7 Crucial Pinterest Mistakes You Are Making (and How to Fix Them ASAP)

Pinterest mistakes can cost you Pinterest reach, engagement, and blog traffic.

Using Pinterest correctly and avoiding these top 7 common Pinterest mistakes can ensure you are making the best out of this powerhouse platform.

Note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you buy from my link I might make a small commission. This does not affect the price you pay. See the full affiliate disclosure here.

Before we begin, if you are not familiar with Pinterest at all here is a guide to help you along.

Table of Contents

7 Crucial Pinterest Mistakes

Pinterest Mistake #1: Pinning to irrelevant boards

One of the biggest Pinterest mistakes bloggers make is to pin their brand new pins to irrelevant boards.

What do I mean by irrelevant boards?

Boards that have nothing to do with the topic of the blog post related to that Pin.

In other words, if I pin my “Top 10 Keto Snacks” Pin to my “Toddler” Board, then I just pinned my brand-new pin to an irrelevant board.

So why is pinning to irrelevant boards a HUGE mistake?

Well, Pinterest keywords Pins depending on where those Pins are pinned to. So, it is crucial, especially in the early life of that Pin, that it is pinned to specific “relevant” boards (personal boards and group boards).

This is of the most common mistakes of bloggers who pin to group boards with multiple niches.

For instance, a group board titled “Bloggers Pin All” likely contain pins from bloggers of all niches.

Although some might consider pinning to such boards an advantage because of the potential immediate reach, the disadvantages are far more.

That is because your brand-new Pin will be keyworded incorrectly and the audience that you will be reaching will not be your targeted audience. Thus, not giving you new pin a change to thrive.

Pinterest Mistake #2: Not having descriptions (Boards and Pins)

Another huge Pinterest mistake is to not have descriptions on your personal boards and Pins.

Pin and Board descriptions is what Pinterest uses to know what your Pins and Boards are about. If you leave your descriptions blank or if they aren’t keyworded properly, they might as well be invisible!

Pinterest Mistake #3: Not using keywords and hashtags

As you probably already know, Pinterest words like a search engine.

When someone enters a query in the Pinterest search bar, Pinterest algorithm pulls up the most related Pins as it relates to the visitor’s query keywords.

That is why it is strictly important that you include related keywords to your Pin’s title and description and board tittles and description. That is the single best way to ensure you Pins are searchable for years to come.

And what does that mean?

You guessed it! Higher Pinterest impressions, higher Pinterest saves, and ultimately higher blog traffic from Pinterest!

Similarly, hashtags help your Pins resurface in search results when it matches a specific hashtag search query. Include 3-5 general related hashtags to you blog post in every Pin description.

Pinterest Mistake #4: Naming your boards with random titles

Another very common Pinterest mistake specially in your early Pinterest journey is naming your boards with random titles.

If you had a personal Pinterest account before you started your Pinterest business account, you know exactly what I am talking about.

In a personal Pinterest account, we name out board with random personal titles. For instance, “the cutest baby clothes ever”, “bucket list”, and “my favorite beautiful things”.

As you can probably already tell, those titles are general, vague, and not keyword. Therefore, the chances that your boards will appear in someone’s search results are slim to none.

Pinterest Mistake #5: Joining Follow-for-Follow Facebook groups

Facebook Groups for bloggers are an amazing way to network and get eyes on your content.

Some are even specifically designed for bloggers who are looking for Pinterest help and engagement. However, not all Pinterest-Facebook Group Threads are beneficial.

Beneficial Pinterest-Facebook Threads

Beneficial Pinterest-Facebook Threads are those that allow you to share one of your Pin for others to repin and give you the option to repin other people’s pins that are relevant to your niche and Pinterest content.

That is the best-case scenario and it can be very beneficial for your Pinterest growth and Pin's success.

Pinterest Follow Threads are also beneficial if you get to pick those you want to follow (relevant to your niche).

Nonbeneficial Pinterest-Facebook Threads

On the other hand, nonbeneficial Pinterest-Facebook Threads are those that are usually named “Follow-for-Follow” and “Pin All”.

A lot of new bloggers (including myself when I started) put too much emphasis on getting followers and having their new content repined by anyone! After all the more people see it and pin it the better… right?

WRONG!

When you engage in such threads, for instance “Pin All”, you are obligated to pin content that is unrelated to your niche. In turn, you are sending Pinterest mixed signals about your what your Pinterest account is about.

Similarly, “Follow-for-Follow” threads require you follow every account posted on that thread. You want me to tell you a little secret? You are wasting you precious time!!!

The number of followers you have on Pinterest means absolutely NOTHING if they aren’t YOUR ideal audience.

You want your followers to be people who are going to engage and repin your content. So, if you have a bunch of people following you for the wrong reasons your Pinterest engagement will decrease, and so will you blog traffic.

Moral of the story… engage in Pinterest-Facebook Threads that allow you to Pin other people’s relevant content and only follow those whose have similar niches as you.

Pinterest Mistakes #6: Not being consistent

Talk about the mother of all Pinterest marketing mistakes… inconsistency!

You can implement all of the Pinterest tips in the world, take the best Pinterest courses for bloggers, avoid all of the above-mentioned mistakes… But if you are inconsistent implementing your Pinterest strategies you won’t get anywhere.

Pinterest rewards active pinners. Therefore, is crucial that you pin consistently (ideally daily) to create and keep a good momentum.

I know how time-consuming pinning daily can become, so if you need help with daily pinning I highly suggest investing in Tailwind.

Tailwind is the best Pinterest scheduler out there today (Pinterest approved). I love that it allows you to schedule Pins weeks/months at a time so that I have more time on my hands for other important blogging tasks.

But don’t take my word for it. Get a 1-month FREE Tailwind trial, here.

Pinterest Mistakes #7: Creating Pins from scratch daily

Another time consuming task and a rookie mistake is creating Pins from scratch DAILY.

We've already established that being consistent on Pinterest is the only way to get ahead (unless you are paying for Pinterest Ads of course).

Therefore, creating new Pins for new and old content is a MUST when it comes to staying consistent and feeding Pinterest with fresh material.

To avoid the “creating a new Pin from scratch” hassle, consider investing in Pinterest Pin Templates.

Pinterest Templates allow you to just change the image, write your Pin tittle and voila!

With Pinterest templates:

You don’t have to worry about designing a click-worthy Pin from scratch
You won’t have to think of a good size for your Pin
Or spend 30 minutes of your day designing one-single Pin

In as little as 5 minutes you can have an attractive and engaging Pin for your new blog post.

That is a Pinterest mistake I struggled with for months, until I created the Pinterest Pin Templates Bundle!

The little time I had to work on my 2 blogs I spent designing pins from scratch. So, I wanted to make sure that no other blogger wasted their precious limited time again.

The Pinterest Pin Bundle includes:

30 Pinterest Pins Templates
3 Different Sizes
Video Tutorials
Special Bonus

Final Thoughts

Pinterest is an amazing platform, but to use it to its full potential we must ensure to avoid crucial Pinterest mistakes mentioned in this article.

In addition, staying in the know is a great idea. Pinterest is an ever-changing platform so make sure you keep up with the latest Pinterest changes by participating in Facebook groups for blogger or signing up to my email list.