Pinterest is one of my top website referrals.

With nearly 1 million monthly viewers, 30,000+ followers, and 100,000+ website visits from Pinterest each year, you might be surprised that I don’t put any effort into the platform.

You might also be surprised to learn that my Pinterest strategy doesn’t even involve Pinterest.

So how do I reap the benefits of Pinterest without putting in the work? Better yet, how can you reap the benefits of Pinterest without putting in the work?

Here’s my secret.

I put effort into my blog strategy, and the pins naturally follow.

Have you ever tried to find workarounds for a task, only to find that actually doing the task would have taken less time and energy?

When I was little, I didn’t like to brush my teeth (embarrassing).

My mom would check my toothbrush to make sure I was practicing good hygiene, so I learned to wet my toothbrush.

She quickly caught on and started smelling my breath. So I would wet my toothbrush and put toothpaste in my mouth to make it smell minty fresh.

Wouldn’t it have just been easier to actually brush my teeth?

I think people take the same workaround approach with Pinterest.

Instead of doing the work of writing good blog content that people want to save, return to, and share with others, they use tools that automatically pin for them, join hundreds of group boards, and spend hours upon hours curating their boards.

They put time and effort into the platform instead of the content that encourages people to pin from their site.

When you put effort into creating valuable content, your blog readers will do the work of pinning your posts to Pinterest for you.

That’s why my Pinterest strategy is both highly effective and non-existent.

I strive to write in-depth, helpful posts.
Elle & Company readers pin the posts to their Pinterest to either save them for later or share them with their audience.
Their audience repins them and/or clicks through to visit my posts.

The result? Exponential reach for my blog posts without lifting a finger on Pinterest.

The traffic I receive from Pinterest and the following I have on the platform didn’t occur overnight; it’s happened organically over time.

But because I didn’t take any shortcuts and focused on my content, I continue to reap the benefits of Pinterest.

In fact, many of the pins that occur from my site each day are from posts I wrote years ago.

How to write Pinterest-worthy blog content

But what makes people want to pin your posts?

There are a couple of big factors that encourage blog readers to take action and share your posts on Pinterest.

1 | Value

There’s one question that’s always on the forefront of my mind when I’m coming up with Elle & Company content: What’s in it for my readers?

You have to give your readers a reason to care.

We’re all naturally selfish when we scroll the internet; we’re looking out for our own interests. If there’s nothing in it for us, we’ll move onto something else that will entertain us, inform us, or inspire us.

If you aren’t providing any value in your posts, people aren’t going to read them (let alone pin them!).

2 | Catchy titles

Your title is the gateway to your content.

It will either grab someone’s attention and encourage them to click through and read it… or it will fall flat and keep them scrolling.

In order for people to pin your post, it needs a title that will catch their attention in the first place.

You should view your blog post titles as a promise to your reader.

What can they hope to gain from your post?

What will the end result be?

What keywords are essential?

Putting a little more effort into your headlines has the potential to turn a casual browser into a loyal reader.

Related post: How to Write Catchy Headlines

3 | Long-form content

It’s hard to deliver on the promise in your blog post title and provide value if you’re only writing a couple hundred words in each blog post.

It takes longer and it’s more work to write 1200+ words. It isn’t as easy on your end to crank out long-form content.

But your blog posts won’t get pinned if you’re barely scratching the surface on the topic you’re writing about.

You may have a catchy title that gets people to your site, but if you don’t deliver on the promise you’re making, that new visitor won’t return for more.

Other ways to optimize your blog for organic pins

Aside from the quality of your content, there are a few more things you can do on your end to encourage more pins from your readers.

1 | Create an eye-catching blog post graphic

Your graphics are going to be competing for the attention of Pinterest users in a sea of other pins. It’s important that they stand out!

My Highly Effective, Non-Existent Pinterest Strategy | Elle & Company

Blog post readers will also be more likely to pin an image if it’s visually appealing (no one wants to sully their feed with an unattractive image).

2 | Enable Pinterest hover buttons

To make pinning as easy as possible on your visitors, enable Pinterest hover buttons on your website.

If you use Squarespace, you can turn on Pinterest save buttons by clicking the Marketing tab in your main menu, choosing Pinterest Save buttons, and choosing Enabled for Blogs.

You can also choose the size and shape of the button and view an example (the bigger the button, the better!).

3 | Utilize image names

Did you know that the name of your image automatically populates the pin description when someone pins an image from your site?

People don’t often take the time to update the pin description, so make sure the title of your post and the name of your business is in the name of your image when you upload it to your blog post in Squarespace.

Including them will also ensure that the right keywords are included in the pin description, too.

The best part of this highly effective, non-existent Pinterest strategy is that the benefits extend far beyond Pinterest.

When you pour your time and energy into creating valuable blog content, you’ll organically: