You're panicking. You keep seeing your Pinterest traffic drop week after week.

So the pins that used to perform so well for you and send lots of visitors to your website now get you crickets.

What's going on? Is there anything you can do to reverse this?

Here's 10  things you can do to boost your Pinterest traffic back up.

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What to do when your Pinterest traffic drops

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I am not sure why so many people are reporting a drop in Pinterest traffic. 

Some reasons might be:

  • the algorithm has changed
  • promoted pins are using some of the spaces in the SmartFeed
  • you need up use different types of pins
  • a seasonal problem
  • your audience is not behaving the same way
  • you're choosing the wrong keywords

It's hard to tell because there are a lot of different opinions from experts, but Pinterest did a Webinar with Tailwind and explained what the best practices for pinning are.

And if you're doing the wrong things, it might affect your reach.

So here are some Pinterest marketing tips to help you solve your Pinterest traffic decline issues.

Get the basics right to reverse your Pinterest traffic drop

Before we start with some of the Pinterest traffic boosting tips I will give you, let's make sure you have the basics right.

Sometimes Pinterest will work even when you've set things wrong, particularly if you have a new or newish account and you're publishing new content.

But it can soon start going downhill if you haven't set up things the right way.

  • Is your website optimised for Pinterest? A  great way to get more Pinterest traffic is to make sure your website is set up to encourage visitors to pin from it.
  • Are your Profile and your Boards set up the right way?
  • Are you pinning consistently? 
  • Are you using more than one pin image for your blog posts? This is super-important!!
  • Are you using CTAs in your pins so you get more click throughs?
  • Are you using Tailwind? It doesn't really matter if you do manual pinning or use a scheduler but Tailwind members usually see an increase in followers, reach and your traffic. Try Tailwind for free.

If you don't have your basics right, you can start by getting my book How to Set Up Your Website For Pinterest.

Is your website pinterest friendly?

How to set up your website for Pinterest Success

You could be missing out on Pinterest engagement and traffic if you don't set up your website and your blog posts the right way. 

Get How To Set Up Your Website For Pinterest Success today and boost your Pinterest traffic


But if you're happy with your website and your pins, here are a few things you can do when you want to get your Pinterest traffic back up:

1. Create new pin designs

THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PINTEREST TIP!

Pinterest loves brand new content. It doesn't matter when you're reading this.

So perhaps you've not been creating a lot of blog content, or you only have one pin per blog post or per page. That's one reason your Pinterest traffic is tanking.

The solution is to create more content and to have 5-10 pins per blog post/page.

But what if you want to drive traffic to those blog posts that used to get you lots of affiliate commissions or get you hundreds of people joining your email list? 

You can still increase traffic to these blog posts by creating brand new pins.

But you can't possibly do all your blog posts in one go. So start with your 5 best blog posts first and up to 5 of those pages or posts you want to send more Pinterest users to.

The easiest way to find your best content on Pinterest is to use this FREE Google Analytics Dashboard from Kristie Hill.

When you receive the email with the dashboard, follow the instructions, click on the link and it will take you to your Google Analytics account.

Pinterest traffic drops - what you can do

You can also use Tailwind Analytics to find your most popular pins.

Then create 5 new pins for each blog post.

You can do the rest later and update your designs.

But, do your pins needs a makeover? 

While you're at it... Isn't it time you improved your pins and gave them a fresher look?

3 ways you can improve your pins 

  1. Improve your pin design skills.  Make your pins stand out from the rest with this course. It's free, and it's full of great tips to help you design better pins. 
  2. Change your pin styles or increase the number of designs. If you can't afford a designer and want a way to do them yourself: Get these templates from Bluchic, or these from HungryJPeg
  3. Use multiple images for the same pin. Cos Pinterest does not focus on the text but the images. So 5 different images with same text = 5 pins. So getting a stock photo membership has now become more important if you don't take your own photos.

One of my favourites is IvoryMix stock photos, you hav access to thousands of images that are already in stock and you receive +100 images each month. But if you are not ready for a membership, why not check out one of her collections?

You'll get multiple photos that you can use and reuse in original ways, but the best value for money is definitely the membership option!! 

A solution for busy bloggers and entrepreneurs

It's very easy to spend hours and hours creating new pins for your posts. It's even more tempting to go on a pin creation spree and spend hours and hours creating and scheduling new pins when you see your Pinterest traffic drop. Even when you use templates, you could still end up spending several hours a week on pin design.

But what if you could create tens of pins in minutes?

That's where the new Tailwind Create tool comes in. 

Tailwind Create is a new tool by Tailwind that allows you to create lots of designer-quality pins with a couple of clicks.

You add your URL, the images you want to use, click on Go Create et voilà! You get multiple pins that you can easily edit, select and schedule in minutes.

Seriously, it's that good.

How to filter designs in Tailwind Create

I explain how to do this in detail here.

Want to try it for yourself?

To request early access to Tailwind Create, you must be a Tailwind user.

Click here if you're not already a Tailwind user.

Now click here to request early access to Tailwind Create.

And add the code CREATEPARTNER2020 in question 8 of the survey.



Start sharing your images

Once you have your new images upload them in batches to Tailwind or pin them directly to Pinterest.

If you want to increase the number of pins you can use, use different combinations of images, pin titles and descriptions.

NOTE: A new pin is a new combination of IMAGE + URL, changing the pin title or description does not make it a brand new pin. so don't overshare. But I like doing it to test different keywords and hashtags anyway.

And, what's even more important, make sure your Pinterest boards also use the best keywords for your pins.  

Only pin to relevant boards and create very specific boards if you need to. 

Another thing to bear in mind is not to share your pins to more than 10 boards and make sure they're all optimised for SEO.

TIP: Use a spreadsheet to keep track of all your keywords for your topics and keep a sheet with your blog post and pin descriptions.

5. Share your best performing pins in tribes

If you still don't use Tribes, get FREE access here. Join Tailwind here and start playing with them.

Most tribes allow you to resubmit your pins. So find your most popular pins and add them to your best tribes again.

If you click on the attention sign, you can see when you last submitted it to check you're not sharing it too often or breaking Tribe rules.

What to do when your Pinterest traffic drops

If you want to change the title and description before you add it to your tribes it's OK, cos you'll be using the same image with a different description.

But a lot of people pay more attention to the image and how popular the pin is before they pin. So it's not absolutely necessary. After all, the pin performs well already.

But it's also great to pin some of your newest designs! 

TIP: Try pinning different versions of one pin to different tribes.

6. Create simple infographics for your best blog posts

People love infographics and they're always some of my most popular pins.  Because they get lots of repins. 

It's true they sometimes get more shares than click-throughs, so add a CTA to the pin image and in the description to tell people there's a free resource available.

I mean, all your blog posts have a content upgrade or a lead magnet, don't they?

7. Remove your poorly performing pins from smartloop

If you're already using SmartLoop, there is some housekeeping you need to do every few weeks and it's to check the performance of your pin.

You can see how well your SmartLoops are performing in Kristie's dashboard or directly in Tailwind.

What's the point of having pins nobody shares or clicks on your SmartLoop?

So do a clean up operation and add your latest and best performing pins.

You should also check that you're not pinning these older pins too often, just fo fill in the gaps a bit, if you know what I mean. 

And I wouldn't use SmartLoop to pin to group boards at all, just to mine (but that's up to you).

SMARTLOOP IS NOT PERFORMING WELL FOR YOU?

I am pretty sure Tailwind won't be happy for me to say this, but it's OK for you to stop using SmartLoop if you don't think it's working.

In fact, I stopped using SmartLoop a few weeks ago and I have seen my reach and my traffic steadily increase since I stopped using it, even when I am not creating a lot of new content.

But I still use it for other profiles.

8. Redo your schedule 

Are you pinning at the right times? Or are you pinning too much?

If you're pinning manually, you can try pinning intermittently during the day rather than batch your pinning. It will depend on where you are and where most of your readers are. 

But, ideally, you want to pin when your pins get the most engagement. That's why Tailwind is a great tool and you should try it.  

If you use Tailwind, all you need to do is click on Your Schedule from the Menu bar and click on Recreate Schedule

You'll notice that Tailwind is now telling you when you're at risk of spamming, so you don't overdo it with your pinning. You should also leave at least 2 days between pinning different versions to different boards.

What to do when your Pinterest traffic declines

And more isn't always better,  don't think you have to increase your pinning frequency. In fact, Pinterest is now saying that less is more!!

But it will all depend on your niche and your account.

Every Pinterest account is different and some accounts do well by pinning less often. #Pinterestmarketing #pinteresttips #tailwind

Click to Tweet

And, for Pete's sake, don't just start pinning 50 pins per day when you were doing 3.  It could be seen as spamming and Pinterest won't be happy with your account.

If you want to increase your pinning frequency, do it slowly by increasing the number of pins per day every week or so. Though Pinterest is now saying that you shouldn't pin that often and Tailwind will also tell you you're pinning too much.

9. Do some manual pinning and repinning

If you are a Tailwind user, keep the number of pins you schedule with Tailwind lower and try to do some manual pinning for a few minutes every day. But act as a user would, not as a business. You can do it from your phone if you want.

Pin some of your own content directly from your site and interact with the Smartfeed by pinning other people's pins as well, or following a few people or boards suggested by Pinterest.

I like doing 5-10 minutes in the morning and 5-10 minutes in the evening. That's all. 

10. Promote your best pins

This tip is not for new bloggers: NEVER PAY for promotion when you're not making money.

But if you are and have a product you can sell on a Tripwire page and sales funnels to monetise your email list, then promoting your pins is a great way to put your pins in front of new people, grow your email list and make money with them.

And the good thing about Promoted Pins is that they are very affordable compared to Facebook ads. And ROI (Return on Investment) is good so it's worth trying them out. 

Here's an article from Social Media Examiner to help you set them up and a post from DreamGrow with 14 tips to help you get better results.

BONUS tip for when your pinterest traffic drops

These are 10 easy and actionable tips you can follow when your Pinterest traffic is in decline.

But there's an extra tip I can give you for the mid- and long-term:

Work on your SEO so if your Pinterest traffic is dropping.

Cos you can't put all your eggs in the Pinterest basket. And it's a great idea to leverage both Pinterest and SEO for long term traffic growth.

And, above all, DON'T PANIC! Try putting all these tips in action and see how your website traffic recovers.

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  1. Thank you so, so much for these tips. I’m still kind of new and my blog is still small, so I’m still learning about Pinterest and yes, my traffic dropped in the last week or so. I’m pinning this article right now!

    1. Thank you! I wouldn’t necessarily worry if it’s only a week, it could be seasonal and Pinterest traffic does go up and down anyway. But these tips should still be helpful to you.

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