Unlike viral content that peaks and fades within days, Pinterest gives your content a longer lifespan. That means using Pinterest to drive traffic to your website is less stressful and more sustainable.
Most Pinterest users have shopping intent, meaning they’re ready to take action. So if you manage to grab their attention, Pinterest can drive not just traffic, but real conversions to your site.
Keep reading as I walk you through seven easy steps to set up your Pinterest profile for success, plus expert tips to help you maximize your efforts.
Why use Pinterest for marketing?
People turn to Pinterest for ideas and inspiration, especially when shopping. That’s why out of Pinterest’s 553 million monthly active users, 85% of weekly Pinners make a purchase based on a brand’s pin.
While platforms like Instagram or SEO often require expertise, time, and authority to gain traction, Pinterest makes it easier for small brands to get noticed. Its visual search features make it especially popular among Gen Z and millennials.
If you run a small business, Pinterest also provides marketing resources to help you see quick wins. These resources include tutorials, best practices, and success stories.
How to drive traffic using Pinterest in 7 easy steps
The following seven steps cover everything from setting up your profile to increasing engagement. Follow them to drive more traffic to your website from Pinterest.
1. Set up your Pinterest account for growth
Pinterest offers two types of accounts: personal and business
A business account gives you access to analytics, advertising tools, and increased visibility. You can create a new business account or convert your existing one if you plan to use Pinterest for your business.
Once your business account is set up, the next step is to claim your website. This builds trust with Pinterest, displays your website URL on every Pin, and syncs information directly from your site.
To switch from a personal to a business account, click the down arrow next to your profile photo, select Convert to Business from the dropdown, then click the Upgrade button at the bottom.
2. Optimize your profile name and bio for keywords
Adding keywords to your bio increases the visibility of your profile when someone searches for relevant keywords. For example, if you run a gardening blog, adding the keyword to your name and bio will make your profile appear in search results like this.
2. Use keywords to get found
You should add keywords in your profile name, bio, board titles, board descriptions, pin titles, and pin descriptions. Luckily, you only need to use Pinterest to do keyword research.
Type your niche topic into the Pinterest search bar and notice the terms that appear. The autocomplete suggestions and colored titles under the search bar indicate the topics people are interested in.
For example, a list of autocompleted suggestions shows up if I search for a small business. If I click on any of them, colour-coded titles will appear below the search bar on the search results page. These titles indicate that people are frequently searching for these terms.
Pinterest Trends is another tool for planning your Pinterest strategy. Like Google Trends, it highlights top trends across categories. Set your preferred location and search for targeted terms to discover topics trending in your niche.
3. Create click-worthy pins that drive traffic
Thousands of people are creating pins on the same topic at the same time. So your pins need to be visually pleasing to drive clicks.
For this, ensure your pins use a 1000×1500 pixels format with a clear title. To make them look good, use general design best practices like high-contrast images, branded colors, and clear fonts.
Video pins act similarly to Instagram reels. They can be between 4 seconds and 15 minutes long and play automatically as users scroll through their feeds.
Add a clear CTA with good design, a clear title, and SEO. Try to make the CTA scream that it’s for the user’s benefit to increase traffic. For example, read the full tutorial or get your free guide.
4. Set up boards that support your traffic goals
Pinterest boards are a collection of pins, and pins are individual pieces of content. If you’ve different categories like ‘indoor plants’ and ‘outdoor plants’, you can create different boards for them.
Pins can be images or videos that link to your website. For example, if you have an indoor plants board, your pin could be a video on how to care for indoor plants.
Based on your SEO findings, optimize your boards with targeted keywords. Add a sentence or two for the board description with natural keywords. Pinterest reads these to help decide where your pins show up.
5. Pin strategically and consistently
Creating multiple pins for a single piece of content improves visibility. This also allows you to test with different styles and SEO techniques.
If you have a blog post on the Best Earbuds for Yoga, you can try uploading 2-3 pins linking to the same post but with different visuals, titles, and keywords.
But do not upload multiple pins at the same time. Instead, vary your content and avoid flooding the feed with the same content simultaneously.
While you do all this, remember that quality always wins. Three good-quality pins a week are better than ten low-quality ones.
6. Increase engagement to boost reach
The Pinterest algorithm favors pins that get clicks, saves, shares, and comments. Your linked website is also assigned a domain quality, and when more people visit your website, your domain quality increases.
Your consistency of posting pins and how you interact with your audience, i.e,. via comments also impacts your engagement.
Considering this, you can increase your engagement by:
- Posting high-quality, relevant pins consistently.
- Staying active on Pinterest, i.e., saving pins, creating pins, commenting and responding to comments.
- A/B testing with different designs and formats.
- Using Pinterest trends to identify relevant topics in your niche and creating timely content.
7. Track and improve
Use Pinterest Analytics to understand what’s resonating with your audience and what topics don’t drive much engagement.
You can also use UTM-tagged links when adding URLs to your Pinterest pins to track their performance more accurately.
Then, in Google Analytics, navigate to Acquisition > Traffic > Source/Medium, and look for traffic labeled as Pinterest / social to see how Pinterest is contributing to your site visits.
Pinterest ads for precise advertising
Pinterest Ads let you reach a more targeted audience based on interests, keywords, and behavior. Use UTM-tagged links in your promoted pins to track ad performance beyond Pinterest’s built-in metrics.
UTM parameters help you distinguish paid Pinterest traffic from organic pins in Google Analytics and accurately attribute clicks, sessions, and conversions to specific ad campaigns. Use Google’s Campaign URL Builder to create these custom tracking links and gain deeper insights into how each ad performs.
If you need some inspiration, you can review ads created by other businesses in the Pinterest ads repository.
Bonus tips to multiply your results
Once your basic setup is done, minor tweaks and tricks can improve your Pinterest engagement. Here are a few tips to amplify your efforts.
Repurpose blog posts into Pinterest-friendly formats
Visual content like infographics, step-by-step guides, checklists, and quote or stat-based graphics tends to grab attention and get saved more often. These formats allow you to break down complex information or highlight quick wins in a highly scannable and shareable way.
Add “Pin it” buttons to every blog post
Make it as easy as possible for your readers to share your content. Adding a “Pin it” button to every blog post on your website encourages organic sharing without disrupting the reading experience.
This can be done with plugins like Tasty Pins or Grow by Mediavine, or with a custom code snippet if you’re comfortable editing your site.
Add Pinterest to your blog post promo checklist
Every blog post you publish should include two to three custom pin designs tailored to the post’s content and audience. Before scheduling or sharing, write keyword-rich pin titles and descriptions to improve search visibility on Pinterest.
Use a Pinterest scheduler
Scheduling tools help you stay on track without the daily grind. Tools like Buffer or Social Champ allow you to batch your pin creation and automate the posting process so you can maintain a regular schedule without burning out.
Re-share evergreen content with fresh pins
You can keep driving traffic to evergreen content by updating the blog post or creating new pin designs for it. A fresh image, headline, or layout can breathe new life into an older post and help it reach a new audience.
Final thoughts: Patience and persistence pay off on Pinterest
While Pinterest is a long game, it can still increase website traffic within weeks. One well-designed, well-timed pin can send traffic to your blog for years.
Stick with it, track what works, and keep creating helpful, beautiful, and easy-to-find content.
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