in the upper right of the board.

• Check the quality of what you pin A lot of content on Pinterest is click bait and does not actually lead to the intended article. Only re-pin real content, and delete poor quality content you have previously pinned. 

• Move pins to more appropriate boards using the Organize option on the upper right of the board. You can select and move multiple pins at once to another board.

• Merge boards together this option is available at the bottom of the edit board screen, you can also choose to archive or delete the board here. 

• Clean up who you are following and make sure these are relevant for your niche 

WHAT BOARDS DO YOU NEED?

You should get started with 10- 20 boards that are relevant to your niche and blog. 

To create a new board, go to the profile page and select the Create Board with the black plus symbol.

Then name your board and click Create. You will now have a brand-new board that you can start to pin to. You should have these boards set up on your profile. 

• Blog posts board where you pin blog posts from your blog only so visitors can find your content easily. 

• Specific category boards based on what content you plan to pin and your blog niche. 

• Freebies or eBooks boards if you have something to give away, otherwise this could come later. 

• Create one or more group boards- A board that you invite other Pinterest users to collaborate on and pin their own pins. You can set rules such as for every pin they pin to the board, they must also pin another pin from the board – this helps to get your own pins re-pinned on Pinterest.

If you are not sure what boards to create, use Pinterest to help you! Type in some keywords that relate to your blog in the search and see what Pinterest suggests.

Don’t create boards that don’t make sense for your audience, or your niche. Keep the boards on brand, and if they are not on brand make them private! For example, if you have a board with your dream wedding ideas, but your blog is about finance and business tips – make that board private!

#2. Your Pinterest SEO Strategy Sucks

The next reason why Pinterest might not be working for you is that your Pinterest SEO strategy sucks.

But first, what the heck is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

In 2021, we now have to think of Pinterest as a search engine.

Which means that we want to use the search terms that our audience is already using to find content like yours.

The “search terms” I’m talking about are….

• Keywords

• Keyphrases

• And Long Tail Keywords

To better learn how you can do Pinterest SEO, then sign up to my free Pinterest SEO lesson straight from The Blog Accelerator Program course.

Use CODE: FREELESSON to get 100% off. Click the image below to sign up!

#3. You’re Not Publishing New and Fresh Pins Everyday

The third reason why Pinterest isn’t working for you is that you aren’t consistently publishing new and fresh pins every single day.

Back when I started Pinterest, I remember being able to re-use the same pin over and over again for the same blog post.

But in 2021, the algorthims have changed and things are WAY different.

Pinterest now wants you to publish fresh pins everyday, but first I want to tell you what “fresh” even means.

Fresh pins are pins that have a…

• New blog post link

OR

• A new Pinterest pin image for the blog post

And since we don’t want to constantly change up the blog post link (I advise you to not) then we need to create new pin images everyday for each one of our blog posts.

I like to keep a list of all my blog post titles and links inside of a google spreadsheet.

Every week on Monday’s, I will pull out that spreadsheet and create 1-3 new Pinterest pins for each one of my blog post and then schedule 5 per day on Tailwind.

Tailwind is a Pinterest scheduling tool that will allow you to automate the publishing of your pins. Get Tailwind 30 days free right here.

#4. You’re Still Using Hashtags

The fourth reason why Pinterest may not be working for you is that you are still using hashtags.

Pinterest has officially come out and said that hashtags are a thing of the past.

Just keep focusing on Pinterest SEO and insert your keywords in each Pin description and you will be good.

I’ve noticed that shorter pin descriptions have been working really well for me lately so make sure you give that a try as well.

If you have hashtags on any of your current or past pins, you might want to go through your account and delete our all of the hashtags you have used since they might be hurting your account.

#5. You are Still Pinning to Group Boards that Aren’t Getting You Results

Here’s what Dishitoutsocial has to say about group boards:

“For those of you that don’t know what a group boards is… it’s a board on Pinterest that has a 2 or more people sharing (or contributing) pins to. A few years ago, Pinterest group boards were THE BEST way to get your pins seen by LOTS of people. The advice from Pinterest marketing experts was to “join a ton of group boards” and skyrocket your traffic from Pinterest. And for many years, it worked! But not so much anymore…”

“In the spring of 2018, Pinterest reps said in a few interviews that group boards were no longer going to get major exposure in the feeds. Pinterest also said that pins from your own boards would get priority distribution. This sent people into a panic. They were leaving their group boards left and right and a lot of those once thriving boards became ghost towns.”

“As you can imagine, not having much activity on a board can decrease its reach and exposure in the feed of followers. This means engagement goes down which isn’t a good thing for the contributors of that board.”

If you’re spending a lot of time searching for group boards to join, your time might be better spent on joining and contributing to Tailwind Tribes. And right now, you can join Tailwind Tribes for FREE and try it out. Give it 30 days and just see what happens… What have you got to lose? 

Click here to try Tailwind tribes FREE for 30-days.

#6. You’re Not Creating Clickable Pins

The 6th reason why Pinterest might not be working for you is that you’re not creating clickable pins.

You’re probably wondering…“Gen, what the heck is a clickable pin?”

A clickable pin is a pin that is created good enough that your ideal blog reader will feel the need to always click on it.

We can create clickable pins that:

1. Has an enticing title. For example: The title ‘How to Write a Blog Post’ is boring. But the title ‘How to Write the Most Perfect Blog Post Even As a Beginner’ is a lot more enticing.
2. Leads to a blog post that your ideal blog reader actually want to read. Your blog posts need to cover topics that educate or inspire the person you are writing for. They also need to be written about things your ideal reader is searching for in Google and Pinterest.
3. Is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Even though the title will always be most important, the look of your pin image is important too. When I search in Pinterest, I associate well created pin images with professionalism. So make sure your pins look good and professional. Use your brand colors, clear fonts, a background with warm colors, etc.

Another way you can make a Pinterest pin “clickable” is by offering a freebie. You can put the photo of the enticing freebie on the pin image and say “free guide inside” or something along those lines.

If someone wants the freebie, they will click to read the post and grab the freebie along the way.

#7. You’re Not Using Updated 2021 Pinterest Strategies

The last and final reason why Pinterest probably isn’t working for you is that you are not using updated 2021 Pinterest strategies that work.

A lot of bloggers search in Pinterest for blog educational articles but they don’t realize that a lot of the pins you see are from years ago.

In order to get the right information when you are searching on Google and Pinterest, is to only read articles that have been written and published in 2021 or else you might get false and outdated information.

So what is the 2021 Pinterest Strategy?

Step 1: Write New Blog Posts Consistently

Step 2: Create a Spreadsheet With all Your Blog Post Titles and Links

Step 3: Create 5 New Pins for Every New Blog Post You Publish

Step 4: Create 1 Fresh Pin For Each One Of Your Blog Posts Everyday and Schedule 5 Fresh Pins/day in Tailwind

Step 5: Get on The Blog Accelerator Program waitlist if you want to learn my Pinterest scheduling secrets and shortcuts. In the course, I simplify the whole process and tell you how I can make 1 pin turn into 7 fresh pins!

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Are you currently making any of these Pinterest mistakes? If you are, that’s probably why Pinterest might not be working for you.

You always want to make sure that you are using up to date 2021 Pinterest strategies which is what I cover in my Blog Accelerator Program course.

Comment below the biggest takeaway you had from this post!

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