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Pinterest can be a hard platform to figure out. There are a lot of things to figure out, and a lot of people on Pinterest end up making mistakes. So to avoid that from happening to you, check out this post where I talk about the 7 rookie Pinterest mistakes you could be making!

1. PINTEREST MISTAKE: NOT USING PINTEREST SEO

SEO is important if you want to get great results on Pinterest, and one of the Pinterest mistakes many people do is not using it! SEO stands for Search engine optimization. It’s similar to a strategy you would want to use to get ranked on Google search engines.

Because Pinterest isn’t a social media site (although signs point to they may want to may it feel that way soon!) As of right now though, Pinterest is a search engine.

So, just like you would on Google, you want to have good SEO strategies to get your pins ranked in search.

-WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO GET YOUR PINS RANKED IN SEARCH?

“Ranking in search” means if someone looks something up, your pin will show up. Many people go to Pinterest for ideas, and they end up searching for things instead of just aimlessly scrolling through the feed.

So, for example, if you look up “Why people quit blogging” My pin shows up. This would be considered a ranked pin.

-HOW TO GET YOUR PINS RANKED IN SEARCH

The first step is you need to find keywords that people are searching for. This used to be a lot easier, but in the latest Pinterest update they’ve made it so much harder to find keywords. In pretty much any search you did, you used to see these little bubbles that would pop up at the top.

Those are keywords that people searched for the most. I use some of those in my Pinterest pin descriptions in order to show up in popular searches.

For example if you types in “blogging” all of these will pop up.

If you need more help with Pinterest, check out my course called Pinterest Simplicity! I go over all the basics, and more to help you understand the ins and outs of the platform!

But now, sometimes, if you typed in something like “crochet hat” the bubbles are gone and a “explore” and “shop” tab replace it.

This seems to happen on anything that is some type of product you can buy. It’s a bummer, but not all hope is lost!

You can still use the search bar with these terms to find keywords people are searching for. It takes a little more work, and you get less results but at least its something! 

Search around using a few different variations of the words and you’ll have enough for your pinterest pin descriptions!

Make sure to make notes of all these keywords in a Word doc or Excel spreadsheet so you won’t have to go looking for them each time you write a Pinterest pin description!

2. PINTEREST MISTAKE: USING A PERSONAL PINTEREST PAGE

If you’re a blogger or a business owner and you’re using Pinterest to drive traffic to your site, you have to be using a Pinterest business account! Using a personal account is a huge Pinterest mistake!

You are missing out on a lot of the crucial stats that you get access to with the Pinterest business account!

You can see things like link clicks, impressions, engagement, and audiences.

You can even see which pins are performing well and which ones are not!

3. PINTEREST MISTAKE: NOT CONSISTENTLY PINNING

Pinterest is all about consistency. If I stop pinning for a week, I see a dip in my numbers on my site. The problem is, Pinterest will take a lot of work and it is not for those who don’t take their blogs seriously. However, if you put in the work Pinterest will pay off!

You need to not give up on your strategies and actually put in the work to see results on Pinterest.

If you’re someone who wants to see results on Pinterest but doesn’t have the time, there are options out there for you! You can use a scheduling tool like Tailwind to help you pin consistently. But sadly it isn’t as useful as it once was anymore because Pinterest wants people to stay on their platform and favors manual pinning instead.

4. PINTEREST MISTAKE: PINNING TOO MUCH OF OTHERS CONTENT

I know this may seem weird, but Pinterest doesn’t want you pinning other people’s content! If you’re a blogger or business owner on Pinterest, you are considered a creator. And a creator’s job is to create!

Our job is to put the fresh content Pinterest craves on the site for other casual Pinterest users to save!

WHAT IF I DO PIN OTHERS CONTENT? WILL IT HURT MY ACCOUNT?

From what I can tell, it doesn’t exactly hurt your account to repin others’ content, but it doesn’t really help either. It’s kind of a waste of time.

Since Pinterest favors fresh content the most, the first time you pin an image to Pinterest is when it will get the biggest “boost” and every other time you pin that image, it will gain less and less traction.

The same goes for when you pin others’ content. There used to be an 80-20 rule to Pinterest. Pin 20% of others’ content and 80% of your own. This was back when group boards were okay to use and Tailwind Tribes.

Both of those are pretty obsolete now, and my rule is 100% my own content. I only pin my own content to my Pinterest boards.

5. PINTEREST MISTAKE: NOT BRANDING YOUR PINS

Staying on-brand with your pins is super important! And it’s not hard to do at all!

Basically what “branding your pins” means is using a consistent set of colors, fonts, and even styles to an extent throughout all of your pins. And you want those pins to look similar to your overall brand design.

If you want help with creating a strong personal brand online, check out this video I did on it!

So, for example, my brand colors are pink, white, and light gold. You will see those colors on all of my social media, my YouTube channel, and on my blog. And the two fonts I use are Montserrat and Playlist script. One is an easy-to-read font and one is a pretty cursive font.

Not only does it make everything look cohesive when branded in a similar way, but it makes designing easier as well. I already know when I design something what colors and fonts I am generally going to use.

Another way to brand your pins is to have your website link and/or your logo on the pin somewhere, generally at the bottom. That way not only will people be able to see your site name, but if someone steals your Pinterest pin you can prove that it’s yours! (Trust me, this happens ALL THE TIME!)

If you’re struggling to create pins that get clicks, check out the pin templates I have!

6. PINTEREST MISTAKE: NOT MANUALLY PINNING

I’ve mentioned this a few times already but I haven’t really gone in-depth with it yet. Manually pinning to Pinterest is the way to grow these days.

You used to just be able to pin all of your pins to Tailwind and never have to touch Pinterest. I used to schedule an entire month of pins onto Tailwind and never even went to Pinterest!

I guess a bunch of other creators must have been doing the same because Pinterest got smart and decided that scheduling pins weren’t the way to go anymore.

Because technically Pinterest is a business. And they want to keep people on their site for as long as they can. So, driving all of their creators to Tailwind wasn’t exactly the move that was making them money.

So, we moved into the era of fresh pins and manually pinning.

-WHAT IS MANUAL PINNING?

Manually pinning is when you pin directly onto Pinterest.

You can either pin directly or schedule pins for later by using the “publish at a later date” option. Either way, this is manually pinning as opposed to using a third-party site like Tailwind to pin.

7. PINTEREST MISTAKE: NOT TRACKING RESULTS

Since there really are no right or wrong answers when it comes it Pinterest, the most important thing you can do is track your results!

How will you know if a strategy is working for you or not if you aren’t tracking the results?

And I don’t mean every single day check your results, even once a week giving them a look over and then giving a deeper dive into your stats once a month.

The sad reality of Pinterest is you won’t really know how your strategy is working for about 3-6 months with a brand-new account.

The big takeaway here is to remain consistent in your posting and don’t give up too soon! Pinterest is a beast to figure out but it can bring you crazy results once you figure it out!