As a business owner, your main goal is to drive traffic to your website.  If you are not using Pinterest as a part of your social media marketing strategy, it is time to change that.  Pinterest can be a huge driver of organic traffic if you know how to properly use it.

Here are seven ways to drive organic traffic back to your website with Pinterest.

 

1. Find the types of images that resonate with your target audience

In an effort to start generating traffic from Pinterest, you need to be including pin worthy images on your product pages and any pages with valuable content.  If you are having trouble coming up with the best images, here are some ways to help you determine if an image is pin worthy:

• Any high quality photography for products, a service or someone using a product.
• Inspirational images.  Think quotes, great visuals, infographics etc.
• Any images with detailed instructions on how to use something.
• Images with any data or stats.

You can begin by taking a look at the different categories they have on the Discover page.  Once you click on a topic like “architecture” you will see all the popular pins surrounding that topic.

Scroll through these pages to get a feel for which pins are most popular.  You can see which are by looking at the repin number located in the bottom left corner of the image. Next, you should continue to research by using keywords that are relevant to your business.  This will be helpful and finding pins related to your topics.

Your competitors offer a great deal on Pinterest. Type their domain into the search box and see what is being pinned from their website.  This will let you know how many people are pinning images that would be similar to those on your website.  If not much shows up, try similar businesses.  Now that you have done all this research, you should have a good idea of what types of images would be good for your website.

If you do not have a good digital camera, it is time to invest in one. You then want to figure out which pages on your website should have pinnable images.  Go through your website analytics and see which are the top pages of content or check your shopping cart analytics to see which are the top products in your store.

2. Have share buttons on your website

You want to make it as easy as possible for people to pin your images.  When it comes to people visiting your website, Pinterest offers buttons you can add.  Depending on the platform your website is built with, you will need to find outtton that will pin an image on the page.  Our suggestion is to do both so that visitors clearly see the option to pin.

 

3. Optimize your Pinterest account

Just as you optimize product and content pages for better search engine rankings, you want to optimize your presence on Pinterest.  You want the people searching for your keywords to find your boards, pins and profile.  The specific keywords you use to optimize your website need to be included in the title and description of your profile bio, your boards as well as in any relevant pins.

As an example, let’s say your company sells jeans.  The business profile name could be something like “XYZ Jeans” with your profile bio listing some top categories like Men’s Jeans, Women’s Jeans and Children’s Jeans.  Your title boards could then be listed as Men’s Jeans, Women’s Jeans, Children’s Jeans, White Jeans, Black Jeans, Skinny Jeans, Bootcut Jeans etc. The next step would be to pin your products to these boards that have the product name plus one of the keywords (product name – women’s jeans).

You can also get creative here and come up with boards for images that your target audience would also be searching for.  For example, you could create boards like jeans for work, casual jeans, dressy jeans etc.  Within that board you would have pins that lead back to your site along with pins of related but not competitive products.

4. Promote your account on all your social media channels

If you have a decent size following on other social media platforms, make sure you are promoting your Pinterest account to them.  Twitter is a great place to regularly ask your followers to follow you on Pinterest.  Same goes for Instagram, because they love visual content, they are easy to convert.

Also be sure to add a Pinterest tab to your Facebook page so that your followers know how to find you.  You can then begin to announce new boards and pins to help you build up your following.

5. Reach out to people who share your images

As people begin to repin your stuff, you can think about building up those relationships.  When someone repins one of your pins,you can thank them by commenting on their pin or send them a direct message.  If you see they have a decent size following, try and keep the communication lines open.  You can send them new pins they might like that lead back to your website.  If they decide to repin them, more traffic comes to you.

6. Join a group board

Using group boards as a way to boost traffic for your pins has gone down in effectiveness but is still worth doing if your account is just starting out.  A group board is one that has more than one contributor and each one can add their own pins.  Discovering the right group board for your business can mean access to thousands of people for your new account to be exposed to. To see a list of group boards, check out pingroupie.com.

7. Pin on a regular basis

In order to effectively grow your Pinterest account, you need to make sure you are consistently adding pins on a daily basis. Pinning up to 10 different pins every day is a good number to strive for.  You want to have a nice mix of pins that lead back to your website along with other relevant pins. Pinterest looks out for those that are pinning consistently by making sure your pins are seen by more followers over time.

Conclusion

Pinterest is a great platform for generating organic traffic back to your website. You just need to know the types of images that resonate with your target audience. It is all about pinning the right images and accumulating followers that are interested in what you are sharing.  Over time, you will build up a nice following.