Welcome to Part one in the five-part Grow Your Pinterest Series. If you are a blogger or business owner looking to grow your Pinterest views and followers, you are in the right place!

Why is Pinterest so important? First, I want to share some ways that Pinterest is an invaluable tool for your blog or business. After that, we will dive into how to create that perfect pin that will draw Pinners to your site (including exactly what you need in your pin description).

How to Create the Perfect Pin to Grow Your Pinterest Views and Followers

*This post contains affiliate links. If you click on these links, I may receive a commission at no cost to you. Full disclosure here.

Pinterest is not just a social media site.

It is a massively growing visual search engine that men and women use to find answers, tips, products, encouragement and so much more. In today’s society, we want easier ways to find what we are looking for and that is why your pin’s appearance will be so important.

People are going to scan the visual pin images and many times, they will choose the one that appeals the most to them.

So how can Pinterest help you as a blogger or small business owner?

Pinterest is a search engine that will bring increased traffic to your site. It can increase your visitors and traffic immensely and can prove to have a high conversion rate when those site visitors do come. One of my largest sources of traffic is from Pinterest. And starting out, it often can be your leading source of traffic. (I do recommend optimizing your site with SEO because this is the most reliable way to grow traffic). But with that said, Pinterest has brought me so many visitors and in turn so many subscribers and customers and it can do the same for you!

Pinterest can also help you get recognized on Google. Have you ever searched for something on Google and instead of finding a website, the link or image takes you to a pin? This is the beauty of Pinterest. It uses SEO techniques just like a regular search engine. And it allows you the opportunity to be found not just on Pinterest, but on search engines like Google as well.

And finally, Pinterest is a fun way to share that will go beyond your following. For example, if a friend of mine pins one of my posts to their board called “Help for Anxiety”, they open the door to their viewers, followers and audience to see my pin - although those people don’t even follow me! It’s a great way to get exposure and be found by those that are your ideal audience. You can use the techniques below to be sure you’re ready to convert when your ideal audience sees your pin!

So let’s get started on creating the perfect pin!

How to Create a Pin that will Grow Your Pinterest Views

The Free Tool that Will Help You Create the Perfect Image

There are several tools out there that you can use to create your pin image, but my favorite is Canva! It’s free to use and has a ton of great options, templates and ways to customize your images.

You can sign in or create a Canva account for free here.

To get started, you can select the Pinterest Graphic template which has the dimensions of 735px x 1102px. This is the optimal size for your pins because Pinterest prefers vertical images.

Once you’re in your image template, you can begin designing. They have sample templates on the left-hand side, or you can design it yourself.

What Your Pin Will Need

The first thing your pin will need is a high-quality image.

There are several websites you can get these from for free (I use Unsplash), but the key here is that the image is good quality and looks good with your branding. Of course, if you are a small business or product-based business or blog, you can use your own images.

I’ve begun using some of my own images as I write about more lifestyle topics. I just recommend learning how to edit your images, even if just in a free program like Lightroom Mobile, so that they are attractive and appealing.

The next thing your pin will need (especially if it is a blog post) is a title.

Your title will not only need to be visually appealing but will also need to draw readers in and give them a reason to repin and to click over to your site.

There are several components of a good title and a ton of helpful info out there on how to construct the perfect title (a post for later). So for the sake of this post, we will just talk about how to format your title.

Here are some tips on formatting your title on your Pinterest image:

  • Use one or two fonts
  • Use one or two colors
  • Make it easy to read
  • Using a white overlay on top of the image and behind the text is helpful
  • Include your website or logo somewhere on the image

Here are a few different examples that I have done on my blogs over the years. Some I like better than others. Which do you find most appealing?

Grow Your Pinterest Views_ Pinterest Image Example (1)

Showing Your Opt-In is a Great Way to Draw People In

A great way to entice people to choose your pin over others when searching for something is advertising your opt-in on your pin.

You can include an image of your opt-in with text saying something like “+ FREE Workbook” etc. This lets people know that your post won’t be the only content that they will get when they come to your site.

Here are a few examples of times that I’ve done that:

Schedule Your Pins with Tailwind

The tool that changed my Pinterest’s trajectory in big ways is Tailwind. When I began pinning and scheduling pins with Tailwind, my Pinterest views and followers grew, but my traffic coming to my site from Pinterest skyrocketed!

I know that it is this method that continues growing my traffic because if my pin “queue” becomes empty for a few days, I see my Pinterest views go down dramatically.

Tailwind allows you to pin your pins at the optimum time of day, consistently throughout the day. And because of this, your pins get seen more and shared more.

You can try a FREE 30 day trial of Tailwind here.

You can not only fill your queue and have your pins going to your boards regularly, but you can join tribes and collaborate there too. In a tribe, you can pin your image and the others in the tribe will share it to their boards. You also can find a huge (and easy to find) amount of content in these tribes to schedule to your own boards. It takes the hard work out of filling up your queue.

Tailwind has been one of the most influential parts of increasing my Pinterest traffic to my site and growing my Pinterest followers and views!!

What Your Pin Description Needs

You may think that the pin description isn’t important, especially because Pinterest is a highly visual platform, but that is far from the truth!

Because Pinterest works like a search engine, your pins will need SEO in order to thrive.

Here are three key factors that your pin description will need in order to rank well in the search engine aspect of Pinterest:

  • A description full of keywords. Be sure to use the longtail keyword that you used in your post.
  • Be sure the title and meta description of the actual image that people can pin from your site are optimized because this is what will automatically populate the pin description when they pin.
  • You can now use hashtags on Pinterest! You don’t need a ton, but choosing highly engaged and related hashtags can be very beneficial for your SEO.

Are you ready to grow your Pinterest views and followers? If you follow these steps to creating your pin, you will be on your way to increasing your traffic from Pinterest and growing your account.

Be sure to tune in for part two of the Pinterest series: How to Get Followers & Views on Pinterest