4 Ways to Optimize your Website to Drive Pinterest Conversions
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Loading... - Patrick Phelps
- 11 Oct 2021
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Pinterest is just as relevant as ever in this day and age of social media. It might seem like the platform peaked five years ago when it garnered the attention of people around the world. Don’t be fooled, because Pinterest continues to get 175 million active monthly users and has proven to be a highly effective marketing tool used to drive traffic for business in so many industries.
With the rise of content marketing, video content, and news of long-form articles dominating the SEO rankings, it’s easy to overlook how a visual platform like Pinterest can still make an impact in your content marketing strategy. The truth is, there are more audiences than ever before on Pinterest. Nearly fifty percent of users on the platform have made a purchase after seeing a promoted pin and almost 70% have admitted to discovering a new brand or product from seeing pins. Without a doubt, the platform has a huge impact on its users buying patterns and purchasing decisions.
Even with the content landscape shifting towards long-form text and video, there are still ways brands can use Pinterest to leverage their active audience and maximize their reach.
Here are four strategies that will help optimize some of your content for Pinterest.
Website Setup
First, it’s important to make sure that your website is optimized to make content more easily shareable on Pinterest. This can eliminate some of the extra work on your end and allow for your content to be accessed and made into a “pin” easily.
When visitors share your website content on Pinterest, it not only exposes you to their audience on Pinterest but also adds your content to Pinterest's massive engine of content waiting to be found by hungry consumers and enthusiasts of your niche. Make it obvious that you want users to pin your content by using a Pin-It button.
One last obvious, but not-to-be-forgotten, tip is to make sure your image dimensions perform well on the site. Try a few test run images. Also make sure your aesthetic is eye-catching as Pinterest is hugely visual. Users can scroll for hours, and you want your image to stand out amongst the rest.
Specific Plugins and Tools
It’s a no-brainer to use automation tools to optimize your Pinterest strategy. These helpful tools will take away most of the manual work for you. You will save tremendous amounts of time and energy, and it is such a worry-free process. It’s especially great for those weeks (or months, even) where you feel overwhelmed in all you’re doing. Set up your pins to schedule for the month and let these sites work their magic!
Viraltag is an impressive tool that allows you to schedule Pins and Re-Pins on Pinterest. The Viraltag extension on Google Chrome will let you select any image or link and instantly schedule it to Pin to a board. This tool also tracks and analyzes your Pinterest activity in a sleek and easy-to-understand interface.
If you’re looking to integrate your Pinterest automation strategy with the rest of your social media marketing, then Buffer is the quintessential all-in-one tool. Its Pinterest integration is further proof of this. Set your Pinterest posting schedule and start adding Pins to your queue to start automating your pins. Buffer’s Google Chrome extension takes it one step further and lets you schedule pins, or even re-pins, with a single click. These are such time savers and help you keep your content organized and at your fingertips. Additionally, if your website is hosted on WordPress, there hundreds of plugins available that will do the heavy lifting and integrate features for easy sharing to Pinterest.
Creating Pinterest Specific Images + Infographics
Another strategy is to turn existing blog content into Pin-worthy graphics that appeal to Pinterest’s demographics. Why do work that’s already been done? If you have a blog post that hasn’t gotten much traction or that you’d like to share more of, re-purpose it.
Above all, Pinterest is a search engine. So creating content that is already trending on Pinterest, is a sure-fire way to get your posts seen. Stay on top of what’s trending on the platform and, if you’re serious about your Pinterest Strategy, create content that caters to its unique audience.
Using Keywords and Metadata on Your Website
A few years ago, Pinterest launched Rich Pins, which are essentially several types of pins that categorize your posts based on popular posts types on the platform. Categorizing existing content on your site as Rich Pins puts you in control of how your pins get categorized on Pinterest. It takes the uncertainty out of not knowing where your pins might end up when shared. This will allow you to continue to reach your designated market by placing your pins in the correct category.
Still, it’s important to make sure to include a meta title and description of images on your content just to be sure they’re accurately labeled when they are shared from your site. You don’t want to lose the important details about your content, and having control of the meta title and descriptions can make sure that doesn’t happen.
Data shows that pin descriptions of about 200 characters are the most repinnable as they are shorter and easy to read quickly. One thing to remember is that you should aim to use specific keywords that are geared toward your target audience. Using relevant hashtags (but not too many) will also make your posts more searchable and expose them to new audiences. A good rule of thumb is to look up how many posts are under each hashtag. If a hashtag has millions of posts attached, yours might get lost in the shuffle. Aim for a lower number to increase the likelihood of someone seeing your post. This rule doesn’t have to apply to every single hashtag, as many are popular, but it’s a good thing to remember when looking at the insights of your post. Additionally, make sure you have enough images in your posts and that at least one of the images is optimized for Pinterest and matches the aesthetic of the posts on your boards.
Besides optimizing your website to make things more pinnable, you still want users on Pinterest to be able to find your boards. If you’ve already done SEO and keyword research in your industry, it’ll be easy to insert those phrases into the descriptions of your pins to make them more easily accessible to people in your niche. Another great way to find out what people on Pinterest are searching for is to type a few of your keywords into the Pinterest search bar and see what other relevant topics come up. This will show you what else people in your industry are searching for on the platform and can inspire future content. Pinterest has an autocomplete text as you are typing in words, which will allow you to easily see the complete phrases people in your niche market are searching for.
Conclusion:
Like on any social channel, the key to success is knowing your audience. Showing up on Pinterest on a regular basis to see what your audience is looking at is key to optimizing your strategy and making it work for you. Spend time clicking around and seeing what successful businesses in your same niche are doing. The great thing about Pinterest is that it relies heavily on evergreen content. Pins that performed well 2 years ago can suddenly reappear and go viral once again if the content is still relevant. That’s why it’s crucial to incorporate evergreen content into your Pinterest strategy as much as possible. Again, re-purposing is a great strategy to make use of!
