You should be using images with your blog posts. You should also be using social media platforms appropriate to your audience and business. If that means it’s appropriate for you to be using Pinterest here are ten tips to help you drive more traffic to your blog.

1. Identify Useful Keywords

Identify the keywords that are relevant to your blog and any other online presence you want to link through Pinterest. If you use the correct keywords your pins will appear as the result of searches and when people are looking at images and boards that are related to your content.

2. Choose Your Username Carefully.

Pinterest allows you to have a username that is a keyword. If your username is a keyword related to your niche your boards will be displayed among the results when anyone uses that keyword in a search.

3. Optimise Your About Section

Use keywords when writing your About section in Pinterest. You can write about your background story, why your content would be useful or of interest to your readers, and any other reasons that will encourage people to consume your content. Then go through what you have written and insert relevant keywords where possible without overdoing it. This will help people find your work when searching in your niche.

4. Create Themes for Your Boards

Create boards that gather images related to a keyword relevant to your niche. Use boards the way you would use categories on your blogs.

5. Optimise Your Descriptions

Use the description of each pin wisely. Including relevant keywords and URLs will help you gain and direct more traffic.

6. Use ALT Tags

Whenever you put an image on your blog you should set up an ALT tag for it. Pinterest is no different. An ALT tag should describe what the image is showing and include some keywords that people in your niche would be looking for. For example, if you are working in the photography niche don’t just put ‘This is a picture of the Moon’. Add more detail so there is more chance that a search by someone in your niche will include your work in the results, for example ‘Nighttime photography picture of the Moon taken with a Canon EOS 20D’.

7. Use Unique Hashtags

Pinterest is a social media site, so it supports hashtags. Currently there is no official limit to the number of hashtags you can use. However users have been finding that searching Pinterest using hashtags can often produce results dominated by the keyword in the description rather than the hashtag. Until this improves we might as well stick to keywords and only use hashtags for words or phrases unique to you. For example your brand, name, or for an event with a unique hashtag.

8. Use Watermarks

A watermark with your logo and/or URL will discourage others using your unique images as their own. If the image is used by someone there is an obvious way to track down your blog or website right there in the corner of your image.

9. Link to your blog

Link each pin you create to your blog or website. Ideally to a specific, relevant page. You should be creating blog posts with images, and then pin to a board from your blog so that visitors always link back to your site.

10. Re-pin Images with your Keywords

Search your keywords on a regular basis and re-pin other people’s boards and pins that also carry your keywords. You can also follow them and their followers to help build a following of your own and increase interactions.

I’ve said before that trying to be on every platform is a mistake. However if you have decided Pinterest is right for you, following the above tips will help you drive traffic to your blog or website.