How to Use Pinterest for Blogging (how I saved my dying blog)
Dear bloggers and creators around the world, I have some fantastic news. The blog is not dead! The blog is not dead!
After Google updates, changing search behaviors and lots of AI disruption, I ended up losing around 80% of the traffic to my travel blog.
And for nearly 2 years, I felt confused about what to do next. I was getting jaded and slightly miffed about the whole thing.
Hundreds of posts and years of work just gathering digital dust. Sunk cost (fallacy) was setting in.
It stings, right? A total bummer.
But I didn’t give up. Adaptation is the name of the game. And I’m so happy I stuck with it. Because now? My blog is bouncing back stronger than ever and I actually feel more in control over my traffic.
This is how I saved my blog in a post-AI world.
This is how to use Pinterest for blogging.
Let’s get to it!
Why Use Pinterest for Blogging?
Okay, so you’ve probably heard by now, but Pinterest isn’t a social media platform. It’s a visual search engine.
This makes it perfect for finding an engaged audience and driving targeted traffic to your website.
Plus, Pinterest has hundreds of millions of engaged users and actively pushes people off the platform to destination URLs (via your pins).
Social media, on the other hand, tries to keep users on platform, making it harder to drive traffic to landing pages, email signups, blogs, etcetera.
You can track these analytics (outbound clicks) and more right in your Pinterest dashboard (*business accounts only).
Also, Pinterest doesn’t care about how many followers you have. It cares about consistency, fresh pins and inspiring quality content to users love.
So if you’re ready to join me on this Pinterest journey (yep, even in 2026), keep reading.
Explore more:
➤ 7 Best Blog Traffic Sources (besides Google)
➤ Squarespace for Blogging (full guide)
How to Use Pinterest for Blogging (6 steps)
This is how I used Pinterest to save my blog.
1. Convert to a Business Account
If you’re serious about Pinterest, you’ll want to first convert your Pinterest account to a business account.
It’s simple and totally free.
The main reason for this is to get access to analytics and other advanced features (like ads, audience insights, etcetera).
Pinterest has a good article on how to get a business account here.
2. Optimize Your Account With SEO
SEO (search engine optimization) is how Pinterest reads and understands your account and all your boards and pins.
Luckily, it’s pretty simple and you just need to get a few things right.
So where do you start? With keyword research.
Keywords are specific phrases people actually type into the Pinterest search bar.
It’s your job to identify your keywords and then use them in:
Your Pinterest bio
You board names
You board descriptions
Your Pinterest profile name even
Your individual pin titles, image text and descriptions
You don’t need to “stuff” your keywords though. Always make your writing and descriptions sound human and natural.
3. Create A Few Pins Everyday
Some Pinterest creators recommend posting like 20+ pins per day (and automating them with an expensive scheduler).
I don’t do any of that.
All I do is manually publish 3-5 fresh pins everyday, on average (usually around 3 though…sometimes just 1).
The goal is to just keep your account active, consistent and focused.
“A few great pins (with good designs and intentional targeted keywords) is way better than 20 random pins without research or intention.”
But why manual pinning, you ask? For starters, it’s free, quick and simple.
Plus, I’ve heard from a few different creators now that manual pinning is potentially better for ranking. I’m not sure if this is true, but it makes sense in the context of spam accounts pinning dozens of click-bait AI slop ideas everyday.
How much you pin depends on your goals and preferences, but just be careful about pinning too much too quickly.
If you’re a brand new account suddenly pushing 20+ pins per day, you could get flagged as spam. So ramp things up slowly if you want to do more.
But I’m here to tell that 3-5 is enough (*if they’re actually good pins with clear keyword targeting).
That’s the value of research, quality content and good designs. Less is more.
Explore more:
➤ Best Pinterest Automation Tools to Blog Smarter
4. Create Multiple Pins for Each Article
Now here’s the exciting part. Pinterest doesn’t care if you use the same URL multiple times. All Pinterest cares about is if you post fresh pin designs.
This means you just need to make subtle changes (different text, change the image, try a different layout or format) and you can have multiple pins all pointing to the same URL.
So even if you just have 10 blog posts and create 10 pin variations for each post, you’d end up with 100 different pins. This could keep you busy for months (on a casual pinning cadence).
I like to spread out my pins (that point to the same URL) by publishing them to different boards.
For example, I have a post on how to travel Japan on a budget. So I’ll pin one design under my Japan Travel board, another under Tokyo Travel, and yet another under my International Travel Tips board; and so on.
I also like to rotate things, so I’m not pinning the same topic, back to back, for 3 days straight.
(psst, I made a tool that handles all this planning automatically—so keep reading!)
As you grow, you’ll find a workflow and system that works for you. There’s no single perfect method for every person. But there is more than one solution for every person.
5. Write the Right Posts (be a creator and a user)
Some topics (and niches) perform better on Pinterest. And Pinterest Trends aren’t the only topics to target.
To really grow your account (and the traffic to your blog), you’ll want to write the right posts for Pinterest.
Here’s how:
Do keyword research
I use Keysearch (free) to check search volume
Target long-tail keywords
e.g. Japan travel for families, not just Japan travel
Cover seasonal trends ahead of time
Cover topics that do well for you and your account
Become an active user to understand what does well and why
You might need to refresh older posts to be more Pinterest-aligned (rather than traditional SEO for Google). But as you scale and explore the platform, you’ll learn the nuances of what does well (and what doesn’t).
Spend time on Pinterest as both a creator and a user.
6. Expand + Test
Keep resurfacing old posts that performed well.
Create new boards.
Write new articles and expand your niche a bit.
Discover new topics, audiences and sub-niches.
Test product pages, funnels and new conversion strategies.
Basically, keep expanding and testing as you grow.
Pinterest for Blogging (6 core tips)
My best advice for growing on Pinterest.
1. Make A Schedule
Organization is SO IMPORTANT. Especially as you scale and move past the one-month mark.
When I first started pinning, I was pretty sporadic. I had no plan, schedule or tracking system for which posts I was sharing, how much I shared them and which topic angles I was covering.
I had a loose idea, but I realized pretty soon that I struggled to choose the next article or new pin topic variations.
This is why I created WhatToPin. It’s a custom tool I built for myself (which I’m also sharing publicly now).
At its core, WhatToPin turns your sitemap (which you can find if you go to: yourblog.com/sitemap.xml) into a fully customized and optimized pinning schedule.
The promise? Turn your blog into a Pinterest strategy in minutes.
It intelligently rotates between post URLs to avoid back-to-back sharing of the same topics and creates a plan based on your specific niche, goals and existing content.
It’s perfect if you have lots of articles but you’re not sure where to start and don’t feel like organizing the perfect pin schedule manually.
I’m adding finishing touches now and will launch soon—so bookmark this page and check back soon! This will be free at launch and is expected sometime in February (2026).
(I’ll add an announcement message here on Stuudios as well)
2. GIVE IT TIME!
Like anything worthwhile, Pinterest takes time to see the exciting results.
So don’t expect groundbreaking traffic after a month. Commit to it for at least 3-6 months.
This means a tiny daily habit of designing simple pins and sharing them. Honestly, it’s sort of fun (especially when you start seeing fruits from your labor).
Just trust the process. Slow and steady is better than fast and sporadic.
You don’t want to show up like a flash in the pan, only to burn out after a few weeks.
(we’ve all been there, right?)
3. Expect Volatility
Pinterest growth (any growth) can really mess with your emotions.
You’ll have really great days and then really bad ones too.
I’ve had multiple days (especially early on, in the first couple months of growing on Pinterest) where I felt super negative, frustrated and jaded.
Old victim mindsets and doomsday internal dialogue like: “What’s the point? This doesn’t work!”, “This is stupid, why is my traffic DEAD again?!” and “Pinterest will never work for me…I suck…all is lost.”
Oof. Let’s take a breather. First, this is normal. Second, you don’t suck and nothing is lost. This is just what growth looks like.
This is the importance of embracing the journey, knowing your vision and having a clear plan.
Detach yourself from the day-to-day metrics. Zoom out and focus on monthly trends (weekly at a minimum). Ignore the daily volatility.
It’s like investing. They say don’t focus on the daily or weekly market trends (unless you’re day trading). Because over time, things compound and you end up ahead.
(not financial advice lol)
Pinterest growth can feel super disheartening as you watch your traffic and analytics bounce around.
But remember, this is normal!
This is also where most people quit. So be part of the 1% who stick it out. Because on the other side of that volatility is the very real compound effect.
Read the analytics over time and don’t make hasty decisions based on just a few days of data. Stay the course.
Keep your head down.
Stay humble.
Think in months or years (not in days or weeks).
4. Create Personal Pin Templates
For design, I don’t use automated AI pin designers. I really don’t like the quality that’s produced.
Plus, I actually genuinely enjoy graphic design and have a specific branding style I like to flavor my pins with.
But I still use templates I can rinse and repeat, speeding up the whole process.
Mostly, my templates and assets give me the specific fonts and general layout I’ll be using. This sounds simple and small, but it saves me a lot of time.
Most of my pins look the same (or similar). That’s on purpose. And that also builds a stronger brand.
You can start with existing pin templates in Canva (or buy premium ones if you want). But play around and try to add your unique style in some way.
Create a batch of 5-10 layout styles you can use as plug-and-play templates.
5. Use AI for Titles + Descriptions
Let’s work smarter. We do have AI, after all.
I don’t use AI for my core creative work. But for things like Pinterest titles, image text and descriptions, AI is perfect.
Decent prompting and context-sharing with ChatGPT should get you pretty good results.
Share your core keywords and prompt your LLM of choice to act as an expert marketer specializing in Pinterest for bloggers, copywriting and marketing psychology.
You want compelling, click-worthy titles that create curiosity and drive clicks (or whatever your goal is).
AI is awesome for this :)
6. Use the Data
Data tells you what to do more of and what to ignore.
So double down on pin designs and topics that perform the best.
Pinterest analytics is pretty easy to use too. Once you sign up for a business account and have enough data (wait at least a month or so), your business hub will start giving you core metrics like:
Saves
Impressions
Engagement
Outbound clicks
Pay attention to the KPIs that most align with your goals. And remember, expect daily and weekly volatility. Even monthly fluctations.
This is a long-game, but totally worth it (and actually pretty quick honestly).
Pinterest Blogging FAQs
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I don’t use group boards to grow on Pinterest. Some people do and I think they used to be more popular. But these days, I don’t bother with them and I’ve grown consistently.
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Of course you can! But you also don’t need to. They’re expensive and you still need to invest in setting things up and learning how to use them. I think it’s smarter to start manually early on as you ramp up your account slowly. Especially if you’re only pinning a few designs a day, manual is perfect.
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Most sources say 3-6 months. But it depends on all sorts of factors, like your Pinterest strategy, the niche you’re in, whether your Pinterest account is new or established and how good your SEO and pins are.
For me, my Pinterest account grew by over 2,000% in the first month, leading to around 50 outbound clicks a day early on.
BUT, I had a good keyword strategy, decent pin designs and a semi-established account from the year prior (I had tried Pinterest for about a month before giving up; so I had some initial traction and trust from that).
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Nope! I’ve never run any ads. I’ve grown my account with only organic pins (slow and steady for the win).
BUT, that’s not to say ads are bad. Especially if you have an organic pin with great engagement and a clear conversion goal when people land on the URL. It can make sense to throw some money behind it.
If you’re just starting out though, there’s no need to pay for ads (unless you have the budget, expertise or desire).
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I personally don’t do this. If I have an old that used to perform well (but no longer does), I just recreate the design (or something similar) and repost is that way, using the same keywords and angle. Usually, it ends up performing just as well.
