An actionable step-by-step guide on how to grow Pinterest traffic and how I used these strategies to grow my Pinterest traffic 1056% in two days.
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Here’s the exact steps I took to grow my Pinterest traffic 1056% in 2 days and continue this incredible growth on my website from 2000 visits per month to 50,000 visits in 6 months.
First, let’s start from the beginning.
Since I started Mince Republic about three years ago, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I had pretty much the same amount of views per month, month after month, hovering right around 2000-3000. This was largely in part to one of my recipes ranking on the first page of Google for a few keywords.
This year, one of my big goals was to really focus on growing the blog. It’s still a work in progress but it’s definitely improved. In April, my web sessions were 2000. In May, they went up to 8,000. In June, they spiked to 26,000. In July, up to 40,000. Then in October, I hit 50,000.
I did this in a few ways but mostly through utilizing Pinterest. Maximizing social media platforms helps a lot in growing blog traffic, especially if you’re setting up a home-based business.
One of the biggest things I did this year was start posting more consistently. I used to just post recipes when I had some spare time because it is a lot of work and it was difficult to see any sort of reward for it with lackluster visitors and no one really seeing the content. I questioned whether or not it was something I should continue. But at the end of the day, I love food, I love talking about and sharing food and I knew that if I hung in there and just really put in the work, it would pay off. So I started posting about 3 times a week and I felt like I had finally found a good rhythm.
This was in large part thanks to finding Trello. Trello has been an incredible resource for me to stay organized, plan out my content calendar and break down each big goal into small sizeable steps. You can see more about how I use Trello to help me with blogging in my post The Blogger’s Guide to Trello.
In May, I decided I really needed to figure out how to grow my audience so all of the new content I was creating would actually be seen. The first way I planned on doing this was by focusing more on Pinterest. The results have been fantastic.
In two days of focusing on Pinterest, I grew my traffic 1056%.
In two weeks, I increased my Pinterest traffic by 10,185% over the previous month. In turn, this increased my web sessions 264% over the previous month.
In May, I was averaging 8,666 viewers a month on Pinterest with 344 average monthly engaged. Now in December, I’m averaging 2,935,899 monthly views with 107,672 monthly engaged.
For this kind of Pinterest growth, I did a few things:
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Utilized Vertical Pins
I had heard that using vertical pins was a best practice but I didn’t realize just how important until I tried it and immediately saw results. So if you’re just starting out on Pinterest, know that using vertical pins is not a suggestion — you NEED to be using them.
Once I started using them, people pinning my content and my website visits immediately increased.
It wasn’t just one pin going viral either — it was a combination of pins getting picked up. These were pins that I had previously posted both on my own page and on group boards with little to no effect.
So I decided to create vertical pins for the most popular recipes on my site, repin them to my board and also to some group boards and it basically blew up.
Here are some stats for some of the original pins that I posted:
Grilled Ribeye with Garlic Herb Compound Butter – views increased by 14,200%
The Best No Bun Hamburger – views increased by 5,834%
Bell Pepper Nachos – views increased by 3,000%
Spaghetti Bolognese with Spaghetti Squash Noodles – views increased by 400%
Instant Pot Lemon Chicken Thighs – views increased by 300%
Reasons for Using Vertical Pins:
Take Up More Visual Real Estate
A vertical pin on Pinterest obviously takes up much more space than just a picture. In turn, this makes a bigger impact on a viewer since the pin is taking up the majority of their screen (especially on mobile). It also gives you a higher likelihood that they won’t overlook your pin and will interact with it since they now have to scroll to get past it.
Here’s an example of a vertical pin:
(Side note: here’s the recipe for the creamy chicken in the photo)
2. I signed up for Tailwind
Tailwind has helped me immensely with Pinterest and is worth its weight in gold.
I never realized how important it was to consistently pin on Pinterest and I used to just pin occasionally whenever something would strike my fancy. But this doesn’t encourage people to follow you. With Tailwind, it makes it easy to consistently post content because I can spend ten minutes scheduling it out then not have to worry about it.
Now, I easily pin relevant and useful content consistently.
Tailwind (aff link) also schedules my pins at the most optimum times. Often, I will post one of my recipes to multiple boards such as my own boards plus group boards I belong to. Tailwind lets me schedule these pins so that they’re being posted at optimum times.
Basically, it saves me a bunch of time and h
assle and makes managing Pinterest so much easier.
You can sign up for Tailwind here. (aff link)
3. I Joined Group Boards
This was another really important aspect in me growing Pinterest. I joined a lot of group boards that were related to my blog posts.
For example, since I have a food blog, I joined a lot of boards that focused on sharing recipes and also that focused on sharing recipes for different ways of eating (Paleo, Keto, etc).
Joining these group boards allowed me to reach a much larger audience.
To join group boards, I would search for them on Pinterest and send the board owners a message telling them that I would like to join. Not everyone answered but enough did and it definitely helped.
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These three steps have made a huge impact on my blog and in turn, my business. I hope this guide was helpful for you and I’m always happy to answer more questions in the comments or through the form on my contact page.
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