Using Canva To Create Pinterest Images . . . and why you need several pins per blog post
Guest Post from Marcea Cazel of My Cornacopia
You’ve written your blog, made sure to include internal and external links, checked that your SEO is on point and even included dazzling photos. You’re ready to post but are considering not creating a pin. You have those great photos – what do you need to spend time creating a pin for? Here’s why you need multiple vertical pins for each post and how it can help your post reach even more readers.
Pinterest is a visual social media channel. People select which links to share solely based on the image that is shared. Pinterest is also a search engine just like Google – so having an attractive, easy to read pin can determine how many people will save and click your pin.
Not creating a pin while having a Pinterest share button on your blog allows people to save images that are not tall enough to attract attention and don’t have detailed information. For example, I wrote a blog about Day Trips from St. Petersburg, FL. Here are some of the images that were in my blog and appear when I click on the Pinterest share button:
Without a dedicated Pinterest pin, someone might pin one of those images that doesn’t tell the viewer anything about my blog post. So, I created these pins for people to share, which show up when someone clicks on the Pinterest share button on my blog:
These tall images are often referred to as ‘vertical pins’. You might see that term when you’re in a share group of people share your pin in exchange for you sharing theirs. Most groups don’t allow you to participate without a vertical pin. That’s because non-vertical pins aren’t attractive, don’t tell a story and just don’t get shared as much.
Also notice how I have two vertical pins that say the same thing but are laid out differently. It’s important to switch up the way your vertical pins look to get the attention of different audiences. It also allows people to share to different boards. For example, I have a board that’s all for Florida travel and another board that’s USA Travel. Having separate pins allows me to pin in different boards without visual repetition. It also allows my blog name to be shown when people are looking at the pins. Name recognition is huge and can help you eventually be considered an expert in writing about what your niche area is.
Having multiple vertical pins for one blog post also improves your SEO on Pinterest. That’s because you can create different descriptions and utilize different keywords and hashtags for each of the vertical pins. Also, according to the app Tailwind, which automates and schedules pins, Pinterest is the number two driver of social traffic. So the more variations of pins you can keep pinning as time goes by, the better.
11 Steps to Create Fast Beautiful Pinterest Pins Using Canva
It’s not hard to create the vertical pins and it can also be done for free in the online tool Canva. Here’s how:
- Create an account if you don’t have one yet – Canva has two types of accounts, a free basic one and a paid Pro one. The free basic one works fine for creating vertical pins.
- Click the ‘Create A Design’ button in the top left corner
- Select Pinterest Pin from the dropdown.
- A new tab will open on your computer. Next search for ‘travel’ templates – scroll through and click on one that you like.
- The template will populate in the right field – you still need to change out the text and the image(s).
- To change the image, click on the one in the template and click delete on your keyboard. It will look like this:
- Click on ‘Uploads’ in the far-left column – if your image isn’t uploaded yet, drag it into that area or click ‘Upload an image or video’ at the top of the page. Then drag your uploaded image into the blank spot on the template.
- Change all the text to match your blog. You can change the text by clicking in the field and re-typing.
- Change the title of the template in the clicking in the area above the vertical pin and re-naming to what you’d like.
- Click the download arrow (next to the publish button). A drop down will appear – choose to save as either a .png file (high quality image) or a .jpg file (smaller quality image, but still works well). Then click the ‘Download’ button at the bottom to save the vertical pin on your computer.
- Attach your new pins (at least two) into your blog. Be sure that you’re filling in the ‘Alt Text’ and ‘Description’ sections while you’re uploading into your blog for SEO purposes.
I immediately save my newly created pins onto several of my Pinterest boards so I can share in different groups or on social media. That way, different people have different access to different boards – spread the wealth!
That’s how simple it is to create attractive pins, get more eyes on your blog and help with your blog’s SEO!
Learn More about Travel Blogger, Marcea Cazel and My Cornacopia
My Cornacopia launched in mid-2018
Bio: A traveler since the age of 1 (her first trip was to Jamaica), Marcea caught the travel bug from her parents. She enjoys traveling around the state of Florida and is working on visiting all 175 Florida state parks and writing about African-American historical sites. When not traveling, Marcea loves reading, spending time with her family and watching old movies.
Do you consider yourself a travel blogger or travel writer: I consider myself both. I am a blogger but I do more of a journalist type of blogger rather than providing a lot of opinions.
Blogging niche: I focus mostly on writing about Florida. People know Florida for its beaches and theme parks. But there is so much more about Florida that people could enjoy when they visit here. Coming to Florida and only going to Disney World is like visiting England, heading to Big Ben and then going home.
How long have you been a blogger/writer? I’ve been a writer most of my life. I have a journalism degree from the University of Central Florida and am a marketing person by trade. I was even co-editor of my high school’s newspaper.
Favorite Travel Writer/Blogger: Rick Steves. I enjoy his laidback style. At the same time he has a passion about travel and knows that travel can be political and change people’s opinions about different cultures.
Follow My Cornacopia on social: Facebook |Pinterest |Instagram
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