This is my third post in my five-post series about Pinterest and by far the most important. Even if you have taken the time to set up your profile, set up your boards and have created a pinning strategy, if you don’t have optimized, appealing images as pins, you may never get re-pinned.
So let’s take a detailed look at pins
In my first post, Setting Up Your Profile, I outlined and provided links showing you how to make your pins Rich Pins, get your blog verified and how to change your account to a business account. If you are still unclear what the difference is, take a good look at the following 2 pins.
Important Key Differences:
- title grabbed from your post and appears in bold letters
- blog name above title
- “Article from blog” below image
- “Read it” button next to blog name
Important Facts You Need To Know:
- 75% of Pinterest traffic comes from mobile devices, optimal visibility is important
- Pinners can see as much as a 70% higher click through rate when switching to rich pins
- Rich pins rank higher in feeds
- Rich pins stand out
Click over to Pinterest and have a look at your feeds. Can you tell which images are rich pins? Take a look at your pins. I hope that if you haven’t made the appropriate changes yet, you will now.
Key Points To Consider When Creating Your Image
The following types of images have a higher re-pin rate:
- Vertical pins using a 2:3 or 1:3 ratio with the width being a minimum of 600 pixels
- Variety of colors, vibrant and bright
- Reds and oranges as opposed to blue hues
- No more than 80% background coverage
- Images with no faces
How To Optimize Images For Pinterest And SEO
- Rename and save file names on your computer using keywords BEFORE uploading to WP media library
- Fill out alt tags for your images using keywords generically, do not use hashtags
- Use keywords at the beginning to avoid them being cut off on mobile devices (scrolling on Pinterest descriptions can begin at 100 characters depending on the device)
So now you have created all these awesome images and don’t know how you are going to stick them in your post without them taking up all the screen and making your post look ridiculous.
Here’s the secret : hide them in your post!
How To Hide Your Images In Your Post
- create a large space at the beginning of your post (this helps you identify it when you switch to text mode)
- insert the image like usual
- click over to text mode
- you should be able to see the image code at the top of the post
- put the following code before and after your image code
If you now switch back over to the visual mode of editing, the image should have disappeared if you entered the code correctly. If you input one character of the code incorrectly, it will not work. Be very careful to copy it exactly. You may also now delete any extra space where you originally added the image.
Always remember that Pinterest is a visual medium. With billions of pins, yes, billions, you need to give yourself as much of an advantage as you can to be seen. If your image does not stand out, it won’t get re-pinned. Hopefully, I have given you some tools that will increase your visibility.
31 comments
Thanks for giving a detailed post about what Rich pins look like. I have a better understanding now. I enabled rich pins but I need to double check. I always make 2 images if one image doesn’t do well I try to use the other pin and see how well it preforms. Sad face I have been having trouble with traffic from Pinterest and every other blogger has success.
Without doing a thorough analysis, it is hard to say what would help you improve your refers from Pinterest. Keep reading all my posts for more information. You can also check out my courses at blogsharelearn.teachable.com or you may want to check out my coaching services under the tab “work with me”. I’m not sure how long you have been working at Pinterest, but sometimes all you need is patient and time to let a strategy begin to work.
Elena, great tips!! I was wondering, can you go back in to old posts with pictures and add this feature and it work?
Did you mean rich pins? Once you get rich pins and you pin from the old post, yes they will have the new features.
This is wonderful information. And if you only knew how not tech savvy I am 🙂 I have done everything and it’s still not working for me. I’m not giving up.
Don’t give up Nicole! You can do it and you know where I am if you need help or have questions.
Great information! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
You are very welcome! Thank you for reading!
The code to hide your Pinterest optimized image is so useful! I will definitely start using this since my site has featured thumbnail image sizes that aren’t Pinterest optimized (i.e. they are landscape oriented).
You are very welcome Robert. Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment.
No problem, Elena. This post was definitely useful. I do have one question!
I see a lot of blogs, including this one that use featured photos with text overlays. What program or software do you use? I can resize a picture (and now hide it within the post!) that works well with Pinterest, but the text on the photo would be useful as well.
I use Canva for all of my pics.
This is one of the most helpful posts on Pinterest marketing I think I’ve ever read. Real tips on how to do the strategies. Thank you! I tried the hiding images code and it’s not working for me. I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong. I copied and pasted the code language you shared (so I wouldn’t mis-type anything) before and after the image code. The image won’t disappear. Help?
Did you post the code in text mode?
Yes, I *think* I followed your instructions to the letter. I was able to upload an image to Pinterest and edit the web link like some others suggested though, so that worked. Not sure why the coding didn’t work though. Thanks for the follow up!
I think I am going to make a short video to insert into the post Monica. Check back in a few weeks if you are still having trouble.
I didn’t/don’t know pretty much anything about what Pintrest is or how to use Pintrest other than finding really neat, useful pins. After reading your blog/post I really know that I don’t know anything.? I would like to blog, and use Pintrest to help make some extra money as well as sharing with others. how can I learn how to really use Pintrest. I do get lots of re-pins and some followers, haven’t looked at how many, but they are from my pinning other pins, not my own. does that make sense? Also, how do I create a website or blog site Thanks for any suggestions
I don’t have any posts on how to start a blog but the easiest way to get your feet wet is to go with wordpress.com. Really simple and you can be up and running in no time. Once you get your blog going, your current Pinterest will help you greatly because you are already established. Good luck and have fun!
I just actually paid out actual money (I think around $20) for a plug-in called Social Warfare because, among other features, it lets you select a custom image (not necessarily one in your post) for both Pinterest and Facebook shares. That’s one way to get around the code hack for people who aren’t comfortable with that. I also added a plug-in called Frizzly (I know, awful, awful name) that added share buttons to all my images and helped me customize the description for Pinterest images without having to change the Title field for all my images.
Thanks so much for your article series. It was really helpful and pushed me down the path to finally up my Pinterest game. Ironically, it’s one of the few things I do for fun that I actually have a fair number of followers on, but I never bothered to learn how to use it to help my blog. Can’t wait to see the results.
I use Buffer and they let you pick a pic from your computer as well. I love that!
I’m glad you found my post helpful and let me know if you see results.
Hi Elena… Iv’e changed to business account and verified my blog (at least I assume the blog has been verified, I’ve not had confirmation of this despite following pinterest instructions)… my pins haven’t changed as you outline above though, they look the same as they always did… any ideas? Have I missed something? – Thanks in advance, kimmie x
You should have gotten an email confirming it was done right. I’m sorry I don’t know much about blogspot. Maybe try doing all the steps again. Let me know by DM on twitter if you are still having trouble and we can figure this out.
okay, thanks Elena… perhaps I didn’t put the code into the html on my blog correctly.
Wow. My pinning technique sucks basically, I do none of this!
Always room for improvement Steff. Take it one step at a time.
What a fantastic blog. Thank you very much for sharing your insights, this will help my business no end – Thank you xx
You are very welcome. Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to comment.
Just kill me now.