This just in…Pinterest is awesome again! With the right techniques. Read on for some current Pinterest marketing hacks I’ve been using with great success for more blog traffic in 2023.
This post may contain affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through one of these links, I may receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you. All opinions are my own. Read my full disclosure here.
How to Grow on Pinterest in 2023
Firstly, let me say that if you are new to Pinterest marketing, I highly suggest educating yourself on how this complicated algorithm really operates.
These Pinterest methods are working for me and my blog traffic because I have a good understanding of how the platform works.
I’ll dive into how to develop your Pinterest skills within the post. But for now, here are some effective things I’ve been doing on my established Pinterest business account, to drive my numbers (see below) way up!
Heads up.
There’s a lot to cover here. Be sure to save this post so you can refer back to it as needed.
Pin now, read later!
Manually pinning ON the platform
Let’s start with things I’m doing to boost blog traffic when I actually create a new pin on Pinterest.
I absolutely believe the most effective way to make pins is by physically uploading them on the platform itself, using the pin builder.
Some use Canva or Tailwind. And I’m not saying that’s wrong. I’m just saying this is what I believe to be best.
Pinterest wants people to use their platform. If I’m trying to make Pinterest like me and my content, I’m going to do whatever will make them happiest.
This means manually, live pinning (not scheduling if it can be avoided). Also remember, when trying to keep Pinterest happy…they don’t want us repinning old pins. They want new!
Currently, I am creating a brand new, fresh pin once a day, minimum. To be clear, when I say a new, fresh pin, I mean a new pin image. Not a new URL once a day.
Sometimes if I have time I’ll publish one in the morning and one at night. If pinning live isn’t an option, (if I’m going on vacation, for example) I use the Pinterest scheduler.
Again keep in mind, Pinterest wants us active on their platform. So if you need to schedule, use theirs!
Side note: Pinterest is a lot of trial and error and you should experiment with what works best for your account. I also believe pinning from your actual blog post occasionally is a good idea. Just make sure the description goes over with the pin (more on that to come).
Write new Pinterest pin descriptions
Life is busy and it’s so easy to just write your well-keyworded pin description once, get lazy, and copy and paste it the next time you create a new pin for that same URL.
And I’ll admit to getting complacent and doing this sometimes, only because I was still getting traffic, so as long as it was working a little bit, what harm did it do, right?
But maybe this is a wasted opportunity?
Pinterest definitely suppresses keywords from time to time. What worked once won’t always work forever. So it’s important you change it up.
Plus, why wouldn’t you at least TRY to target different keywords and increase your chance of ranking?
So, I’ve really been taking extra time to write new descriptions.
Bonus hack – I like to open Pinterest up in 2 different tabs. This way I can do keyword research in one tab and write down anything I want to include in my new pin description in the other.
Adding alt text to Pinterest pins
This isn’t so much a Pinterest marketing hack but it’s definitely something I’ve been doing for every pin I publish lately.
Have you noticed that Pinterest offers the ability to add alt text to your pin? Have you been bothering to fill it in?
Here’s my thought on this.
If Pinterest took the time to include the option to add alt text, they want us to use it. And it’s just one more place we can input keywords while describing the pin image.
So it seems like a bit of a no-brainer to me. Use every opportunity to attach valuable keywords to your pins as you’re given!
Is it going to make or break your account? No.
But we’re talking about really putting the effort into our Pinterest marketing here. So let’s do just that!
Pinning longer pins
Another thing I’ve been experimenting with (and seeing positive results from) is only pinning long pins.
Nearly all my pins are designed using the pin templates from Carly Campbell’s Pin Template Subscription.
The subscription gets me 10 templates a month. 5 short pins and 5 long ones.
P.S. Try them for free HERE.
I have always gravitated to the short pins. They are a smaller canvas which means less space to fill with possible words and it usually takes less time to find the right image for the smaller space.
But re-read the words “smaller canvas” and really think about them.
If you are a regular (non blogger) Pinterest user scrolling your feed, what’s going to grab your eye? The smaller image? Or the larger canvas that fills more of your screen and demands more of your attention?
Go ahead and actually take a moment to scroll and take notice of which pins really grab your attention.
We should be thinking of our pins as tiny billboards. We need the most advertising space we can get to convince the viewer they gotta have what it is that billboard is selling!
In this case, a blog post is what we’re selling. Or whatever else you may be using Pinterest to direct traffic to.
The bigger the billboard, the more noticeable it’ll be.
Anyway, I got lazy and rushed because life is still busy, and almost always used the short pin templates. Then I decided to do my own experiment and really give my Pinterest traffic a boost.
I challenged myself to only use long pins and have been consistently doing so for over 2 months.
Of course, if Pinterest has taught us nothing it’s that I may not see the true results of these efforts until much much later in the future. Maybe even a year from now.
BUT I will say my long pins have definitely been getting more engagement and much quicker than usual. So for now, I’m going to keep at it!
Check them out for yourself over on my account and hit the follow button while you’re at it 😉
Pinning Using the P.I.Q. Strategy by PotPieGirl
We’ll get to this interestingly named strategy momentarily.
First…Pot Pie Who??
If you’ve never heard of her, PotPieGirl is a brilliant Pinterest marketer whose actual name is Jennifer Ledbetter.
She spends her days diving deep into the inner workings of Pinterest. Testing new and interesting techniques and strategies. But a few years ago, she seemed to just vanish into thin air.
We bloggers stopped seeing her in Facebook groups, her newsletters stopped, no new products were getting created. It seemed she had silently stepped away and retired.
But like I said, Pinterest is awesome again in 2023…and she’s back! All of a sudden in January, a newsletter appeared in my inbox from PotPieGirl. And it was GOOD.
She basically explained that she felt Pinterest was showing signs of drastic improvement and she wanted to share some tips. And she has shared tips every weekday ever since. And they are pure gold.
P.S. The blogging Facebook groups I’m in were full of chatter and excitement that “PotPieGirl is back!”
Ok. On to Jennifer’s P.I.Q. Pinning Strategy.
I actually bought this training years ago when she first released it. And it was good back then, but to be honest I sort of forgot about it after a while.
Again, life got busy. I was still doing this blogging thing as a side gig to my full time job. And my Pinterest marketing got rushed.
But her new daily Pinterest tip emails kept referencing the technique, so I revisited the simple eBook for a refresher and started implementing it right away.
I can’t tell you how to do it but so far I’m seeing great results from it. The PIQ method basically teaches you how to find your ideal keywords that will make both Pinterest and Google take notice.
It’s really easy and truly unique. I’m confident you haven’t seen another Pinterest training like it.
Read more about my results here: The P.I.Q. Strategy for Pinterest Growth 2023
Saving “other” pins
This is a tip I picked up from one of PotPieGirl’s daily Pinterest tip emails. I don’t do it every day, but a few times a week I’ve thrown this into my strategy.
While the days of repinning our own pins are long gone, that doesn’t mean we can’t repin our pins that other people have created!
Annnnd I’m sure I just lost you with that last sentence. Let me break it down further.
We know Pinterest doesn’t want us repinning our own pins.
To be clear, making new images for old posts/URLs is totally fine though. But pinning the same pin image over and over again is a thing of the past.
But what about when someone pins one of our images from our blog posts?
When they do that, it creates a fresh pin in Pinterest’s eyes.
We can find these pins by going to our Pinterest Analytics.
Under “Date Range” change the filter to show the Last 24 Hours.
You can do a wider range but it’s nice to know what’s working for you right NOW and makes this method easier to find what you’re looking for.
Next, scroll down to “Top Pins” and sort by “Saves”. You should see a list of all the pins that have been saved in the last 24 hours. Now what you are really looking for is the ones marked “Other Pins”.
If I click on this particular pin above, it opens up and I can see who created it.
If it’s my picture and account, I don’t want to save it. I’ve already saved this pin to my account and doing so again would be considered a repin.
And remember, Pinterest doesn’t want us repinning.
BUT, this is not the case here. When I open that pin from my analytics, I can see it was created by an account called “Market with Miranda”.
These are the pins we want to find!
This “Market with Miranda” user created this pin by going to my blog post and saving the image that I included within that post.
In Pinterest’s eyes, this is a fresh pin. And we can save it to our account to help give it a boost!
Here’s how to give it the best boost:
From this point, you’ll want to click the “See More Stats” button in the top right corner of the pin.
If you scroll down to “Saved to These Boards” you’ll be able to see where this fresh pin has been saved.
Choose the board with the best title and keywords in the description (this signals to Pinterest exactly what that pin is about), scroll until you find your pin and when you find it, save it to your own, most relevant board.
Save now to refer back to later!
Setting pin descriptions with Tasty Pins
If you aren’t already using the Tasty Pins plugin, I can’t say enough good things about it.
This isn’t really something new I’m trying. I’ve been using it for years. But I can’t see myself doing Pinterest marketing without it, so it’s worth a mention.
You may or may not have noticed that when someone pins something from your post, the pin description doesn’t always come with it (depending on your social share plugins) unless you use the Alt Text area, which isn’t what it’s actually for.
This is bad. A Pinterest pin without a description is a massive wasted opportunity!
That’s where Tasty Pins comes in. When you upload a new image within your blog post, Tasty Pins allows you to fill out your alt text, Pinterest pin title, and Pinterest pin description.
So you can put in your perfectly keyworded title and description and know that it’s going over to Pinterest as desired when someone saves it. There’s also the option to hide pin images and disable certain images from being pinned.
It’s a total game changer once you’ve tried it and I for one, will never go back to blogging without it.
Note: I can already hear some people saying it doesn’t work and that you still can’t see the description. And at first glance, that LOOKS like the case.
But good ol’ Carly Campbell did some nerdy, source code surfing/experimenting and busted those rumors. She went into great detail in her private Facebook group and assures us, while users can’t physically see the description 100% of the time, Pinterest can.
Meaning, Pinterest’s algorithm can read those beautiful keywords you assigned to that pin and you’ll be able to rank much more easily because of that.
Pinterest has also even said that Tasty Pins is an approved plugin and totally fine to use. Read my full review of the plugin HERE.
Creating clickable pin titles
Something I’m seeing good results with and I truly believe will pay off big time in the long run, is focusing extra hard on pin titles on my actual pin IMAGE.
I’m talking about pin titles that will grab the scroller’s attention.
Think qualifier words. Extra wordage in brackets. Words that hit the reader’s pain points. Sayings that are intriguing, shocking, and downright click-worthy.
Titles that make a Pinterest user NEED to know what’s on the other side of that pin.
Here are a few examples and explanations:
1. Having the first word actually tell the user to STOP! is something that makes them take notice and read the pin. The smaller text explaining they could be losing traffic evokes fear and curiosity. They’ll be worried they could be harming their own site and will want to know more.
2. Asking a question is a great method for getting better clicks. As is using BIG text that insinuates they might be making a mistake. Again, they’ll be curious to know how they could improve.
3. I could have just titled this pin “Ways to Boost Affiliate Marketing Sales”. But using a word like “proven” brings a certain credibility to the pin. And the specific number referenced in brackets…admit it, YOU want to know what #7 is, don’t you?
4. This one could simply be titled “My Favourite SEO Course.” But SEO is really complicated for a lot of people, especially beginners. We’re reminded constantly that it’s something that needs to be learned. But as beginners, it’s hard to justify spending money on a big-ticket course. So this title really hits on 2 possible pain points. Not only is it easy to follow, but it’s also really affordable.
5. Again, hit that pain point. There are a ton of pins out there about blogging legally. But if you saw a pin that said “How to create a privacy policy for your blog” next to the one above that promises the same thing but on a tight budget, which one are you going to click on? Those extra qualifying words can make a big difference.
6. Using brackets again to add a little more context to what they’ll find on the other side of the pin. Because lots of people wouldn’t care or wouldn’t think they should care when they created a pin. But those 6 little words make it seem like there’s a good reason to know!
There are many more things you can do to improve your pin titles. If this is something you know you could do better at, check out my post:
How to Write Better Pin Titles (that actually get clicked)
Or consider grabbing this super affordable and worthwhile training: Pinterest Title Traffic Hacks For Bloggers – It includes lots of examples like this, ways to use design to assist your titles, how to turn any piece of content into a seasonal pin, video walk throughs, and more.
It will totally change the way you design pins.
Additional Pinterest marketing growth tips
1. Update posts when pins are getting engagement
When I notice a pin starting to do well, I like to click through to the post and make sure everything in that post is optimized to give my readers a good experience.
Read it from top to bottom and see if there’s room for improvement. Learn the 10 questions I like to ask myself when reviewing and updating old content HERE.
I also like to take note of several things. The pin design, the board it was saved to, and how long ago it was pinned (learn how to find that out HERE).
It’s easy for old content to get stale fast and if I know a pin is suddenly sending people there, I want to make sure it’s working for them and for me.
What a great excuse to add new affiliate links, a new pin image, call to action, or interlink to other content they may like.
2. Boost a pin’s engagement with Facebook
If a pin needs a boost, sometimes I’ll share it in a Facebook group sharing thread. I find getting a few saves or comments helps give a pin a little leg up.
But do this with caution.
This is only really helpful in the long term if the people pinning your pin save it to a relevant board.
If they just pin it to a huge board they created just for sharing threads that are full of other topics, it’s not going to help Pinterest figure out what your pin is actually about.
You could say something like “I’d appreciate repins of this pin ONLY to relevant boards, please :)” when you add your URL to the thread. This will hopefully increase your chances of it going onto boards that will help you in the long run.
Or to play it safe, just ask for comments on the pin. This is great for engagement and anyone can help you out regardless of their niche.
My favourite groups: The Best Facebook Groups to Grow Your Blog
3. Include a pinnable image in every blog post
I can’t stress this enough. You need to have at least one Pinterest friendly image within your blog post.
One of the best things that can happen for your Pinterest traffic is for someone to click through to your blog post and then save something to their Pinterest account.
This tells Pinterest that the user liked the pin they initially saw, clicked through it, and saved something from that post.
Meaning, they (Pinterest) did a good job showing the user helpful content. This signals to them that your pins and posts are valuable, helps them understand what your pin is about, and you’ll see results from that.
If possible, include multiple images, ideally with different keywords and descriptions. Again, I do this using the Tasty Pins plugin because it’s so quick and easy.
At the very minimum, have at least one and include a call to action such as, “Pin now, read later” or “Save For Future Reference”.
Because people really do respond to these subtle suggestions. So make it super easy for them!
Related Reading: 7 Honest Reasons I Didn’t Click Your Pin!
4. Stay up to date on Pinterest’s best practices
Pinterest makes up a huge portion of my traffic. This is ONLY because I have invested time and money into keeping myself educated and up to date on the current best practices.
All of the advice and methods I’ve listed above will not do you any good if you don’t have a solid understanding of how Pinterest works.
And I see so many people using really outdated practices.Â
If you truly want to make Pinterest a serious driver of blog traffic for you, Pinteresting Strategies is not only my top choice but the top choice of countless professional bloggers. Including other Pinterest experts!
P.S. I’ve been given an exclusive coupon code to share with my audience. From July 10th-17th use code SUMMER25 to save 25%!
If you do decide you want to take the course, it’s now a bundle that actually includes Pin Title Traffic Hacks as well as several other trainings to really give you the knowledge you need to make Pinterest work for you.
Additionally, I am also a member of the Content Creator’s Club, also run by Carly Campbell.
There are many things that make it an amazing membership, but one of the most valuable things is the private Facebook group where there is SO much inside info shared.
Carly weighs in on YOUR account if needed and answers your questions with thoughtful suggestions. There are monthly Q&A live videos and trainings, as well as monthly templates that are eye catching and easy to use.
It’s really an amazing tool to have in your back pocket. Not to mention just a lovely, helpful community to be a part of.
Additionally, get on PotPieGirl’s email list. You won’t regret it.
Why use Pinterest marketing for business in 2023?
Because with the right techniques, you can make Pinterest your number 1 source of website traffic, just like I did.
I truly believe Pinterest is worth it and effective for marketing your blog, product, or website IF you put in the work.
It’s still important to remember that this platform is a bit of a long game. You can’t expect results overnight. In some cases, you may not see any traction for up to 8 months! So the sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll see the benefits.
I hope you’re motivated and ready to try these Pinterest marketing hacks that work in 2023 yourself!
You may also like:
5 Ways to Get More Pinterest Followers
7 Common Pinterest Marketing Mistakes
How to Set up a Pinterest Business Account (the right way!)
Save this post for future reference!
