15 Best-Kept Pinterest Secrets Every Blogger Needs to Know

It’s no secret that Pinterest can be a blogger’s best friend when it comes to free website traffic. But there are a few key Pinterest secrets that many blogger’s aren’t too familiar with.

And that’s what we’re digging into in this article!

There is a lot of outdated and inaccurate information floating around there in the blogosphere, and if you follow outdated advice, you don’t get good results.

So, let’s take a moment to bury the misconceptions and uncover some of the best-kept Pinterest secrets that a lot of the coaches and gurus don’t share. 

Figuring out how to use the platform properly is going to help you boost your Pinterest page views, boost your blog traffic, and stay on the good side of the Pinterest algorithm.

Let’s get to it!

PINTEREST SECRET # 1: PINTEREST LIMITS HOW MANY BOARDS AND PINS YOU CAN HAVE

Pinterest users are allowed to have:

• 2000 Pinterest boards (your boards and group boards)
• 200,000 Pinterest pins (your pins and other pins you save)
• 50,000 Pinterest followers 

This storage number includes your secret boards and your secret pins (Pinterest Source).

When you hit the limit, you will get an error message that prevents you from creating any more boards or pins. Your only option at that point will be to start deleting current pins and boards to make room for their replacements.

Don’t let this stress you out though, because 200,000 pins is A LOT of pins. We just want to keep this in mind for our long-game Pinterest strategy.

PINTEREST SECRET # 2: YOU DO NOT NEED TO PIN A BUNCH OF PINS EVERY DAY

Hopefully this one isn’t a secret to anyone by now, but we need to cover our bases anyway.

Pinterest wants creators to publish fresh NEW content and avoid spammy behavior. 

And remember, we do have a limit of how many pins we’re allowed to pin to our account overall. If you’re pinning a hundred pins a day, you’re going to hit your cap wayyyy sooner than any blogger wants to.

So, focus on quality over quantity.

How many new pins should you pin each day?

There is not just one right answer. The truth is, you have to find what works for your account.

But one thing we have learned is that Pinterest DOES NOT want to see an excessive amount of pinning every day.

Some bloggers pin 1 fresh pin per day. Others pin 5-10 fresh pins per day. And others pin a few of their own pins and a few of other people’s pins every day.

The goal is to create high-quality, attractive pins, and publish new pins on a consistent basis.

I do not recommend pinning more than 10-15 pins a day. I personally pin 1-3 pins a day, maximum.

PINTEREST SECRET # 3: A ‘FRESH PIN’ IS A NEW IMAGE

Yes, Pinterest has confirmed that they want to see content creators publishing FRESH pins on Pinterest. 

But does this mean you need to write a new article and create a new pin every day in order to get noticed?

Nope.

A “fresh pin” is a brand new pin image that has never been seen on the Pinterest platform before.

That pin image can be attached to an older URL and still be considered fresh content.

With that said, it’s important to keep in mind that Pinterest is crawling our sites and studying our content to make sure that it’s relevant to users. 

We aren’t trying to trick the system by attaching new images to old blog posts. We are simply testing different images to see what people respond to and presenting fresh images for pinners to look at.

If you need help creating fresh pins, don’t even sweat it! You have a lot of options.

You can create them on your own using a tool like Canva. You can buy pre-made pin templates right here. Or  you can use Tailwind Create to create dozens of personalized pins from one photo. You just need an account to use the tool. Set up your Tailwind account right here. 

PINTEREST SECRET # 4: IT’S NOT A SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM

If you’ve been following any Pinterest-related content lately, then this probably isn’t a secret. But it’s a good reminder.

Pinterest is a search engine.

Pinterest is designed to help people search and find ideas, inspiration, and solutions to their problems.

It’s all about helping people find things to do, use, try, and buy… it isn’t about being “social” with friends and followers. AT ALL.

In fact, Pinterest users often say that they turn to this platform to escape from social media and get lost in their own curated feeds of inspiration.

Knowing what Pinterest was designed for and what pinners use it for will help us to use it properly. 

Create and share pins that will be useful to your audience. Optimize the heck out of those pins so that your audience can FIND YOU right when they need you.

Actionable tip: Use keywords on your pins, descriptions, board titles, board descriptions, profile, etc.

You want to pepper these words naturally into your content, but you definitely want them to be all over the place…so that people can find you and so that Pinterest can figure out what your account is all about.

There is no need to be “social” on Pinterest. Focus on creating helpful content for your audience and optimizing your pns so they can find it when they need it.

PINTEREST SECRET # 5: THE ANALYTICS ARE NOT ACCURATE

Pinterest page views are just the people that have scrolled past one of your pins in the Pinterest feed. It doesn’t mean that they actually saw your pin, clicked on your pin, or that they are your target audience… so don’t stress about it.

Also, your Pinterest analytics are not an accurate reflection of blog traffic coming from Pinterest.

Why?

Because someone might click on your pin by accident without actually visiting your site, and it still counts as a visit to your blog in Pinterest’s eyes. 

They measure behavior differently than your website analytics tools.

Install Google Analytics and use that as your source of reference for Pinterest growth. It’s a more accurate metric.

After you install Google Analytics on your blog, you’ll login and find your Pinterest stats. Under Reports on the left side of your screen, click on Acquisition > Social > Network Referrals … This will tell you how many viewers you are getting on your Website directly from Pinterest!

PINTEREST SECRET # 6: HASHTAGS ARE NOT IMPORTANT ANYMORE

There is nothing wrong with including 1-2 relevant hashtags to the end of your Pinterest description, but hashtags do not receive any unusual favor from the search engine anymore.

Using relevant keywords in your description is just as valuable as using a hashtag.

Pro Tip: use ONE branded hashtag at the end of your pins so that you can sort and track your own pins based on that hashtag.

PINTEREST SECRET # 7: YOU DON’T NEED TO CREATE A TON OF PINS FOR YOUR BLOG POSTS

You don’t need to create an excessive amount of pins for every blog post. It’s time consuming, and if you don’t have a real strategy, then you’re essentially just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping it sticks. 

Start with creating two pins per post.

This gives you the chance to publish a fresh pin to your most relevant board today and then schedule another “fresh” pin to another relevant board next week or next month.

You should go into your Pinterest analytics on occasion, to see which pins are performing well on the platform. Then you can recreate similar pin images for other articles.

PINTEREST SECRET # 8: THE ALT TAG IS NOT FOR YOUR PIN DESCRIPTION

The alt tag is meant to describe exactly what is in the image (the pin graphic).

Content creators have often used the alt tag section as an extra ‘optimization’ area to cram more keywords, but that is not what it is for.

The alt tag is an image descriptor for the visually impaired. And whatever you put in the alt tag section will be read by a screen reader when a visually imparied person sees your pin.

So, make sure that you’re using the alt tag for what it’s meant for. Describe the image itself in a few words.

When uploading pins directly to Pinterest, there is now an alt tag section for you to enter your alt tag.

When optimizing pin images within your blog posts, you can use a plugin like Tasty Pins or Grow by Mediavine to enter the appropriate alt tag description. 

PINTEREST SECRET # 9: GROUP BOARDS ARE NOT FAVORED IN THE ALGORITHM

In the early days of Pinterest marketing, group boards were all the rage.

People could join a collective board and share their pins there for a larger audience to see.

Well, all good things must come to an end.

After people caught onto the trend of spreading their pins farther and wider through group boards, spammy “catch all” boards started to drown out any semblance of quality content within group boards.

Group boards quickly lost favor in the Pinterest algorithm due to the random content and excessive spammy behavior.

Pinterest likes content that is easy to understand and categorize. 

Using proper board descriptions and only pinning NICHE-SPECIFIC content to those boards is essential is you want to be recognized as an authority in your niche on Pinterest.

Niche-specific group boards that have built up some previous authority in the algorithms can still fare well, but most of the time, group boards are no longer worth your time.

Pro Tip: Focus on your own niche-specific boards and don’t worry about joining group boards.

PINTEREST SECRET # 10: THE FEED IS NOT IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

When you login to Pinterest, the first thing you’ll see is your smart feed. It’s a combination of pins that Pinterest has chosen for you based on a few things:

– Your interests and behavior.

– The people you follow.

– The boards and topics you follow.

In other words, Pinterest is curating a smart feed for you based on your actions.

This means that every time you follow someone or pin something, the Pinterest algorithm is learning about your likes and dislikes, and they are putting content in front of you that you will most likely engage with.

The smart feed is NOT in chronological order. The search feed is NOT in chronological order.

Why does this matter?

If you’re using Pinterest for your business, you only want to be pinning content that is relevant and helpful for YOUR READERS. 

When they are searching for something, you want to make sure that your helpful content has the chance to pop up in their feed. When they are browsing through topics that you write about, you want to make sure that your pins can pop up in their smart feed.

Although we don’t have control over the Pinterest algorithm, we can recognize how it works and work WITH the algorithms to make pinners happy.

So remember, your pins are not necessarily displayed to pinners in the order that you publish them. Pins are displayed based on the actions of the user.

Our job is to OPTIMIZE our pin images and descriptions so that our pins appear in the feed when users are searching for topics that we write about. 

Popular, relevant, well-optimized pins will show up in the smart feed and search feed, regardless of when those pins were created.

PINTEREST SECRET # 11: YOU CAN VIEW ALL YOUR PINS IN ONE PLACE

You can view all of the pins that you’ve created by plugging your Pinterest username into this URL: Pinterest.com/YOURUSERNAME/_created 

You can also find this information within your Pinterest profile under the Created Tab.

This little trick can help with competitor research too.

Plug in any Pinterest username into that URL to see what their pins look like, how often they pin, what wording and descriptions they use, etc.

Although you should never copy another creator, it’s good to do competitor research to see what’s working and what’s not.

Look at what the competition is doing and why. And then figure out how to do your Pinterest marketing better! 

PINTEREST SECRET # 12: THERE ARE FREE TOOLS TO HELP YOU GROW

Pinterest hasn’t left us in the dark when it comes to figuring out what to do.

They provide a lot of free information and tools to help you maximize your marketing efforts on their platform.

You can find Pinterest trends here. Pinterest business news here. And a community of Pinterest marketers sharing info right here.

If you’d like to try a Pinterest scheduling tool for free, you can get a free month of Tailwind right here.

PINTEREST SECRET # 13: THE ALGORITHM CAN READ YOUR IMAGE

It’s important to use relevant images and relevant keywords on your images (if you use text overlay). Because the Pinterest algorithm can read your image and will categorize it accordingly.

Try to avoid using arbitrary images that don’t directly relate to the content within your pin.

If you have a Canva pro account, you can use their huge library of stock photos to create gorgeous pins that relate to your content.

PINTEREST SECRET # 14: YOUR PIN SIZE MATTERS

Your pin size should be at least 1000 x 1500 px.

Don’t make them too tall, because ‘giraffe’ pins can easily be cut off in the Smart feed. 

PINTEREST SECRET # 15: YOUNG PEOPLE LOVE PINTEREST

Move over, TikTok and Snapchat!

Turns out that young adults are flocking to Pinterest more than ever before.

The Tailwind team did a little research in late 2020 and discovered that more than 30% of Pinterest users fall into the age range of 18-25.

Why?

Mostly because there is no drama on Pinterest! It’s just a curated feed built for your own inspiration.

This shows that there is a wide range of potential readers to be found on this platform. It isn’t just homeschooling moms on Pinterest, y’all!

Make sure you’re paying attention to Pinterest demographics and serving your audience properly on this platform.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Here are the main things to remember when using Pinterest for your business:

Pinterest is a search engine that allows users to search, find, and save “ideas, inspiration, and solutions to their problems.” As a business owner, you want to create and publish pins on this platform so that your blog post can be the solution they find right when they are searching for it.

Pinterest does set a limit on how many boards and pins you can store on the platform, and they have stated that our focus should be on pinning our own fresh content. 

Be sure to focus on quality pins that will get attention from your ideal readers. Don’t pin hundreds of pins per day, just focus on quality and consistency.

It will take a little time to gain traction on Pinterest and see those page views converting into blog traffic. Be patient, but not too patient. If you aren’t gaining any blog traffic within 2-3 months, it’s time to adjust and improve your strategy.

And if you need help, this strategic Pinterest course called Pinteresting Strategies is a game-changer, so check it out!