How To Create Viral Pins For Pinterest That Drive Traffic

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If you’ve tried your luck with creating pins on Pinterest, but you haven’t really gotten more clicks or more traffic than this blog post is for you!

In this post, I’m going to be sharing with you the seven things that you need to keep in mind to actually create pins that bring you more clicks, more conversions, as well as more traffic back to your blog, your website, or your business.

#1 Create a vertical pin with a 2:3 aspect ratio.

Now what exactly is a 2:3 aspect ratio? Now two is to three aspect ratio simply means that the width of the pin should be two-thirds of the height of the pin. This means that in order to actually create pins that get clicks on Pinterest, you need to be creating pins that are taller than they are wide.

This is something that Pinterest recommends to all of its users who actually use Pinterest for marketing or for business to create pins that are not only vertical, but in a specific ratio so that they are actually visible on the mobile app and they don’t get cut off on the feed because when you’re creating pins that are not really clearly visible or clickable on a mobile, and they get cut off in the feed, then you don’t really get any clicks or traffic back to your website, right?

The recommended size for creating the perfect pin is a 1000 by 1500 pixels. But, of course, you should feel free to experiment with the type of pins that perform best for your business, as well as your website, as long as you make sure that they’re in the two as to three aspect ratio, it really doesn’t matter exactly what pixels you use.

#2 Use a clear text overlay.

Now this means that instead of just using an image that you upload on Pinterest, you should actually be creating an image which has some kind of text on top of it.

Now the reason why you want to do this is because when a user sees an image, they don’t necessarily want to click through and find out more about it. Instead, they actually ended up either saving that to a board, or they actually share that with one of their friends or family.

Your goal when you’re creating pins on Pinterest, especially when you want more clicks and conversions back to your website, is to drive the user from that pin to your website. This means that when your image has some kind of text on top of it, it guides the user as to what this pin is all about and whether or not this would be a solution for their problem.

Now remember there are billions of pins on Pinterest, which means that you only have a nanosecond of someone’s attention to actually capture that and convert that into a click.

This means that if you don’t have your text clearly visible, as well as legible and readable, then you are going to miss out on that person’s attention to come back to your website or to your business. I always recommend to all of my students that are in my paid program, Pinterest Traffic Explosion, to actually create pins that are in the serif font. So you can use font types like PT Sans, Open Sans, as well as Sans Serif, which are clearly legible and readable even from a distance and even on a tiny mobile screen.

#3 Use warm background colors.

Now this is a tip that actually took me a lot of time to figure out because I was testing various combinations and trying to figure out what exactly was happening when my pins were picking up more traffic versus the pins that actually weren’t.

Here’s what I found out with my experiments. On average, each time that I used a warmer background color, such as a red or a brown or a yellow, it tended to get me four to six times more clicks and conversions compared to when I was using cooler background, such as pink or blue.

Now this can heavily depend on your niche, as well as the context of the pin because, of course, if you have a pin that is based on the Maldives and you want to showcase the blue water, it might not make a lot of sense for that context here.

However, when you’re creating pins that have a text overlay and that have a background behind the text, it really helps to keep in mind that warmer background colors tend to outperform cooler background colors, so maybe that is something that you can test out for your business and see if that helps your clicks and conversions on Pinterest.

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#4 Use high-quality images.

Now this should come pretty naturally to everyone, but for some reason, doesn’t. Pinterest, first and foremost, is a visual discovery platform. So people are very visually driven and they’re used to finding things that are visually appealing.

This means that when you create pins, which have dark images or blurry images or really not appealing or attractive images, you don’t get as many clicks as you would if you were using high quality images. Now if you’re a photographer or someone who actually dabbles in their own photos for their website, that would be a great point to get started to actually create high resolution photos and to use them for your pins as well.

However, if that’s not the case, you can always rely on free stock website such as Canva, Unsplash, as well as PixaBay, to find attractive pictures that actually go with your overall theme and are free of cost.

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#5 Use keywords in your pin description.

Now another thing to remember, besides the fact that Pinterest is a visual machine, is the fact that Pinterest is a search engine. People are always going there to look for information or inspirational stuff and actually are searching for questions that they want answers to.

Now when you’re uploading your pin, you get a prompt to create your pin description. That’s why I want you to think about what is it that your ideal reader or your ideal customer is going to type into find the topic of that pin? Because the fact is that if your pin is not searchable, it is not going to be discovered and it is not going to drive you any clicks or any traffic.

You can also find out what keywords are trending in your niche, as well as in your topic, by just simply going to the Pinterest search toolbar, typing in the keywords that you’re looking for, and scrolling through the top bar that pops up, which is full of related keywords, as well as parallel keywords that you can use for your open description as well.

Just make sure that when you’re creating your keyword rich pin description, you’re actually adding in keywords that are highly relevant to your pin, as well as to your niche, as well as avoiding keyword stuffing.

Now keyword stuffing means that you’re just stuffing keywords in your description instead of actually creating a natural description that a user’s looking for. What that will do when you do keyword stuffing, is that it is probably going to trigger the spam filters on Pinterest and isn’t really going to help your pin reach a wider audience.

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#6 Add hashtags to your description.

Now earlier Pinterest wasn’t a really a fan of hashtags. However, that has changed in the last few years. And now you can actually add up to 20 hashtags to every pin description to help Pinterest identify exactly what the content is about and help wrangle the fresh content above the old content or the evergreen content.

Now again, only add hashtags that are actually relevant to your pin image, as well as to your niche. And don’t add random hashtags.

Also, you can keep in mind that there might be seasonal or trending hashtags, which might not show up as keywords, but might be something that you can look at, especially if you create content that is seasonal or trending content.

#7 Create a click-worthy headline.

Now no matter how amazing your design or your font or your colors on your pins are, if your headline or the main title text of the pin is completely flat and boring, then you’re not going to get a lot of clicks back to your website.

Now how do you create a click where the headline? So there are two things that your headline should meet in order for it to actually be click worthy or something that people want to immediately click on.

The first thing to keep in mind is that it should evoke an emotion. Now this means that if the pain makes someone feel inspired, happy, excited, curious, then these are all good things when it comes to creating a headline. The second thing that you need to keep in mind is that it should have a sense of urgency. So why should someone click on your pin now versus clicking on it later?

So when you’re creating your headline, you want to make sure that it is one, evoking an emotional response in the pinner or in the reader, as well as it has some sense of urgency to the title so that the person actually wants to click through. Then instead of waiting for it and clicking through it later.

For example, you could create a title which says 10 Keto Recipes or another title, which says 10 Instant Keto Recipes for Absolute Beginners.

Now when you add these power words, such as instant and absolute, this actually makes the user want to go out and check out that pin instead of the pin that just said 10 Keto Recipes, because I can always come back and check out the 10 Keto Recipes later. What’s so interesting about 10 Keto Recipes right now?

A great place to get some inspiration on how to create click-worthy headlines is check out a media outlet like Buzzfeed, which has a lot of viral content and to see how they actually create the headlines so that you can emulate that and figure out the best way to do that in your particular niche.

Now all of the seven tips that I shared with you are going to fall flat if you don’t have one important thing in place and that is your content.

Now if the content is your link to your pin has no demand or is something that no one is searching for, or no one is interested in, then no matter how amazing how beautiful or gorgeous your pin is, you’re not going to be able to drive traffic or get links on that pin.

So before you head out to optimize your pins for Pinterest, to get more clicks and more traffic, it is really important for you to take a step back and see what is the content that pin actually leads to.

Is that content something that your audience is even interested in or searching for? Because if there is a zero demand for that particular type of content, you are going to have zero clicks and zero traffic, no matter how optimized your pins are.

Now, you could spend time in trial and error to figure out if this really works, or you can steal my Viral Traffic Templates that includes 70 proven and tested viral pin designs optimised for clicks and conversions.

Now if you want to know more about the secrets of driving traffic from Pinterest completely for free, you can check out my free Pinterest traffic masterclass, which has also linked in the description box below and find out exactly what it takes to build a step-by-step Pinterest traffic machine for your website or blog or business.

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