Double Your Pinterest Traffic and Visibility
(This blog post contains some affiliate links where I’ll earn a small commission – no extra charge occurs to you.)
Ready to jumpstart your business success with the perfect Pinterest toolkit? How about double your Pinterest traffic and visibility?
Today on the show, you’ll discover:
- Why every business needs to utilize Pinterest
- How to build a traffic strategy using Pinterest
- How much content to produce
- The goods on PINS and SEO
- How to know what’s trending on Pinterest
Meet Laura Rike, a Pinterest Strategist who helps high-performing business owners steadily grow their monthly revenue with Pinterest!
Prefer video? Watch here:
Connect with Laura:
Free Masterclass (my affiliate link)
Clicks to Cash (my affiliate link)
Full interview here:
Allison: Hey everyone. Welcome back to the show and today we are going to talk about Pinterest, and I’m really excited to invite Laura on the show. Before we hit record, I already know that her and I are just going to have a lot of fun on the show. We are both in our sweatpants today. She is rocking her mom t-shirt and her mom bun.
Allison: So before we get into all the good things about Pinterest traffic and visibility, because I really think everyone should be utilizing Pinterest for their business. Laura, do me a favor. I would love for you to introduce yourself and tell us
Laura: what you. Yeah. Hey, thanks for having me. I am Laura Rike of Laurarike.com and I eat, sleep, and breathe Pinterest.
Laura: I absolutely love it. I, I feel like it’s greatly beneficial. For a lot of us with everything that takes place in marketing and all the pivots and everything, this one helps stay consistent in terms of you putting in the effort and it is giving back out what you put into it. So I focus on helping business owners and content creators implement growth plans outsource your visibility and be able to steadily grow your monthly revenue without.
Fantastic Growth to Greatness
Laura: The tantrums over tech or trading your sleep for success? I have three so I know what that’s like, . And I do that with something I call Fantastic Growth to Greatness. It’s my signature framework that I put through all my course programs, my consulting packages, and then my done for you services.
Allison: That’s amazing, and I’m so glad that you mentioned. that Pinterest will serve you well, because I think a lot of people view Pinterest as kind of this, well, I’m not seeing immediate results, right? Because yeah, you get immediate results or immediate gratification, let’s say on an Instagram post. Yep. But what happens after a few days that Instagram post is buried, it’s forgotten about.
Allison: Yeah. And then you must constantly pump out updated content on Instagram to stay relevant where I call Pinterest, like my secret, like I don’t my secret business partner that works for me behind the scenes, like you don’t really see it, but what it’s doing and it’s driving traffic to my business, especially my email list on a daily basis. Pinterest traffic and visibility is pretty easy once you have it set up!
Allison: And I’m still getting. I have a couple pins that I, I just looked at it, I posted it in 2017 and it’s still my like, number one, impression one, and I, and I keep telling myself, I’m like, oh, I need to go back and update that blog and kind of give it a refresh, so it starts working for me again. Yeah. So I want to know, Laura, in your opinion, why do you think almost every business owner should utilize Pinterest?
Allison: No matter what their niche is, why should they utilize.
Every Business Owner needs Pinterest
Laura: Because the consumers that are on the platform are already problem aware. So you kind of gave away the tip one, like it’s going to exist longer than any social media post. Right. So the next biggest thing is that everybody that goes to Pinterest, Goes to it with a search intent.
Laura: And so that search intent can be like YouTube, it can be like Google, but they are already problem aware. Whether they just want to figure out a fun craft or whether they are looking for someone to help them with a service or a problem that they have in there. Or they want to learn something on their own.
Laura: They already have that in their head. So you are not having to post something on the platform trying to convince them you are posting on the platform, giving them that information for them to consume, figure out who you are, get to know you and your brand, and then purchase from you.
Allison: That’s awesome. And my next question.
Allison: Is I, let’s assume that most of my audience probably has a Pinterest account. They have a few boards. They should be doing some pins, but they’re, they’re just kind of like, not sure like what to do. So how can they build a because we want traffic. How can they build a good sustainable traffic strategy using
How to Double Your Pinterest Traffic and Visibility
Laura: Yeah. The biggest thing is you’re going to want to spend time on your keywords. So when people hear keywords for Pinterest, like, you know, that’s in there and you know, you got to put words out there on the platform cause of the search intent. But we’re not necessarily focused on those keywords and where all the places they can go, right?
Laura: So if, even if you’re starting out or you already have a Pinterest account, go back, and look at the foundational things. Do you have highly searched keywords in your profile? Are your boards using the QSI titles or are they using keywords? And then are your pins using the keyword? On the designs in the title, in the description, in the image.
Laura: title, right? So when you save your image to your desktop mm-hmm. , should it say the keyword or does it say like, clicks to cash workshop? Nobody’s going to be searching that. So there are like a number of various places that we commonly overlook where to put these keywords. So really start first, do your homework and get a list of a bunch of different keywords that are being searched.
Laura: Don’t just look for like coaching clients or like Pinterest templates, right? So for me, I’m not going to just go up there and be like, Pinterest templates, these are great. Please download them. Like, we’re going to go in and we’re going to be searching like, how to make amazing graphics that get clicks on them, right?
Laura: So graphic designs or call to actions or click worthy images. Those are other keywords that I can also focus on. So spend time. First, looking for what they are looking for and figure out those core keywords and then go in and start at the profile and work your way up from there before you start saving those new pins.
Keywords for Pinterest Traffic and Visibility
Allison: So I have a question for you, and I want to see if I’m doing this right. So each week I take. Podcast episode. Yep, and I repurpose it and transcribe it as a blog post, so I make sure on that blog post I have two Pinterest images. Before I give that image a title for Pinterest, I open Pinterest and a new window and whatever the content of my blog post.
Allison: I start typing it in Pinterest to see what is automatically generated. And I kind of use that as a title for my pin. And then I also make sure that that goes into the description of the pin. Is that a good strategy for people who are like, I don’t even know where to start with keywords. Open Pinterest and like put in your niche and start typing words and it’s going to automatically generate.
Allison: And I also heard and let me know if this is true. The longer automated one is the one you should grab. Like you want it to be juicy and not just like one or two words. I don’t know. What is your take on that?
Laura: It really depends. It’s probably not going to be one word that you do most of the time.
Laura: It’s going to be a phrase, so like Christmas gift ideas creating a blog, money blogging, those are like two to three words, but then you can go even deeper where it’s like, need to know indigenous brands, right? Shop the Vase Showcase. Those are a bunch of different things that are going to come up as well.
Laura: So it really depends on your niche and what you’re looking to do in terms of who you’re trying to reach. Think creatively a little bit. We don’t think just about the demographics of an individual, but you want to think more about the psychographics of them. Are they looking to increase website traffic?
Laura: Are they beginners where they’re. Looking to create a blog because a lot of times, and I’ll go back to your first question on the search in Pinterest, yes, you are on the right track, but a lot of times what happens is if we’re trying to reach somebody good for our business, say they’re trying to hit five figures in their business and they haven’t been right, they’re not looking.
Laura: How to hit four figures in their business. They’re not looking at that. They’re looking for what they aspire to be like. So if we are like, oh, you can make money on your blog, and they’re not blogging, they’re going to be interested on that. If we’re saying, oh, create this new blog post, they might not be interested in that yet because they’re not aspiring to create that blog post.
Laura: They’re aspiring to figure out how to make money on a blog. , right? And so you kind of must like give and take. If they’re already making five figures, they’re not going to care if you say, make five figures with these digital download tips, like make six figures, how to make six figures. So, look more into those psychographics and where they want to go and then figure out the keywords from there.
Laura: And so what you were talking about is going into Pinterest, going to the top where the search bar is, and start typing in phrases up there. That’s what we call a B, C search because when you type that in, so if I just say, A blog, like creating a blog for me right now. What pulls up underneath that is creating a blog to make money, creating a blog name, creating a purpose blog, how to create a blog and work from home.
Laura: All of those are short and long-term key phrases, but those are the top searches right now. on Pinterest four, the phrase I typed in creating a blog. So it will give you what we call a, b, C, because it starts with create a blog, and then underneath that it will go through the ABCs of what Okay, another phrase portion is.
Trends to increase your Pinterest Traffic and Visibility
Laura: So create a blog. Create a blog to make money, create a blog name, so that’s t and m. And so we call that ABC search. Easiest way to find the top searches in a couple of minutes. You can also go to trends.pinterest.com and that will tell you what is going to be trending now and what is coming up in the trends, because you also want to focus on future casting.
Laura: So if you are sitting right now and say it’s January, February. , you’re not going to be talking about New Years, right? You’re going to be talking about April and spring and things 60 to 90 days out. If it’s November and you are thinking of Christmas, you’re already behind the game because people start searching for Christmas stuff in August.
Laura: right? So you want to make sure you’re always 60 to 90 days ahead. And the trends.pinterest.com is a free tool that Pinterest uses to be able to tell you when your terms are going to be trending. And then they will also give you. More information in terms of interests and other keywords, and then also age and genders.
Laura: And they will tell you the weekly change, the monthly change, and the yearly change of what is trending. So if you find something that is trending up like 400% in weekly and a hundred percent in year, use it because that’s telling you it’s a consistent trend that people are looking at and you want to be found in those searches.
Allison: So those who are listening and you’re not driving, please write down this website, trends.pinterest.com. And then when we are creating. Our content for Pinterest, we need to be mindful and be thinking 60 to 90 days ahead. And I know sometimes that might, like if you have a podcast and you’re doing weekly blog posts, it’s still fine to be putting that out there of course.
Allison: But like if I, you know, it’s too late now to be thinking about like Christmas and me putting something out for like holiday content ideas. Like I’m probably behind the game, but I could be thinking of Valentine. Correct social media, you know, graphics for Valentine’s, like I could start pumping that out right now.
Laura: Yep. And you can still put out stuff for Christmas. It’s not that it won’t be seen or get traffic for you, it’s that you’re giving it a shorter window for the algorithm to index it properly, meaning Pinterest goes and scans. , everybody’s pins. And so what they do then is they will show you what they are classifying your pin as.
Laura: And so this is something I teach in one of my programs and to my clients is. Like if you go and look at your pins outside of you being logged in, you can see the keywords pin or Pinterest is classifying your pins as, and that tells you if you’re using the right targeting, the right keywords, the right imagery.
Laura: And so that takes time. That’s why we say give yourself 60 to 90 days. It doesn’t mean though if you put something. For Christmas right now that you are not going to be able to be indexed for it. It just not, might not be as powerful as being ahead of the game. But this also helps you for repurposing because you talked about repurposing your podcasts and your blogs all the time.
Laura: Right? Right. I’m sure you have content from last year. That could be already for January. So find that content because then Pinterest is super, super helpful in terms of keeping that content relevant.
How much content to create for Pinterest traffic and visibility?
Allison: That’s awesome. I love that information. So now that we kind of have kind of a strategic plan to get traffic, , let’s talk what we should be doing on a weekly basis.
Allison: How much content do I really need to produce weekly to be on Pinterest? Because I, this is such a debate. I hear people that are like, I’m pinning like thirty pins a day. And I’m like, whoa. You know, like, what? What should we be doing?
Laura: So I go against the grain on this. So take this with a grain of salt if you want.
Laura: For my clients and my agency, we have dug deep into this, and we do not see pins getting indexed if you pin more than 15 to 20 pins a day. So anything over that Pinterest doesn’t really pay attention to, in my opinion. This is kind of a gray area. They’ve never said that, but my thing is you get into this purpose mode of quality over quantity.
Laura: Mm-hmm. , right? And so I want to focus on quality because the clicks that we do get, I want them to stay there. I want them to show Pinterest. They are saving, engaging, and clicking, because again, that helps us in the algorithm. So my rule of thumb is look at the content you have. If you are just starting out on the platform, stay consistent and go with one pin a day, right?
Laura: Don’t focus on trying to hit these high numbers. If you just started a podcast and you have ten episodes, because then you are going to burn yourself out and you won’t stay consistent on the platform. And Pinterest appreciates quality and consistency. So what I like to do is look at the content we do have.
Laura: And know that there are different keywords that can go to one piece of content. So if we are focusing on, like gimme a podcast topic that you have, and we can kind of use that as an example that you’ve done in the past.
Allison: One that just went live yesterday was how to create an easy business.
Laura: Okay, perfect.
Laura: So I’m going to look up business model while I’m doing this. And one of the things that you can do is. I must go to all pins here so that I can see everything is look at, okay. Business model templates, business model designs. We can even go into different things. So if I did like business model template, then we have Canva templates, how to build a business plan.
Laura: So for that one episode, we have a ton of different keywords that I just shot off out there, right? So you can go in and create three to five different images for that one podcast, use a different keyword, right? Business model is different from business plan, which is different from online business. So those are three different keywords that we can put.
Laura: Each image can have a different keyword, a different call to action, and then you can interval pin those, which means don’t pin them all back to back leading to the same URL. But go ahead and space them out throughout the month and then you can see how you’re going to start to have more consistency in pinning those.
Laura: because now you have three pins, let’s say three with three different titles, and you can share them to a couple different boards. So now you’re starting to cycle through repurposing that content in a strategic manner. So even if you only had ten podcasts, you could fill up the month with one pin a day, or if you.
Laura: fifty podcasts, you can fill it up with three pins a day. So just look at how you can stay consistent, and then what keywords you want to be ranked for, and that’s where you’re going to find that sweet spot to start with. Once you’ve started there and you’re continually growing your content, Look at your engagement rate, right?
Laura: And engagement is different on Pinterest than it is on social media, because remember Pinterest is not social media. So when I say engagement rate, I mean are they clicking through? Are they saving it or re-pinning it? It used to be called Rein. Now it’s called saves. Are they pulling it up closer? So are they looking at it when they’re on a mobile device and they click on that pin, but they don’t click through to the website yet?
Laura: That is also engagement. And so if you are getting good, engage. on your pins, then go ahead and increase it. If you’re not, then go back and start to look at your strategy and try to revamp it a little bit. Because we play this, if this, then that game all the time. So going
Allison: back to the, let’s say, going back to our example of the three images with the different keywords in the titles.
Allison: Yep. And we know to space it out, can you share the same images to the same.
Laura: I, what’s your take on that? Yeah, I don’t personally share it to the same board. Okay. More than once. If it’s been more than like six months to a year and that trend is coming back around, then yeah, go ahead and do it again. Typically for my clients and myself, we’ll just recreate another image because again, if it’s been six months, and there’s a keyword that’s trending and it’s still said business plan that’s trending.
Laura: It takes us two minutes to just create another image and make it cycle again all over. So I personally don’t pin it probably more than ever two times on the same board. But when you look. , we found three keywords for that one blog or for that one podcast. You are turning that into an Instagram post.
Laura: You are turning that into a blog post. It’s already a podcast. Maybe you have a Facebook Live or YouTube. You’re go, you’re going to have tons of different URLs for that one image anyway. I mean, it gets kind of hard to describe on a podcast here because we have like maps to show and instruct people, but there are so many different directions that you can go that we don’t ever need to pin that same pin to the same board because we have different links that are going out.
Laura: We have different boards that have similar types of keywords that we can pin that same image to a different board. There’s a lot of diverse ways to kind of rework that strategy and make it work the best for you. So I have a
Allison: follow up question. You just said several different links and I never thought of this, especially with my long form content being the podcast.
Allison: Yeah, I always had the link, the call to action, the URL, going to the blog post. Do you recommend, like, let’s say we had that example, we have three images for the podcast episode. Mm-hmm. , should one link go to the podcast, the blog post one link, go to the Apple podcast, one link go to like my Instagram account.
Allison: Like do you think it should be spread out?
Laura: Yes. And what is your main strategy goal? So are you looking for conversions to your website because that’s where you sell digital products or services? Are you looking for more podcast downloads because that’s where you get sponsorships. Are you looking to grow conversations on social media because that’s how you get them to buy into services.
Laura: It really depends on what your ultimate, main goal is. Do that first. So if it is going to be website traffic, that should be main goal one. Then if you are trying to create support, Content traffic. So app downloads more listens because in Apple you have links that will also go back to your website, and you get good traffic that you’ve seen from your podcast to your website.
Laura: Then that would be goal number two. So just make sure that you’re not doing it just to say for in. Grow your social media account, right? Because that’s not really going to grow your business like the traffic, just because you’re getting traffic isn’t going to put money in the bank account. So yes, you can use all those links, but just make sure that you are not doing it sporadically and that you have an actual end game in mind because otherwise, three months down the road, you’re going to be like, yay, I’m getting all this traffic and all these clicks.
Laura: And you start looking and you’re like, but I haven’t gotten anything from that. And so that’s going to be where the disappointment starts to set in. So just make sure that strong strategy is there first, and then you can supplement with the social media stuff because people are going to consume differently.
Laura: Versus a podcast listening or a YouTube and watching.
Allison: That’s awesome. I love that information. One final question. Something that just came to my mind because I feel like this is something that’s rather new. Idea pins, love them?
Laura: Absolutely love them?
Allison: To me an idea pin is almost like an Instagram carousel a little bit.
Allison: What is the benefit of Idea pins and how should we be using them for our business?
Laura: So there’s a really couple different benefits to them. A lot of individuals who create content are also getting accepted into creator re rewards. On Pinterest, you can get paid to put idea pins out there. So personally, I get paid to do a video or a carousel type post on Pinterest talking about me.
Laura: It’s a good like supplemental income, so that’s a cool way to monetize your time on the platform. It’s also good at bringing in more visibility to your account. So I have and are currently working on a case study where I’m testing. What is too little and what is too much in terms of posting for idea pins and the schedule that you should use?
Laura: And I have found that the more idea pins I post to a certain level. I haven’t hit that level yet, so I’m not going to give a number. Has increased everything else exponentially. My engagement, the clicks on my static images leading back to my website, the follows that I’m getting, which is then going to increase how much Pinterest pushes out my content.
Laura: I mean, everything is kind of exponentially increasing based on the idea pins that I’m doing, and so I really like to focus on. Making sure that I do use it like either a carousel or like an Instagram story, right? And so I have repurposed short form videos and broke them up. and then uploaded them on idea pins on my mobile device.
Laura: Because then I have more creative ability where I can tag boards that I want more traffic to on my Pinterest account. If I have digital products or e-commerce products, I can tag the actual product in some of those so they can shop right from the idea pin. There’s a lot of different things that you can do with it.
Laura: and then the more saves, the more clicks, the more engagement you get. Again, the more Pinterest favors your profile in your account. And even though you can’t put a link like you can a video or a static image, we have seen in Google Analytics that. individuals that see an idea pin that they really like will click back to your profile and click on the U R L that you have verified on your Pinterest profile, and then they can find.
Laura: Whatever else they want to search for and look through on that URL. So if it’s your podcast, if it’s your website, whatever it is, your Etsy shop, they are finding that link from Idea Pins as well, which has been super fun to see in our Google Analytics.
Allison: That is so interesting, and that’s something that I do on Pinterest is do idea pins and get like a little creative with them. So thank you so much. This has been of course an awesome conversation. I am sure we can sit here for like another hour and like Yeah, I’m welcome talking about Pinterest. But let my audience know where they can find you, where they can check out your work, because I know you can go on a whole deeper level with them when it comes to Pinterest marketing, helping them get the leads, the conversions, the sales.
Allison: So where can they find you?
Laura: Yeah, I have a super simple, easy link. It’s laurarike.com/podcast. And I have a ton of free resources on there. There’s a free masterclass that I’ve done talking about lead generation. There’s a couple different things that we talk about, how to improve your sales conversions, how to make sure that you’re finding the right keywords online.
Laura: And then all my social media is linked on there as.
Allison: Perfect. I will make sure that that link is in our show notes. I’m really excited for everyone to dig into this episode and thank you so much again for being on the show.
Laura: Yeah, thank you.
