If you’re brand new to marketing your blog on Pinterest and you have no idea where to start then you’re in the right place. I am going to show you the ropes with this ultimate beginners guide to setting up a Pinterest account for business… plus there is a free Pinterest quick-start Pinterest lesson for easy reference!

With 100 million active users I am going to assume that you know a little bit about how Pinterest works because you most likely have been using it for yourself.

Whether pinning recipes, planning your dream backyard or even planning a big event, Pinterest is definitely a visual search engine.

Pinners are there to dream and plan with the beautiful images they see. Studies show that people also go there to seek out information and spend their money.

Pinterest has completely changed the way we search for information. I notice, that now, I do most of my online searching on Pinterest over Google.

I use Pinterest as a bookmarking tool to plan my future, find home decorating ideas, DIY tips + tricks, to even looking up valuable information on running a better business.

Pinterest has 2.75 million monthly users right now… it’s like its own country.

Look, the point here is that if you want to get your blog or biz in front of (potentially) millions of people, drive tons of traffic to your site, and make a ton of money (selling anything) then you need to be on Pinterest.

I don’t want you missing out on a huge piece of Pinterest pie just because you don’t know where to start.

So, in this Pinterest account for business guide, I am going to take you through the exact steps you need to get started.

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

• Click on the Create A Pinterest account for Business 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 for business 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 and 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!

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RESOURCES FOR GROWING & MONETIZING YOUR BLOG:

• FREE Blog Coaching Call with Gen
• 1:1 Blog Coaching Program
• Tailwind For Bloggers
• Siteground for Domain Purchasing
• Showit for Website Design
• Pinterest Course

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WHAT TO READ NEXT:

• Best Tips for Selling Anything on Your Blog
• PODCAST – Why Most Bloggers Haven’t Even Made a $1
• Why Showit is the Best for New Bloggers
• PODCAST – Why You’re Not Making Money Blogging (5 Reasons)
• PODCAST – I Would Have Made Money Blogging a Lot Faster if I Just Did THIS