You know that using Pinterest for bloggers is the fastest way to grow your new blog. You’ve heard countless success stories of how bloggers are getting a crazy amount of blog traffic directly from Pinterest. But what are the critical steps you must take to see high traffic results that others are getting too? Whether you’re brand new to blogging and need Pinterest strategy basics, or you’ve been blogging for a while and Pinterest either isn’t working for you OR it used to send you good results, but suddenly isn’t, this post is written to help youI’m here to help you!  Here’s a list of 12 actionable steps you can make today to get your Pinterest account back on track and get Pinterest traffic as a blogger.

Do you sometimes get the feeling that Pinterest hates your blog? And no matter what changes you make, you just aren’t seeing the Pinterest traffic results you’re hoping for? Maybe you don’t feel this way ALL the time, but if you’re an active participant in blogging Facebook groups, you’ll notice many bloggers are feeling like things haven’t been working well for their blogs the past two months (Jan and Feb). You are NOT alone! Maybe your Pinterest traffic is declining because of seasonal fluctuation or maybe you need to make some simple tweaks to your Pinterest traffic strategy to get it back on track.

I’ve honestly felt Pinterest has been mad at my blog since mid-January, and I’m SO THANKFUL that my Tailwind Tribes strategy has helped me keep my content circulating on Pinterest, because if I was just relying Pinterest group boards, my traffic would be possible be in the gutter!

Even if you’re brand new to blogging, the strategies included on how to do well with Pinterest are the same whether you’re just getting started or if you’re trying to learn new Pinterest strategy tips.

THE UPS AND DOWNS OF PINTEREST

First things first, Pinterest is cyclical and the ups and downs can definitely vary by blogging niche. For many bloggers, Oct-Feb 14 are considered peak season and after that, many bloggers report seeing their traffic tank quickly after Valentine’s Day. This could be what’s happening right now to you too, a slump in traffic doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing anything wrong.

Think about this, as bloggers, we’re often glued to our analytics and we’re always worried when we have a traffic drop. I remember on November 1st when I was so worried about my blog traffic that I posted about it at length in a Facebook group. I was CONVINCED I did something wrong with my strategy and I wanted to reach out to experienced bloggers for help. What “happened” was that the day before was Halloween and people were busy with their family or friends, they weren’t sitting on Pinterest to read about my recent vacation or to get advice on meal planning. There was also a huge power outage in parts of the East Coast on the 31st, if people don’t have power, they aren’t going to let their phone batteries die by looking at my blog posts.

But what that DOES mean, is if you haven’t done anything to potentially cause a big traffic drop, this is a GREAT time to go back and look at your foundation and make little strategy tweaks to get your Pinterest strategy on track!

That being said, things can also change on Pinterest on a regular basis, you can have evergreen pins that perform well for many months on end and then, no matter how hard you try to keep that pin alive, Pinterest just doesn’t seem to be showing it. I even have an evergreen pin that’s a trending topic right now and I’m pretty convinced Pinterest just got tired of it and doesn’t want to show it anymore.

Before I get into details with the 12 actionable steps you can take TODAY to help your Pinterest traffic, I want to briefly share some of the blog struggles I’ve been having (to let you know you’re not alone!)

WHY PINTEREST (AND MY BLOG ) ARE HATIN’ ON ME

FEEL FREE TO SKIP DOWN TO 10 STEPS TO FIX YOUR PINTEREST TRAFFIC TODAY!

( I promise it won’t hurt my feelings if you want to get right to how I can help YOU! 🙂

1. Some of my top pins have been stolen by bot accounts and the traffic I used to get from my pins, now go to the fake account too, which then sends less traffic to my blog. While I keep reporting stolen pins a couple times per week, I think this has also caused Pinterest to stop showing MY legitimate pins also.

2. My blog was attacked by 7,000 computer bots in ONE day and it shut down my blog. While the bots didn’t hack into my account, they DID cause my blog to crash so I lost traffic for days while I worked through this.

3. I had a MEGA viral pin get 5,000 blog visitors in ONE day and 6,000 blog visitors the NEXT day too! This also shut my blog down because my HOST couldn’t handle the traffic! I’ve been with Host Gator since I launched last Oct, but let me tell ya, basic hosts like BlueHost and Host Gator might “seem” fine at first until your site starts doing well that is. I keep hearing SiteGround is TRULY the #1 website host (my blogging tech friend Renee Shupe has been telling me to switch for months!) but unfortunately didn’t realize it until after I purchased Host Gator and I’m in the process of switching to SiteGround this week. I have so much confidence in SiteGround, I paid for a 3 year plan! Trust me, a “why I switched from Host Gator to SiteGround post will be coming soon!”

4. I added a plug-in that caused ALL of my Pinterest links to have 404 errors, meaning NO ONE could find my blog posts for TWO days! Things have since been resolved, but Jan and Feb were a tech challenge for my blog!

Yet! Even with all of those challenges, I still managed to average over 45,000 blog pageviews per month for Jan and Feb EACH! Not bad for a 4-5 month old blog!

WHAT DOES TAILWIND TRIBES HAVE TO DO WITH WHETHER OR NOT PINTEREST HATES ME?

I’m sure you’ve heard the term plenty of times in your life “not to put all your eggs in one basket.” Just like Pinterest gives many blogs the bulk of their traffic, one major algorithm change can wipe that out overnight, which is why you also need to focus on SEO and other social media platforms too.
Where Tailwind Tribes comes in for me, is that instead of just relying on Pinterest group boards to get my content seen (meaning putting all of my eggs in one basket with Pinterest), having a Tailwind Tribes strategy helps me target Pinterest in ANOTHER WAY! Participating in blogger Facebook groups is another way to get your content seen too, but I still get WAY more traffic by using Tribes than Facebook groups EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. (By the way! If you aren’t yet a Tailwind user, with my link you can get a 1 month trial free-up to 100 pins! This saves you $15, plus Tailwind gives me a $15 credit too 🙂 It’s a win for us both!)

While my gut instinct since mid-January is Pinterest isn’t showing my pins as much as it used to (I didn’t verify this, I just noticed I was getting less repins from group boards than I used to), I was totally SHOCKED to find out Tailwind Tribes sent me 57% of my blog traffic in the month of February! Holy cow!
In my first 3 months of blogging, Tailwind Tribes were sending me about 40% of my traffic and even up to 50% a couple weeks. After Christmas, Tribes traffic died down a bit and was giving me about 30% of my traffic. I was TOTALLY fine with this since I KNOW how much value Tribes give me. My theory is that Tribes helped get my content out on Pinterest and once readers started pinning it more and more, the % of traffic coming directly from Tribes would lessen.

Boy, was I utterly surprised to look at my February Tribe stats and in the month that was my highest traffic month EVER (with almost 55,000 blog pageviews) 57% of that came directly from Tailwind Tribes!! Yep, you heard that right, Tribes sent me over 30K blog pageviews in February! That is INSANE! I had a pin go viral through Tailwind Tribes that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

Disclaimer— I’m NOT trying to come across as Tailwind Tribes is the magic formula to blogging and traffic success. There are tons of bloggers out there struggling to get Pinterest traffic and re-shares through Tailwind Tribes. What I AM trying to say is:

1. Investing the time and energy it takes to create a strategy and really working to understand something like Tailwind Tribes is why it performs so well for me
2. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket! I LOVE targeting Pinterest in different ways (Pinterest group boards, Tribes, and Facebook groups), if I was only relying on Pinterest group boards, my blog wouldn’t have the traffic success that it does. Some weeks it seems my Pinterest group boards are doing better than my Tribes, and other weeks (or months!) Tribes seems to out-perform my Pinterest group boards.

On to the nitty gritty you came here to read about!!

12 ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE TODAY TO GET YOUR PINTEREST TRAFFIC BACK ON TRACK

1. Make sure you are set up with a Pinterest business account and activate rich pins. I explain how to do this step-by-step in my first-month blogging report.

2. Include keywords in your Pinterest account description and for all of your boards.

3. Create a new pin! Sometimes a pin dies down on Pinterest and creating a new pin can help bring it back to life. I create all of my pins with PicMonkey, it’s super easy to use! I try to create 2-4 pin variations for each post and do testing to see which one (or 2) perform the best. Pinterest is currently cutting pins off longer than 1560.

4. Redo your Pinterest keywords. While your pin is what pulls your reader in, it’s your Pinterest keywords that become searchable when a reader is researching a particular topic. Especially go back and redo keywords to older posts that might be as strong as your current content.

5. Add 3-5 hashtags to your pin descriptions. While hashtags aren’t huge on Pinterest like they are with Instagram, I use them with my pins

6. Tailwind—I highly recommend using Tailwind to automate scheduling of your pins to Pinterest. To do well on Pinterest, you have to be actively using the Pinterest platform. Tailwind scheduling drips out your pins for you all day long in a way that’d be near impossible to do if you’re only manually pinning. Tailwind is an approved Pinterest partner, which gives me confidence that it won’t hurt my account on Pinterest. My traffic ALWAYS goes down when I stop dripping my Pinterest content through Tailwind. If you aren’t a current Tailwind user, you can use my link to get 1 month (or up to 100 pins for FREE!)

7. Join Tailwind Tribes—When anyone ever asks what has helped my blog the most, hands down I respond with Tailwind Tribes! Tribes helped me get tons of blog traffic as a new blogger I never could’ve gotten just relying on Pinterest group boards. The best part is if you’re a Tailwind user, you can already join 5 Tribes for FREE! I DO have a paid Tribes plan, but you can definitely start with the free plan and move up through the paid plans as you get Tribes working for you too! Here’s a list of my 10 favorite Tribes for mom bloggers, if you need a little help on which ones to join! 🙂

8. Change your pinning schedule. While dripping content from Tailwind to Pinterest is important, I make sure MY pins are dripped during peak viewer times and it’s others pins that get added slowly throughout the day to my boards. I DO make sure my pins are being alternated with pins by others, instead of uploading 12-15 right in a row within one hour of each other. I firmly believe Pinterest doesn’t view me as spamming since I’m alternating pins with other peoples.

9. Make sure you’re providing tons of VALUE in your posts to readers! If you’re genuinely writing to help other people with your posts, they’ll pin your post to one of their boards for later! And when the pin your super helpful post, it’s getting seen by even more readers and potential pinners on Pinterest!

10. Join more high-quality Pinterest group boards. I probably get added to 30% of the group boards I apply to and sometimes when I do get accepted, it’s weeks or months after I applied. Getting added to high-quality boards is time-consuming and hard work, but it’s near impossible to reach high traffic numbers if you aren’t in as many high-quality group boards as you can get on. Boards I was rejected from months ago, I just reapplied for and now got accepted! Just keep trying and applying! My favorite way to find group boards is to go to bloggers in my niche and find out which boards they’re on.

11. Create more content every week! While this hasn’t been confirmed, the “word on the street” is that Pinterest is favoring new and fresh content.

12. Take a hard look at your content, how does it compare to successful bloggers in your niche? Don’t ever copy what anyone else is doing, creating your own unique style to make you stand out is important! However, be brutally honest with yourself and ask what’s setting those bloggers pins and content apart from yours? Is it the colors they’re using, the type of images, the length of the pin or maybe a compelling title that entices the reader to click on the post but maybe they’re just scrolling past yours?

Other Posts I Think You’ll Enjoy! 🙂

Why Tailwind Tribes are a Must for New Bloggers

First Month Blogging Report~ How I got 10K Blog Pageviews

Tailwind Tribes Mistakes You Don’t Even Realize You’re Making 

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