Just like your windows and floors, you’ll find that your Pinterest profile will need to be cleaned and polished occasionally. I know, another thing to clean...but really this will help to ensure that you keep getting that fantastic traffic from Pinterest, and that you’re getting the RIGHT traffic. Meaning, you're catching the attention of your dream readers and clients.
with all the noodling around I've done on Pinterest throughout the years, I've found 4 super simple steps to updating your profile and boards, and making everything sparkle bright and happy.
Step One: Profile Update
Ask yourself a few questions about your profile. Are your boards still reflecting your niche? Does your profile picture need to reflect any changes to your brand? How about the description and overall boards, do they still promote your message? If so, awesome! You’re done with this portion of our big clean! If not, then there’s a little bit of work to do.
Change out your profile picture ensuring that you’ve used the same picture across all of your social media platforms. Consistent profile pictures can make a huge difference in brand identification.
Update your description with keywords that tell pinners what you're all about. Plus, you can add in a link to your email freebie, if you have one.
Then do a quick scan of your boards to find any that aren’t a reflection of the direction you’re going. Don’t delete these boards just yet, make them “secret” instead. I’ll explain more about this below.
Step Two: Moving Boards
Remember how I mentioned making the non-niche relevant boards “secret’ instead of deleting them? Well, here’s why...you could lose followers if you delete a board completely. Making it secret allows you to keep those followers while making the board invisible to current followers and those who stumble upon your profile.
But another warning here, before making any board secret take a look through the board to identify viral pins. You most definitely don’t want to hide a pin that’s gone viral. To do this use the need-to-know metrics feature , this will tell you what pins are doing well and what pins aren’t doing so well.
Side Note: If you haven’t already you really NEED to switch your profile to a business account, or create a business account. Otherwise, you’ll have no access to these awesome features.
Step Three: Updating Board Titles
Okay, who here has a board titled “My Happy Place”? Or “Yummy’s”? Yeah, it’s probably time to change those now. It’s important to use keywords in your board titles, because Google will index those titles, so it’s not only going to help people find you on Pinterest, but it’ll help them find you on Google as well.
Here’s how to find those awesome keywords that will boost your Pinterest interaction and bring in the Googlers.
Here I did a search for Peanut Butter Cookies. See those boxes below my search box for cookies? Those are Guided Search Boxes, and they’re GOLD when it comes to coming up with board names. These guided search boxes are how Pinterest is organizing content, so you should be going along with what Pinterest already has set up.
For example, take your “Garden” board filled with all sorts of awesome gardening ideas, and change the title to “Easy Gardening Ideas”. Or you could move all specific pins (i.e. vegetable gardens) to a new board and title that “Easy Vegetable Gardening Ideas”. The keyword possibilities are endless!
Step Four: Assess Group Boards
Group boards are pretty important when it comes to growing a Pinterest following and gaining those valuable readers. However, since Pinterest has switched to a Smart Feed, it’s changed the way in which the Pinterest algorithm sees pins pinned to group boards as they don’t have the same level of interaction as those pinned to an individual board. Plus, it’s best not to put too much stalk into a group board as these can be closed by the owner, or just lose interest with its members. It’s best to focus on your own boards, but still think about joining a few boards with high interaction.
But if you’re wondering how to figure out which boards are worth participating in, ask yourself a few questions:
Does the topic still fit within your niche or do you find yourself writing content to that fits the board?
Is there activity on the board or do you hear crickets, with little to no repins?
How many contributors? Boards with over 100 contributors appear to be struggling right now. Boards with less than 100 contributors get more interaction regardless of the number of followers. Less than 50 is even better!
How many followers are on the board? If there are 100K followers, 2000 contributors and little to no repins this indicates that the feed moves too fast OR Pinterest is not showing the board content to very many people.
Keep in mind, group boards come and go, so it’s okay to leave a board if it’s no longer helpful to your business. Think about getting together with a few friends who have a similar niche to yours and starting up a few group boards with them.
Step Five: Board Order
Moving boards isn’t too difficult, but there is a method to the madness:
First place the board where you keep original pins created from your content in the top left, then list your most popular boards from there. And remember, title your original content board with just your site name, instead of “Best of…”. This allows you to be found much easier as there aren’t people searching for “Best of Loving Simple”, they’ll just type in “Loving Simple”.
Then, order into categories based on niche and content topics. For example, a Home DIY/Decor blogger might have living room, bedroom, and kitchen boards, then a lifestyle board (i.e easy recipes), then a seasonal board (i.e Christmas, Valentine’s Day) and lastly group boards.
Cleaning stuff isn’t always fun, but it always feels better when it’s done. And after following these easy peasy steps, cleaning up your Pinterest profile, will make you feel better AND improve your business reach!
Now go forth and optimize those Pinterest Profiles my Pretty Pinning Pals. ;-)
PSST…Don’t have the time to tackle your Pinterest Profile clean up? I can help! Check out my Work with Me page or shoot me an email at: april@lovingsimple.com
