Ask Me Your Pinterest Questions

1. 94

   Susana Sposted 5 years ago

   Do you want to start getting traffic from Pinterest? If so fire away with your questions. I'll answer as many as I can.
   
   I've been learning Pinterest marketing over the last 8 months or so and found it to be a really good place to get consistent traffic to your hubs. Plus you can get a lot of amazon sales.
   
   I published a guide on the topic but I thought it would be helpful to answer queries here too.

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   1. 66

      OldRosesposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I have a business account with Pinterest for my herb website.  Pinterest keeps telling me that I need to claim my website but I can't figure out how to do it.  I can't figure out how to add the html tags to my Wordpress template.

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      1. 94

         Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         There are a few ways to do it.
         
         One easy way is to install the free yoast plugin and add the code that Pinterest give you in the yoast settings. That will insert the code into the head section of your site. https://darcie.fyi/how-to-confirm-your- … yoast-seo/
         
         Another easy way is to install the headers and footers wordpress plugin and add the code in the header https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/ins … d-footers/
         
         If you're still stuck try this https://blog.tailwindapp.com/pinterest- … tep-guide/
         And this
         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCq475GzyR0

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            OldRosesposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks so much!

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   2. 64

      Muhammad Fahad Akramposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Can you please explain to me how to get traffic through Pinterest, I have literally no idea about it.

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2. 94

   eugbugposted 5 years ago

   I have lots of boards and pins but I'm wondering is there any point repinning existing pins from months or years back if they haven't been repinned by other users? Or does Pinterest use them as suggestions, no matter how old they are?

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      Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      You definitely want to repin stuff so that more people have the opportunity to see it. Just don't repin your own stuff from within Pinterest. Repin it from your site or hub.
      
      Pinterest is more likely to show pins that have had engagement so if you pinned once and no one repinned or clicked through on that pin it's not going to be shown. The more engagement pins get the better.
      
      Increase your chances of engagement by re-sharing your pins at different times of day and on different boards.

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3. 94

   eugbugposted 5 years ago

   I use lots of hashtags all the time in pin descriptions. Good or bad idea?

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      Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Good idea in general. How many hashtags do you consider a lot? I go for 4-6 usually but I haven't tested using many more.

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         eugbugposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Probably about six relevant ones.

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            Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            I think that's about right. Pinterest said to use a few broad hashtags and a few longer ones.

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         DrMark1961posted 5 years agoin reply to this

         I am successful with my pins but have never used hashtags. After reading the article on your profile page, I would definitely like to try. How do I go about it?

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            Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Hashtags are a fairly new addition to Pinterest. Add around 5 to the end of your pin description to get your pins seen in more searches.
            
            Choose some very broad phrases plus some more descriptive ones based on the keywords people might use to find the info you're providing e.g. #dogs #dogcare #doghealth #dogdiseases #mangeindogs #remediesformange

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               DrMark1961posted 5 years agoin reply to this

               Sorry to not be clear on this. How, as in what steps do I need to take, to add hastags? (When I pin a photo from one of my hubs this is not an option.)

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                  eugbugposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                  Click on the little pencil icon in the bottom right of the image that appears and you can edit the description and add hashtags.

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               2. 94

                  Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                  No it's my fault I should have gone through this. Are you using the Pinterest browser thingumy? If so, click it then select the image you want to pin, but before you hit save look for the little pencil icon. Click that and then you can edit the pin description. Add the hashtags in there. I advise editing the description as well.
                  It also works if you click the pin button in the top left of the image.
                  
                  

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                     eugbugposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                     Just noticed a bug on HubPages. When I click on the share button on an image and then click the pencil button as in your image above, any hashtags added to the description are stripped out and don't appear in Pinterest. (just lost all the hashtags I added to 10 pins).

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                        Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                        How annoying!
                        
                        In that case the best thing to do is go to Pinterest and click on the create a new pin button. You have complete control over it then.
                        
                        
                        
                        

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                     DrMark1961posted 5 years agoin reply to this

                     I tried this but you also mentioned "It also works if you click the pin button in the top left of the image." I do not have a pin button on the top left of the image.

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                        Venkatachari Mposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                        Whenever you browse on an image, a pin button appears over it.

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4. 94

   eugbugposted 5 years ago

   If I repin the same URL with a different picture and description, does Pinterest have an issue? I notice different pictures from one hub have been pinned hundreds or thousands of times, so there's lots of pins pointing back to the same page.

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   1. 94

      Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Pinterest loves new pins and new descriptions. To Pinterest that's new content even when it goes to an existing url.
      
      Hardcore Pinterest marketers make dozens of pins for each url. You can test different headlines, colors and pin designs to see which does best.

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5. 76

   Isivwe Muoboposted 5 years ago

   I have been trying to join groups for over two weeks but I'm get to be added to any.
   For now, I share pins to my boards and, being I have so few followers (1,500) I get an abysmal 2-5 visits from Pinterest and this isn't even daily!
   
   How do I boost visits to my blog.
   
   Also, tailwind is like a German course for me. Been on the site a few times but I still don't understand how it works.

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   1. 94

      Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      It can take a while for people to get back to you about group boards. What's your pinterest profile url? I'll take a look.
      
      Also I notice you don't have an ssl certificate on your blog. That could well be stopping people reaching it or putting them off clicking through.
      
      You don't need lots of Pinterest followers to get good traffic. You just need pins that get engagement.
      
      I totally get that! I think Tailwind is confusing at first because you can do so much with it and it's hard to see how the different functions work.
      
      One good thing is to use the browser extension to schedule a pin to a number of boards with a time interval between each. Click on optimize and it will send the pin out at the best times of day for that kind of content.
      
      Tribes are very useful too because you get other people sharing your content to their boards.

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         Isivwe Muoboposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Hi, thanks for responding. Here's my Pinterest profile URL
         
         https://www.pinterest.com/isivwem/
         
         Also, I haven't gotten around to adding the SSL certificate but will look into doing so.
         
         I'll keep trying with tailwind and will look into Tribes.
         
         Thanks a lot for the help.

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            Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            In the early days when we don't have much of our own content to share, we need to share other people's.
            
            You need to build your boards up with good content. Add more pins each day. Think about what your ideal audience would like to read when they come to your board and add plenty of it.
            
            You also need to optimize your profile.
            
            I go over these things in more detail in the guide but basically look at some very successful Pinterest accounts and see what they do.

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               Isivwe Muoboposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               OK, will do these. Thanks for thanking the time to check my profile. I'll include a few keywords in my profile so I can appear more in searches.

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6. 95

   Kierstin Gunsbergposted 5 years ago

   Great topic!! Do you find that running Pinterest ads for your articles is helpful?

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      Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      That is something I'm about to try out soon. Some people say it's a very good way to get a pin out there and performing well from the start...the results of which continue after the promotion is finished.
      
      My plan is to try it with a page where I have affiliate links to see if I can get a profit. I'll let you know!

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7. 98

   Shesabutterflyposted 5 years ago

   I've dabbled in Pinterest for years and am looking to become more involved and gain more traffic. With what little I've posted and shared, Pinterest is my 2nd source of traffic behind all the search engines and I only have 7 followers. Not sure if any of them are even active on Pinterest, I know my sister isn't and she's one of them. So I agree having a large following isn't necessary to get okay/decent traffic.
   
   I've noticed that I tend to get more traffic when I'm active on Pinterest. Would you say that is how it is for you as well? How much time did you invest on Pinterest browsing, pinning, sharing, ect in the beginning stages?
   
   Are there topics you think are better for Pinterest than others? I read through your article and saw your list, but am wondering if some are better than others. I know you can make boards for pretty much anything, but I've only pinned recipe articles and one of my dengarden ones. I recently came across one of my WHK's articles on pinterest and was surprised, because I didn't realize it was something that would gain a lot of interest/pinterest traffic. I just looked at all my WHK's articles before posting here and they all must be on pinterest as they all get at least a view or two from pinterest a week. Would it be beneficial for me to start a parenting/education board to pin these myself or is it not necessary?
   
   I am going to start going through and changing all my descriptions and adding hashtags, I didn't know you could do that! I saw that you re-pin your pins to the same boards. Why is that necessary? I still need to get most of my boards to your recommended 30 inital pins, but I'm curious as to why I would want the same pin or mulitple pins for one article on one board. I didn't even think to pin some of my articles to multiple boards. I created very specific boards. Would it be better to generalize them a bit more?
   
   Your article was great by the way! I have it saved so I can go back and read through sections while I try to enhance my Pinterest experience this month

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   1. 94

      Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Urgh I just answered all your questions and lost my reply!
      
      At first I spent a few hours per day pinning, making pins, finding group boards etc. Now I automate most of it and spend a total of about 4 hrs a month scheduling pins - 2 hrs once a fortnight.
      
      You want your pins circulating and visible that's why you pin them often. Pinning just once doesn't give your pin many opportunities to be seen.
      
      Having lots of boards to pin to helps. I have a tonne of boards, some very tightly focused, others are broad.
      
      Pin the same pin to the same board no more than once per month and make sure there are plenty of other pins in between.
      
      Does that make sense?
      
      Edit: I missed your question about topics. Anything that women like does well! Recipes do very well. Crafts, DIY, pregnancy, babies, home decor, parenting, beauty, dieting, exercise. The list goes on.
      
      People use Pinterest as a search engine just like Google. They're looking for information and solutions to their problems. As content creators we provide what they're looking for.

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         Shesabutterflyposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Makes sense Thank you for clarifing. I know you are pretty specialized niche wise. Do you follow that on Pinterest as well or do you have boards on a bunch of different niches/interests?
         
         I'm wondering if it's worth it to broaden my boards to things like parenting/education and poetry/spiritual development as I have a few articles that would fall in these categories as well or stick with the recipes and DIY/lawn and garden categories only that I currently have.

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         1. 94

            Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            I keep my pregnancy account pretty strictly to that niche but I do include boards on baby care, motherhood and parenting. I mostly only follow people in my niche too. I do have a few secret boards for personal collections that don't fit.
            
            I know there are successful pinners who pin on a big range of topics but I haven't studied them. Look at how much content you have in each broad topic area and go from there. Maybe join some group boards in various categories?

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      2. 98

         Shesabutterflyposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         How do you repin a pin you already pinned to a board? I was attempting to repin some pins to their original boards and it says I've already pinned the image there. It let me do it, but I'm wondering if I pinned it wrong.
         
         Should I repin them from the website or go in to the boards and just resave the pins? Is there a right and wrong way to repin to the same board?

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            eugbugposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Technically that does work ok, but I think Susana suggested earlier that we should repin from websites rather than repinning earlier pins. Maybe Pinterest doesn't approve of the latter and it can be disadvantageous?

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               Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               Yep that's right. Repinning your own pins from within the Pinterest platform is seen as spammy because it creates fake engagement signals. Engagement with a pin is one of the main metrics the Pinterest algorithm uses to determine the quality and popularity of a pin.

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                  eugbugposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                  Do you think they slap a penalty on us for doing so? E.g. Stop showing our pins or show them less frequently or even shadow ban stuff? I have repinnned pins from related boards e.g. a tools board to a gardening board in the case of a garden tool pin. Also I did bump up pins the odd time by repinning them and then deleting the original pins.

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                  1. 94

                     Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                     I think the way it probably works is you get a strike against your account with each violation. Then depending on the number of strikes and how quickly they're accrued will determine the outcome. Maybe accounts get an amnesty or reset after a certain lapse of time with no violations.
                     
                     An occasional slip up shouldn't be too problematic.
                     
                     The repinning of our own content from within Pinterest is something that most new people do unawares (I did) and they do give some grace on it.
                     
                     But if it goes over whatever the thresholds are they do limit your visibility and reach. They do shadow ban and they also suspend accounts. Most people get their accounts reinstated after a suspension if they grovel enough but not all do so it's definitely worth trying to keep your account in good standing.

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         2. 94

            Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            There are right ways and wrong ways.
            
            You always pin either from the site where the pin is located or create a new pin on Pinterest. (The other way is to use a scheduler which automatically creates a fresh pin).
            
            Each time a pin is created on Pinterest or pinned from the actual post, even though the image may be the same, the pin gets a new url. It's a fresh pin. Pinterest likes fresh pins.
            
            Never repin your own content from within the Pinterest website (unless you are using the create a new pin option). They class this as fake engagement.
            
            Pinterest will let you know you already pinned to that board but that is ok as long as it's been a good while since you pinned it there and you have other pins going to the board inbetween time.
            
            Also, make sure you're pinning plenty of other's people's content.

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               Shesabutterflyposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               Is it okay to delete the pin I repinned yesterday add a few new pins from other people and then create a pin the right way using the create a new pin or pinning straight from the HP article? Or is that a bad idea?
               
               On a different note, I created my first pin (the right way) and added some hashtags. I'm excited to do more and see if it generates any traffic. However, I have another question. This is the first time I've created my own pin on pinterest and I'm not sure which of these three buttons I should click on. "Close", "See it now", or "Promote your pin". What does promote your pin mean?

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                  Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                  The general advice is to not delete pins. I would just leave them now.
                  
                  Is your Pinterest account the one linked to from your profile?
                  
                  If so, my advice would be to spend time building up your boards into really good resources on the topics they cover before worrying too much about pinning your own stuff. The bigger and better your boards the more likely the pins on them are to be seen, and the more potential followers you can get.
                  
                  Make sure you write good board descriptions. Change some of your board names to things people would search for. E.g. Cookies would be better as Cookie Recipes.
                  
                  Also write your profile and follow more people in your niches.
                  
                  Once you've made a pin in the pin creator and have saved it to the board you want click close or see it now. See it now just shows you the pin. Promote your pin means pay to have your pin shown to more people - you don't want to do that.

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                     Shesabutterflyposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                     Thanks! I closed it, but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything by not clicking on promoting it.
                     
                     I do believe so. Didn't realize I had it linked. I will go through my Pinterest account this week and do some serious updating. When I initially got pinterest it was to pin ideas for me/family. Now that I'm wanting to utilize it for potential traffic I plan to re-read and slowly go through everything in your article and on my pinterest account so I can beef it up and make it work for me

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   eugbugposted 5 years ago

   You can of course always edit the image at a later stage from within Pinterest and change the description/hashtags.

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      DrMark1961posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      The button that used to appear (edit pin) is no longer present. What are you now using to edit?

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         eugbugposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         On desktop, the pencil edit icon only appears when you move the cursor over a pin on the Pinterest website.
         On a mobile device, you have to tap on a pin and then the pencil is at the top of the pin (alongside < and ...).

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      Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Yes you can do that. It's better if a fresh pin has the description and hashtags straight away though.

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   eugbugposted 5 years ago

   Just noticed Pinterest has added a carousel thing. Haven't tried it yet but it sounds a bit gimmicky.

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      Susana Sposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I haven't used that feature. I've heard some positive feedback from people who've used them, but I think it only really works if you have tightly related content. E.g. 5 recipes using chocolate or something like that.

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