How To Create Clickable Pinterest Pins: Increase Your Views Today
Pinterest is a game-changer when it comes to increasing blogging traffic. Learning how to create clickable Pinterest pins is a sure-fire way to increase click-through rates and conversions.
Firstly, I’m not going to sit here and say I add every single one of these tips to each of my pins… they would be too cluttered. But, by making multiple pinnable images per post, I spread the tips throughout. This maximises my chance of being found, increases the chance of having a viral pin, and ensures I still use all these tips somehow or another! It’s also important to remember that not all my pins are on this blog post. This is because if I added all my images it would significantly slow down load speed – negatively affecting reader experience!
Just before we get to it… if you’re a blogger, I really think you’ll find these 25 ‘request to join’ blogging group boards useful. These are 25 joinable boards to post your fantastic pins to!
How To Create Clickable Pinterest Pins: The Basics
I wanted this article to cover everything from well-known basics to more in-depth ideas. Therefore, I quickly wanted to jot the basic points below – we all need to ensure all our pins fit at least fit this criteria first before moving on:
1. Vertical Pins (Length is longer than width)
2. The optimum size is 1000 x 1500 pixels in size
3. Add a link and ensure it works
You may also find my article detailing 29 Pinterest awesome top tips useful!
How To Create Clickable Pinterest Pins: The Tips
Tip 1: How To Write Engaging Titles
In my experience, titles are the MOST important part of a Pinterest pin. Don’t get me wrong, the aesthetic is important, an image, the font and the colours… but at the end of the day if the title isn’t great readers won’t click. Simple as.
But, how do we write engaging titles? And… how do we know people will click on them?
Firstly, I consider my SEO title for search engines which focusses on my targeted keywords… then I consider my Pinterest pin titles which are often more creative and less likely to be typed into a search engine. My SEO title of each article will on the whole be different from the titles used on my Pinterest images.
If you’re interested in how I write my SEO search engine titles for my blog posts, I follow all the tips from IncomeSchool – lifesavers! But, you’re here for Pinterest titles. This is where the Yoast SEO plugin comes in handy!
Title Examples and Breakdowns
The Yoast SEO plugin has a headline analyser function. It breaks down your title to see how likely it is someone would click on it. Let me give you an example:
Title Example 1:
Title Example 2:
Title Example 3:
As you can see, the titles cover similar topics but the SEO plugin mathematically calculates how strong each title is and how likely it is someone would click it. Whilst we can read the titles as humans and think that’s a good or bad title, the plugin does this for us.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s super important to have that human eye to make sure the title genuinely makes sense and does sound good, but the plugin is a great place to start.
Don’t panic if you don’t have access to the Yoast SEO plugin though, you can use this free, online tool called headline analyser. For both tools, we should be aiming for a score of over 70 for the best results!
Which Factors Are Important for Pinterest Pins?
Whilst the Yoast plugin also shows you the character count and length which effects your title score, these are less relevant to pins. This is because the length effects if the title is cut off in a search query… this will not happen on your Pinterest pin images. The major factors to take note of when writing your titles are:
• Word Balance (Having a mix of common, uncommon, emotional and power words)
• Sentiment (Whether it has a positive, neutral or a negative tone)
• Headline Type (Whether it’s a general headline, how-to or list)
Having a title that is a list or how-to, has a positive sentiment or tone, and one that uses a mixture of word types is FAR more likely to be clicked.
Overall, make sure your title is super irresistible using these tools as well as your own judgement! Sometimes, it’s beneficial to slightly embellish your title as long as you remain truthful and it’s not click-bait.
Tip 2: Don’t Just Use Colour… Use It Effectively
Now that we have irresistible headlines that have been mathematically calculated, it’s time to make them stand out. How do we do this? Colour!
Colourful pins stand out and look less dull. Fact. Remember in school when we’d have to design posters or leaflets and the teacher would always say ‘make sure you add colour?’ This is like that.
But using colour effectively is a different matter. It’s not purely about sticking on bright colours – it can sometimes be too much or put in the wrong areas. Check out this article written by UnderstandingGraphics detailing 10 reasons to use colour. Whilst all aren’t relevant to our use of colour in pins, some hit the nail on the head.
Colour Can Enhance Meaning (highlight important words or areas of your pin)
UnderstandGraphics explain how colour can be used to ‘enhance meaning’. They go on to explain that we are attracted to high-contrast and bright colours, and that a highlighted area will stand out to us. When we ‘use colour for emphasis, it’s like shouting that this object or element has the greatest value.’
Simply put, this means on our pins we should be highlighting the areas or text that is MOST important as viewers are quickly drawn to this. For example, if you have a headline… highlight key words in a different, brighter colour.
Let’s look at one of my cover photos below. See how I’ve highlighted the words ‘irresistible pins’ and ‘will’. I highlighted these because ‘pins’ immediately tells the viewer what the article is about, I highlighted ‘irresistible’ because this word draws in the reader, and I highlighted ‘will’ because this tells readers that it will work.
Colour Can Help You Establish Site Identity
This means that if you use consistent colour schemes for your pins, readers further down the line may actually begin to recognise your pins. A colour scheme helps with branding. Branding just so happens to be one of my top tips in the 29 useful Pinterest tips!
Don’t get me wrong, when you make multiple pins for the same blog post, using the same colours will make them look too similar and Pinterest won’t count them as ‘fresh pins.’ But, using a colour scheme for each of your board cover photos is essential.
Also, you could use similar colour schemes when pinning to your personal boards, but when pinning to group boards you could use different colours.
Other Benefits of Using Colour
Depending on your type of pin, there are a number of ways you can use colour effectively. You can use colour to improve object recognition, to communicate a mood, and by understanding the psychology of colours allows you to select colours that are fit for purpose.
For example, red, because of its wavelength instantly grabs attention and creates a sense of urgency. This is why red is used in warning labels, for example. By understanding the psychology of the colour, and knowing that, for example, red is more likely to attract attention and is considered the most powerful colour, this helps you to select colours appropriately for your pins.
Side note: I really hope you’re enjoying or finding how to create clickable Pinterest pins useful!
Tip 3: Text Font & Style
Sometimes, this isn’t as simple as just picking a nice font and being done with it. There are a number of things you can consider with text! In order to emphasize important words you can:
Use a different font to the rest of the text
Using a mixture of 2 different, easily readable fonts can also be an amazing way to make your pin look really nice and emphasize important words. If you are unsure of which fonts look nice together, check out this article written by Blog.Snappa to get inspiration for 50 different font combinations.
However, sometimes Pinterest users, in an attempt to make their pins look nice, emphasize important words with fancy or wavey lettering. This can be quite difficult to read sometimes. Make sure you emphasize key words with bold and readable text.
Use a larger text size to the rest of the text
Simply highlighting the important words and increasing this text size is a great way to make the words stand out compared to the rest of the title. We are naturally drawn towards larger words as they fill up more of the pin area.
Put the important words in all capitols or bold
Another fun way to make your text stand out is to put it in all capitols. I personally do this quite a lot, and while it may not look as nice as some fancy lettering, it definitely grabs attention!
In my opinion, grabbing reader attention is far more important than a pin looking really cute. This is because as mentioned above, the actual title is what gets people to click. So… if you can grab someone’s attention using text and colour, and then ensure they click by adding a great title, you’re onto a winner!
Final Text Tip
Mixing and matching these techniques can lead to some really great pins that stand out compared to the rest. Don’t be afraid to exchange some pins that don’t look quite as cute or fit your vibe for ones that are really bold.
For example, sure… go ahead and make that cute light pink pin with some wavey lettering, but also make another pin going in hard with a bright red attention-grabbing border and BOLD text.
Tip 4: Add A Call-To-Action
This one is definitely underused on Pinterest. I’ll hold my hands up too, I don’t use this technique half as much as I should considering how important and effective it can be.
I’ve written briefly about call-to-actions in, surprise surprise, my article that details 29 tips to be successful on Pinterest. For me, I add call-to-actions at the bottom of pins. You can write a simple statement such as ‘Find out now’, ‘click here to learn more’, ‘Learn how today’ or ‘Find out more by clicking’ for example. You can also add some big, red arrows pointing towards it as this again reminds people to click through.
It is crazy how a sentence like this at the bottom really improves your click-through rate. Adding a call-to-action to a pin often sets you apart from other users as it is underused, and people click because of it.
As there is so much choice on Pinterest, and as humans we only want the BEST information to help us learn, people scrolling through can sometimes find it difficult to choose an article to read. Adding a call-to-action can help someone make that snap decision to click and read your article because it is subtly telling them what to do.
Tip 5: Use Images in The Pin
It’s true that pins with both a high-quality image, as well as text, often get more clicks. When I’m scrolling through Pinterest these days, a lot of the time the blogging posts I see are just text on a plain or faded image background.
Using high-resolution images, as well as text, sets you apart from a lot of Pinterest users. This is because a pin with an image that takes up at least a third of the space stands out. It breaks up the wall of text result pins and this catches people’s attention.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s MUCH easier to use a pin with just text… I do it ALL the time. It means making 3-5 pins per blog post much quicker and efficient – and allows you to use pin templates! However, it’s beneficial to have at least one of your pins per post with a relatively large image that does not have text over it.
The quality of the image also plays a massive factor in success. If possible, it’s always beneficial to use your own photos. These allow you to capture your brand and means you’re not restricted to the photos available on stock image websites.
However, that said, there are millions on free images you can use online for your blog which makes designing these types of pins much easier. Check out this article I wrote on the 19 best sites to get completely free, high-resolution images for your blogs!
How To Create Clickable Pinterest Pins: Final Thoughts
I genuinely hope you found these tips on how to create clickable Pinterest pins helpful! Whilst you already knew writing sensational titles is helpful for your pins, I hope you learnt a little more on the tools available to help create these titles. I also hope you recognise the various factors that passively influence how likely someone is to click on your title… for example using a variety of common, uncommon, emotional and power words.
We’re always told to use colour as it attracts attention. But, I hope this article has also shown you the importance of adding it in the right places to highlight important points. The choice of colour is important for branding and catching attention, as well as the type of font and size.
Adding a call-to-action and high-resolution image without text over the top can also help you to stand out! If you liked this article, I really think you’d enjoy the 29 tips to be successful on Pinterest. If you don’t use Tailwind, or you’re just into manual pinning (Which you should be!), I’ve put together some manual pinning tips and spreadsheet.
If you already do a lot of these tips, or you’re thinking about incorporating some, why not promote your new pins to these 25 ‘request to join’ blogging group boards?
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