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in Writing & Blogging &middot July 2, 2019

Can Canva Pinterest Templates Actually Help Your Blog?

Happy July, friends! Before we get into the July blog traffic report (in which I share my experience using Canva Pinterest templates), I wanted to give you all a heads up that this will be the only blog post this week due to the 4th of July. Thank you for understanding my need to take a blog-vacation last week – definitely wasn’t a real vacation because I was at a work conference – and hopefully I’ll be able to do 2 posts next week. That being said, subscribe to my newsletter to get blog updates so you’re in the loop! Now let’s talk blog traffic.

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Kate the (Almost) Great!

All blog traffic reports | How blog traffic reports can bring you blog traffic

Boston lifestyle blogger Kate the (Almost) Great tried using Canva Pinterest templates to see if they would help her blog traffic. Here are the results and her thoughts about it.

June Blog Traffic Report

Statistics

Google Analytics Statistics

Pageviews: 13579 (+16.60% from May, +33.78% from last year)

Bounce Rate: 17.04% (+7.98% from May, +3.9% from last year)

Sessions: 6560 (+19.42% from May, +46.2% from last year)

Users: 5542 (+16.50% from May, +47% from last year)

Bloglovin: 1791 (-0.16% from May, -0.7% from last year)

Email Subscribers: 678 (+1.34% from May, +43.94% from last year)

How I keep my bounce rate so low

Webhostinghub.com Statistics

Pageviews: 74339 (-20.8% from May)

Sessions: 23737 (-16% from May)

Users: 1594 (-28% from May)

Social Media

Facebook: 1066 (+0.28% from May, +3.79% from last year)

Twitter: 3541 (+1.63% from May, +6.97% from last year)

Instagram: 2625 (+1% from May, -2% from last year)

Pinterest: 8427 (+1.67% from May, +36.96% from last year)

Tumblr: 3934 (+0.48% from May, +1.75% from last year)

How I manage social media for my blog | How to get followers on Pinterest

Top Posts

  1. Chronically Ill Tips: What To Do When a Doctor Isn’t Listening
  2. POTS and Heat Intolerance
  3. 10 Things I Wish I Knew When I Received My Rheumatoid Arthritis Diagnosis
  4. What Does Endometriosis Feel Like?
  5. Tips for Writing from Famous Writers
  6. Loving Someone with Chronic Pain
  7. 31 Historical Fiction Novels That Will Take You Back in Time
  8. My Biggest Fear Realized
  9. Fun Things To Do in Boston: A 3-Day Guide
  10. Beginners Guide: Seronegative Rheumatoid Arthritis

Top Sources of Traffic

  • Pinterest (70.05%) – While this is a huge number, it isn’t nearly the highest percentage of traffic. For example, in May, 74.10% of my blog traffic came from Pinterest. I work very hard on Pinterest, which obviously pays off. (Psst – this percentage jumped up dramatically when I started treating Pinterest like the search engine that it is. If you’re not doing that, you’re miss out!)
  • Facebook (7.38%) – I participate in a number of Facebook groups for bloggers, so between those and my Facebook page, Facebook is usually one of my top sources of blog traffic.
  • Search engines (5.54%) – I try to use SEO in most of my blog posts, which is why search engine results are generally in the top 4 sources of traffic. You can learn more about SEO here.
  • Twitter (2.08%) – I love Twitter! It’s my favorite social media network. But my one issue with Twitter is how there’s such a short lifespan for tweets. Something I posted an hour ago is wayyyyyy down in people’s timelines already, for example. But while I do promote my tweets on Twitter, it isn’t my primary use of it, so I stick with it.

This does not include direct traffic.

How to use Pinterest for blog traffic | How to use SEO to stand out

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Can Canva Pinterest Templates Actually Help Your Blog? June Blog Traffic Analysis

What I Did

  • How I promote my blog posts
  • Big thing: make Pinterest images with Canva templates
    • I did this for every June post (5 total). I have heard about how great Canva is for making Pinterest images for years, but since I have Photoshop, I generally don’t use it. My strategy was to make my usual 2 images per post in my normal way and then 1 extra with Canva. I uploaded all 3 to Tailwind to schedule post promotions, including adding all 3 to the appropriate Tailwind Tribes.
  • Worked to speed up the site
    • Deleted plugins that I don’t really use/need
    • Added the plugin W3 Total Cache plugin, which I read helps speed up your website.
    • Here are some other ways to speed up your site
  • Actually got properly signed up for The Blog Societies and set up
  • Stopped using Disqus for comments
  • Had a blog post featured in an InfluenceHer Collective weekly email

I Haven’t Seen Results From

  • Joining The Blog Societies – I’m not surprised by this. I didn’t join specifically to increase traffic but for the community.
  • Using Canva templates – So, before I really get into this, I want to clarify that I’m not convinced that Canva templates do not increase traffic from Pinterest. I’m going to give this another month before I make up my mind. Right now, my pins made in my typical, branded way bring much more traffic than Canva ones do. However, I do see how Canva can be extremely helpful, especially for a new blogger who doesn’t want to use Photoshop.

What I Can Learn This Month

  • Many more people wanted to comment on my blog than people who actually were commenting – I haven’t been getting many comments on my blog for a while, and I thought that was just because people didn’t want to comment. Turns out, it’s because they didn’t want to sign up for Disqus. I ditched them and started getting comments on my posts again. Once upon a time, Disqus was THE commenting forum. But blogging has changed a lot in the last few years, and apparently people don’t want to deal with it any more. Lesson learned!

June Goals

  • 5 blog posts – Success! I published 5 posts exactly.
  • Keep page views essentially where they are – Success!

July Goals

  • 6 blog posts
  • Keep page views essentially where they are

What has been your experience with Canva Pinterest templates?

Like this post? Check out:

What Should I Blog About?, 8 Ways To Blog Better, My Proven Method for Blogging with Limited Time, Tips for New Bloggers

Kate Mitchell

Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.

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Related

Previous Post: « What Every POTS Syndrome Patient Needs for the Summer
Next Post: 2019 Recent Reads: April-June »

Reader Interactions

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  1. Ways To Promote Blog Posts: 2022 Edition says:
    January 25, 2022 at 7:04 am

    […] Can Canva Pinterest Templates Actually Help Your Blog? […]

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  2. The Process for Writing a Blog Post | Kate the (Almost) Great says:
    January 28, 2024 at 8:44 am

    […] Step 7: Images – The last thing I do for a post is make the images! Sometimes, I use stock images mostly from Unspalsh and Pixabay, but over the last year, I have been using images I took myself. Then, I put white space and text over it. I started doing this so that my text would stand out, but I continued doing it and ended up branding my images this way. Hopefully, people who are familiar with Kate the (Almost) Great see my images on sites like Pinterest and know that they’re by me just by looking at how they’re styled. Scroll back up and look at the images from this post to see what I’m talking about! I’ve also started recently trying Canva Pinterest templates to see how those images – made from templates created by the pros – compare to my traditional images. I’ve only been doing it for a little while, and I’ll give it a few months before deciding if I’ll stick with it or not, but it was the “big thing” I tried in June. […]

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  3. Self-Care Tips That Chronic Illness Patients Need | Health & Lifestyle says:
    May 31, 2026 at 7:55 am

    […] The other 30 minutes, I use to do morning blog stuff. I manually pin 5-7 pins on Pinterest, make new pins on Canva for existing posts, and promote a new blog post if I have one. Then, I get ready for work or […]

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What helps you mentally get through a tough time?⁣ What helps you mentally get through a tough time?⁣
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I'm struggling right now with my broken foot, which brings back a lot of tough memories. That plus being due for Rituxan and the heat starting up has made things hard. ⁣
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Week 21 of 2026 Weekly 1️⃣ First real cross-stit Week 21 of 2026 Weekly 

1️⃣ First real cross-stitch project: done! 
2️⃣ The magic machine that is hopefully healing my broken foot 
3️⃣ When your 2 refrigerated medications are delivered on the same day

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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.

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1️⃣ A completed cross-stitch project, which shows 2 bears walking past a lake, trees, and mountains.
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You guessed it, I'm one of that 25%. ⁣ ⁣ May is Ar You guessed it, I'm one of that 25%. ⁣
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Things are tough (all over pain, heat with POTS, i Things are tough (all over pain, heat with POTS, in a walking cast waiting to see if I need my 6th foot surgery), but so am I.⁣
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FAQ: Have you tried [insert supplement here]? As FAQ: Have you tried [insert supplement here]?

As with all things, what’s true for me might not be true for others. I’m sure there are plenty of RA patients who do respond well to supplements; I’m just not one of them. 

Additionally, at one point, I refer to being on chemo since 2012. As always, the chemo I’m referring to is Rituxan, which is my RA treatment. I do not have cancer nor have I ever claimed to. 

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I’m not going to lie - my life now focuses even more on maintaining my body. Trying to avoid foot surgery + keep my bone density up so I don’t break another bone for a while on top of all the other things I do to manage my 10+ illnesses … it’s a lot of work. I did go to actual work this week lol but my camera roll is all chronic illness stuff this week. 

1️⃣ The machine that will hopefully prevent surgery!!! Every day, I do 40 minutes of this ultrasound machine (20 min on 1 fracture, 20 min on the other) and it will speed up healing 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 
2️⃣ Continuing my exercise routine per my endocrinologist. Up to 30 minutes of Pilates 4 days a week … and since I don’t do exercises requiring pressure on my feet, the cast comes off. 

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I personally have rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalg I personally have rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and Sjögren's syndrome, which makes 3 forms of arthritis.⁣
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Like, comment, and share to spread awareness 💖 ⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.⁣
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Fiction⁣
Arthritis means only 1 thing.⁣
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There are over 100 kinds of arthritis, including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and more!⁣
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