Have you considered using Pinterest to plan your next trip?

Before I started this blog, I had no idea what Pinterest was…

And since social media is sort of a necessary evil for bloggers, I decided to dive on in.

You see, Pinterest is supposed to be an amazing way to drive traffic to your blog or website. So therefore it is a must have for any blogger.

As platforms change we will see if that holds true over time…

But if I did learn one thing while starting this blog, it is that Pinterest is a great resource for anyone interested in planning a trip and not just bloggers trying to drive traffic to their websites!

So what is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a social network based on sharing and collecting images. Users “pin” (which means save) images they like to “boards” where they can access them later.

It is used mainly for exploring new clothing/outfit ideas, recipes, or interior design ideas.

Click here to check out more of my travel tips!

And since, well, I’m in the travel genre it turns out that Pinterest is pretty amazing as a travel resource.

I had never even considered using Pinterest as a travel resource until I started trying to design my own pins for my posts.

How to use Pinterest to plan your own trip:

Let’s say you want to travel to Iceland. Sometimes, all you need to do is type “Iceland” in the search bar and see what pops up.

Typing “Iceland Travel” will streamline your search even more.

Or, let’s say you want to travel Iceland’s famous Ring Road, then go ahead and type that in the search.

But won’t Pinterest just give me pictures of Iceland?

No! Most pins are actually links to blog posts, and most bloggers will design pins (the pictures Pinterest shows to you) with text on them to let you know what the pin’s link is all about.

You can make a board where you can save all your Iceland ideas and voila you suddenly have tons of amazing posts about traveling in Iceland at your fingertips thanks to Pinterest.

Just click on a pin and you will be directed to the website!

Why not just use Google instead of Pinterest for travel planning?

Well, for one thing, Google tends to favor more established sites.  If the New York Times or National Geographic publishes an article about traveling in Iceland that will rank much higher than just a hobby blog post.

While sometimes this can be a very good thing, when it comes to travel sometimes these big publications fail to offer nuanced enough articles for the average traveler, the budget traveler, or the solo female traveler, etc.

Secondly, Google also usually favors huge booking sites like Tripadvisor or their own travel guide pages they are developing.

While this can also be a great tool, sometimes I have an issue with just using an algorithm to sort the best “things to see and do” based on what people vote for.

Although it is a great place to go for ideas, to me it sometimes just feels sterile or disjointed.

Find the voices that Google’s algorithm ignores!

Ok of course some posts that you may find on Pinterest don’t rank on Google for a reason: they’re crap.

But I find time and again amazing, thoughtful posts on places that may not be written by an SEO expert or pro journalist.

An SEO expert is someone who knows the tricks of how to make Google put a post on its front page of the search results. Sometimes this results in you finding exactly what you need, but also sometimes this is just someone who knows where to stuff the right keywords to just get the most traffic (and therefore ad revenue).