Using Pinterest to Market your Author Business

By Pip Reid

Pinterest is a great way to drive traffic to your online author platforms. Our latest quarterly page view results on www.biblepathwayadventures.com show Pinterest was the best referrer of website traffic, beating rivals like Facebook and Google Plus by a country mile.

Interested? Here are five simple ways you can use Pinterest to increase the number of visitors to your author website, blog, or social media pages.

1. Add a Website Link

Did you know Pinterest allows you to add a website link (URL) to every image you pin? This means every time a pinner clicks on your image, they land on the website or platform you’ve added to your pin. How do we do this?

Take a look at this pin of Pharaoh. When you click the pencil icon, it brings up an edit box. Next to ‘website’, I’ve added a URL to the Escape from Egypt story page on biblepathwayadventures.com. Note: Pinterest doesn’t like shortened tinyurl and bit.ly links, so remember to include the full website address.

From now on, every time a pinner clicks on Pharaoh, they get taken directly to Escape from Egypt. (see screenshot below).

2. Make sure search engines can find you. 

In the Account Settings section of your Pinterest page, find ‘Search Privacy’. Search privacy allows you to choose whether you hide your Pinterest page from search engines. Make sure your settings show ‘no’, as shown in this screenshot.

Here’s an example of how effective Search Engines discoverability works. When I type ‘Jonah Bible Quiz’ into Google images, Bible Pathway Adventures’ quizzes appear five times on the first line. All these images are from our Pinterest page.

If someone clicks on one of these quiz images, they get taken our Pinterest page. If they click the image in Pinterest, they get taken to our website. It’s easy to see how consistently adding content to Pinterest can boost web traffic to your author blogpost or website!

3. Doing well on Pinterest often means your website can rise in Google rankings. 

To help pinners and search engines like Google find your work, add a description to each pin. Write short engaging image descriptions that speak to your audience. Since our biggest audience is Christian moms looking for Activity and Bible teaching ideas, my Activity descriptions read like this: ‘Printable Bible Quiz: Abraham | FREE Download’ or ‘Plague of Hail | Ten Plagues of Egypt’. These descriptions are packed with keywords that show up well in search results.

4. Pinterest lets you verify your author website. 

This adds credibility to your Pinterest profile and shows pinners you are the owner of your website. To verify your website, go to account settings. Next to the box where you’ve added your website domain name, click the ‘confirm website’ button to start the verification process.

Once you’ve verified your domain name, you’ll receive a check mark next to the website address. Verified websites can rank higher in Pinterest and Google search results, so it’s worth doing.

5. Join Group boards. 

Group boards appear under many different names – shared boards, contributor boards, community boards and collaborative boards, and are where like-minded pinners meet. Group boards give your pins even greater visibility, meaning more traffic to your website or blog. It’s also a fantastic way of connecting with other pinners and building relationships. To join a board, ask a member to invite you. Otherwise you’ll need to contact the owner via Pinterest message, email, or twitter, and ask for an invitation.

HOT TIP: Use the website Pingroupie to find Pinterest group boards worth joining.

Never underestimate the power of consistency and perseverance. Great images, useful content, and frequent pinning are the keys to doing well on Pinterest.

Is 2017 is the year you give Pinterest a go?

About Pip Reid

Pip Reid is the co-founder and author of Bible Pathway Adventures, a free Bible storyapp created to help parents around the world teach children more about the Bible. To help with this mission, Bible Pathway Adventures offers Bible stories and educational resources stories in many languages including Chinese, Hindi, Swahili, Tagalog, Spanish, Russian, Indonesian and Portuguese. All available for free download at www.biblepathwayadventures.com.

Outside of writing, Pip loves spending time in the outdoors, traveling, reading, and hiking with MJ, the world’s most lovable Staffy X.

Stay up to date with Bible Pathway Adventures on social media:
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