Intro
Pinterest beat YouTube, Reddit, Tagged, Google+, LinkedIn, Yelp, and Myspace combined for referral traffic and according to Hitwise, it is also one of the top ten social sites this year. According to AppData, on an average, the Pinterest Facebook app has more than 3 million users on a daily basis.
Brief History
Pinterest was founded in 2009 as an online pinboard that offers people a way to collect and share photos and links of things they love. We are not going to go deep into Pinterest’s past but if you need a detailed analysis on it’s history, you can read The Pinterest Roadmap from TechCrunch. Now let’s fast-forward to 2013, where the analytics company ComScore has reported Pinterest.com at 54.2 million monthly unique visitors worldwide in April. ComScore says Pinterest.com had 3.8 million average daily visitors.
Pinterest vs. Other’s
Google Trends suggests that Pinterest is quickly gaining on other social media sites such as Twitter in terms of overall traffic. In the US, while Twitter ranks 9, Pinterest ranks 13 (Alexa Ranking) in the U.S. and 28 globally. When you consider how new Pinterest is compared to Twitter, that is a pretty fast growth in such a short amount of time.
Pinterest also recorded a lower bounce rate percentage and it seems to represent a more engaged audience when compared with other social networks. And despite that Twitter’s Alexa rank is slightly higher, Pinterest still brings 3X more referrals than Twitter. No wonder investors see this as a 2.5 billion dollar company.
Pinterest and Technology
The technology domain finds its own space as a separate category on Pinterest. Tech brands that do not sell products can market infographics on Pinterest. E-commerce sites have also seen dramatic improvement’s in user engagement by giving users the ability to pin product images, which results in more traffic coming from Pinterest.
Pinterest for SEO
To enhance brand exposure and generate traffic using Pinterest, focus on the on-site SEO elements of your Pinterest profile such as the H3 tags, SEO title, and DoFollow link to your website. Additionally, add links to your Twitter and Facebook and also focus on the on-site SEO element of your pin, for example the description for your pin becomes the image ALT tag for your pinned image.
Monitor Results
Pinterest tells you who pinned something from your website and this is important to know, which images are doing well and also helps you monitor online reputation management issues. Boost brand royalty by thanking those who have pinned your images.
Integrate Images with Your Website
Each and every page of your website and every post of your blog must have at least one image that is both informative and appealing. This not only increase the likelihood of generating Pinterest traffic but also encourages people to add your content to their pin boards on Pinterest.
Track Your Pinterest Traffic
You can track your Pinterest traffic in Google Analytics and one of the best ways to determine which online marketing strategy drives the best traffic and generates the highest social networking referrals is to add all Pinterest.com to your advanced social media segment.
Conclusion
The number of websites that are adding the Pinterest “Pin It” button are also increasing by the day. It is highly recommended that you get your website on the Pinterest Goodies page if it has a lot of good images to share.