What makes a successful pin? Pinterest is a dreamy, visual website where people go for inspiration and planning. To create successful Pins for Pinterest, you melt into the aspirational aspect and inspire people to save your Pins to their boards.

What’s new is that Pinterest favors new, fresh content. Let’s look at how you can take the idea of “fresh Pins” and incorporate it with the essential Pinterest elements to create beautiful Pinterest Pins.

You’ll be at an advantage if you create new Pinterest Pins on a weekly basis.

this for later

The most shared Pins are helpful and beautiful. I'd like to share the elements of a successful Pinterest Pin with examples to help you be more proactive in your Pinterest execution.

Steps to Add a Pinterest Pin:

Step 1: Click the + sign at the top on desktop or on the bottom on mobile

Step 2: Choose your image or graphic – make sure that you name your file to help with Pinterest search

Step 3: Give your Pin a title – you can use up to 100 characters

Step 4: Write a description of up to 500 characters with clear text to inspire and educate

Step 5: Add a link to your website or blog

Step 6: Publish now or schedule for later right on Pinterest!

Step 7: Describe your Pin's visual details with Alt text – This makes your Pin more accessible to people with visual impairments by helping them understand what’s happening in your Pin

Why You Should Make Pinterest Pins

• Bring traffic to your website from Pinterest – social media traffic has been dropping but Pinterest isn’t social media it’s a visual discovery engine.
• Create resources for your community.
• Build search traffic on Pinterest and Google by using keywords and SEO tactics.
• Be a part of the positive, inspiring community that Pinterest has built. Pinterest boasts 478 million users as of 2021!
• Create brand awareness for your products and services.
• Inspire your Pinners with your ideas and DIYs.
• Gain leads by using lead magnets to gather email leads.

Pinterest is the ultimate wish list.  Pinterest is moving towards a being creator platform and loves to see fresh content added in the form of Pins, Idea Pins, and Video Pins.

Think of your Pinterest Pins as your visual portfolio, and make your images as appealing as possible.

Design matters

On Pinterest, long, tall images command the show taking up the most visual real estate in the Pinterest feed. Pinterest’s preferred image aspect ratio is 2:3 to 1:3.5.

To create pins that generate interaction, design images 1000 x 1500 pixels. While this size might not be optimal for your blog, you can create a pin on Pinterest with your custom graphic and embed your pin into your blog post. This size creates an engaging invitation to repin your pinned article.

You can highlight your Pinterest Pins by showcasing them on your profile cover. From your main Pinterest profile, select the pencil in the top right corner and choose to show a specific board or recent activity which is Pins people saved from your claimed website and linked accounts.

On my Pinterest profile, I share my board for my blog.

Add context to your content

Your Pinterest pin images should help tell the story of your article, recipe, or craft that you’re sharing. The image is a breadcrumb leading to the main meal, and people don’t want a surprise when they get there.

Adding a text overlay to your image can help add context. Make sure that your font is easy to read and that there's enough contrast for the text to be read easily. When adding text, think about how it will educate and inspire people – this isn't the place for a pushy call to action.

Use high-quality images

85% of Pinterest activity takes place up close and personal on mobile phones, so people are looking directly at your graphic. Depending on the size of the images, three to four images will be showing in the stream or only one picture if people tap to see more.

Are you creating Pinterest images that will stop scrolling and entice a tap?

Your image needs to capture attention quickly and hold it with exciting text or visuals.

I created this example in Canva. It's on-brand, easy to read, and describes the article. With a Canva Pro account, you can use all the photos and elements in Canva at no additional charge! This was a great update as they used to charge extra for Pro images and elements. You can see this image animated on Pinterest here.

Add your link

Sometimes people get so caught up adding images to Pinterest they forget the crucial step of adding their URL by editing the image once it's uploaded.

One of the most popular things that people ask me is how to add a new Pin to Pinterest – many people only repin items already on the website. It's really easy to create your own Pins. Here's how!

1. Click + at the bottom right corner of Pinterest and click Upload a Pin
2. Click Choose Image and find the file on your computer
3. Add a URL to your Pin and add a description
4. Pick a board for your Pin
5. Click Save

Craft an interesting description

Write thoughtful descriptions with user-friendly language, and include keywords in the text. Beware: don’t stuff in keywords that aren’t of value to the pin. Make sure the information is helpful, minimal, and appeals to pinners. Plus, avoid overly salesy text.

Add keywords for search

Pinterest images are essential, but text counts too. Optimize your pins for search by including industry or niche-specific keywords.

Think about your target market and determine what they’re typing in search when looking for your product or service. Now use those in your Pin text areas:

Pin text

• Title
• Description
• Link text
• Board name
• Link alt text
• Image caption
• Page title
• Page meta title
• Page meta description
• Page meta keywords

The key is to use natural language for your Pinterest descriptions. Tell people what your article is about to inspire them to click through to read it on your blog.

Create Relevant Content Using Pinterest Trends

When you’re prepping your content to keep it fresh, use Pinterest Trends to inspire you and make your content relevant. Use the Pinterest trends tool to gauge the potential reach for different topics you might want to post about. Just type in a keyword, and you’ll see how many people have searched for it over time. That data can help you decide where to focus your content.

See it in action on this search for “autumn bucket list.”

Ideas Pins are Hot

Pinterest loves to see creators “create fresh content weekly. The more you create, the more chances you’ll have to get discovered. Aim to create fresh Idea Pins every week to engage your current audience and maximize your potential to reach new people.”

Pinterest says, “Idea Pins are a multi-page canvas to share your ideas. They last forever and help you grow your audience.” You can use Idea Pins to record multiple videos, add images, lists, and custom text in a single Pin. Like other Pins, Idea Pins will stay on your boards once you’ve published them. Once you’ve published at least one Idea Pin, the Pin will be displayed on your profile at the top of your “Created” tab along with all of your Idea Pins. Here’s what Idea Pins look like on the Created Tab.

Successful pins do not have hashtags

Hashtags were a thing on Pinterest for a hot minute but Pinterest is once again recommending that you don't use hashtags on your pins. Add keywords in your descriptions for the same results as using a hashtag.

Pinterest says, “Hashtags aren't needed on Pinterest to help Pinners discover the freshest content.”

You might also like to read my Quick and Dirty Guide to Hashtags on Pinterest.

Take Peg's Class: How to Create Amazing Pins for Pinterest.

I hope these ideas make your Pinterest Pin creation more effective and natural as you get into the flow of following these best practices images. Spending time and effort will pay off for your Pinterest presence and bring more traffic to your website.