Pinterest has come right out and said it: they want “fresh content.” That makes good Pinterest design tips even more important.
And it means that the old days of repinning are over. (R.I.P. BoardBooster, we miss you).
You need to be making multiple pins for every blog post. That's a lot of work!
But more importantly, you need to be focusing on Pinterest creative best practices for high-performing Pinterest pins that get shared.
So, in this blog post, I'm going to give you some Pinterest design tips to boost your blog traffic.
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Ok, let's get on with it…
What makes a high-performing Pinterest pin?
High-performing Pinterest pins must have an aesthetically pleasing layout AND a clickable title (so Pinterest users want to click it) AND be Pinterest keyword-optimized (so that Pinterest actually shows it to people). High-performing pins also accurately convey what the pinner will get if she clicks on your pin.
We're going to focus on the design aspect in this post, but check out my other posts on using Pinterest keyword SEO and on using Pin Inspector to find those keywords.
Even if you have 100% high-quality blog posts, if your pins are poorly designed and don't follow Pinterest creative best practices, you're not going to get the boost in blog traffic that you want. So even if graphic design isn't your thing, you've got to focus on it when it comes to pins.
(But luckily there are about a billion Pinterest pin templates for Canva out there, so you're good…more on that below).
Here are just a few pins that have performed well for me:
10 Pinterest design tips for beginners that will boost your blog traffic
We all want to create Pinterest pins that get shared and boost your blog traffic. Pinterest pin design makes a major difference in those areas. So let's talk about creating high-performing Pinterest pins, while still using Pinterest creative best practices.
Pinterest Design Tip #1: Follow Pinterest's creative best practices and use the correct pin size
Pinterest pins should always be vertical, at a 2:3 ratio.
Never create square or horizontal pins. They go against Pinterest's creative best practices, and they take up less room on the feed, so they're less likely to get clicked and repinned.
The ideal Pinterest pin size is 1000 px by 1500 px or 1200 px by 1800 px.
Pinterest itself says:
“Use high-quality, vertical images that will stand out in people’s feeds. We recommend a 2:3 aspect ratio (ex: 1000 x 1500 pixels). Other ratios may cause your Pin to truncate, or may negatively impact performance.”
Pinterest
So always use that 2:3 ratio to create high-performing Pinterest pins that boost your blog traffic.
Pinterest Design Tip #2: Pins that get shared are unique
A pin that looks like every other pin on the feed won't grab anyone's attention, get clicked, or get repinned. Your pin needs to have something that makes it stand out visually.
Maybe adding a colored background to text. Maybe a fun stock photo. Maybe a new font. The sky's the limit.
Use colors, fonts, and images to really make your pin stand out.
Pinterest Design Tip #3: Add a call to action to your pins
High-performing Pinterest pins very often include some kind of call to action (“CTA”).
“A call to action (CTA) is a prompt on . . . that tells the user to take some specified action. A call to action is typically written as a command or action phrase, such as ‘Sign Up’ or ‘Buy Now’.”
optimizely.com
It may seem silly, but literally telling people what action you want them to take can make all the difference.
Your CTA can be for people to download a free lead magnet. Or it could be just to read your blog post. Whatever action you want them to take, that's your call to action.
Here's an example of a pin I made for my “Profitable Course Planner” lead magnet. The CTA is “GET THE FREE PLANNER!”.
Some CTAs to consider might be:
- Get my free [thing]!
- Download now!
- Learn how to [do the thing] the easy way!
- Start [doing the thing] today!
- Join the community here!
- Read more!
- You need to hear this today!
And on and on.
Pinterest Design Tip #4: High-performing Pinterest pins use high-quality images
If you're going to use an image–any kind of image–in your pin, it needs to be high quality.
If you're using stock photos (as I do), make sure that they really look great.
If you're taking your own photos, make sure there's good lighting and that you've got the right camera settings. If it's fuzzy or blurry or poorly lit, it's going to work against your goals.
All images used on pins should be high resolution so they're not going to distort on a bigger canvas.
Here are some examples…
Pinterest Design Tip #5: Use the “dominant colors” for your topic to boost your blog traffic
What are “dominant colors” on Pinterest?
“Dominant colors” on Pinterest refer to the main color in each image. So if you search for “Pinterest tips” and you notice that many of the pins that come up have similar color patterns, that's something to take note of. You should make your pin use those colors too.
How to find the “dominant colors” using Pin Inspector
The easiest way to find a pin's dominant color is to use Pin Inspector.
I wrote a whole article about Pin Inspector: Pin Inspector Review. Definitely check it out, it's a FANTASTIC tool.
To find dominant colors on Pin Inspector, make sure the “pins” tab is selected, then type in your search term. It'll take a minute or two, but then Pin Inspector will come back with all the information on the first 50 pins in that search, including the dominant color.
So you can easily just grab those hex codes.
It looks something like this:
I truly cannot recommend highly enough that you should go check Pin Inspector out. It has data like you wouldn't believe.
Pinterest Design Tip #6: Pinterest pins that get shared are very easy to read
People skim when they're looking at a phone or a laptop screen. If the text on your pin isn't instantly and easily readable, it's going to get passed right over.
Make sure that your fonts are big enough.
Make sure that your fonts are easy to read. That script font might be really pretty, but is it instantly readable?
Make sure that your text is in a color that makes it stand out. Don't put white text on on a light background, and vice versa.
If you can't read it in an instant, it's not working.
Pinterest Design Tip #9: Creating Pinterest pins that make the important stuff stand out will boost your blog traffic
Don't bury your most important words in small fonts meant for background headings.
Make sure your keywords are very big and clear. And don't use a script font for important keywords–Pinterest can't read it.
Pinterest hack: Create “fresh” pins in by only making extremely minor changes
So we know that Pinterest wants use to create “fresh content.” Which seems like a lot of work. But I've got a Pinterest hack for you.
Pinterest can only tell that two images are the same when they are completely identical. That means that even extremely minor changes can make an image a “new pin,” even though a human looking at it would consider it the same.
Creating Pinterest pins that Pinterest thinks are unique
Minor changes include:
- Cropping the pin very slightly
- Adding a frame/border around the pin
- Using an image filter to make the colors slightly different
Any of these Pinterest design hacks will make Pinterest think your pin is new. And they really only take about 30 seconds!
Pinterest design tips FAQ:
What is the ideal image size for Pinterest?
Should you use Pinterest pin templates?
If you want to, yeah! If you prefer to make your own, that's fine, but there's certainly nothing wrong with templates. I use them too!
What's the best place to get Pinterest templates for high-performing pins?
Hot tip: Carly Campbell has a monthly subscription that gets you 10 Canva pins and 10 PicMonkey pins per month and they're awesome. Check out her membership right here.
Here are some examples:
Another great place to find Pinterest pins that get shared is Creative Market.
Here are a few Creative Market Canva Pinterest pin template packs that I like:
- 14 Stylish Pin Templates
- 30 Blue Pinterest Pin Templates
- The Pin Power Marketing Kit
- 20 Pinterest Pin Templates for Canva
That's just a few, but there are zillions more to check out!
How many pins should I pin per day?
2-5 pins per day (of your own content) is a good goal, but more is ok (but not more than 25 pins per day).
How many pins should I have per post?
Pinterest wants “fresh content” all the time. So you can always create new images for a post, you can't have too many. At a minimum, I'd say have 3-5. I make 4 for each post at the start, and then more later on.
What is the ideal image size for Pinterest?
Pinterest images should always be vertical at a 2:3 ratio. 1000 x 1500 is a good size.
Is there a limit to how many pins you can have?
Technically there is a limit to how many Pinterest pins you can have. But that limit is 200,000 pins, so you're pretty unlikely to hit it anytime soon.
So that's that! 9 epic Pinterest design rules for beginners! I hope this post was helpful as you venture into Canva to start creating new pins. 🙂
Leave for Pinterest username in the comments so I can check it out!
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