7 Mistakes You're Making Trying To Grow Your Pinterest

Last updated on 4 November 2024

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Trying to grow your Pinterest account?

So you’re trying to grow your Pinterest account. Fantastic! But did you know there are things that you shouldn’t be doing? There are mistakes that you might be making that is going to seriously affect your chances of doing well on Pinterest.

Do you remember back in the early days of Pinterest when you couldn’t create an account unless you had an invitation?

If memory serves correctly, I received an invite from a friend back in 2012, at least that’s what my records show as me starting my account. That’s nearly a decade ago, and Pinterest has changed a lot in those years.

So much so that the way we share content, find content and engage with those already on Pinterest is vastly different.

Back when Pinterest started, it was really used as a place to store your ideas, inspiration and things you wanted to try out. I’m talking recipes, DIY projects and wedding decor.

I don’t know about you, but my Boards back then were exactly that: they were meals I wanted to try, the DIY ideas I wanted to someday make and the pretty decorations I wanted to have for my future wedding. They were Boards full of cute puppies, inspirational quotes, tattoo ideas (which I never went through with), holiday destinations that I spent my days dreaming about and pretty houses I imagined myself living in one day.

I want to reassure you, Pinterest is still for all those things. It’s still the place where people flock to find exactly all those things … but the way users find said information and discover things that didn’t know they needed has changed. This means the way we creators use the platform needs to change.

What’s the chat?

If you got a Pinterest account back in the day, then the way you saw the most content was by following people. When you followed other accounts, you saw all the things that they were Pinning in your Home Feed. If I follow Jane, Sally and Meg, whenever they Pinned something new to any of the Boards of theirs I was following, those Pins would appear in my Home Feed where I could then Pin them to my own Boards.

If I wanted to search for something in particular, I could do that in the search bar and discover new accounts and Boards to follow.

So what’s changed?

Now Pinterest has a Smart Feed.

This means that Pinterest makes note of all the things you’ve been interacting with and pulls together other Pins from anyone on Pinterest and shows them to you in a Smart Feed. It doesn’t matter if you follow Jane, Sally or Meg; if they’re not sharing content that you’ve been interested in in the past wee while then chances are you’re not going to see what they’re Pinning unless you go straight to their Profiles and scroll through their Pins.

So what does this mean for trying to grow your Pinterest account?

It means that you are not as likely to gain followers as often as you would in years gone by. But what it does mean is that you have a greater chance that your Pins will get seen by a lot more people, which means your blog or your social media channels have a greater chance of gaining that traffic that you’re after. It means there are certain ways you can unlock the power of Pinterest. But it also means that there are mistakes you might be making.

Let’s take a look at 7 mistakes you’re making trying to grow your Pinterest account

You’re posting sporadically
Pins have no titles
You’re posting Pins without a description
You’re making anything a Pin
Your Pins are messy and cluttered
You’re Pinning for you and not for others
You’re Pinning puppies and DIY ideas

1. You’re posting sporadically

Pinterest is going to work best for you if you’re consistent. One of the worst things you can do is Pin Pin Pin on one day and not Pin work a week. That’s not going to work. Pinterest, like Instagram and Facebook, relies on you being consistent.

The best practice is to set yourself up with a scheduling tool or app that allows you to schedule Pins to go out at certain times, spread out across the week. There are plenty to choose from but the best bet is Tailwind. It’s full of features that will mean you’re scheduling Pins and getting that consistency happening, and all it takes is about an hour of setup a week. Set and forget!

2. Pins have no titles

Pinterest runs on keywords, and the next few mistakes you’re making trying to grow your Pinterest account are to do with keywords. It’s Pinterest SEO.

When you google something and you see the articles all come up, they all have titles. They have titles that are catchy, that are click-worthy and that are using keywords to be found. Pinterest works similarly. If your Pin doesn’t have a title then that’s one fewer way people are going to find your Pins. Just like blog posts and articles online, Pins need a title. Make sure you’re using a keyword/s that people are likely to be searching for and include a title on every single Pin.

3. You’re posting Pins without a description

In the same vein, Pinterest uses the description. When you search for something on Pinterest, the search engine picks up those words in descriptions of Pins.

This means it’s incredibly important that you use keywords in your description of your Pins and make sure they’re clear and easily discoverable. It’s also worth noting here that while hashtags aren’t as key as they are on Instagram, Pinterest still works with hashtags. It’s a good idea to add 5 – 10 keywords as hashtags at the end of your Pin for good measure. Pinterest lets you use 20 hashtags, but to be honest, using that many in a Pin situation looks spammy. But give it a go and see how you do.

4. You’re making anything a Pin

I’ve just mentioned the importance of keywords. And they really will make or break your Pinterest account and it’s traction.

Just like in the Pin’s title and description, it’s important to use keywords on the actual Pin. Pinterest can ‘read’ your Pin. Which means if you place the text ‘Kick-Start Your Blog’ on the Pin, Pinterest is going to pick that up and show people that Pin if they search for those words. Pretty clever right?

Which means it’s just as important to use keywords ON your Pins, as it is to use them while titling or describing them.

In the same vein, Pinterest can ‘read’ your image. If you’re talking about starting a blog for instance, and you have a picture of a kid playing with a teddy bear, Pinterest is less likely to show your Pin to searchers even if you write How To Start A Blog on it. Make sure your images are irrelevant.

5. Your Pins are messy and cluttered

Because of the above point, you can’t just throw all your text at your Pin and hope for the best. Use your keywords, and create them in a font that people can easily read. Best to stick to two fonts max, and make sure that any swirly ones are still easy to read.

Be sure to have a clear image which is uncluttered and not busy. Again, with text over the top, it’s going to be hard to read, even if you DO have one nice clean font. Keep your images as simple as you can.

6. You’re Pinning for you and not for others

If your followers and the people searching for your content are really responding to a certain type of Pin, don’t go throwing the system a curveball and Pinning things that only you want to see.

Yes, Pinterest is a place to save ideas, but not it’s no longer a place that’s just for you. Pinterest is a search engine (say again for the people in the back: a search engine!), so people come to find your content. If they’ve done a search and followed it back to your account, they don’t want to have to wade through a swamp of other content to find more for what they came here for.

7. You’re Pinning puppies and DIY ideas

Just like the above point, don’t go Pinning cute animal pictures and DIY ideas to your account if that’s not what you’re trying to promote.

If the things that you’re Pinning are for your future wedding and you’re a Business Coach, you can definitely still Pin those bridesmaid dress inspiration and those decor ideas, but keep them in a Secret Board. Then you can Pin to your heart’s content, but you’re remembering that you’re serving the people, and they might not suddenly want an onslaught of hessian and twine.

To create a Secret Board: go to your account > select the Board you want to make secret > at the top there are dots to click > click and scroll down to ‘Keep board a secret’.

Recap for trying to grow your Pinterest account

If you want to grow your Pinterest account, and, more importantly get those all-important clickbacks to your blog, website or social media accounts, then you need to stop doing all these things. Here’s a quick-fire list of all the things you should be doing:

Use a scheduling app to spread your Pins out, and have a schedule that you stick to (for example, 10 Pins per day)
Include a title which mirrors the keywords on your Pin
Make your descriptions flow nicely, but include (naturally) 2 – 3 keywords/phrases
Make sure your Pin’s image is related to the content
Create Pins that are easy to read and more likely to be clicked
Pin content for the people coming to your account
Create Secret Boards for your kittens

With a little perseverance, patience and Pinning creativity, you’ll be able to grow your Pinterest account as you’ve always wanted.