What Pinterest has to do with traffic to your articles?

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   Margaret Panposted 4 years ago

   Hello to everyone,
   I have been reading some posts here and noticed that a lot of people mentioned Pinterest as one of their ways to attract more traffic to their articles. Although I'm not very familiar with Pinterest I have an account which I made many years ago and from my experience it's all about uploading and sharing pictures? What that has to do with articles? Could someone please enlighten me? Thank you in advance for your time!

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      OldRosesposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Pinterest is not just about photos.  Each photo is linked to an article.  We pin our articles so that other users will read our articles and then repin them to their boards so that their followers will read our articles and repin them so that their followers can read our articles and repin, etc, etc.
      
      Or maybe you are thinking of Flickr which is just about uploading photos?

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         Margaret Panposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         Okay, I had no idea it worked that way. As I mentioned, I had opened an account many years ago and have barely use it since then. Thank you for clarifying that for me!  From your personal experience, is it indeed helpful when it comes to traffic?

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            OldRosesposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, I get a small steady stream of traffic from Pinterest.  If you make the special Pinterest friendly pins with pictures and words, that will draw more traffic because people are more likely to click on them and pin them.

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      psycheskinnerposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      When you click on the picture it takes you to the site where it is posted. Just looking at the picture does not give people the recipe, pattern, place to buy it etc.

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         Margaret Panposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for answering me! Is it helpful for you personally?

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            psycheskinnerposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            I use pinterest just as a user.  I am too lazy to promote any way but trying to use good SEO

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      NateB11posted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Pinterest never worked for me, only Google search engine has.

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         onlineworkideas1posted 4 years agoin reply to this

         True. I have 2.000 Pinterest followers with daily post and no traffic. Many people keep mentioning that Board Group posting gets results.

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   Doneta Wrateposted 4 years ago

   I tried pinterest and never got anything.  What I gather from the forum is that the topics you write on make a big difference.  Some topics do better than others on pinterest.  For example, gardening articles usually do better.

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      Margaret Panposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      I'll give it a try and see if it works for me, thank you!

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   Doneta Wrateposted 4 years ago

   I am like psychskinner with trying t figure out SEO.

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   Nell Roseposted 4 years ago

   I just find it a bit strange that ever since Pinterest has changed their format where it is now only the picture that is shown and not any explanation that was there up to a few weeks ago, that no our views are far lower than they have ever been.
   Anyone else notice this?
   I have mentioned this before, and the answer was to use the Pinterest sign on our tab. But I still think it's something to do with that.

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      DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Nell, I just looked through your articles and only saw a few with writing over the image. HP has edited some of mine that did not have the writing and as far as I can tell it does help. My Pinterest traffic has not gone down at all. In fact, OldRoses suggested a professional account on another thread and since I set that up recently my weekend traffic is somewhat better.
      
      
      
      
      This is an example.

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         Nell Roseposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Dr Mark, yes working on it. But I have so many, lol!

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            DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

            Yeah, I saw that you are up to almost 400. A lot of work to do there! I probably have about 150 without writing on the images, and I am not sure how long (or if ever) it would take to get to them all.

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               Nell Roseposted 4 years agoin reply to this

               I do wish they hadn't changed their format. When I go to Pinterest to take a look, there are so many pictures with absolutely no explanation. Makes no sense to me.

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                  eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                  Do you mean the text underneath the image Nell?
                  I notice that with some of my pins, pinned directly from articles, and there doesn't seem to be any way of adding text. Also these pins don't display stats.  However I think when pins are created from scratch using the "+" on the Pinterest site (or app), you can add text. I haven't pinned for over a week, so need to check this.

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                     Nell Roseposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                     Hi eugbug, yes before when you shared to Pinterest, you had the option of adding a few words underneath. Now that option is gone. I am going through my articles and adding text to the main picture, so when you see it on Pinterest you can see what it's about straight away without underneath text. I have no idea why they have changed it. And it may be nothing to do with loss of views, but it seems too much of a coincidence to me.

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                        OldRosesposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                        The option is still there.  If you hover your cursor over the pin, in the upper left corner of the picture there is a little pencil icon that allows you to make edits to the pin.  Click on that and a dialog box opens that allows you to add text to the pin.

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                           eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                           On desktop though, it doesn't allow you to add a title to pins created from images on a HTML page.
                           For instance, this is what I get when I click the pencil icon on a pin taken from a Skyaboveus article.
                           
                           
                           

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                              OldRosesposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                              That's strange because all of the pins that are from my HP articles have the titles underneath the photos.  When I click on edit, the titles are in the Notes section.

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                                 eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                                 Yes, it's the same on mine, but they magically disappear when I refresh the Pinterest page. Maybe it's a problem with Firefox.
                                 Editing a pin created using "+" on Pinterest displays this dialog:
                                 
                                 
                                 
                                 

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   Rupert Taylorposted 4 years ago

   Dr. Mark, I love your example. Can I have him/her to keep me company in my rutabaga field?

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      DrMark1961posted 4 years agoin reply to this

      As a matter of fact there is a dog breed that was specifically developed to work in rutabaga farming. Here is one fine specimen hard at work:
      
      
      

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6. 96

   eugbugposted 4 years ago

   I'm not sure whether its specific to math, but my last two pins which were animated graphs get several pins per day. I reckon moving pictures are just more prominent. I'm going to explore making slide show pins for select hubs and see if they attract attention.

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7. 96

   eugbugposted 4 years ago

   Actually I think there's some sort of viewing bug on Pinterest. If I click the pencil icon to edit, then cancel and backout, the text appears under the pin. Then when I refresh the page view, the text disappears.

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   OldRosesposted 4 years ago

   I just tried it in Firefox and everything is fine.

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      eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      This is what I get when I edit the note in the dialog. Once I reload the page, the text under the pin disappears. I'm using Firefox on a notebook.
      
      
      

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   theraggededgeposted 4 years ago

   I don't even get a pencil icon until after I've saved the pin. Then I can go back in and edit, but that's a pain because I have to log in to Pinterest. There is no way to add a note to the pin before I save it directly from the web page. I use Opera.
   
   I don't see any of what your screenshot shows.
   
   So this is what I see when I click on the Pinterest icon on a hub. I can hover the cursor all I like, but no pencil icon appears. I have to save first, log in to Pinterest and edit after pinning. It's a pain.
   
   
   

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      eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, the pencil icon only appears on saved pins.

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    theraggededgeposted 4 years ago

    Yes, but like Nell says, we used to be able to add a comment prior to saving the pin, but now we can't. It made the process very fast.

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       eugbugposted 4 years agoin reply to this

       Yes, the title of the hub is now used for the pin caption.

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    PaulGoodman67posted 4 years ago

    I use a combination of Google Chrome and the Pinterest toolbar thing, and I can edit before saving just fine.
    
    On a more general note, it's important to remember that getting traffic directly from Pinterest isn't the whole story. Having links and social shares can help to boost the article's ranking too. So it's potentially a win-win situation.
    
    I used to use Pinterest and then I stopped. Now I'm using it again.

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