Pinterest For Travel Bloggers: How to Increase Your Traffic in 2023

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Pinterest is a top source for traffic to your blog, especially for travel blogs. That’s why it’s super important to use the right tools and strategies when creating pins and using the platform, so that you can take full advantage of this unique search engine. This is exactly what travel bloggers need to do to get blog traffic from Pinterest and increase your traffic this year.

I was compensated to create this post, though all opinions are my own.

Why Travel Bloggers Should Use Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual search engine. Users re-pin images from their Pinterest Feed or use the search bar to find pins that solve their problems or meet their needs.

Pinterest is completely different from other social media platforms. It’s really more of a search engine than social media. (Although it does seem to be pushing it’s social media aspect more this year)

Because of this, your pins can get you more long-term engagement than a social media post. Pinterest users can discover your pin over time, re-pin your image, and the cycle can go on for months or even years.

But, the most important reason why travel bloggers should make Pinterest a high priority is because of the traffic it will bring to your website. By using Pinterest, and using the right strategies, you can bring thousands of visitors to your site every month.

How Travel Bloggers Can Get Traffic From Pinterest in 2023

There have been a few changes in the past year that affect how you get traffic from Pinterest.

In February 2020, Pinterest started rolling out an update that would affect how people see your pins. For a lot of content creators, this meant changing their Pinterest strategy.

Essentially, your Pinterest strategy should focus on creating more fresh pins rather than re-pinning old images.

Pinterest launched new pin formats and a new algorithm that focused on diversifying content displayed on home feeds.

This basically means showing more video pins, idea pins, and carousel pins alongside the standard static pins. It also seems to make the search function more dynamic; when you search for a term, you’ll see a whole new set of results each time you refresh.

Pinterest is really focusing on getting new ideas to its users.

Here is how you can to get blog traffic from Pinterest in 2023.

Optimize Your Pinterest Profile

In order to have your pins seen by the most relevant people on Pinterest, you’ll need to have an optimized profile.

This means having a nice profile image, an appropriate display name, and a filled-out bio. When adding your name and completing your bio, it’s important to include keywords related to travel and to your specific niche so that people can find you and your pins when they search for relevant content.

You’ll also want to have your account set as a “business” account, claim your website, and enable rich pins if you have complete ownership of your blog. Having a business account lets you access analytics, and claiming your site and enabling rich pins makes your pins more likely to get clicks.

If you want more help on setting up your Pinterest account, I suggest checking out the Pinterest with Ell course. Ell takes you step-by-step through starting your account and optimizing your profile for the best results.

Create Beautiful Pins

Since Pinterest is a visual search engine where people look for ideas and inspiration, you need to be making interesting and engaging content that people want to read, and your pins should reflect that.

You want people to click your pins.

Use words and images that would appeal to your audience and make them want to click to read more. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so what makes an “attractive” pin is largely subjective. After a while, you’ll start to figure out what works and what doesn’t based on looking at your analytics.

Use pin templates to make this process easier. You can get templates for free from Canva and adjust them to fit your brand. You can trial and error different templates to see what style resonates with your audience.

I also recommend these customizable Pinterest templates that you can easily and quickly edit in Canva. They’ll help make your pin creation go a lot more smoothly.

The scheduling tool Tailwind even has it’s own tool now for helping you create and save pin templates. Learn more about using Tailwind Create in this post.

Use the Right Keywords

Since Pinterest is just another type of search engine, you’ll need keywords on your pins to help them show up in searches.

All of the text connected with your pin should contain relevant keywords. This includes your pin title, the pin description, the boards you pin it to, the actual content of the blog post you’re linking to, and even on the pin image itself.

You’ll want to pin to your most relevant board first. This helps Pinterest know what that pin is about.

You can find relevant keywords on Pinterest two ways:

• Search and suggested terms: You can go to the search bar and type in a keyword. When you search for “travel”, you’ll see a bunch of suggested terms on the search results page, such as “travel essentials”, “travel destinations”, and “places to travel”.
• Pinterest Trends tool: This is a new tool available under the analytics tab. You can search for a term and see how popular the phrase is throughout the year. You can also look at the 100 Pinterest Trends to see what Pinterest predicts will be popular in the year ahead.

Create Fresh Pins

This is the big new focus for your Pinterest strategy.

Pinterest really wants fresh and new, high-quality content. Pinterest considers “fresh content” to be a new pin image that hasn’t been shared to Pinterest before.

You can use the same picture just with a different text overlay. Or you can use a new template with multiple pictures. You can even use the same text with a different picture. These are all considered new pins.

However, since Pinterest is focusing on new ideas for pinners, the main focus is on a new image as well as a new URL. That usually means a brand new pin for a brand new post you just published.

So, yes, 5 pins with different images and text going to the same URL all count as fresh pins and are good to pin (but you don’t want to publish the same URL multiple times in one day). But the Holy Grail of freshness is a brand new, previously un-pinned URL.

You can have a bunch of pin templates on hand and use these to create new fresh pins for each blog post.

With the current algorithm, you should pin 3-5 fresh pins daily.

It sounds like a lot of work, but you can batch schedule those pins with Tailwind to take away some of that hassle and to have new pins going up every single day.

New users can try Tailwind for free for 20 scheduled posts per month.

Here’s a guide to help you know the difference between a fresh pin and other pins:

• Fresh pin: A fresh pin image is an image that hasn’t been shared on Pinterest before. The first time you pin an image to Pinterest, it is a fresh pin.
• Duplicate pin: A duplicate pin image is one that has been shared on Pinterest before. This isn’t a bad thing. It usually happens when someone else pins your blog post. You’ve already pinned a fresh image, but if you provide a pinnable image in your blog post (like I do at the bottom of my posts), then your readers can create a duplicate pin of that image. Again, it isn’t bad; it just doesn’t carry as much weight as a fresh pin.
• Re-pin: A re-pinned image is a pin that has been shared within Pinterest. Someone saw your pin in their home feed and shared (re-pinned) it to their own board.

New Pins Don’t Get the Traction They Used To

Back in 2020 when Pinterest shifted its focus to fresh pins, those new pins would take off right away and get you thousands of views.

But that changed in 2021. Pinterest still wants new ideas, but they aren’t promoting new, fresh pins like they used to. What gives?

At some point, Pinterest changed its algorithm to be similar to SEO: your older content has more authority, and therefore gets more traction.

If you contact Pinterest support about your fresh pins getting single-digit views, you’ll get a form response telling you to create more fresh pins. It’s frustrating, I know.

What they don’t tell you is, the more consistently you pin fresh content, the more the algorithm will push your older pins. Consistently pinning new content throughout the week is key.

Over time, your new content will gain authority and you may see traffic coming in from those pins. Like SEO, it can take months for a pin to trend.

Create Idea Pins

Idea pins, previously called story pins, a multi-page pin format that scrolls through the pages much like Instagram’s Stories feature.

Pinterest’s algorithm prioritizes idea pins as long-lasting, savable content. That means your idea pins will get great reach. Pinterest loves this format because it keeps people on their platform longer.

One of the downsides of idea pins is you can’t add a link to them, which means you can’t drive traffic to your travel blog.

Instead, use idea pins to build brand awareness. Because these pins have such great reach, you can attract people to follow your account so that they’ll see your static pins and click through to your blog.

Add a call-to-action at the end of every idea pin asking viewers to follow you for more.

Because idea pins get such great traction, they can start to overwhelm your static pins. Only pin 1-2 idea pins a week. Remember, the goal is to use idea pins to get people to follow you so that they will see your static pins and click on your website.

Focus on Quality over Quantity

The focus of your new Pinterest strategy should be more on pinning high-quality fresh pins rather than pinning a large quantity of pins. You want to spend more time creating your own fresh content rather than re-pinning your old content.

Pinning too much could even get you flagged as spam.

So it’s best to keep an eye on your frequency of pinning. Tailwind says that their most successful users pin about 15-25 pins total per day. Generally, you don’t want to pin more than 50 per day.

That would be a mix of your 3-5 fresh pins you create daily, plus re-pinning those to relevant boards, plus any re-pins of content that isn’t your own.

Tailwind also recommends pinning to no more than 10 relevant boards. I’m finding my most success with pinning to only 2-3 of my own boards. Group boards no longer get you the reach that you want.

If all of this sounds daunting and confusing, Tailwind is here to help with its new SmartGuide feature. The SmartGuide will tell you if you’re engaging in any potentially harmful behavior. This includes pinning too frequently and pinning to more than 10 boards. And they’ll keep you up-to-date on any other changes to Pinterest’s best practices.

The goal is to pin as naturally as possible.

Get Access to Tailwind for Pinterest

Start on the FREE Tailwind plan and to gain access to Tailwind for Pinterest. Tailwind can be used for both creating Instagram posts and creating Pinterest pins, further streamlining your content creation!

Tailwind Pricing

Tailwind currently has 4 pricing plans:

• Forever Free: includes 20 posts per month to publish on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook; 20 Tailwind Create posts per month; 5 Tailwind Communities with 30 submissions per month; and 10 Ghostwriter Credits per month.
• Pro Plan ($12.99 per month or $155.88 per year): includes 200 posts per month, 200 Tailwind Create posts per month, 5 Tailwind Communities with 30 submissions per month, and 50 Ghostwriter Credits per month.
• Advanced Plan ($19.99 per month or $239.88 per year): includes 2 Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook accounts; 1,000 posts to publish per month; unlimited Tailwind Create posts; unlimited access to Tailwind Communities; and 250 Ghostwriter Credits per month..
• Max Plan ($39.99 per month or $479.88 per year): includes 3 Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook accounts; unlimited publishing; unlimited Tailwind Create posts; unlimited access to Tailwind Communities; and 500 Ghostwriter Credits per month.

Take a look at more pricing details in the image below.

Get Traffic from Pinterest With These Helpful Resources:

• Tailwind: Scheduler for managing your pin strategy. (Free Plan for 20 posts per month; Paid Plans starting at $12.99/month or $155.88/year).
• Canva: Graphic Design Software for creating pins.
• Pinterest with Ell: E-course to help you boost your blog traffic using Pinterest.
• Get 86 click-worthy customizable Pinterest pin templates.
• Tailwind Create: Graphic design tool to for creating pins.
• How I Used Tailwind to Increase My Blog Traffic.
• Must-Have Legal Pages: Make sure you’re blogging legally
• How to Use Tailwind Copilot To Start Your Marketing Plan

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Want to enhance your travel blog? Check out these tips.

• Protect your blog: Use these affordable legal templates to make sure you’re running your blog successfully and legally.
• Save time by scheduling: Schedule your Pinterest and Instagram posts with ease by using Tailwind.
• Use the right resources: Find all of my favorite travel blogging resources here.

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Cheers!

Paige

Do you use Pinterest for your travel blog? Let me know in the comments!