How to Use Pinterest Analytics to Increase Blog Traffic

I thought I would take a break this week from talking about gardening and switch to blogging. My blog’s traffic has increased dramatically over the past few months thanks to Pinterest. Today, I want to talk with you about how to use Pinterest analytics to increase blog traffic.

I started using Pinterest shortly after starting Blooming Anomaly three years ago. As I used it more, I was able to quickly gain followers and views. Many of those views trickled to the blog.

By using what I learned from ebooks, other blog posts, and videos about how to use Pinterest, I was about to reach 1 million views at the beginning of 2019, when Pinterest changed their analytics. This change caused my views and traffic to drop.

This was frustrating, but I kept going. Mind you, over the past three years my blog averaged 3,000 views each month. There were some spikes, but the views stayed near 3,000 despite some ups and downs.

I am currently getting millions of views on Pinterest, which translates to thousands of views on my blog! I was able to do this thanks to my Pinterest analytics tool!

The Power of Pinterest

Why should you read this guide? If you have looked around my blog, you know that my niche is gardening, so why should you read my guide on analytics for Pinterest?

I know how Pinterest works! Check out my stats below and then decide if this is worth a read.

Once I was told I could no longer work due to the coronavirus, I decided to focus as much of my free time as possible to gaining more views and clicks on Pinterest. Within a month, views on my blog went from 3,000 to 36,000!

I was able to qualify for Mediavine, and moved from Google Adsense, where I was making pennies a day, to Mediavine, where I make much more a day.

I’ve had several pins go viral, with one hitting over 1 million views! I’m currently at over 7 million impressions and 3 million views a month, with 7,700 followers! And I’m getting thousands of views a month to my blog from Pinterest!

Why am I telling you all this? Progress takes time. It’s taken me 3 YEARS to figure out Pinterest.

Using Pinterest analytics to increase blog traffic has really helped me figure out what my audience wants from me when it comes to great pins and blog posts.

With this Pinterest analytics guide, I’m going to break down how to get set up on Pinterest for success so that you too can drive thousands of views to your blog.

Keep in mind that Pinterest just went through a change and continue to change their algorithms, just like other online sharing platforms. Pay attention to these changes and when others report changes so that you can stay up to date and keep your traffic going up on Pinterest.

Paying attention to your Pinterest analytics tool on your business account will really help with this too!

Pinterest Statistics

So many people use Pinterest for inspiration and more. I found some interesting Pinterest statistics that show how popular the site is.

There are over 300 million users on Pinterest a month. The majority of users are female. There are over 2 billion searches on Pinterest a month. 80 percent of users buy products based on what they see from that brand on Pinterest.

If you are not using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog, you are leaving money on the table!

Once you have your Pinterest business account set up and rolling, you can use Pinterest analytics to increase blog traffic!

Set Up Your Pinterest Business Account

Even if you already have a personal Pinterest account, you might consider creating a new one for your blog. If you don’t have too many boards, just make the ones that don’t align with your niche to private and switch to a business account.

Use the same or a similar profile photo of you that you use on your other social media accounts for your blog. This way, your followers know its you.

Use keywords related to your niche in your profile and display name so that you attract the right audience to you!

Once you fill out basic information on your business profile, you will want to claim your website to let Pinterest connect to your blog. There are a few steps to this so make sure you follow all the steps in settings to do this correctly.

Switch to Rich Pins

After you claim your blog on Pinterest, you will want to enable rich pins. What are rich pins?

Rich pins gives more information to your reader about what your pin is about, such as what your article is all about. The idea is to display the right information so that viewers will click through to your site. I highly recommend enabling rich pins.

Pin to the Right Boards

You want to set up your Pinterest business for success. To do this, have at least one board dedicated to pins to your blog posts. Many bloggers, including myself, have a “best of” board.

I pin all of my new pins to blog posts on this board, then schedule them to be pinned to other related boards through Tailwind. I talk more about using Tailwind near the end of this post.

To attract pinners to your boards and pins, use keywords and phrases naturally in the descriptions part. You can see how I do this on my “best of” board and pins.

Update: New Pinterest best practices mention only pinning to a few boards, since Pinterest now only favors fresh pins. I still pin to my top boards, then schedule that pin to a few other boards.

Understanding Pinterest Analytics

If you use Google Analytics, you will be familiar with the set up of Pinterest Analytics. Moving your Pinterest account to a business account is so important because it will give you access to your analytics.

If you just starting using Pinterest for your blog, I would wait a month before looking at your analytics. You will have a better idea of what people are pinning after a month.

Pinterest business analytics has all kinds of great information to help you make the most of your business account on Pinterest. There is an overview at the top, then top boards and top pins. I like focusing on these last two.

With Top Boards and Top Pins, you can look at Impressions, Engagements, Close Ups, Link Clicks, and Saves. I always focus on the link clicks.

Link clicks tells you the exact number of viewers that click the pin and check out your blog. If you are concerned about gaining blog traffic from Pinterest, these are the numbers you should focus on.

Once you study your link clicks for your boards, and more importantly, your pins, you will find out what your audience is looking for when it comes to blog posts. Using analytics on Pinterest will also let you know which pins are getting the most clicks.

Creating Clickable Pins

I thought about updating my first blog post about Pinterest, but am leaving it as is for now so that you (and I) can compare the dos and don’ts of Pinterest Design.

Let’s just say that the pins I designed used to look horrible! I have several shown on the above post. If you look at my past pins on some of my Pinterest boards, some are still there as well.

I’ve done alot of research since about what to do to create clickable pins.

Use crisp and bright images that represent your pin’s title, use fonts that are easy to read, and make sure to include keywords that users are searching for.

Yes, it is as simple as it sounds once you know what your audience is looking for.

When you find a style that works for you and your audience, stick with it. Use the same fonts, colors, and style so that Pinners can tell its you just by looking at your pins.

After a month, check your Pinterest analytics to see what pins are getting the most clicks to your blog posts. Make similar pins so that these posts keep getting traffic.

Again, figuring out what will get clicks may take a lot of time. Don’t stress out about this. Just have fun creating pins and seeing what pinners click on.

Making Pins with Canva

You can hire someone to make your pins, or you can design your pins. I love designing my pins with Canva. I use Canva’s free version and love how easy it is to navigate through.

There are many free images that are available on Canva. When I can’t find a picture I like, I use a copywrite free image on Pixabay. There are millions of images on this site, all for free!

There are plenty of other sites that offer beautiful images if you don’t want to make your own.

Want 10 beautiful Pinterest images to use to get thousands of views back to your blog? Purchase my customizable Canva pins today!

Beautiful Pinterest Pins

Tailwind

If you are getting decent traffic by pinning manually and do not use Tailwind, then skip this part. I know plenty of bloggers who are successful by pinning manually without Tailwind.

If you want to use Pinterest without spending hours pinning everyday, then read on.

I’m frugal when it comes to spending money on my blog and was hesitant about paying for Tailwind, but once I did I never looked back! I love that I can schedule pins way in advance without wasting hours of my day doing so on Tailwind.

I use a combination of scheduling pins on Tailwind and manually pinning during peak hours of the day. This combination gives me millions of views on my Pinterest pins, which gives me thousands of views a month on my blog!

Update: With recent changes in how to use Pinterest, I only schedule about 20 pins on Tailwind a day now. I also do some manually pinning as well.

Experiment with scheduled pinning, manually pinning, or doing both until you find what works for you.

Tailwind Tribes

Tailwind Tribes is a section on Tailwind where you can share pins with other Tailwind users. I get a ton of shares this way. You can use some of these for free.

I waited awhile before I went on a payment plan with Tailwind Tribes, but I’m so glad I took the plunge and paid for it!

Using the paid version of Tailwind Tribes helped boost traffic back to my most popular posts.

Update: With the recent changes in Pinterest, I’ve scaled back using Tailwind Tribes for now, since Pinterest now favors fresh pins.

Pinterest Analytics

Since using Pinterest analytics to increase blog traffic as well as combining all of the above steps, I have seen a massive surge of traffic from Pinterest, as well as a few pins that have gone viral in the last few months!

This traffic converts to ad clicks and affiliate sales, allowing me to make money on my blog!

Google Analytics

While Pinterest Analytics are important to know what pins are getting the most clicks, Google Analytics lets you know where all your traffic is coming from. I use this along with Pinterest Analytics to keep making pins for my most popular posts. Google Analytics also lets me know the best times to pin.

You can learn more about how to use Google Analytics to increase your blog traffic, know where your traffic is coming from and more in my Google Analytics guide.

Conclusion

Remember that when you are first starting off with Pinterest, seeing results can take time. Studying your Pinterest Analytics can help give you the information you need to attract pinners to your blog posts.

Using Pinterest analytics to increase blog traffic is a great way to attract viewers onto your blog. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments section below!