---
title: "Pinterest for Bloggers: How to Turn Posts Into Traffic (2026)"
description: "Pinterest for bloggers: set up and claim your blog, choose the posts worth pinning, make two or three pins per post, publish weekly and track the visits."
url: https://pinterestmarketingstrategies.com/pinterest-for-bloggers/
---

Bloggers

# Pinterest for bloggers: how to turn your posts into traffic that keeps coming

For a blog, Pinterest is a search engine that keeps sending readers to old posts for months or years. This guide covers what a blogger needs to set up once, which posts to pin, how to make pins readers click, how to publish without losing hours, and how to tell the traffic is real.

Updated November 4, 2026 · Pinterest Marketing Strategies editorial team · 11-minute read

## Why Pinterest suits bloggers, and how the traffic works

**The short answer:**

Claim your blog on Pinterest, turn on article Rich Pins, then make **two or three fresh pins for each post**, each aimed at a different search and linked to that exact post. Publish every week. Traffic builds over months, because Pinterest keeps showing good pins long after you publish them.

Most social apps send a burst of readers on the day you post and then nothing. Pinterest works more like a search engine for ideas, which suits the way blogs work: a post that answers a question keeps being useful, so a pin for it keeps being shown. It suits blogs whose readers plan things (recipes, home and DIY, travel, parenting, fashion, crafts, personal finance) far better than news or personal diaries.

A visit from Pinterest starts with a search or a feed. Someone types "easy sheet pan dinners", sees your pin among the results, saves it or taps it, and then clicks through to your post. Pinterest counts that last step as an **outbound click**, and it is the number that matters for a blog.

Two things make Pinterest unusual as a traffic source. The searches are mostly unbranded, so a small blog can appear next to a big publisher ([96% of top searches](https://business.pinterest.com/audience/) are unbranded, according to Pinterest). And there is [no set engagement window](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/pin-performance-and-distribution): Pinterest says a pin can gain engagement hours, days, months or even years after it is published. A post you pin today can keep sending readers long after you have forgotten about it.

## Set up once: five things to do before you pin

1. **Use a [business account](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/get-a-business-account).** It is free and gives you Pinterest Analytics, scheduling and RSS auto-publishing.
2. **[Claim your blog](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/claim-your-website).** When someone saves an image from a claimed site, your profile picture appears on the pin and the pin links to your profile. Pinterest offers four ways to claim: an HTML tag, an HTML file, a DNS TXT record, or Google Merchant Center for some accounts. A site can only be claimed by one Pinterest account.
3. **Turn on article [Rich Pins](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/rich-pins).** They add the headline, description and author from your post to the pin and update when you edit the post. They rely on the meta tags on your pages, and Pinterest says syncing can take up to 24 hours.
4. **Add the [Save Add-On](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/save-button).** Pinterest's add-on builder gives you code for a save button that appears when readers hover over your images, so every reader who saves an image creates a pin for you.
5. **Create boards that match your categories and searches.** One board per topic you write about, named the way people search it. The [board strategy guide](https://pinterestmarketingstrategies.com/pinterest-board-strategy/) shows how many to start with and how to name them.

## Choose the posts worth pinning

Not every post earns Pinterest traffic. The ones that do share three traits: they answer something people search for on Pinterest, they have a result you can show in a picture, and they are still useful months later.

| Type of post | Pinterest potential | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Recipes, crafts, DIY, room ideas, outfits | **High** | Visual results people plan around and save |
| Lists and roundups ("20 small balcony ideas") | **High** | Easy to save for later; one post supports many pin angles |
| Step-by-step guides, checklists, templates | **High** | People save them to follow later |
| Seasonal and holiday posts | **High, if early** | Planning starts weeks before the date; time them from [Pinterest Trends](https://trends.pinterest.com/) |
| Opinion pieces, news, personal updates | **Low** | Nobody searches for them on Pinterest, and they date quickly |

To find out what people actually type, use the search bar: type the topic of a post slowly and note the suggestions. Our strategy guide explains how to turn those suggestions into a [keyword map](https://pinterestmarketingstrategies.com/#step-3) with one post for each phrase.

## Make pins that earn the click

A pin has about a second to win a tap. These are the parts that decide it:

- **A vertical image.** Pinterest recommends a 2:3 ratio, 1000 by 1500 pixels, and warns that taller images may be cut off in feeds ([creative best practices](https://business.pinterest.com/creative-best-practices/)).
- **A short headline on the image** that promises the result: "15-minute vegetarian dinners", not "My week in the kitchen".
- **A title that starts with the search.** Titles can be 100 characters long, but Pinterest says only the first 40 or so may show in feeds, depending on the device ([Pinterest specs](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/pinterest-product-specs)).
- **A description in plain sentences.** It can run to 800 characters. Descriptions do not show in the feed, but Pinterest uses them to decide who to show the pin to, so open with the phrase and mention one or two related searches.
- **The exact post as the link.** Never your homepage. Pinterest also advises that the text on the pin should match what the landing page says ([Pinterest help](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/pin-performance-and-distribution)).

*One post, three pins: an example*

| Pin | Image | Headline on the image | Target search |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **A** | Overhead photo of three finished dishes | 15-Minute Vegetarian Dinners | quick vegetarian dinner |
| **B** | One bowl, close up, on a plain background | Easy Meatless Meals for Busy Weeknights | easy weeknight dinners |
| **C** | Short video of one recipe being made | One-Pan Chickpea Curry in 15 Minutes | chickpea curry recipe |

Each pin reaches a different search, so the post gets three chances to be found instead of one. The [content strategy guide](https://pinterestmarketingstrategies.com/pinterest-content-strategy/) covers how to balance fresh pins with seasonal ones and how many to make each week.

## Publish by hand, scheduled, or by RSS

Pinterest's own advice is to create original content weekly, regularly and consistently ([Pinterest help](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/pin-performance-and-distribution)). How you get pins out matters less than keeping that rhythm. Here are the options, with prices from each tool's own page on November 4, 2026:

| Option | How it works | Good for | Limits | Cost |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **By hand** | You design and publish each pin in Pinterest | Your best posts, where you want full control | Takes the most time per pin | Free |
| **[Pinterest's scheduler](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/schedule-pins)** | Make pins in one sitting and set a date for each | Batching a week of pins | Up to 30 days ahead and 10 scheduled pins at a time | Free |
| **[RSS auto-publish](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/auto-publish-pins-from-your-rss-feed)** | Pinterest creates pins from the images in your blog's feed | Making sure every new post gets a pin | Needs a claimed site; up to 200 pins a day; RSS 1 or 2 feeds, not Atom; pins only look as good as your post images | Free |
| **[Tailwind](https://www.tailwindapp.com/)** | Scheduling with help creating and writing pins | Bloggers who want a queue and pin drafts | Priced per Pinterest account; you still review what goes out | [$17.99 a month](https://www.tailwindapp.com/pricing) billed yearly, $29.99 monthly |
| **[SiteToSocial](https://www.sitetosocial.com/)** | Creates pins from your blog's pages around searched keywords and posts them daily | Blogs with many posts and little time | Priced per website; best when your pages already answer real searches | [$10 per website a month](https://www.sitetosocial.com/#pricing), up to 15 pins a day |

A common setup for a busy blog: RSS or an automation tool makes sure every post gets pinned, and a few hand-made pins a week go to the posts that already earn clicks.

## Make the visit count

Traffic is only worth having if readers stay. A Pinterest visitor arrives with one idea in mind, usually on a phone, so the post has to confirm it quickly.

- The image or result from the pin is visible near the top of the post.
- The page loads fast. Pinterest's own troubleshooting advice is a domain that loads in under four seconds.
- The answer comes early: the recipe card, the list, the first step. Long introductions lose people who came from a pin.
- There is a next step: a related post, a free download, an email sign-up.
- Your site does not block Pinterest's crawler. Pinterest notes that hosts blocking Pinterestbot stop it from understanding where your pins link.

## Track the traffic

Two places tell the full story. [Pinterest Analytics](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/pinterest-analytics) shows impressions, saves and outbound clicks; Pinterest notes that outbound clicks are only counted from the date a link was added to a pin. Your blog's own analytics then shows what those visitors did.

- **Add UTM tags to pin links**, for example `utm_source=pinterest` and `utm_medium=social`, so visits are labeled correctly even when the app does not pass a referrer.
- **Filter Pinterest Analytics by your claimed site** to include pins other people created from your posts, not just your own.
- **Look at outbound clicks per post**, not per pin. If one post earns most of the clicks, give it more pins.

The [Pinterest KPI guide](https://pinterestmarketingstrategies.com/pinterest-kpis/) explains which number to report each month and has a report template you can copy.

## Tactics that no longer pay

**Skip these:**

- **Saving the same pin to dozens of boards.** Pinterest advises against repeatedly saving the same pins and says it can get an account flagged as spam.
- **Relying on group boards.** Useful for collaborating, but your own search-named boards do far more for traffic.
- **Keyword-stuffed descriptions.** A list of keywords reads as spam to people. Write two plain sentences instead.
- **Linking every pin to the homepage.** The click should land on the exact post the pin shows.
- **Pinning in bursts.** Fifty pins in a weekend followed by a month of silence is the pattern that grows least.

## Questions people ask

### Is Pinterest still worth it for bloggers in 2026?

For blogs whose readers plan things, yes: recipes, home and DIY, travel, parenting, fashion, crafts and personal finance. Pinterest's latest quarterly results put its audience at a record 661 million monthly users, and 96% of its top searches are unbranded, so a small blog can be found next to a big publisher. News, opinion and personal diaries rarely earn Pinterest traffic.

### How long does it take to get traffic from Pinterest?

Expect a quiet first month and the first steady clicks somewhere in months two and three, if you publish every week. Pinterest says pins have no set engagement window, so a pin can start getting clicks months after you post it. Judge the channel after about 90 days, not after the first week.

### How many pins should I make for each blog post?

Start with two or three fresh pins per post, each with a different image, headline and target search, and add more to the posts that earn clicks. Fresh pins for the same post are better than saving one pin to many boards, which Pinterest warns can look like spam.

### Can I pin old blog posts?

Yes, and you should. Pinterest does not care when a post was published, only whether the pin matches what people search and the page delivers it. Evergreen posts that already rank in Google are often the best place to start.

### Should I use the RSS feed or make pins by hand?

RSS auto-publishing is the easiest way to make sure every new post gets a pin, up to 200 pins a day. It uses the images already in your posts, so it works best when those images are vertical and readable. Many bloggers combine it with a few hand-made pins a week for their best posts.

### Do group boards still help bloggers get traffic?

Much less than they used to. Group boards are still useful for collaborating, but your own boards named after real searches, filled with fresh pins, do far more for traffic today.

### Why do my pins get impressions but no clicks?

The pin is being shown for a search but is not convincing people. Try a clearer headline on the image, a picture of the finished result, and a title that starts with the searched phrase. Also check that the pin promises what the post actually delivers.

## Sources

Figures about Pinterest come from Pinterest's own pages and filings; tool prices come from each vendor's own pricing page. We checked each link on November 4, 2026.

1. [Pinterest Business: audience and demographics](https://business.pinterest.com/audience/)
2. [Pinterest Help: Pin performance and distribution](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/pin-performance-and-distribution)
3. [Pinterest Help: get a business account](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/get-a-business-account)
4. [Pinterest Help: claim your website](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/claim-your-website)
5. [Pinterest Help: create rich Pins](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/rich-pins)
6. [Pinterest Help: add a Save Add-On](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/save-button)
7. [Pinterest Trends](https://trends.pinterest.com/)
8. [Pinterest Business: creative best practices](https://business.pinterest.com/creative-best-practices/)
9. [Pinterest Help: review ad specs](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/pinterest-product-specs)
10. [Pinterest Help: schedule Pins](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/schedule-pins)
11. [Pinterest Help: auto-publish Pins from your RSS feed](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/auto-publish-pins-from-your-rss-feed)
12. [Pinterest Help: review Pinterest Analytics](https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/pinterest-analytics)
13. [Tailwind: plans and pricing](https://www.tailwindapp.com/pricing)
14. [SiteToSocial: pricing](https://www.sitetosocial.com/#pricing)