How to Be SUPER Successful on Pinterest in 2019

Are you a blogger?  Get an update on best practices for the year ahead. Learn how to be successful on Pinterest in 2019.

How to Be SUPER Successful on Pinterest in 2019

Ahh Pinterest. Most bloggers get the majority of their traffic from Pinterest (at least initially). However, you may have a love-hate relationship with Pinterest because their algorithm is CONSTANTLY changing. Keeping up with current best practices for Pinterest can make your head spin!

To help you out, here are the latest recommendations from Pinterest themselves, as well as what bloggers are currently having success with.

Related:

Four Social Media Mistakes That Are Killing Your Blogging Game

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Hashtags

A few years ago, Pinterest introduced hashtags. Hashtags on Pinterest work a little differently than other platforms, like Instagram.

On Instagram, users are encouraged to use up to 30 hashtags (the more the better) and users often show their creativity through hashtags #becausewittyhashtagsarefuntoread.

Pinterest, however, states that you should use just a few relevant hashtags (3-5). Hashtags should be short, to the point and will help the Pinterest algorithm categorize your pin.

You can place a few hashtags throughout your description like this:

Or group a few at the end of the description like this:

Group Boards

Group boards are becoming less important for Pinterest this year. Pinterest has stated group boards are not being used for the collaborative purpose they were originally meant to. Instead, bloggers use them for self promotion.

So Pinterest is scaling back on the importance of group boards.

This is especially true for giant, non-niche specific group boards. You know, the boards with names like “Best Blog Posts Ever” or “Pins From My Favorite Bloggers” that include everything from motherhood to travel to personal finance to fitness pins.

However, tightly niched group boards that are well keyworded are still relevant and can be helpful to you. So a motherhood group board is better than a general group board. A board specifically on babies or breastfeeding PARTICULARLY one in which the description contains keywords instead of just instructions for bloggers, is even better.

Example of a tightly niched and well keyworded group board:

Example of a general board that has not be keyworded:

Be mindful of your Tailwind analytics (I recommend getting Tailwind EVEN if you do manual pinning; it’s worth it just for the analytics alone). I check at least once every 1-2 weeks to see which of my group boards are preforming. If a board is consistently among the lowest preforming in terms of re-pins and virality, I drop that group board.

Personal Boards

You might be panicking at the idea that group boards won’t be getting the reach you’ve been relying on. Well don’t fret. Instead, Pinterest is putting more emphasis on well-niched and specific personal boards. That means you should be creating more relevant tightly-niched boards with excellent descriptions (i.e. using keywords). You should have at least five boards that each pin you make could be pinned to.

You might be wondering how to create enough boards without making duplicates.

Here’s an example. I have a post on DIY Christmas Ornaments for Kids to Make.

Here are the boards I pinned this post to:

• DIY Christmas Ornaments for Kids
• Christmas Activities to do with Kids
• Christmas Crafts for Kids
• Christmas Decorating
• Christmas
• Holidays
• Activities for Preschoolers
• Activities for School-Aged Kids
• DIYs

See how the pin fits into all these categories?

So get creating boards. Just be sure that Pinterest can tell what your board is about by:

a) Naming it clearly.

b) Writing a description that reads well but contains your important keywords.

c) Identifying which topic it falls under.

d) Pinning other relevant pins to the board.

Long Pins

In the past, you may have heard that extra long pins preform better on Pinterest. The thinking? The longer the pin, the more visual real estate it is taking up in the user’s smartfeed, the more likely the user is to click on it.

As a result of this thinking, bloggers began making longer and longer pins. Some pins are three times a long as wide, or even more.

Pinterest has since changed their mind again and now the smartfeed display cuts off extremely long pins.

Don’t freak out if you have been making super long pins. Users will still be able to see the entire pin if they click on the it. You don’t need to delete pins you’ve already made (in fact, you should almost never delete a pin… you never know what weird twist of fate will bring you traffic). But, there’s no bonus for making your pins super long.

Take away: Keep the standard 600 x 900 or 600 x 1200 dimensions for pins.

Square Pins

Another recent Pinterest trend was the move away from vertical pins altogether. Square pins were said to be in favour. Many bloggers jumped all over that and started creating square pins.

The mania around square pins died down pretty fast with some A/B testing. Despite what Pinterest was telling creators, a lot of bloggers didn’t see great views and click-through rates with their square pins.

I would advise you to do some A/B testing of your own before ditching square pins entirely. Try a few out and see how your audience reacts before tossing square pins entirely.

Take away: Do some testing, but chances are, vertical pins will be more effective.

Forget the  Matchy Matchy Board Covers

A while ago, matching board covers were a trend for bloggers on Pinterest. The thought was creating matching board covers gave your Pinterest profile a cohesive and professional look.

While this does look pretty, it’s really poor ROI (return on investment) and I would advise against it.

Here’s why: most Pinterest users are not cruising around your profile, admiring the cohesiveness of your boards. Most Pinterest users are using the smartfeed or search functions. They are going straight from your pin to (hopefully) your website.

As a user (before I started blogging), I don’t think I ONCE looked at someone else’s profile. It was only when I became a blogger that I even became interested in the profile of others.

PLUS, most bloggers do have a lot of group boards. Even if all your board covers match, your group boards will clutter up the matchy-matchy look of your boards anyway.

All in all, matching board covers are not going to hurt your Pinterest profile, it’s just a really poor ROI. There are a million things new bloggers need to do to launch a successful blog, and this is not one that’s going to make much of a difference.

What Hasn’t Changed:

Pinterest has made some pretty big changes in the past months, but there’s a great deal of Pinterest wisdom that hasn’t changed one iota. Here’s a breakdown of what still works (and probably always will) on Pinterest.

Attractive Pins

As always, Pinterest is a visual search engine. The key word in this context is visual. Great looking pins will always preform better than average or unattractive ones

Here are some tips on making your pins attractive:

• Use stock photos (paid stock photos are best).
• If you’re taking your own pictures, use editing software to make sure they are as professional as possible.
• Use a program like Canva to help create cohesive pins.
• Pick a few attractive fonts.
• Make sure your message is easily readable (most people use Pinterest on their phones).
• Use an attractive colour scheme with:
  • coordinating colours
  • lots of white space
  • red and pink are often favoured by Pinterest users

Takeaway: Attractive pins are KEY

Solve A Problem

Pinterest users are (like any other humans) selfish by nature. You should always try to think of what’s in it for a reader when creating a pin. Not many users will be interested in pins called “My Trip to Barcelona”. A list of “Top Ten Places to See In Barcelona with Toddlers” might pique their interest more. Make pin titles about the reader, not about you.

Takeaway: Make sure you are offering readers something of value. Your title needs to make users want to know MORE.

Good Descriptions

You might be tempted to hastily write a quick pin description or even forget to include a description at all! Although Pinterest uses visuals, it’s still a search engine. Your description needs to tell Pinterest what your pin is about.

You also should be writing in a conversational manner for your readers. Use keywords, but keep it conversational. Tell the reader why they need to read your post.

Take away: Spend some time crafting careful descriptions. It’s good ROI.

Curate Great Content

As always, curating great content will do nothing by help your Pinterest game. Users will appreciate your awesome pin selection, your re-pins and virality rate will sky rocket and you’ll gain new followers. Nothing but winning!

Take away: Be choosy about the content you pin. Pinning irrelevant or poorly written content is never a good idea.

Wrapping It Up

There you have it, six major changes for Pinterest this year, and four pillars that haven’t changed a bit. Follow these tips and you’re sure to be successful on Pinterest in 2019. Good luck and happy blogging!

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