Pinterest organic traffic is the elusive goal for this image based social media platform.
Pinterest can generate thousands of organic traffic outbound clicks to your blog or business every single month, as I do for my own interiors blog and whole host of e-commerce clients.
Pinterest isn’t like other social platforms, in fact, it’s a search engine.
People come here for inspiration and ideas, and because it’s a discovery platform, it gives you the best opportunity for people to look at your content and actually click through.
We care about clicks here NOT followers. Hallelujah!
Paid advertising works really well on Pinterest, but Pinterest organic traffic is evergreen, will continue to grow over time, and once you’ve put the work in, it’s FREE traffic!
If you’re looking to increase your Pinterest organic traffic for your blog, brand or e-commerce business, here are 11 of the best ways to get more Pinterest organic traffic that actually work, and are tried and tested by us at Bagel Digital.
11 Ways To Get More Pinterest Organic Traffic
1.Consistency – You Need To Pin More, & Regularly
It’s simple. Pinterest will reward you for consistency, if you post a handful of pins and rather disappointedly wait for the traffic to roll in, just forget it.
Pinterest is NOT an overnight success story. It’s not TikTok, or a viral Instagram reel, you are going to need to be in some solid work for months, and years to reap the benefits of delicious Pinterest organic traffic.
But it will happen. You just have to trust the process on this.
I went from pinning 1-3 pins a day to 10 a day on my personal account. This has had the biggest impact to my impressions and outbound clicks, I went from 5,000 outbound clicks to 17.5k clicks in a 2 month period. I already had an established account, but I literally just increased the amount of daily, fresh pins (fresh content that doesn’t already exist on Pinterest).
If you have a brand new account, I would highly recommend starting with 1 or 2 a day before increasing so Pinterest doesn’t consider your pins as ‘spammy’.
But still today we are seeing that Pinterest is rewarding FRESH Pins, and consistency is still the best part of any Pinterest strategy. If you want more Pinterest organic traffic, this is the BEST way to do it, but you just have to keep showing up day in, day out for it to work.
2. Keyword Research Should Form Everything You Do
Being consistent with pins is one thing, but if you’re really serious about getting decent Pinterest organic traffic, you need to stop guessing the keywords, and waiting to see what sticks.
Pinterest is a visual search engine and everything is very much derived from keywords, and is immensely similar to keyword research for SEO purposes on a website.
There are a number of ways you can conduct keyword research, but the best, free and easiest method is literally to jump over to Pinterest and use the search box to type in a keyword.
So, say your pin is about ‘dado rails’ you would type this into the search box as shown below, this then delivers a whole host of words to do with dado rails.
You can click into each one if you want to see how competitive they look, and if there are some which look like they are e-commerce driven terms. If I’m looking to rank for blog posts, I tend to avoid these as they are too competitive.
You can also use keyword tools such as Keysearch, I love this tool for getting an extensive list of keywords, and they also share the monthly volumes of keywords which is super helpful.
So, with that keyword(s) to hand, you want to use your main keyword in the Pin title, you’re then going to use this again in the description, along with another keyword you selected. Your keyword should be used in the image file name and in the alt text.
The aim is NOT to spam the keyword, this practice does not work and Pinterest will view your content as spammy. You just want to naturally work the keyword into the copy so it makes sense, you only need to mention it once or twice in the pin description for it to be effective.
3. Create Eye Catching Graphics
This is perhaps the third, but very much just as important aspect of creating a winning pin that attracts a shed load of Pinterest organic traffic.
Whilst pinners are mostly driven by initial keywords, unless they’re scrolling through their home feed, the first thing they will lock eyes with is your graphic. At this stage they won’t have seen your description or the entirety of your title.
Your graphic needs to tell all, and be eye catching enough that it stops them scrolling and encourages them to click through for more of the good stuff.
If you are pinning a graphic to drive people to a specific blog, you need to a) use a clear engaging photo as part of that b) use large text, and NOT scrawly handwritten fonts, you need to make it easy to read c) use different colours for visual interest d) try using a sub heading too – it can make it more compelling for users to click through.
If you can combine all of the above, you’re giving your pin the best chance to gain traction and outbound clicks. I really would recommend split testing a variety of templates, and continually switching them up too so they don’t become boring.
Here is an example of a pin that has literally all of these elements going on and is performing really well.
4. Try Different Image Sizes (Within Reason)
Pinterest recommend that images are sized at 1000 x 1500px for best practice, but after a recent Pinterest course I started trying a new size, 700 x 1550px.
Now, the jury is out on this one, BUT the visuals look so much bigger on Pinterest and more eye catching that I think there is something in it.
I’ve split tested a few and the larger size does seem to outperform, although Pinterest still advocates that 1000 x 1500px is best practice.
My thought is that when pins are more visually engaging, and they take up more of the screen, the Pinner can see more and is more likely to click through. Here is an example of both sizes next to each other and how they both appear on a mobile device.
5. Double Down On Top Performing Pins
It goes without saying that any content which starts taking off on Pinterest, you should absolutely double down on it.
Check your analytics > overview on Pinterest and select to view by outbound clicks so you can clearly see the top pins that drove the most outbound clicks to your site, this is the part we’re most interested in for this exercise.
Once you can see what’s performed the best, can you put out any similar pins? If it’s from a specific URL, create different graphics and overlays for the same article and change up the keywords.
6. Pin In Batches, Through Pinterest
There has been a lot of speculation over the years that pinning through third party scheduling tools such as Tailwind can decrease your reach.
Now, we have tried scheduling on apps like Tailwind and also through the in-house Pinterest scheduler.
I know a lot of people that use Tailwind successfully, and it can be a great way to easily batch content. But the Pinterest in-house scheduler wins it for me. It’s easy to use, you can schedule up to 100 pins in advance, and I personally think that social platforms always prefer if you do everything within their app. Again, this is me just speculating.
I’ve also found that pinning in batches to the same boards is a great way to get early impressions, especially true for new accounts so Pinterest can start to learn what your account is about and what sort of content you pin regularly.
7. Use A Different Title On Pin Graphics
Just like Youtube, Pinterest gives you two opportunities to let your audience know what your content is about. Your Pin Title, and your pin graphic. Whatever you do, don’t use the same title on both – use this as an opportunity to add additional keywords, as Pinterest uses your image too to work out what the content is about.
BUT, of course, your pin graphic is what entices the Pinner in. It needs to be click baity, but not in a fake news kind of way, and it should be so compelling that pinners want to click through.
Your pin graphic is a great opportunity to do this, and we have also seen success with adding a sub heading to pins too as another pull to get a user to click through, here is an example.
8. Name Your Image Files Correctly
For so long I had been exporting images from Canva and uploading them to Pinterest named in their generic image files such as ‘untitled image 17’ or ‘Pinterest graphic 12’. STOP.
Naming image files is SO important for SEO based content online as this is how Google initially ascertains the keyword, and what the image is. Same process applies on Pinterest, and the image file name is just another of the elements their system can draw from to find out what the pin is to do with.
It takes a couple of extra seconds before you export a file and whilst this won’t directly help with outbound clicks, it WILL help with indexing of your pins and engagement which leads to = outbound clicks.
Lay the right groundwork and your pins will do the hard work for you.
9. Create Engaging Website Content!
I mean, it’s simple enough to grasp, but you DO need to have engaging website content to coax pinners off Pinterest.
If you have an e-commerce brand, clicking through to products isn’t enticing enough. You need to create engaging blog content around specific categories, products and informational articles to do with your niche.
Blog posts can create a shed load of Pinterest organic traffic to your website, and a blog should absolutely be part of that strategy so you never run out of Pinterest content to share.
10. Add A CTA To Your Pin Descriptions
Perhaps you’re getting a lot of impressions and saves, but no outbound clicks? It may be because of your graphic, but it could also be because you don’t have a compelling CTA (call to action) in your pin description.
This is your sales pitch, you really have to tell people why they should spend their precious time clicking off Pinterest and onto YOUR website.
An effective call to action should be short and to the point, here is an example CTA on one of my most popular pins to my interiors blog. Note that I also draw them in with an initial rhetorical question to pique the users interest.
11. Don’t Forget The Alt Text
ALT Text is that annoying box leftover that you think’s not really relevant, but it is.
Pinterest couldn’t make it any easier, it is literally the text box when you’re creating the pin that says ‘Explain what people can see in the pin’.
ALT Text is where you describe the image for screen readers, however, I strongly believe that Pinterest use the keywords written in this to determine what the content is about, and help it get indexed.
So, next time you’re crafting a pin, take the extra time to write a descriptive ALT text which doesn’t just include the title of the pin.
Here is an example alt text that I would do for one of my pins, I write what the title is on the overlay, but then describe exactly what I see in the image.
These are 11 of the best ways to increase your Pinterest organic traffic, put the work in, trust the process and there is no reason that your outbound clicks shouldn’t increase.
If you have any further questions about Pinterest marketing or would like help with your own account, please do get in touch on email, we love to talk to Pinterest!
