Are you a new blogger on WordPress? Have you heard so many people talking about using Pinterest to grow their blog? If you’ve wanted to know how to make your WordPress blog Pinterest friendly, you’re in the right place.
Starting a blog is the easy part. The challenge comes when you’re trying to learn how to grow it.
It takes a lot more than just posting amazing content on your own blog. You’re going to have to work hard and improve your blogging skills every day.
This means that you’ll have to learn how to market your own blog, especially, if you want it to grow.
Pinterest is just one of the marketing methods you should start using. You don’t want to focus 100% on Pinterest traffic. It’s never good to have all your traffic coming from one source.
But don’t overlook the power of using other promotional methods to help you build a viral online presence.
I’ve been using Pinterest for about 5 months now. I still have a lot to learn, but I can share with you what I’ve learned about how to make your WordPress blog Pinterest friendly.
I won’t be sharing anything about how to use Pinterest Boards or Tailwind Tribes. I’m not even going to be covering how to set up your Pinterest profile, that’s pretty self-explanatory.
This post is just going to cover the basics of how to make your WordPress blog Pinterest friendly.
I’ll even share which plugin I’m using that makes it so easy for me to get others to share my content.
Let’s get started.
1. How to Make Your WordPress Blog Pinterest Friendly
You might still be trying to learn WordPress. Trust me; I know that it can be confusing, especially if you’ve never used it before.
Don’t worry; I am going to make this tutorial as easy as possible. Even if you don’t have any techie skills, you’ll be able to follow along and get your WordPress blog ready for Pinterest traffic.
a. Setting Up Your Pinterest Account
As a blogger who wants to grow their blog with Pinterest, you’ll need to set up a business account.
When you start using your Pinterest business account, you’ll have access to your account analytics. Just like Google Analytics, you’ll be able to see which pins are performing the best. I’m personally still learning how to understand the analytics.
Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything right away. As you continue learning the ins and outs of Pinterest, you’ll start to understand the analytics.
2. Setting Up a Brand-New Pinterest Business Account
When I first got started with Pinterest, I didn’t even have a personal account. I had to create a brand-new business account. If you don’t have an account, let’s get you set up.
Go to Pinterest and create a business account. If you already have a business account, you’ll need to convert it to a business account.
Creating New Account
Follow these 3 steps to create your new business account.
- Go to Pinterest.com
- You have 3 options to sign up for a new account. Sign up using your Twitter or Facebook login information. Or you can choose to use your email address to sign up.
- Choose your username that you’ll be using with your account. Tip: Make sure that you use the same username you used for Facebook and Twitter.
a. Converting Personal Account to Business
Follow this step if you’re converting your personal account to a business account. Log into your account and right beside your profile, you’ll see 3 dots.
Click on that and then click on Switch to Business Account.
That’s how you convert your personal account to a business account.
Once you’ve created your account, it’s time to verify your website.
3. Verify Your WordPress Blog
Head on over to settings and scroll down until you see the website box. Enter your domain, and you’ll be given some code that needs to be entered into the head section of your WordPress blog.
This may sound confusing, but it’s really not. I’m going to show you how to verify your blog using the Yoast SEO plugin.
a. Enter your Domain Name
Once you enter your domain name, click on “confirm.” A box will pop up that contains the HTML code you need to add to your WordPress blog.
Grab that code and log back into your WordPress blog.
If you’re not using the Yoast SEO plugin, which is the best plugin to help you optimize your blog, you need to add it, if you want to follow along.
Once you’ve added the plugin, you’ll want to verify your Pinterest account using the plugin.
b. How to Verify Your WordPress Blog Using Yoast SEO
When I first tried to verify my blog with the plugin, I was confused. I couldn’t seem to find the social tab in the Yoast SEO plugin.
In your blog dashboard, scroll down until you see the SEO tab. Hover over it, and if you don’t see the social option, then you need to follow these steps.
- Click on the SEO tab and go to Dashboard >> Features
- Scroll down on the page until you see Advanced Settings Page
- Slide from Disabled to Enabled
Now you should be able to see the Social option under the SEO tab inside of your dashboard.
Click on social and head on over to your Pinterest tab. This is where you’ll enter the code that Pinterest gave you to enter into the head section of your blog.
Click save changes, and that’s it. Your WordPress blog is now verified, and you can start using Pinterest to get traffic to your blog.
c. Experiencing Issues
If for some reason after you’ve run through these steps and your account still isn’t verified.
You might want to run through the steps again. I’d also give it a little bit of time for the changes to take effect. When I verified my blog, I had to wait for a little while.
4. Now That Your Pinterest Account Is Created
It’s time to learn how to make your WordPress blog Pinterest friendly. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to share your images.
I’ll even walk you through on how to set up a widget on your blog post in case you want to.
You’re almost ready, but there are a couple of other things that you need to consider before telling the world about your new Pinterest account.
Finding the Right Plugin
I know that there are tons of social media plugins available to help you promote your blog.
However, the best one that I’ve found to help me with my Pinterest strategy is the Social Pug plugin. It does come with a free version, but I recommend using the Pro Version.
You’ll have more control over the images that people share directly from your blog.
Of course, the choice is entirely up to you on which plugin you choose to use. That’s the great thing about using a self-hosted WordPress blog; there are so many options.
Recommended Article: The Tool That Helped Me Gain Thousands of Social Media Followers
a. Adding A Pin It Button to Your Images
You might have noticed the images on this blog. Whenever you hover over them, you’ll see a Pinterest save button.
She’s using the Social Pug plugin, which is the same plugin I use. If someone wants to pin an image, they’ll click on that button.
If you decide not to use the Social Pug button, I recommend using the JQuery Pin It Button plugin. I’ve personally never used it, but I’ve heard good things about it.
If you decide not to use the Social Pug button, I recommend using the JQuery Pin It Button plugin. I’ve personally never used it, but I’ve heard good things about it.
b. Adding the Pinterest Image to Your Blog
Personally, I haven’t added a Pinterest widget to my blog. However, if you want people to know that you’re on Pinterest, you might want to consider adding a widget to your blog.
It’s incredibly easy to do, and I’ll walk you through the process. Click on those 3 dots up by your profile; you’ll want to click on create a widget.
This will take you to the widget builder page. This is where you will learn how to create a widget you can add to your WordPress blog.
What Size Widget Do You Want?
You’ll have the option to choose the following size widget:
- Square
- Sidebar
- Header
- Create your own
Once you choose the size you want, you’ll notice a preview box of what your widget will look like. The default size of the square widget is 420px by 350px.
Right below the preview, you’ll see two sections of code that you’ll need to add to your WordPress blog.
c. Adding the Code to Your Page
Highlight the first code option and then add it to a WordPress page on your blog via the text editor.
Don’t worry, if you can’t see your widget right away. We still have to add the pinit.js code.
d. Adding the Rest of the Code
Go back to your Pinterest widget builder and grab the pinit.js code under the first code you grabbed.
Paste it directly under the first code you pasted into your WordPress page.
Here’s what both codes should look like when you paste it in your blog.
The red highlighted section is your Pinterest URL with your username.
Once you save your changes, you should see your widget.
This method will only add the Pinterest widget to that specific page. If you want to add it to the bottom of all your pages, you’ll need to find a plugin that will do this for you.
Unfortunately, I’ve never added a Pinterest widget to my pages using a plugin, so I can’t think of one right off the top of my head.
5. Final Take Away
Now that you’ve learned how to make your WordPress blog Pinterest friendly, you’re ready to start using this powerhouse to drive traffic to your blog. If you’re brand new to Pinterest, read this to learn how to get your first 100,000 page views from Pinterest.
As a blogger, you’ll want to get started using this method to drive traffic to your blog. One of the hardest things we’ll face as bloggers is growing our blog.
Make sure that you’re using every available tool to you to help you promote your blog posts.
Your Turn
Are you using Pinterest to help you grow your blog? If not, why aren’t you using Pinterest?
Let me know which social media platform you’re focusing on to help you grow your blog; I’d love to know.
About the Author
Susan Velez is helping people start, grow and monetize their passions through blogging. She loves helping people with the techie side of blogging sign up for her free 7 day WordPress course.
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