How to do a Pinterest audit for your account
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On this blog, we have talked a lot about using Pinterest for your business or marketing your blog. I convinced many of you to start using it religiously to get your word across.
However, there’s a topic that we still haven’t covered – a Pinterest audit.
Don’t get intimidated by the word “audit”. It’s not just something that accountants and finance people use.
Auditing is the simple task of inspecting whether you’re doing what’s right – that’s the simplest definition.
You can audit any business process.
It is not just for the year-end inventory of a multi-million dollar enterprise. As a small business owner, you will have to check your strategies for your Pinterest account.
Or leveraging all free tools and features to promote your brand or business. This will be possible through a Pinterest audit.
I also teach doing a complete Pinterest profile audit in my best-selling course, Passive Profit with Pinterest.
So, whether you’re a blogger or a business owner, get your pens and notepads out to start jotting down all you need to know before performing a Pinterest account audit.
Before we jump into what you need to perform a Pinterest audit and I throw in some freebies like a free Pinterest checklist, I want to discuss what a Pinterest audit is.
That’s because many folks don’t know why they need a Pinterest audit in the first place.
What is a Pinterest audit?
To put it simply, a Pinterest audit is an inspection or a review of your Pinterest business account and the content marketing strategy that you might be following.
A Pinterest audit will look into your account and its SEO strategy, whether it’s linked to your main blog’s site or business site like an online storefront or your Etsy shop.
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We all know that Pinterest is a visual search engine, just like Google.
Therefore, it requires optimising every Pin (image or video) you upload with high-volume keywords, and deciding when is the perfect time to upload everything.
All of this comes under Pinterest SEO, something that I talk about in detail in my Passive Profit with Pinterest course.
Once you’re clear on what Pinterest SEO is and what you need to do in order to make your Pinterest account perform well, you’ll be clear on which targets and KPIs you need to look at when performing a Pinterest audit.
The Pinterest audit can easily be done by you, the blogger or business owner.
Alternatively, you can hire a Pinterest marketing pro, someone who has been using Pinterest for years and understands the ins and outs of the platform.
Though it’s easy to create a Pinterest audit checklist yourself, I’ll make things easier for you by walking you through every important step of the Pinterest audit and giving you a Pinterest manager checklist.
For now, just keep in mind that you need to look at the workings of your account and the backend work – the strategy.
Keep on top of whether your designs are relevant and attracting your audience, and how updated and relevant your marketing strategy is to your business goals.
Why should you do a Pinterest account audit?
We’ve covered what a Pinterest audit is, but why do you need it?
Well, to make it simple for you, you want to start off each business year or cycle with a bang!
You want to make sure that the upcoming year or cycle is better than the current one and you’re making more profit than before.
Not only that, but a Pinterest audit is necessary to make sure you are on track with your content strategy.
It can also ensure that you are up-to-date with the changes that the platform is undergoing or the general changes or trends within your industry.
Especially for business owners, you must know that trends and buying attitudes of your audience will change every now and then.
To make sure you’re putting out content that they want to see and making the products they want to buy, you have to reassess what you are already doing.
The Pins you’re uploading, their graphics and text, the language and tone of your text as well as the general idea of your business or blog are all essential aspects to get right.
Maybe you started as a food blogger and now seems like the right time to branch out into other avenues.
You could start creating your own meal-planning printables or writing about your take on famous dishes and recipes.
Essentially, a Pinterest audit is what is going to keep you on your toes and help you stay relevant in your niche.
A Pinterest audit will tell you which Pin or blog post is not doing well, and what type of content isn’t engaging enough, and that’s where you can reformulate your strategy.
Don’t just start with a Pinterest marketing strategy and stop revamping it every business cycle as this is setting yourself and your business up for a loss.
Instead, whenever you suspect a change in trends or the demands of your audiences, do a Pinterest audit and reassess your strategy.
Specifically, if you’ve hit a wall with your numbers regarding your account views, blog views or redirects from your Pinterest to the online shop or website, it’s time to do a Pinterest profile audit.
Even if you have been performing well on Pinterest, performing a Pinterest audit is ideal for capturing a new audience or increasing revenue.
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To sum it up, you need a Pinterest audit for the following reasons:
- To see which strategy or idea isn’t working and where you should stop diverting all your attention and resources
- An insight into what is working for your business or blog
- Which business aspect can you work on to get better results or performance in the future
- A review on updates and features on Pinterest and why you should be using them
- How to revamp your Pinterest marketing strategy
How long does a Pinterest audit take?
The good news is that generally, it doesn’t take long to perform a Pinterest audit!
Inspecting everything from your account and profile to the descriptions and keywords could take anywhere between a day or two. In rare cases, three days if there’s much to be done.
The amount of time, effort and understanding of Pinterest SEO required to perform a Pinterest audit intimidates most bloggers and business owners.
Therefore, they hire Pinterest marketers to complete the job instead.
With that being said, it’s doable on your own and won’t take more than two days for most accounts.
How to do a Pinterest account audit
Moving on to the crux of this article, how do we audit a Pinterest business account?
So, when you’re beginning your Pinterest audit, make sure you understand the difference between your business account and your profile.
When auditing your Pinterest account, you want to ensure that the account’s name and contact information is correct and relevant to your business.
Please remember that the Pinterest account should be connected or integrated with your blog, business site, or Etsy storefront. You can find out ways to do that on Pinterest in the settings.
Before that, remember that your personal Pinterest account should be different from your Pinterest business account. It isn’t a wise decision to mix up the two.
Next, you want to ensure that all the Boards and Pins on your Pinterest business account are relevant to your blog or business. Get rid of redundant Boards or Pins that haven’t been performing well.
Lastly, know that your account is connected to tools and applications that would make your job as a Pinterest marketer easier.
For instance, with content scheduling tools like Tailwind, you can ensure that you don’t miss any uploading deadlines.
Your pre-planned content would get uploaded at its scheduled time without you actively being on the platform.
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To sum it up, here’s what you need to check when auditing your Pinterest account:
- Account name and contact information is relevant to the business or blog
- Make sure your blog’s URL or your online store’s URL is linked or connected to the Pinterest Business account
- Tools and applications like Tailwind are connected to the Pinterest account
- Connect your Pinterest account with Google Analytics (This would be possible as long as your main blogging website or store’s website is linked with Google Analytics)
- The profile picture and username should also be relevant to the business or blog’s name
- Add a cover photo if you wish to the backdrop of your profile – when adding a cover photo, you can display a free offer on it, a captivating statement for your audience (how you or your business can help them) and obviously, your brand’s name and main keyword.
Apart from the technical checks, make sure you audit your Pinterest account for the following domains as well:
- Identify the objective of your business or why you need a Pinterest account as a blogger or business owner
- Identify and explore your target market – how has your target audience evolved from the first time since you started your blog or business? What changes do you need to bring in your business or content that your audience could relate to in a better manner?
- A keyword analysis is essential for both the Pinterest profile and account audits
Once you have to done your audit the first time, I recommend creating a tailored Pinterest audit template for future use.
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How to do a Pinterest profile audit
This blog post refers to the profile as the content-heavy and marketing-relevant part of your Pinterest account.
When performing a Pinterest audit, you must ensure everything on the profile is relevant to your business.
Even when creating group boards, keep checking that authorised Pinners upload only relevant content.
Generally, a Pinterest audit for profiles should be done if you’ve revamped your product or business offerings, changed the main concept of your blog or ventured toward capturing a new target market.
Essentially, the Pinterest profile is where the result of these changes would be apparent.
When changing your business offerings, of course, you will change the Pinterest boards, Pins and even keywords within descriptions.
To ensure you follow all the guidelines of Pinterest SEO, you must perform a Pinterest audit.
To get started, here is a checklist of all you need to do for a Pinterest audit:
- Right off the bat, identify areas that need improvement – as a Pinterest marketer, I expect you would have some analytical tool or feature to gauge the problem areas in your marketing strategy. Use these analytics and data as the guidepost when deciding where to begin the change.
- Make sure you have a claimed website – a claimed website is the main site linked to your Pinterest profile. It could be your blog’s URL or your shop’s website. Not linking a website to your Pinterest profile is one way of setting up your Pinterest marketing strategy for failure (and we don’t recommend that!)
- Add a profile description if you haven’t already. Or, if you have, make sure it includes your main keyword. Updating your profile description is important if you have revamped your business or blog and the target audience or keyword has changed.
An important aspect of a Pinterest profile audit is ensuring it has the right boards and Pins that are relevant to your brand or business.
How to do a Pinterest board audit
Lastly, but the most crucial part of your Pinterest audit is inspecting the boards.
Pinterest boards are an essential part of Pinterest SEO – everything from the description to the Pins and the keywords used matters.
If you don’t know already, whenever a Pinterest user saves a Pin to their board, the Pinterest algorithm takes note of the board and the description.
The more your Pin is getting pinned to your audience’s boards, the more noticeable it is for the algorithm and the better it is for Pinterest SEO.
The better your strategy for Pinterest SEO, the higher your chances will be to become more visible as a brand.
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So, that’s an overview of how important a Pinterest board is. Here’s a list of things to keep in mind when auditing Pinterest boards:
- Make sure every board has a clear and relevant name. For example, since a part of my niche is travelling, every board is focused on a travel-relevant subject. There are some boards on travel tips, others on location-specific travelling tips.
- Second to the name is the board’s description. The description is the first thing a user notices when they click on one of your boards, hoping to find something relatable. The keywords in your board’s description guide the algorithm to make your content visible in the search results.
- Ensure that all boards are on-brand and relevant to your business or blog’s purpose. If I create a board on pet care on my Pinterest business account that’s geared toward travelling, that would be an open invitation to chaos. It will reduce my chances of becoming more visible as a brand and confuse my audience as to which direction my brand is going. Therefore, when auditing, ensure every board is relevant and remove the ones that no longer fit your brand or niche.
- Avoid keyword stuffing in board and Pin descriptions no matter how tempting it may seem. It makes your content look unnatural and isn’t good for the algorithm or Pinterest SEO.
How often should you do a Pinterest audit?
By now, you know how important it is to conduct a Pinterest audit and why you should do that.
Especially if you own a blog or business, it can seem challenging to take time out for a new activity, one that can be mentally demanding.
You will have to put on your thinking cap and see where you’re lacking, if you are, and where you could improve or adjust a little to get better results.
If we talk about a specific timeframe, to be honest, there isn’t any.
However, given my experience of a decade with Pinterest and using that platform as a marketing tool for my blog and business, I perform a Pinterest audit at the end of every year.
I recommend you do the same.
At the end of each year, see where you stand in a sea of Pinterest marketers or Etsy shop owners trying to promote their business on Pinterest.
Doing the Pinterest audit at the end of every year will give you the adrenaline rush and boost you need to start things in the new year on a good and brighter note.
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Maybe your industry is expecting new trends in the upcoming year, or some products or ideas from the past year didn’t perform well, and after an audit, you’re adamant about bidding them farewell.
You must know that businesses or bloggers don’t decide on halting a product line or revamping their blog design on a whim; it’s not an impulsive decision.
Such life-changing and business-changing decisions are based on audits and internal reviews.
Therefore, it’s ideal for performing a Pinterest audit at least once or twice a year. Some businesses also perform a mini-audit every three to four months or monthly.
However frequently you plan on doing a Pinterest audit, the better for your strategy and business goals.
Frequently Asked Questions
A Pinterest audit is a review of your Pinterest business account and any content marketing strategy that you might be following.
A Pinterest audit takes the different components of your market strategy and analyses your successes to help you create more targeted content in the future for your audience.
Performing a Pinterest audit doesn’t imply something is wrong with your strategy or account. It’s just a way of ensuring everything is running smoothly and up to date. Inspecting your account every now and then is a good way of ensuring that your strategies align with your audience’s interests. Of course, talking about ideas or offers that your audience isn’t interested in is useless. Performing a Pinterest audit will help you decide what needs to go and what stays!
Other articles you will love:
- How to Make Money from Pinterest
- The Best Pinterest Course to Take for Your Business
- How to Write a Good Pinterest Description for Your Pins
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