Think You Don’t Need a Website for Pinterest? Here’s Why You Actually Do

One of the most common questions I hear is, “Do I really need my own website to succeed on Pinterest?”

And the simple answer is: not technically — but it can be a game changer for your growth and visibility. 

I get why this can feel confusing. Maybe you’re just starting to learn how Pinterest marketing works. Maybe you think you need to be super tech-savvy to build a website. Or maybe the idea of investing time and money into a site feels overwhelming — especially when you keep seeing “get rich quick” strategies online that promise you can monetize Pinterest without one (spoiler: don’t fall for those).

Here’s the truth: while you can technically pin links to Etsy, affiliate products, or third-party platforms, Pinterest consistently prioritizes websites you own. That means if you want more reach, authority, and clicks — and if you want to turn that traffic into subscribers, customers, or clients — having your own website is worth it.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through exactly how to make a website for Pinterest marketing, step-by-step. We’ll cover how to choose a domain name, select the right platform and hosting provider, design your site, and make sure it’s optimized for Pinterest traffic — even if you’re starting from scratch.

Disclosure: this post may contain affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, i may earn a small commission from any purchases made through them

Do You Really Need a Website for Pinterest Marketing?

Technically…you don’t. 

If you sell handmade products on Etsy for example, you could share your Etsy product listings on your Pinterest business account. Or, if you’re into affiliate marketing, you could post your affiliate links from Amazon, LTK, Awin, Rakuten, etc. For those of you who like to blog, you could link to your Substack or Medium articles. 

But…

Links to what I call “third-party websites” can still drive saves and clicks, but they rarely perform as well as content hosted on a website you own. Pinterest’s algorithm prioritizes owned domains, meaning that learning how to make a website and connecting it to Pinterest usually leads to stronger reach and better results.

In my 8 years marketing on Pinterest, it’s always been easier to grow a client’s Pinterest account who has a claimed domain vs clients who come to me with an Etsy business. 

In addition to the algorithmic advantage, owning your own website helps build long-term authority and trust. If you own a service-based business this can be especially helpful. 

Lastly, pinners focused entirely on affiliate income, you’ll often find that blog posts with affiliate links naturally distributed in related content convert better than the affiliate product link directly published to Pinterest. 

This is because pinners tend to respond better to valuable content that helps them solve a problem and benefit from nurturing – landing directly on an affiliate product page can be jarring and unsuccessful. 

So in this scenario, owning your own website would allow you to write targeted blog posts tailored to nurturing your readers for the affiliate offers you are promoting. 

How to Make a Website for Pinterest: A Step-by-Step Beginner’s Guide

Now that you understand the benefit of owning your own website when marketing on Pinterest, I’ll move on to HOW to make a website. 

Follow these steps to learn how to choose a domain, website platform, hosting provider, and website theme. 

Step 1: Choose a Domain Name for Your Website and Brand

The first step in learning how to make a website is choosing a domain name.

Your domain name will become the name of your website and the URL (eg. www.caffeineandconquer.com). Choosing a domain name can be difficult, especially if the one you want’s taken, but don’t let it stress you out. You can always change it or work with a temporary domain until you find the right one for you.

A .com domain is usually between $15-$25 per year depending on the provider you purchase through. 

Search your domain name availability here. 

When I launched on Blogspot, my URL was “sarahfournier.blogspot.com” – gross! I celebrated when I got my domain name. It was exciting that I officially had a name that was mine!

When choosing a domain name, avoid hard-to-spell or long URLs. You want a website address that’s easy for people to remember and input. 

Step 2: Choose the Best Platform to Build Your Website

When deciding how to make a website that fits your business, start by choosing the right platform.

There are a multitude of website platforms available these days. Your website platform’s where you’ll build your website on. 

When choosing a platform you should think about the type of business you have. Are you ecommerce? Shopify or WordPress with a Woocommerce shop might make more sense for you. Or, if you are a service based business and your goal’s to showcase your portfolio and services a WordPress or Squarespace website could be a good idea. 

In this post though, we’re going to focus on getting started on WordPress.org.

I chose WordPress.org as my platform because it’s more flexible than other platforms in how much you can customize your website, it also has thousands of plugins so you can add the features you need as you scale, and it’s SEO friendly (which is so important for Pinterest and Google marketing). 

Related: Pinterest vs Google SEO: What’s That Difference?

Step 3: Select a Reliable Web Hosting Provider for Your Site

When creating a website online you need a “host” to store all your files and information on a server. There are two ways you can do this: free or paid.

When you make a website on platforms such as Wix or Blogspot, they offer free hosting (but very limited capabilities), whereas WordPress.org requires you to purchase hosting through a company such as LyricalHost, Bluehost, Siteground, Hostgator, etc.

When researching hosting providers, consider site speed and uptime. You want a reputable hosting provider that’s known to have little to none downtime (meaning your website goes down when their servers go down) and fast speed. Most affordable hosting plans are on shared servers which can affect the speed of your website, however, if you’re not receiving 100k visitors per day to your website then it shouldn’t matter too much. 

LyricalHost supports a fast speed by only using Samsung SSDs in their servers and includes custom caching built in. They also have WordPress pre-installed when you register with them so you don’t have to install it yourself which can be stressful to some people. They include free daily backups, quick support that’s also beginner friendly, and SSL certificates.

Lyrical Host plans start at $19.49/month or $196/year (16% less)

Step 4: Pick a WordPress Theme and Design a Professional Website

This’s my favourite part of creating a website – choosing your theme. How it works on WordPress is you choose your baseline theme (I use Kadence because it’s fast and extremely customizable) and a child-theme, which is the customizations to your base theme. 

For Kadence child-themes, I recommend Restored316. I’ve purchased several themes from her in the past, as well as some of her Lunch and Learns, and she’s one of my favorite authorities on Kadence WordPress websites. 

The right theme will have the main pages you need already pre-built in (you’ll just add your own copy and images), it’ll be responsive for mobile and desktop, optimized for SEO, be customizable (you’ll want to add your own branding colors and possibly switch out of the fonts), and look professionally done out of the box. 

Of course, a custom theme’s always an option but those are usually a massive investment reserved for an already established online business. 

Bonus Tips to Make Your Website Pinterest-Ready

Once you’ve mastered how to make a website, it’s time to optimize it for Pinterest traffic. There are a few more steps you can take to make your website Pinterest-friendly. 

Ensure your website’s optimized for mobile

Most themes are already mobile responsive, however, it’s always best to double check your theme on your own mobile device to make sure everything looks and works correctly. Most Pinterest traffic’s on mobile so you want to make sure the website they are landing on doesn’t have them clicking off a second later!

Add Pinterest-specific plugins

Make it easy for pinners to share your already-optimized images to Pinterest with some specific plugins like Tasty Pins and Pinterest for Woocommerce.

Create dedicated landing pages for affiliate offers or lead magnets

Each page is a new opportunity for pinners to take action. If you’re building an email list, create unique landing pages for each of your lead magnets and publish them to Pinterest.

Connect Google Analytics + Pinterest Tag for better tracking

Lastly, don’t forget to claim your new domain on Pinterest. Head to your Pinterest settings > claim > claim a website and follow the instructions. If you have the YOAST plugin there’s a section in their settings for you to insert your Pinterest tag to make claiming 10x easier. 

Finally, install the Google Site plugin and set up specific tracking for Pinterest visitors. What I love about this plugin is how it visually breaks down your analytics. It’s more user friendly than hopping into your Google Analytics dashboard on their website. This data will be extremely helpful for you to know what’s working. 

Final Thoughts – Your Website Is the Foundation of Pinterest Growth

If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this guide, it’s this: you can grow on Pinterest without a website — but your potential for growth skyrockets once you know how to make a website of your own.

A website is more than just a place to host blog posts or sell products. It’s your online home base — a space you control, where you can build trust, nurture your audience, and create content that keeps driving traffic and conversions for years to come. It’s also the foundation of Pinterest success, giving you better visibility in search results, richer analytics, and far more opportunities to monetize your traffic.

If you’re serious about building long-term, sustainable traffic from Pinterest, the best time to start is now. Choose a domain name, pick a platform, and get your site online — you can have a basic website live in less than a day. And if you’re ready to take the next step, I recommend getting started with Lyrical Host — their beginner-friendly support makes launching your site simple and stress-free.