Turn one blog post into five pins

Why one post deserves several pins

A good blog post answers more than one question. A guide to painting kitchen cabinets is also useful to someone searching for a budget kitchen makeover, someone looking for painting mistakes to avoid and someone planning a weekend project. One pin can only lead with one of those ideas, so one pin reaches only one slice of the people who would want the page.

The second reason is freshness. Pinterest favours fresh pins, meaning new images it has not seen before, and a fresh pin does not need a new link. Several different pins for one page, published over time, give that page several chances to be found. It is also the easiest way to keep publishing steadily without writing a new post every day.

This lesson gives you a repeatable method: pick the angles, give each one a keyword, a title and an image, design the variations quickly and space them out.

Choose 3 to 5 angles for each post

An angle is the one idea a pin leads with. Read through your post and look for these five. Most posts have at least three; few need more than five.

• The main keyword. The search the post was written for, said plainly. This is usually your first pin.
• A close variation. Another way people search for the same thing, or a specific part of it, such as a method, a budget or a type of reader.
• A list or tips angle. If the post contains steps, tips, mistakes or ideas, a pin can lead with that list.
• A before and after, or the result. What the reader ends up with: the finished room, the paid-off card, the packed suitcase.
• A seasonal angle. When the topic fits a season or event, a pin aimed at that moment, published well before it. The seasonal planning lesson explains the timing.

Only use an angle the post really covers. If the post has no section on mistakes, a "mistakes to avoid" pin is a promise the page cannot keep.

Give each angle a keyword, a title and an image

Each angle needs three things that agree with each other: a keyword from your keyword research, a title written as the titles and descriptions lesson describes, and an image that shows that idea. Here is how it works for a home DIY blog post called "How to paint kitchen cabinets":

Each row would work as a pin on its own, and each could appear for a different search. Every one of them still links to the same post, because the post covers all five ideas. Each pin also gets its own description, with its keyword in the first sentence.

A shop example: one product page

The method works for product pages too. Say a small shop sells a linen duvet cover in several colours:

• Main keyword: Linen Duvet Cover in Natural Oatmeal, with the cover on a real bed rather than on a white background.
• Variation: Sage Green Bedding for a Calm Bedroom, using the photo of the sage colour.
• Result: Small Bedroom Refresh With Linen Bedding, showing a real room before and after.
• Seasonal: Breathable Bedding for Warm Summer Nights, published well before summer starts.
• List or tips: 5 Ways to Style a Linen Bed, but only if a page shows those five ways.

That last one is the trap. A product page usually shows one product, not five styling ideas. If the shop has a styling guide on its blog, the list pin should link there, and the guide can link to the product. If it has no such page, skip that angle for now.

Design the variations quickly

You do not need to start every pin from a blank page. Build two or three templates once, following the pin design lesson, for example a photo with a title band, a before and after split and a list layout. Then each new pin is mostly a swap.

1. Gather the images first. Pull every usable photo from the post or product page into one folder: finished shots, process shots, details, the before photo.
2. Match each angle to a template. The list angle goes into the list layout, the result into the before and after layout, and so on.
3. Swap the photo and the headline. Each pin should get a different photo or a different layout, and always its own headline. Changing only the font colour does not make a meaningfully new pin.
4. Check each one at phone size. Can you read it in a second or two, and does it say the same thing as its title?

Make sure the page delivers every promise

Five pins means five promises, and the page has to keep all of them. Before you publish, open the page and check each pin against it. If the pin says "without sanding", the method is on the page. If it shows a before and after, those are real photos of the same project. If it says "7 mistakes", there are seven.

When a pin and its page disagree, people click, feel misled and leave. That is bad for the pin, and many mismatched pins for one link look like the spam patterns described in the spam lesson. Sometimes the fix is to improve the page, for example by adding the mistakes section the post was missing. That makes the post better for every reader.

Space them out and keep a simple sheet

Do not publish all five pins on the same day. As the how often to pin lesson explains, many pins for one link in a short time can look like spam. As a rule of thumb, leave at least a week between new pins for the same link, so five pins for one post are spread over a couple of months. Time the seasonal pin for its season rather than slotting it in the regular order.

A plain spreadsheet keeps track of it all. One row per pin is enough:

Over time the notes column tells you which angles work in your niche, so you can lead with those on your next post.

Work through your back catalogue

If you already have dozens or hundreds of posts or products, you have months of fresh pins waiting. Do not try to do them all at once. Start with the pages most likely to pay off:

• Pages that already get search traffic, from Google or Pinterest. Your website analytics will show them. People already want these pages.
• Evergreen pages, such as guides, recipes, tutorials and best-selling products that are as useful next year as today.
• Seasonal pages coming into season, picked from your seasonal calendar.

Skip or update pages that are thin, out of date or no longer for sale before making pins for them. Two or three posts a week, each turned into a few angles, is a steady pace that fills your schedule without a burst.

Some scheduling tools and blog plugins can speed this up by importing your posts, suggesting titles or drafting pin images. They are optional and can save real time on a large back catalogue. If you use one, still choose the angles yourself and check every pin against its page before it is published.

Next up: how often to pin, and how to pace all these fresh pins so Pinterest trusts your account.