Have you noticed the big changes happening on Pinterest?
Pinterest has gone through a multitude of changes and testing in the last year. You may have noticed a one update to Pinterest even didn’t not show descriptions under a pin while browsing your feed, in search, or your pins profile page; such as https://www.pinterest.com/lifenreflection/pins/ (which is your pinterest url and /pins) on mobile devices. While it luckily, turn out to be a test update they did not keep. But, they have certainly shorten the amount of a description they show in the feed and this greatly relates to pinning images with social media templates and blog traffic. This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read the full disclosure policy.
First off, I think we’ve all heard from the most successful bloggers that Pinterest is their largest traffic referral source. Why, you may ask. It is one of the few social platforms that is truly built for bloggers. People search for recipes, books, travel advice, handmade projects, DIY beauty, and more everyday on Pinterest. Think about this for a moment. When was the last time you searched Facebook or Twitter for a recipe for dinner or how to make a natural beauty product? Yep, never is about right. Now, when was the last time you searched for that on Pinterest?
Yesterday, Today, Everyday …
In fact, how did you find this article on my website? I would bet there’s a 90% chance you found this from a pin on pinterest. Brands know people use Pinterest as a search engine to find recommendations for things they want to do or the wouldn’t pay 100s to 1000s of dollars for a sponsored post or brand ambassador! On top of that most people use Pinterest for such recommendations than a typical search engine because they feel it is not only a safer method, hence less spammy links, but also those recommendations come from a real person – a blogger no doubt! A blogger who has used the product or tool to make something.
So, what does this all mean for you? It means that what and how you pin to Pinterest can be a game changer for boosting traffic to your blog!
Now that the catchy text you wrote in the description of our pins won’t be completely seen unless it’s clicked on – you need a new strategy. In walks… Social Media Templates they are key to optimize images for Pinterest!
Social Media Templates are already optimized for Pinterest. They’ve got sizing, typography, and image resolution already covered for you! And they fit right into your blog posts too. Each are vertical images sized at 735 x 1102 pixels which is the recommended size for pins by Pinterest. Templates are fully layered files, including text layers. Use these text layers to add your catchy text or blog post title to an image. So, when people are browsing Pinterest they will be more likely to click, pin, and visit your blog.
You may also want to considering adding a watermark or website url to the your pin image like above. That way if it gets shared on another social media platform like Tumblr, people can still find your blog post. Social Media Templates are designed to work with Adobe Photoshop and it is more affordable than ever! I pay less than $10 a month thorough Adobe Creative Cloud.
Once you have your pin image ready you’ll want to save the file name as with the title of your post or keywords relating to the post. This will optimize images for Pinterest and increase the chance of your pin images being found in searches on any search engine. Thus, optimizing it for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Take it one more step further and include that title or keywords in the “Alt Tag” of your pin image when you upload it your site. For example the image above has “How I Optimize Images for Pinterest” entered in the “Alt Tag”. Which includes details about this post and will automatically be included in the description when pinned. Just click on it to pin and see for yourself.
Optimize images for Pinterest in these easy steps:
- Choose a social template sized for Pinterest at 735 x 1102 pixels
- Add a catchy title to your image in the text layer of the template
- Add your website url or watermark to your pin image
- Save your pin image as the title of your post or with keywords relating to it
- Include your catchy title in the “Alt Tag” of your pin image when uploading to your blog
- Use keywords in your pin description within your catchy title
Use these 6 tips and you’ll begin to skyrocket Pinterest traffic to your blog too! Continue in the Blog Photography Series with my 10 Must Have Blog Photography Props. Grab social media photography cheat sheet in the Life-n-Reflection Resource Library. Go beyond the basics and take your blog photography from Blah to Wow with the Ultimate Blog Photography Bootcamp.
Need to start focusing on Pinterest…pinned for later!
Pinterest is made for bloggers just like us. Your travel tips make great pins!
Great info! Pinned for future reference. Thanks!
Thank you, Pinterest is an amazing tool for bloggers!
Love this post! I always forget to add keywords to my pin’s description.
Thanks for the info!
Just wondering, do you use hashtags in your pin description?
-Maria
Bloggers Meet Bloggers
Thanks Maria, keywords are key! As for hashtags, I Pinterest only recently allowed them and I have done some A/B testing on my own pins. I didn’t find they did any better than pins without. Unless Pinterest user begin to use hashtags to search more than type in keywords to the search bar they won’t make much of a difference.