perfect-pinterest-images

How to Create Perfect Pinterest Images

Many small business owners rely on Pinterest as one of their major sources of traffic. Once you start seeing Pinterest as a visual search engine rather than a social media site (Check out this blog post for more info!), you understand that Pinterest is a powerful tool to generate website traffic.

How it works: Add images (these are called ‘pins’) to Pinterest that link back to your posts. People see an image they like, click that pin, and finally end up on your website. Here’s the catch: If your pins don’t stand out, no one will click on them. They’ll easily get lost in the sea of millions of other images. It’s a fast game. You may have just one or two seconds to get the Pinterest user’s attention when they’re scrolling the feed, so you better make sure your pins are amazing, eye-catching and represent your brand well.

That’s a lot to do in one second, isn’t it?

Beautiful images are good, but are they good enough? The short answer is no.

There’s a real science behind gorgeous pins that generate clicks and re-pins, and I’m going to show you the basics to create the perfect Pinterest images and use Pinterest for business as a tool for growth. I’ll teach you everything you need to know about the perfect pin: What you need to include in your pin, what Pinterest recommends, what works, and what doesn’t.

perfect-pinterest-images

1) Size

Always, always, always create vertical pins – these perform best since Pinterest is organized in columns. Avoid small and square images at all costs. No one will see them, and they will get lost in the feed. Pinterest recommends a 2:3 ratio so your pins should be 1.5 times longer than they are wide. The optimal size is 600 x 900 pixels (px), but you can make them a little longer if necessary. I typically make my pins 1080 width so they can easily translate to Instagram Story graphics (Size:the best size for those is 1080px x 1920px).

Keep in mind that Pinterest now cuts pins off around 1260 px though, so anything longer than that won’t show up – only when a user taps it for a closeup.

2. Pinterest Images

There’s nothing wrong with a text-only pin, but try to mix it up a little. I will have 3 blog graphics for each blog post and they are a mix – I pin all of them and then analyze whichever does best. If you’re using images in your pins, make sure they are actually related to the topic, and that they are totally royalty-free if you don’t have the license to use them. Check out Pexels.com and Unsplash.Com for free pictures. Choose beautiful clean images that catch the eye and quickly convey what your pin is about.

3. Text & Font

The text on the pin has to be readable. Select a duo of two fonts that go well together and also matches your brand. Don’t forget that more than 75% of pinners are browsing from their mobile devices, so your text has to be big enough for cell phones or tablet screens.

Don’t cram too much info if you’re overlaying text on your image – just a compelling headline that will make people click – and use a good color contrast. If you need help writing better post titles, use CoSchedule’s headline analyzer. This free tool will give you a headline score in %, analyzing the structure, grammar, and readability of your headline. I use it for every post!

Don’t forget that you also have the description field on your pin to fill out! It’s valuable real estate and it’s actually good for your SEO to write different keyword-rich descriptions for each pin, so try it!

Psst!  I also use Tailwind to optimize my pins and schedule them out. I can’t recommend it enough!

4. Branding

You need to create branded Pinterest images that are cohesive with the fonts and colors we can find on your website and other social media pages. You want people to recognize your pins when they are scrolling their feed. Also, since you’ll be inserting at least one or two of these pins in every blog post, it will look a lot more professional if they all have a similar design. If you browse around Be Bold Design Studio, you’ll see that all blog-related articles start with the same kind of graphic.

They all look alike because they match my branding. Also, your domain name and/or logo should be on every. Single. Pin. No exceptions! In the event of a broken link or a bad repost, you want pinners to always be able to track down your article and find our their way back on to your blog, which is easy to do if your info is on the pin.

To save time, I strongly suggest creating templates for your pin designs. All you’ll have to do is simply modify the text and the image without having to start from scratch every time

5. Rich Pins

Not all pins on Pinterest are created equal. Rich Pins are enhanced pins with extra power. Pinterest created them back in 2013 to help provide more information within a pin. There are four types of Rich Pins: Product, Article, App and Recipe. Article rich pins show the blog title, post won’t show up – only when a user taps in for a closeup. 2. Images There’s nothing wrong with a text-only pin, but try to mix it up a little. For my business, I will have 3 blog graphics for each blog post and they are a mix of text and images. I pin all of them at the same time and then analyze which ones does best.

If you’re using images in your pins, make sure they are actually related to the topic, and that they are totally royalty free, if you don’t have the license to use them. Check out Pexels.com and Unsplash.com for free pictures. Choose beautiful, clean images that catch the eye and quickly convey what your pin is about. Our goal is to get people to click on our pins and redirect back to our website, and Rich Pins make this so much easier. It takes a few minutes to set up on your Pinterest account and can be a bit techy, so ask your tech or website designer friend to see if they can lend a hand.

6. Optimization: Pinterest for Business

To optimize and schedule my Pins, I use Tailwind. I can’t recommend it enough! Tailwind allows you to upload a lot of content quickly as well as monitor your growth, top pins, re-pins and more. Here are a few of my quick tips for using Tailwind:

  • Analytics: The great thing about a service like Tailwind is the ability to review what worked and what didn’t. The built in analytics allow you to see which pins gained traction and which pins fell flat.
  • Repinning: Don’t be afraid to re-pin. Pinterest is not Instagram and when you post something, it won’t be seen by the same people over and over. Remember that Pinterest is a search engine so focus on getting your content out as often as possible. Pins (and re-pins) can be done 50 or 100 times a day without any worry of overkill.
  • Collaborate: Tailwind Tribes can help you get your content shared and re-shared throughout the world. These opportunities are like little teams that work together to share each other’s content. You will help the members of your group grow their Pinterest for business and they’ll do the same for you.

This article was featured in the Ultimate Guide to Pinterest by Rising Tide Society – download the rest of the guide here!

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