Making sure you have a user-friendly website that is optimized for Pinterest users can seem so scary and overwhelming.
But it’s so important!
Reading: How to create a website for pinterest
In 2020, the number of Pinterest users exceeded 400 million. Every day, the number of people who use Pinterest and visit websites to dream, plan and do is growing.
If your website contains the answer to what a user is looking for, you want to be sure that the user has a great experience when they arrive on your website. If your site isn’t user-friendly, the user won’t want to stay.
Deep Diving Into Site Optimization
Andrew from NerdPress is on the podcast today. You may remember him from a few months ago when he joined me on the podcast to talk about how to make your website ADA compliant (must listen to this episode if you haven’t already) .
Andrew is the Founder and CEO of NerdPress, a company that provides support and maintenance services for WordPress. They currently offer support for over 400 websites. The majority of her clients are food bloggers, and Andrew himself is a former food blogger.
How to create a user-friendly website for Pinterest visitors
When people talk about website optimization, it can mean many different things.
We could talk about site speed, search engine optimization, or the user interface. Think optimization to improve your site in some way. If you think about how to better serve your users, you will ultimately improve your site in ways that which benefits the user.
It can easily happen that ma n preoccupied with making things look good, forgetting about the person visiting the site and why they are coming to your site. We love the analogy of think of your website as your online living room—when people walk into the space, your goal is to make them feel welcome. A user-friendly website will serve this purpose.
If your website is cluttered and a number of things prevent the user from easily consuming the content they are looking for, they will bounce. This is especially true if the user is from Pinterest and has no prior relationship with you.
Be strategic with pop-ups
The number one thing that makes someone annoyed or bouncing off your site will be greeted by a popup immediately after clicking on your site – particularly one asking for their email address).
See also: How to Set Up an Automatic Out of Office Reply in Outlook
You probably won’t remain loyal readers , if this is your experience. The user doesn’t know you yet, so they won’t give you their email address up front. Website owners are not always aware that this is the case with new users. So it’s important to check the new user experience by regularly visiting your site in an incognito window.
Check your plugin settings to edit your popup timeframes. Andrew suggests customizing your popup to appear when the user scrolls 75% down the page, or 30 seconds after opening a page. Adding some humor to your pop-up and making sure it’s consistent with your brand will also make it less disruptive.
Avoid fluff in your content
One thing that many users find it frustrating when they have to scroll and scroll and scroll to get to the content they found on the site. There’s nothing wrong with writing long content to drive ad revenue (we know you have to make a living)… BUT there are user-friendly ways to do it.
If you’re a food Blogger, you can add a “Jump to Recipe” button. If the content you write is relevant and useful, that’s great. However, please don’t add stories and “fluff” that have absolutely nothing to do with the recipe you’re posting.
Google’s search results reward content that best answers the user’s question or search term . How well does your website answer this question? This is what you need to ask yourself when writing your content.
Improve your site navigation
Poor site navigation is easy to fix to create a more user-friendly webpage. Most bloggers set up their website menus when they first create their website and then never revisit its structure. It’s important to go back and look at those menus and make sure they’re designed to serve the user well with the content you have now.
When your about page is the most important thing , move them to the top of the menu. If it’s not that important, write it at the bottom. Always think about what serves the user best and what they are most likely to look for on your site.
Navigation is more of an afterthought.Remember that your users are often mobile. Therefore, it is important to have a mobile-friendly website menu so that users can easily access whatever they are looking for.
Using share buttons
One of the biggest questions Questions Website Owners Ask Andrew is, “Which share buttons should I use?”
Users still share website content using share buttons. Which share buttons you make available on your website depends on your content and your target audience. If you’re a technical blogger, you might use different buttons than a food blogger.
There are many different platforms that users can use to share your content. View your referral data in Google Analytics. Where are you getting traffic from? Provide share buttons to these platforms to make it easier for the user to share your content.
If you write great content, people will want to share it. Make it easy for them (without the buttons getting in the way).
See also: How to Design a Newsletter in Word: Top Tips for Success
You also want your share buttons to be user-friendly, so make sure they’re easily recognizable. You don’t want them to blend into the background. You can choose to customize your share buttons to match your branded colors or stick to the branded colors for each sharing platform.
Get a deep understanding of how visitors use your site
How can site owners leverage the user experience?
Look at your top landing pages, your referrals, the time spent on your site, and more. You can use tools like HotJar or Microsoft Clarity to see how long people are staying on your site.
Looking at these things gives you some enlightenment as to what people are browsing Your website and what attracts you.
Pick up your phone and browse your website (off Wi-Fi so you can see how it behaves on a slower connection). This simple action will help you create a more user-friendly website.
Don’t get so caught up trying to make your website perfect that you get overwhelmed. It doesn’t have to be that hard. — Andrew
Focus on your images
If you’re a non-blogging product seller, you need to focus on your images. Make sure the images the user sees on Pinterest match those on your website.
Related: Do Product Sellers Need a Blog for Pinterest?
They Need Crisp, clear photos of your products. The rest of your content can support these images.
These images (especially lifestyle shots) help the user visualize the product in their life.
Create a user-friendly website in 30 minutes – today!
- If you have an extra 30 minutes today to make your website more user-friendly, you can do the following:
- Improve your navigation menus.
- Listen to the episode where Andrew and I walk you through how to make sure your site is ADA compliant and make sure your site is following everything we talked about there.
- Turn on breadcrumbs.
- Look at your welcome message. Make sure you have a picture of your smiling face and your name.
If you would like to get in touch with Andrew, visit Nerdpress or email him.
For further listening/reading:
See also: How to Create A Beautiful Family History Website
- How to make your website ADA compliant
- Optimizing a Squarespace website for Pinterest Marketing
- The Pinterest Tutorials Hub
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