Are You Making These Pinterest Mistakes?

June 30, 2021 Pinterest Tips

Are you making any of these Pinterest mistakes? Pinterest is an ever changing beast and it can be hard to know what the current best practices are.  Read on to find out what common mistakes people make with Pinterest, and how to fix them.

This post was updated 1 February 2024.

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With so much conflicting advice out there on how to use Pinterest for marketing, plus the constant changes and updates from the platform itself, it can be hard to know what the Pinterest best practices are, and easy to make mistakes.

Common Pinterest mistakes people make include:

You’re being inconsistent.

Posting 100 pins one day and then nothing for the next 100 days is not a good idea! Work out a posting schedule you’re comfortable with and stick to that. Use a scheduler like Tailwind to pin consistently.

You’re not optimising images for Pinterest.

Obviously there will be bloggers out there who have viral pins which aren’t the correct size, but on the whole Pinterest prefers vertical images with an aspect ratio of 2:3, meaning your image is 2 units wide by 3 units tall. The current best size for Pinterest images is 1000 px x 1500 px, and Idea Pins should be 1080 px x 1920 px.

You’re resharing straight from Instagram or Facebook.

It’s tempting to create amazing content for Instagram and think you can share it straight onto Pinterest. Trust me, it doesn’t work. As an experiment I created a board for my Instagram posts and pinned them straight from Instagram with no tweaking. The pins bombed big time and have barely any views. They’re not properly optimised, are the wrong size, and don’t have keywords in the descriptions (only my ramblings) so no one will find them. You’re better to repurpose the content if you can. Resize it in Canva Pro and upload directly to Pinterest.  Yes, it takes longer, but there’s no point sharing it from Instagram if no one will see it!

Your account isn’t client focused.

Sorry, but your Pinterest account isn’t about you. To grow your account you need to make it somewhere your ideal client wants to visit and finds useful. Crochet patterns and healthy recipes are great, but if you are trying to grow a social media manager business, for example, they’re not really relevant to your ideal client. Include pins on things your clients want to see and that are complimentary to your account.

Your content is too complicated.

People on Pinterest are at the beginning of their learning journey, and are looking for answers to problems. They’ll search in simplistic terms, so don’t overcomplicate your wording or they won’t find you.

You’re not using all the different pin types.

There used to be a whole host of different pin types – idea pins, carousel pins, standard pins and video pins. Idea pins have now gone away 🙌 and we’re left with video pins and standard pins. Video is a growing sector, and according to a study by Tailwind, videos are 38% more likely to receive engagement than standard pins. Video pins don’t have as great a click-through rate as standard pins though – it’s not immediately obvious to Pinterest users where to click to head to the related URL, and I think most users in this age of Tiktok expect to see the whole content in the app and then move on. However, by using all the different types of pin you’re maximising your appeal to more people, which can only be a good thing!

You haven’t claimed your website.

I wrote about how to claim your website on Pinterest and why you should, but in case you can’t be bothered reading that, basically you DEFINITELY should. It will give you access to analytics showing what people are pinning from your site and give you credit for anything anyone pins from your domain. It will also add a little Follow button to your pins, no matter who pins them, meaning more chances for more followers.

Your account isn’t optimised.

Here’s a great example of an account that is in dire need of an account optimisation (don’t worry, it’s my account so I can say this!). Having board names with \\ in means they’re pretty unsearchable, and the board description is empty which is such a waste of valuable keyword space! Which brings me nicely onto the next mistake…

You haven’t added in keywords to your account.

The White Rose Cake Design account should be packed full of wedding related keywords but isn’t, so it’s missing out on even more traffic and web clicks. Here’s How to Use Pinterest for Keyword Research and 5 Places to Use Keywords on Pinterest. Don’t be like Jo. Keyword your account!

You’re still using hashtags.

Again, there has been much conflicting advice over whether to use hashtags on Pinterest or not. These used to be allowed on Pinterest but after a lot of spammy behaviour Pinterest decided to remove the searchable function.  Sometimes they’re clickable and searchable, sometimes they’re not. Searches for “#declutteringtips” only brings up pins tagged with that, and gives different results to “decluttering tips”. Put yourself in a Pinterest users shoes – would you search by hashtag? I wouldn’t, so never use them. Don’t use hashtags – use keywords instead. Read more at Should You Use Hashtags on Pinterest?. 

Your profile is missing information.

If your profile is incomplete, not relevant or you’re using an old, blurry profile picture, sort it out! Use a clear recent photo of you if possible, as people buy from people.

You’re not active on Pinterest.

This is a big one – some bloggers think that scheduling posts in Tailwind for months in advance and then forgetting about them is the way to go. It’s generally not. Pinterest wants you to be active in the app, so schedule some pins in the native Pinterest scheduler and use Pinterest like a user and pin some other creators pins – basically use Pinterest!

Thinking you need to post 50 pins a day.

This is something I always get asked – how many pins a day should I post? The answer is there is no set number – it totally depends on your content. Every strategy is individual. If you have lots of content, you’ll be able to create more pins. If you have less, you’ll have to create less. The important thing is to start out with a pinning routine you can stick to and be consistent, and you’ll see growth.

Throwing in the towel after 6 weeks.

Pinterest marketing isn’t a quick fix – because it’s a search engine, not social media, things don’t happen immediately. It can take Pinterest up to 30 days to index a new pin, which then needs to circulate within the algorithm and start to climb the rankings. If your niche is very competitive, eg weddings or recipes, it can take longer for your pins to rank, just like on Google. It might feel like you’re pinning for nobody at first, but being consistent and giving your strategy time to work (eg 6 months, rather than 6 weeks) will mean that your account grows. It’s pushing a boulder up a hill – eventually you reach the top and the boulder rolls down the other side getting faster and faster – this is what your Pinterest account will be like!

I hope this run down of common Pinterest mistakes was useful. As you can see, even I’ve made some! These Pinterest mistakes are relatively easy to fix and you’ll soon start seeing growth on your account.

If you need someone to take a look over your account or even manage your Pinterest account for you, check out my Pinterest Management Packages.