As a WordPress consultant with over 5 years of experience, I often have clients asking about the best ways to drive more traffic. One of my top recommendations is to showcase dynamic Pinterest pins in their sidebar widgets.
The Growing Relevance of Pinterest
Let‘s look at some key statistics that highlight why Pinterest should be part of your content strategy:
- Pinterest has 477 million monthly active users as of Q3 2022 [1]
- 96% of pinners say they have discovered new products on Pinterest [2]
- Pinterest refers more traffic to third party websites than any other social platform [3]
It‘s clear that Pinterest is incredibly influential in terms of driving product discovery and website traffic.
Integrating Pinterest pins into your WordPress site allows you to tap into this highly engaged user base.
2 Methods to Seamlessly Display Pinterest Pins
Based on my extensive testing, I have two preferred methods for adding Pinterest widgets:
1. Pinterest Automatic Widget (Recommended)
This plugin does all the work automatically by pulling in your latest pins. Just install, connect your account, and pick a sidebar.
The setup takes less than 5 minutes but instantly makes your site more dynamic.
Benefits:
- New pins get added automatically
- Customize number of pins displayed
- Configure pin size, spacing etc.
2. Manual Pin Embed
If you want to hand select a single high-performing pin, go with a manual embed:
- Copy the URL of any Pinterest pin
- Use the built-in Pinterest widget to embed that URL
- Showcase that pin in any widget area
Best for:
- Promoting your top-converting pin
- Launching a new product
- Showcasing content upgrades
Pro Tip: Link the pin to a relevant blog post or landing page to maximize clicks.
Optimizing Your Pinterest Sidebar Widgets
Based on broad testing and niche research, I recommend these best practices:
- Show between 3 to 5 pins in sidebar areas
- Rotate pins every 2 to 4 weeks
- Pick pins with good click-through rates
- Use square or vertical pin sizes
- Link pins to targeted pages on your site
Drive More Traffic and Awareness with Pinterest Sidebar Widgets
Adding Pinterest pins along your site content is an easy win to boost engagement. You can tap into a highly active user base without needing to build an audience from scratch.
Give one of these WordPress widget tutorials a try on your next client site or personal blog. Then sit back and watch your site traffic and social growth take off!
Stats Sources:
[1] Oberlo[2] Stackla
[3] Trackalytics
