How to Use Pinterest Analytics to Boost Your Blog Traffic.

If you are a new Blogger like me, you probably have read every “How to use Pinterest to Grow Your Blog” post out there. You want to absorb every tip and strategy, but you keep running into the same big ol’ stop sign! The sales pitch.

“Buy my eCourse to boost your traffic by a billion percent!” “Sign up for my online class to Pinterest like a Boss”

Sigh.

I get it, we all have to make a little money with our blog. If I had the money, I probably would buy a few courses and ebooks. There are definitely a few that I’ve come close to buying! However, being a teacher with a wedding to pay for, every penny is precious right now.

Likewise, I just can’t get myself to invest in something that isn’t really guaranteed to work since Pinterest continues to change their algorithm. That, and I’m cheap. #honesty

Instead, I’ve been trying different strategies with Pinterest and keeping track of any noticeable changes to my traffic. Recently, I had a total “aha” moment with Pinterest and even began to notice more growth than usual!

So if you are on the fence about spending money on someone else’s Pinterest strategy, try these tips out and see if they help!

The best part. No sales pitch! No email sign up! Just a good old fashioned “How to” article. I’m just here wanting to help a sista/brotha out.

Here we gooo!

How to Use Pinterest Analytics to Boost Blog Traffic.

My little disclaimer: I have come up with this strategy based upon my own growth, what I’ve read on how Pinterest works and what just makes sense to me. You can use it any way you like! 🙂 

Pin it:

Before we begin, If you have not converted your Pinterest into a Business Account yet you can check out Pinterest’s Business Page for their guide. They explain it better than I ever could.

Preface: Manual Pinning vs Scheduled Pinning. 

My winner: Manual Pinning.

I’ve tried the free versions of Tailwind and Board Booster separately. Unfortunately, I only noticed a decrease in blog traffic, re-pins and saves with both platforms. This could have been a fluke or simply a result of me not having a great scheduling strategy, but it was a good enough reason for me to stick to manual pinning and save my money!

However, I still use Tailwind’s Free version to organize my manual pins for the days that I work! (teacher life is busy life…) It still saves me time, even though it’s not automatic.

Check out how I use Tailwind for Free —> Here

Similarly, I have read how Pinterest rewards their frequent site users. Now, I am sure that they don’t punish the schedule users, but I feel that they would be a little less rewarding since the users aren’t actually engaging with Pinterest.com as much?

I understand that they are getting more people to pin more, but Pinterest still wants traffic to Pinterest.com. If we all just used a scheduler what content would actually be seen on the actual Pinterest feed?

For me, being actively pinning on the actual Pinterest.com has shown the most success.

My proof:

The two slightly steep dips were during the times I used schedulers. In comparison, they aren’t that drastic, but like I said, manual pinning just works better for me! The huge spike was once I had my “aha” moment… keep reading!

Now for the juicy stuff.

Maybe this is common knowledge, but Pinterest Analytics is pretty much the key to strategically pinning on Pinterest. During my first month blogging, I would check my analytics and that was basically it. To me, it was all numbers and charts that showed if people saw my pins.

Then I started using the analytics and this is when I had my “aha moment”.

Allow me to tell you just how useful each analytics feature is…

1. “Your Pinterest Profile” (the green chart)

“Your Pinterest Profile” displays your Top Pin Impressions and which Boards contain the top impressions. Basically, how many times your pins have appeared for other people.

However, at the top you can see your “Saves, Clicks & All-time (power pins)” 

What’s so useful about the “Saves” and “Clicks” Tab?

You can see which Pins have the most saves and clicks during a certain time frame! If you create multiple images per pin, you can see which style seems to do the best. Trial and Error becomes a little easier!

Additionally, you can see which boards are producing the most saves. I pin my content to a ton of group boards, but this feature tells me which group boards are actually getting the most impressions, saves and clicks. Therefore, I should probably be using those group boards more often.

What’s so useful about the “All-time” Tab?

You can access your Pinterest “Power Pins”. These include both your content and other content you pin. Think of these as the super pins!

Right now, all of my Pinterest Power Pins are mainly other blog’s content, but I can see what qualities these pins/articles have that make them so powerful!

It gets better…

2. “People You Reach” (the purple chart)

This portion of the analytics page tells you everything about your audience.  However, the real GOLD is in the “Interests” tab.

What’s so useful about the “Interests” Tab?

You can see what interests your audience has! From here you could pin more content based on their likes, Pinterest will reward you for being super active and you may even receive more followers!

I follow a few “top” bloggers on Pinterest and always receive notifications on when they pin a bunch of content. I always wondered why these bloggers would pin tons, and I mean tons, of content that have little to do with their actual niches.

For example, the top “Financial Tips and Tricks” bloggers are always pinning recipes, fashion, DIY and home decor. Why? Their direct audience ALSO likes those things.

They can attract more of a following to their Pinterest. Perhaps, they are even rewarded with more “Pinterest oomph” for their own Pins because they are increasing their saves, clicks and impressions. Whatever the reason may be, if the top bloggers are doing it then I’m going to do try it!

3. “Website” (the blue chart)

The “website” portion of your analytics will show you the stats for every pin that is linked to your website. Right away you can see which pins and boards have the most impressions, saves and clicks!

Why are these tabs so useful?

Take notes! Maybe a certain style of pin is doing better than the others? Or, maybe one of your group boards has a high amount of impressions, saves or clicks? Keep pinning to that group board!

The gold is in the “All-time” tab. These are YOUR power pins. They are separated by Pins with the most saves, highest ranking in search results and your power pins. Power Pins are your pins that have the most saves, clicks, and ranking. Basically, they are loaded with Pinterest oomph!

4. The “Aha” Moment + Viral Pins

Once I saw this part of the analytics, I thought, “Why would Pinterest want us to see our Power Pins? What if these Pins have more ‘oomph’ than the other pins?” So I started re-pinning my Power Pins.

Usually, when I pin I will see one or two saves within a few hours. However, after I pinned a Power Pin I checked my notifications a few hours later and THIS happened.

One Pin was saved 25 times in just a few hours. (This felt drastic since I’m a new blogger!) Guys, this pin is STILL being saved all over.

This particular Pin links to my “Songwriting” page on my blog. This page has generated triple the amount of views and ad income since! It has also been pinned 1.5k times! Crazy?! (**2018 update: My Songwriting page has over 30k shares on Pinterest!) 

This is super exciting to me, since I originally though “songwriting” would be a tough audience to locate on Pinterest. I would have never thought that I would see a viral pin this early on in my blogging career! POWER PINS, People!

This is not the only viral Pin I’ve noticed since I began Power Pinning earlier this week!

My post “Affiliate Markets that Accept Small Blogs” has had 1.4k shares on Pinterest! (**2018 update: My Affiliate Markets post has over 4k shares on Pinterest!)

This is just too exciting for this new blogger! I feel like I struck gold. Even though it isn’t really exploding every Power Pin that I’ve been pinning, I definitely am noticing a huge amount of growth! That, and understanding my “Analytics Page” has really improved how I’ve been pinning in general.

I cannot wait to see more and more growth!

I REALLY hope that these tips and tricks bring you all amazing results too! Being a beginner blogger is so frustrating at times. Especially, since extra help always seems to come with a price tag. :-/

Let me know if you notice any growth or other successes with these tips! Or, maybe you have discovered other things that have worked even better?!

Best wishes to you and your blog!

      

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