Last Updated on June 14, 2025 by Jan Barley
When I first started using Pinterest for blog traffic, I thought it was just a place for banana bread recipes, living room inspiration, and the occasional “30 Ways to Organise Your Life With Mason Jars” post.
I had no idea it would turn out to be the quiet powerhouse behind some of my biggest blog wins. I never suspected that it would help revive my blog from the ashes of a Google update.
One of the reasons why new bloggers quit is they can’t drive enough traffic to their blog. Well, Pinterest can, and will, address that issue and all withour having to dance with hoops.
Here’s the thing no one tells you: Pinterest isn’t exactly like social media. It’s more like a search engine wearing a pink fluffy jumper. And once I cracked that code, things changed.
Now, complete transparency: I’ve tried the pin-everything-and-hope-for-the-best approach. I’ve had boards that made zero sense, pins that looked like ransom notes, and moments of pure Pinterest rage when nothing seemed to move the needle. Still, over time (and a few mildly obsessive analytics sessions), I figured out what works.
In this post, I’m spilling the exact strategies I used to turn Pinterest into a steady traffic source without spending hours a day pinning or turning my blog into a full-blown lifestyle brand.
Whether you’re just getting started or wondering why your pins are flopping harder than a pancake on cheat day, this is for you.
Let’s look at what works, what doesn’t, and how to make Pinterest drive traffic to your blog like a quiet, consistent little engine.
Maximising Pinterest for Blog Traffic: Strategies That Worked for Me
When I first started using Pinterest for blog traffic, I assumed it was just a cosy little corner of the internet filled with sourdough recipes, rainbow bullet journals, and people who had their lives far more together than I did.
Turns out, it’s actually one of the best platforms out there for bloggers, especially if you want long-term, evergreen traffic without dancing on Reels or trying to figure out TikTok trends you don’t care about.
Now, I won’t pretend it was smooth sailing. My first few months on Pinterest were an absolute mess – think random boards, low-effort pins, and me checking analytics every hour like a data-hungry goblin.
But somewhere between pinning through the chaos and tweaking my strategy one late-night tea-fuelled session at a time, it started to work. Traffic started coming to my blog. Yippee!
Yes, of course, I then messed it up and had my Pinterest account suspended, which was a result of my pure arrogance in thinking I didn’t need a Pinterest course to teach me how to create a few pins. I never got that account back, despite many begging emails trying to negotiate with a bot.
So here it is: everything I’ve learned about using Pinterest for blog traffic, the things that worked, the ones that didn’t, and how I turned Pinterest into a quiet but powerful traffic machine.
Pinterest Is a Search Engine, Not a Social Media Platform
This awareness was the first aha moment that changed everything. I’d been treating Pinterest like Instagram (and I hated Instagram with a passion), trying to make things look “pretty,” focusing on engagement, and wondering why no one seemed to care.
Here’s the truth. Pinterest isn’t about followers. It’s about keywords.
Once I completed a Pinterest SEO course and started treating Pinterest like Google (but with better fonts), everything shifted.
I learned how to research what my audience was searching for and used those exact phrases in my pin titles, descriptions, and board names. Additionally, I started writing blog content that I knew would perform well in both Pinterest and Google searches.
Tip: Use Pinterest’s search bar to see what autocompletes. Those phrases are SEO gold.
You Don’t Need a Zillion Boards
In my early days, I had boards for everything. “Vegan Lunches,” “Freelance Life,” and “Cute Dogs Wearing Hats”, none of which had anything to do with my blog.
The Pinterest courses I did told me that was a no-no if I wanted success using Pinterest for blog traffic—slapped wrists and moving on.
Once I niched down and focused only on boards that matched my blog categories, Pinterest finally understood what my account was about and started showing my pins to the right people.
Pinterest Strategy That Worked:
- 5–10 well-optimised boards, each tied to a blog category
- Keyword-rich board names (not cutesy or vague)
- SEO-focused descriptions that clearly explain what each board is about
Consistency Beats Volume
I thought I had to be pinning 50 times a day. (Spoiler: you don’t.) Many of the gurus suggested building up to 10 pins daily. Who’s got chuffing time for that? I think a more realistic number (unless you’re using Pin Generator, which can produce hundreds of pins in minutes) is between 2 and 5, and I settled on 3.
What’s working for me is about showing up consistently. I now set aside time each week to create and schedule 2-3 pins per day, mixing fresh content with re-pins of older blog posts. I keep an Excel spreadsheet and rotate posts every few weeks.
Sneaky tip: Use ChatGPT to create Pinterest descriptions. Ask it to create 3-4 sentence SEO keyword-rich descriptions (or add your own for it to use) and up to four relevant hashtags. This one tip alone saves hours of painstakingly writing Pinterest descriptions from scratch.
I have 21 fixed templates on Canva and change only images, colours and text. That saves me tons of time each week.
Consistency = trust. Trust = reach.
Simple, but easy to forget when you’re knee-deep in Canva templates at midnight.
Fresh Pins = Pinterest Love
Pinterest loves fresh content. And no, that doesn’t mean writing a brand-new blog post every time. It means creating new pin images that lead to the same blog content.
I batch-create 5–7 pins per blog post using different titles, layouts, and keywords, then drip them out over a few weeks.
In addition, you can create relevant, fresh pins for other people’s boards if you join them.
High-Performing Pin Design Formula
I wasted a lot of time making “cute” pins that looked like aesthetic art pieces… and got three clicks. It used to take me about three hours to create 14 pins!
Once I leaned into bold, clear headlines and scroll-stopping design, it was a game-changer. I took the Pin Design Perfection course, which made a significant difference in how my pins looked and performed. The course gives you hundreds of pin templates, which, over time, I adapted to suit my style.
In addition, the course taught me fantastic graphic design skills that I apply to video content, thumbnails, and other visual elements.
My high-performing pins usually follow this formula:
- Vertical (1080x1920px)
- Bold headline (keyword-rich)
- One strong image or colour background
- Easy to read on mobile
- Call to action (“Click to read” or “Learn more”)
Pinterest for blog traffic doesn’t need to be fancy. It needs to be clear.
I Gave It Time
This part is tedious but crucial: Pinterest takes some time to get started. You won’t go viral overnight (unless you pin a controversial lasagna recipe or something).
My first 3 months were tumbleweeds.
By month 6, my blog began to receive traffic from Pinterest (outbound clicks), and it has since become my #2 traffic source. Amazing, considering I had to start from scratch with a new account.
By month 12, I am confident that Pinterest may become a rich traffic driver to my blog — and one of the easiest to maintain.
Smart Pinterest Strategy:
- Stick with it for at least 3–6 months (honestly, it is slow for a few months)
- Focus on consistent content
- Regularly update older posts with new pins
Bonus: Mistakes I Made (So You Don’t Have To)
Let’s rapid-fire a few lessons I learned about Pinterest the hard way:
- Thinking I could master Pinterest without taking a course with an expert
- Losing my first account because I didn’t know Pinterest Community Guidelines (8 months of work to zero, zilch, nada.) You can find the link to that in my blog post about getting my Pinterest account suspended.
- Keyword stuffing — Pinterest sees through it.
- Using short links
- Irrelevant boards — confuses the algorithm
- Ugly pins with too much text — no one clicks
- Not adding a disclaimer on affiliate pin descriptions
- Ignoring analytics — I missed what was actually working (write more blogs on the subjects where pins perform well)
Final Thoughts on Using Pinterest for Blog Traffic
Pinterest isn’t about quick wins. It’s about slow, steady, strategic growth. And the most satisfying thing is that it keeps working while you’re off doing literally anything else (client work, other blog content, crying into your tea – we’ve all been there).
One of the course leaders is Meagan, who runs the Popular Pin Potential course. She was one of the first to use Pinterest and now runs courses for them, as well as managing people’s Pinterest accounts.
I’ve followed Meagan and other long-standing Pinterest experts and seen posts about their daily income from aged accounts (Could you cope with $800.00 in one day, for instance?) and that has helped me keep going.
Incidentally, I received my first commission this year from a single Pinterest click that generated $498.00 in one transaction. Waking up to that email was the most exciting thing that happened to me this year (I don’t get out much, haha)
To wrap up this blog post, if you’re a blogger who wants evergreen traffic, and especially if your brain thrives on visual thinking and batching, like mine does, Pinterest for blog traffic might just be your secret weapon.
Give it time. Make it simple. And keep pinning.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you sign up for a program or make a purchase using my link.
