How to Drive Traffic from Pinterest

For many businesses, Pinterest is an often-disregarded social media traffic source. However, I’ve found that it can be a very reliable and strong source of constant website traffic, if you follow a few steps.

In the past year in a half, a lot has changed so it seemed warranted to take a new look at the best ways to drive traffic to your website from Pinterest.

One of the things that distinguishes Pinterest from most other social networks is that regular users are much more willing to engage with brands; in fact, a staggering 70% of brand engagement on Pinterest is generated by individual users, and not by brands. And on social media, as a general rule, the more engagement there is with users, the more traffic you will get back to your website.

One of the things that holds businesses back from joining Pinterest is thinking that they aren’t suited for this particular social network. I’ve found, however, that there is a place for most types of brands on Pinterest, and not just those that sell certain products, such as clothes, art, gadgets, or food. In fact, it can work just as well for those who sell services (like in my case) or products that you don’t often see on Pinterest.

So how can you make the most out of Pinterest and drive as much traffic as possible? Here are a few quick tips that will help you get more traffic:

1. Share your blog posts

If you have a blog, then share your latest blog posts on Pinterest, as well as your other social networks. The way to make this work is to have images in your blog posts that you can share, and then add a link to the full article in the pin description. 

Ideally, try creating a branded image for each of your blog posts, which you can then share on an appropriate Pinterest board. This way, you increase your traffic as well as increase awareness about your business and blog.

2. Share original content

Everyone is pinning content from the web and repinning others’ content as well, so one way to ensure you stand out is to share original content that you created specifically for this platform. You can choose to create content that will help drive more engagement (i.e. funny images or interesting facts) or content that will lead to your website more directly – like promoting a new product or service of yours that you can then link to.

Original infographics are great for traffic on Pinterest. They are very popular, as not only do they look more enticing than a regular blog post, but they also offer value to users. A good infographic will help you garner both more engagement as well as more traffic.

You can also repackage your visuals in printed merch. Here’s you vistaprint coupon to help.

3. Add calls to action in your pins

If you want people to act on your pins, then you need to tell them what to do. Try to include calls to action in as many of your pins as you can, depending on what you want to achieve. 

If you want more traffic, then don’t forget to direct people to your website, entice them by giving them a preview of what they would get if they do and then tell them to visit your website for more information / details / content.

4. Hold a competition

Contests offer an easy way of getting more traffic, as well as more engagement and more followers to your Pinterest boards. There are plenty of tools that will help you set up a competition in minutes, such as Wishpond or Piqora. 

To make sure you don’t run into any problems, read Pinterest’s guidelines on hosting contests beforehand. You can also check out this useful board with lots of examples of successful Pinterest competitions.

In order to get more traffic from your contest, you can get people to repin a pin that promotes your website and also includes a link.

5. Engagement

I always make sure to mention the importance of engagement on social media. As I mentioned earlier as well, the more engagement you get, the more your traffic will grow. Set aside some time daily to repin others, like their pins, and comment on them. 

This way, you will also get more followers to your boards, which means more people will share your pins and more people will be able to see them, thus increasing your chances of getting more traffic.

Try to use all of these tips and carefully track all of your traffic to see what works best for your Pinterest account. By checking your analytics regularly, you’ll be able to get a better idea of what works best for your business and what generates more traffic for you on Pinterest.

Are you using Pinterest for traffic generation? What are your top tips for increasing traffic? Let us know in your comments!