14 Common Pinterest Mistakes That Prevent Business Growth

As a self-proclaimed Pinterest nerd and long-time marketer, I have been relying on Pinterest as one of my top traffic drivers since I started my business in 2017. Pinterest has changed a lot over the years, and some common Pinterest mistakes could prevent you from getting the traffic you need for business growth.

These mistakes will block your overall account growth, meaning you won’t get to take advantage of the true potential Pinterest has as a core marketing tool.

So, let’s get into them.

14 Pinterest Mistakes That Prevent You From Growing

1. Using Pinterest Like Social Media

First things first – Pinterest is not a social media platform; it is a visual search engine. Just like Google, people go to Pinterest to look for something specific. 

They are actively searching, saving pins and clicking on pins to get to content to learn more.

Unlike social media, Pinterest users have the intent to discover, consume content and engage with your brand, while social media is mostly just scrolling with some likes and comments thrown in.

This means that Pinterest is a much higher driver of traffic than social media.

3. Not Being Consistent with Posting

On Pinterest, consistency is actually more important than frequency.

In other words, pinning 3 to 5 pins a week on a consistent schedule will perform better over time than pinning 10 pins in one day and then not pinning again for 2 weeks.

Slow and steady wins the race.

4. Pinning Irrelevant Content 

If you are using Pinterest to drive traffic to your content and to generate leads for your email list, it’s imperative to only pin content related to your niche.

Otherwise, the Pinterest algorithm will get confused on what your account is about. 

This also means removing boards that are not related to your business niche.

Tip: Create some secret boards for personal pins or have a separate personal account, which is what I recommend and personally do.

6. Pinning the Same Pin Over & Over

This strategy was popular back in 2017 when I started using Pinterest for business, but doing this now can have severe effects on your Pinterest performance and even get your account shut down for spamming.

The Pinterest algorithm loves “fresh pins”, which means every pin you publish should have a different design and or message.

7. Deleting Pins

Never ever delete a pin – even the ugly ones (actually especially the ugly ones)! 

Why? Because more often than not, many old, ugly pins that don’t perform for months on end can literally go from getting no impressions, saves and clicks one day to hundreds or thousands months or even years later. 

So just leave your pins alone.

8. Using Cute Board Titles

If you are using Pinterest for personal use, cute board names are fun! But, they won’t help if you want to get your pins and boards in front of more users.

You see, adding relevant keywords, based on what people are searching for, is most important when naming your boards.

Related: How To Create Pinterest Board Names That Drive Traffic

9. Not Linking Your Pins Properly

I’ve seen many people linking pins to their homepage or a podcast page when they are promoting a specific piece of content. This confuses the Pinterest user, which means they will leave your site immediately.

You must make it easy for people to find what they’re looking for.

This means creating a pin that promotes a specific piece of content, a product/service, and linking to the same thing.

I also see people forgetting to add links to their pins altogether. Never do this – if you feel the need to add a pin that you do not want to link to, just save your time instead.

10. Uploading Instagram Content

Pinterest allows you to claim your Instagram account and automatically have your Instagram posts posted to Pinterest, but please DO NOT do this!

First, Instagram content performs very poorly on Pinterest, so if you keep adding poor-performing content, the Pinterest algorithm will assume you don’t provide quality pins.

This means it will block your ability to maximize impressions (views from users).

11. Not Using Pinterest Analytics

How can you improve your performance on Pinterest if you don’t look at the numbers to understand what’s working and what’s not?

It’s important to look at Pinterest Analytics regularly to understand:

• What boards perform best
• What pins drive the most traffic to your website
• Pins that get the most saves, but drive lower traffic

The other mistake you might be making when it comes to Pinterest Analytics is looking at the wrong numbers, like ‘monthly views’. This is essentially a vanity metric, meaning it can look high, but that doesn’t mean it’s driving traffic or growing your business.

12. Not Setting Up a Business Account

Following from the above, if you don’t have a business account, you don’t get access to Pinterest Analytics. 

Other important features you get with a business account (which is free) is:

• Access to the Pinterest Trends tool – a great way to get content ideas and see what’s trending throughout the year.
• Audience Insights – you’ll learn who is interacting with your content, from their gender, age, location (by city and country), and device, but most importantly, you’ll learn what their favorite categories and interests are.
• Claiming your website with Pinterest, which sets up rich pins and allows you to connect product catalogs.
• The ability to run advertising campaigns – perfect if you want to maximize reach for lead magnet sign-ups or a sale.

13. Using Hard-to-Read Fonts

Before you design anything, think about what it will look like on people’s smartphones.

There are a lot of pretty cursive fonts available for free, but do not overly use them as they can be very difficult to read, especially on a mobile device. And if a Pinterest user can’t read your pins, they will not click on them.

If you want to add cursive fonts, I recommend only using cursive for filler words, for example, “the”, “and” and “is”. 

You want to make sure the core keyword you’re going after is easy to read.

14. Giving up After a Few Weeks

Pinterest can take a few months to really get going, so if you give up too early, you won’t benefit from lots of consistent traffic moving forward.

If you’ve read that you need to post dozens of times a day, first know that this is NOT something I recommend, especially if you are just starting out. This will only lead to you giving up, as it’s too hard to stay consistent with the number of daily pins.

Instead, aim for something you can easily keep up with – perhaps one pin a day to start, which you can definitely get results with.

Final Thoughts

I could actually name many other Pinterest mistakes I see people making, but I could be here all day. So, these are the top things to avoid when using Pinterest.

Get these right, and you’ll start to see Pinterest turn into the traffic-driving engine of your dreams!

More Pinterest Resources For Beginners:

• Free Pinterest Marketing Starter Guide
• Pinterest Analytics: 4 Metrics To Track
• Pinterest SEO To Find The Best Keywords