TIPS FOR GETTING CONVERSIONS ON YOUR WEBSITE FROM PINTEREST & SEO : EMAIL SIGNUPS, SALES & MORE
(updated 2026)
Pinterest is a great marketing tool for business and Google can be amazing for traffic. But getting traffic to your site is only half the battle. Once people have landed on your site you now have to get them to act. That could be a newsletter sign up, purchase or even just to read your content.
So, how do you get conversions on your website? Let’s find out!
by Trona Freeman
How to Drive Traffic to Your Website
First, we need to get traffic to our website. Two of the best ways to drive traffic is through SEO (Google traffic mainly) and Pinterest.
Both ways have many similarities. At the crux it’s about answering your audiences needs. That could be helping them find a pair of earrings for their wedding or helping them get customers for their business.
Knowing your audience/customers is what SEO is ultimately about. Knowing how they search, what their needs are and how you can bridge that gap is key for a successful SEO strategy.
The Importance of Keywords
Keywords are what will connect you to your customers. If you have a site that doesn’t rank on Google I recommend going for ‘longtail keywords’. These are longer search queries that people search Google with (and other search engines but I mainly focus on Google).
So, for example your customer might search for ‘stud earrings for sensitive ears’. You could create content around how your earrings are good for sensitive ears, and you could also use the keywords in the description of your product.
This is an easier search to rank for than ‘stud earrings’. Plus, you are also helping a customer’s specific needs.
Keywords, however, are only a part- a big part- of SEO. There is a myriad of other factors that will help you rank. Handily, many of them are in this article too.
This article will provide an easy way to get starting with keyword research.
Don’t Forget About User Experience- a Key Factor in Conversions
You also want to provide a good experience when your customers land on your site. Things like ease of use and page loading time will help too.
Things like properly sized images with alt text, font size, good linking (internal and external), page layout and so on can do wonders for your business and help with conversions. They will help you rank on Google too.
To understand more about providing a good user experience on your site read this article.
A website that loads fast, is easy to navigate, doesn’t have annoying pop ups will help to boost conversions.
How to Find Where Traffic is Coming from In Google Analytics
(PLEASE NOTE THIS IS FOR UNIVERSAL GOOGLE ANALYTICS NOT GA4- I WILL UPDATE THIS SOON)
Knowing where traffic is coming from will help greatly in the optimisation process. Here’s how to find your top traffic sources in Google Analytics:
> Go to your Google Analytics dashboard
> Select Acquisition
> All Traffic
> Source/Medium
You can then select your desired date range. I recommend selecting minimum 3 months/ a quarter and ideally a year, if you have that data.
Are People using Mobile or Desktop to visit your site?
Knowing what device people are using when landing on your site is important for optimisation. Having a mobile-friendly layout will greatly increase chances of conversion, similarly for desktop.
Access you Google Analytics dashboard
> select Audience
> select Mobile
> select Overview
Make sure your website is optimised for both desktop and mobile. A mobile-friendly website is a must for conversions.
A Word on Traffic- the Importance of Getting the Right Traffic to Your Site
Getting lots of traffic can be good for the ego. It’s very similar to having lots of social media followers. But if that traffic (or followers) isn’t doing anything, well that’s not very helpful for growing your business.
Mark Schaeffer talks about likes being ‘weak links’ in this insightful article. This will help you think beyond a ‘like’ on your social media posts.
Driving the right kind of traffic, even if that’s only a little (unless you want ad revenue of course, but I’m not talking about that here) is more important than driving lots that don’t convert.
The key thing is getting the right people to your site. This is done by knowing your audience and providing value. That value can be making the perfect pair of earrings for them or providing longform content that can help them grow your business (just like this article).
Keep in Mind Different User Intent- Are they looking to buy, looking for information or something else?
Traffic from Pinterest and Google (there are of course other search engines, but I mainly focus on Google) is different to other platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Often Pinterest and Google traffic is primed to act. They have been actively searching for ideas or things to buy. That is rarely the case on the other platforms.
That’s not to say that sales or other conversions don’t come from the other platforms. It’s just more likely to come from Google or Pinterest due to the different intent on the platforms. This is worth diving deeper into, so I will write a more in-depth article for this soon.
How to Get Conversions on Your Website
Driving traffic is half the battle! Keeping people on your site and then getting them to do something is the next step.
Being clear on your goals will help you decide what you want your visitor to do. Maybe you want email signups, or to make a sale or just to get them to read your content. Most probably it will be all three (and more!).
Knowing the intent behind what you do (a pin, a piece of content, and Instagram post and so on) will help inform your strategy and sales funnel.
A Quick Note on Ads for Conversions
It can be tempting to begin throwing money at the problem. But paid ads will work best when you have your website set up for conversions. Running ads can be a great way to boost sales and other conversions. Make sure everything is running smoothly first to make the most of advertising.
The Buyer’s Journey or the ‘sales funnel’
Sales funnel can be such a yucky term. Instead, you can think about the journey someone takes from discovering you through to conversion (sale, newsletter signup, follow and so on).
Typically, the sales funnel was thought of as:
Awareness > Consideration> Purchase
But a buyer’s journey is nowhere near as linear as that. I like John Jantsch’s ‘marketing hourglass’. This is a much better way of visualising and understanding the journey from awareness to purchase and beyond.
The road to purchase will be dependent on lots of variables, with price being a big factor. If you sell lower priced products, then purchase might come sooner.
However, if you sell high ticket products or services the path to purchase can be a many winding road.
The best way to tackle a longer sales path is by making it manageable. Be consistent and take steady steps along the path regularly. Provide value and create goals depending on where you and your potential customer is at.
The Buyer’s Journey on Pinterest
Conversions on Pinterest typically take longer than on other platforms. This is largely due to how pinners use the site, and that is to plan. People go to Pinterest to plan for future events (in the main): planning a wedding, decorating a nursery, looking for a new outfit and so on.
Understanding that pinners typically save pins (organic and paid) before acting on them will help understand how to increase conversions on Pinterest. Create pins that match the pinner’s journey, from discovery through to purchase.
Why Adding a Call to Action will Increase Conversions
Sometimes you just must be clear about what you want your reader to do. Your CTA will be dependent upon what your goal is and what your product or service is.
So, for example, this piece of content I’m writing is to raise people’s awareness of what I know/do and how I can help small businesses.
I would not expect someone to hire me off the back of this unless they are already aware of what I do. Instead, this article is to raise people’s awareness of me and of my newsletter. I also just really enjoy sharing content that I know will help people too.
How to Optimise Your Site for Sales, email signups & more.
Creating content that answers your audiences needs and provides value is one of the best ways to optimise your site. This is applicable for both service-based businesses and product-based businesses. The difference is in the content you’ll create.
Here are some tips for optimising your site:
- Make sure your most popular content/products are up to date. They should contain the most recent information and make sure any links are clickable and leading to the relevant pages. 404s are not good for user-experience or Google.
- Provide clear Call to Action (CTA). I found this article about CTAs useful.
- Add ‘trust signals’ to your site. This includes things like contact details, privacy policy, delivery and returns (if appropriate), reviews, payment options and so on. This is a good article about trust signals.
- Make sure your site is mobile-friendly. Google does something called ‘mobile-first indexing’. Most users will also come to your site from Pinterest while on their mobile devices.
- Check your site’s page speed. This is an important ranking factor for Google and just provides a good user experience.
- Increase your font! Google recommends minimum 16px. Make it easy for your visitor to read the text.
- Add internal links (link your posts to other relevant posts or products/services)- this will provide more value to your visitor and can help reduce bounce rate.
Digging a Little deeper into Conversions
Sometimes getting that sale is much more difficult. I’m going to outline some things that are a little bit more tricky to overcome. Let’s have a look:
- High postage costs- this is difficult to overcome especially if people are coming to you for the first time. High shipping costs can really kill a purchase, especially if coupled with customs too. This article from Shopify has some useful ideas to help you reduce shipping costs and hopefully increase your sales!
- Abandoned cart– this can be because of the above reason. There are numerous reasons for abandoned carts but you can help boost the conversion through retargeting. More about retargeting in this article here.
- Perceived high costs of products or services. This can be another tough one to crack, especially if you want a quick conversion. Conveying the value of your product eg. handmade, ethically made, material quality and so on. For services, make sure you are showing your expertise, training, ability and so on. This can help show why you charge what you do. More about showing the value of work here.
Creating content that answers your audiences needs and provides value is one of the best ways to get conversions (sales, email signs ups etc) on your website.
Getting Conversions on Your Site- An Overview
As you can see adding a popup to your site is nowhere near enough to get a conversion. Here are some things to consider and this list is not exhausted!
- Create useful, valuable content for your audience (this is dependent on your product or service)
- Make your website user-friendly, including things like page speed, font size, colour contrast, image optimisation, layout and so on.
- Add ‘trust signals’ to your site- customer reviews, testimonials, payment options, privacy policy, delivery and returns (if appropriate) and so on.
- Add a call to action. This will depend on what your goal is- do you want a sale, an email sign up, the content to be shared?
- Consider where your reader is on her ‘customer journey’ and tailor your content for that stage.
- Don’t be pushy- the days of ABC are long-gone!
- Test, analyse and repeat. Unfortunately, this is not a ‘one and done’ scenario. Getting conversions is tricky so you will probably try different CTAs and so on repeatedly. Don’t fret if you don’t get conversions right away, it’s very much a case of trial and error.
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