Pinterest Outbound Clicks: What They Are and 10 Ways to Get More

A Pinterest outbound click is a click that takes someone from your Pin to a website off Pinterest, usually your blog post or product page. Pinterest defines outbound clicks as "the number of times people perform actions that lead them to a destination off Pinterest," which makes it the metric closest to real traffic. This guide covers how Pinterest counts outbound clicks, how they differ from Pin clicks and impressions, how to work out your outbound click rate, what our own account's numbers looked like, and 10 ways to raise them. Definitions checked on Pinterest's Help Center on October 29, 2026.

What is an outbound click on Pinterest?

Pinterest uses two wordings for the same metric. Its Analytics help page says outbound clicks are "the number of times people perform actions that lead them to a destination off Pinterest." Its Pin stats page calls them "the total number of clicks to the destination URL associated with your Pin or ad." In plain words: someone saw your Pin, tapped through to the link, and left Pinterest for your page.

Three details from Pinterest's help pages change how you should read the number:

• Clicks count from the day the link is added. Pinterest says "outbound clicks are measured starting from the date the link is added." Adding a link to an old Pin does not backfill its history.
• Stats are combined for matching Pins. Pin stats are combined across Pins that share the same image and, where it applies, the same URL. One Pin's clicks can show up on another.
• The newest days are estimates. Pinterest's real-time metrics cover the last 48 hours, and it says they "are estimates and subject to change." Do not judge a Pin on yesterday's count.

You will find outbound clicks in Pinterest Analytics, where top Pins and boards are sorted by impressions by default but can be re-sorted by outbound clicks, and in the stats of each Pin you created.

Outbound clicks vs Pin clicks vs impressions

These three numbers measure three different steps: the Pin was shown, the Pin was opened or tapped, and the person left for your site. Here is what Pinterest counts for each.

A note on Pin clicks: Pinterest defines them differently on two help pages. The Analytics page says "the total number of clicks on your Pin or ad so it opens in closeup." The Pin stats page says "the total number of times people tap on a Pin or ad that leads them to a destination on or off of Pinterest." Either way, a Pin click is not the same as a visit to your site. Only outbound clicks are.

That is why a Pin with thousands of impressions and many Pin clicks can still send almost no one to your site. Impressions and Pin clicks show attention. Outbound clicks show whether the attention turned into traffic. For the full set of metrics and which ones to act on, see our Pinterest analytics guide, and for how impressions relate to the views number on your profile, read Pinterest impressions vs views.

Outbound click rate: the formula

Pinterest's Analytics page describes outbound click rate as the clicks to your Pin's destination URL divided by the number of times your Pins were on screen. As a formula:

Outbound click rate = outbound clicks / impressions x 100

Two worked examples from our own account: 62 outbound clicks from 4,800 impressions is 62 / 4,800 x 100 = 1.3%. 515 outbound clicks from 20,070 impressions is about 2.6%.

One more ratio is useful when a Pin gets attention but little traffic: outbound clicks divided by total engagements. If most engagements are saves and Pin clicks, people like the Pin but do not see a reason to visit the page. You can run all of these numbers in the free Pinterest engagement rate calculator.

What is a good outbound click rate on Pinterest?

Pinterest does not publish a benchmark for outbound click rate (we checked its Help Center and business pages in October 2026), and the "average" figures you see quoted online rarely say whose accounts they came from. We will not publish numbers from other people's accounts either. So here are the only numbers we can stand behind: our own.

In two documented 30-day periods on one new account, the outbound click rate went from 1.3% to about 2.6% (details in the case study below). That is one account in one niche, not a target for yours.

The benchmark that matters is your own account. Work out your account's outbound click rate over the last 30 or 90 days, then compare each Pin against it. A Pin well below your average, with enough impressions to mean something, is the one to fix. Ignore Pins with only a few dozen impressions: one click more or less swings their rate wildly. Rates also differ by niche, by Pin format and by whether the Pin has a link at all, so compare like with like.

Find the Pins that get seen but not clicked, then fix them with your approval. PinBoostr's Pinterest analytics tool shows impressions, saves, Pin clicks and link clicks (Pinterest's outbound clicks) for your connected account, with click and save rates per board. Its Click Doctor lists Pins that have been live for at least a week and have 200 or more views but send few people to your site, explains the likely reason from the Pin's own numbers, and can write a fresh variant with a new title, description and on-image headline. The variant is a new Pin that waits in your approval queue; the live Pin is never edited, and nothing publishes until you approve it. Start free for a month with no card. See the AI Pin generator.

10 ways to get more outbound clicks on Pinterest

Most of these come straight from Pinterest's own advice on Pin performance and Pin links. The rest follow from how people use Pinterest: they search, they scan, and they click when the Pin promises something the page clearly delivers.

1. Make the Pin match the page. Pinterest's Pin performance help says: "Make sure the images, text, and keywords in your Pin match the details in the landing page." A Pin that promises a recipe and lands on a category page loses the click and the visitor's trust.
2. Keep the "Visit site" button. Pinterest's creator blog (Pin links update, May 9, 2025) says that for most Pins the "Visit site" button sits beside the title and description. When Pinterest cannot judge the landing page's quality, or the page does not match the Pin, the link moves into the "..." menu. Examples it gives include links to 404 error pages and website content mismatched with the Pin. A link hidden in a menu gets fewer clicks.
3. Make the page load in under 4 seconds. Pinterest asks you to make sure your domain loads in under four seconds. A slow page also loses people who did click.
4. Do not block Pinterestbot. Pinterest says to confirm your domain or hosting company is not blocking Pinterestbot, which it uses to understand where your Pins link. Security plugins and firewalls are the usual cause.
5. Link the exact page, directly. Point each Pin at the specific post or product, not your homepage. Pinterest's broken link help says it does not allow certain redirects or shorteners and recommends linking directly to the source. Test new URLs with the free Pinterest link checker.
6. Put the payoff on the image. The text overlay should name what the page gives: "7 no-bake desserts for a crowd," "How to fix a leaning fence post," "Printable weekly meal planner." People decide in the feed, before they open the Pin. More in our Pin design tips.
7. Write keyword-led titles and descriptions. Pinterest recommends reviewing your Pins "to include relevant keywords in your Pin title." Keywords bring searchers who already want what your page has, and searchers click more than browsers. See how to write Pin descriptions that rank.
8. Use a vertical 2:3 image. Pinterest recommends a 2:3 aspect ratio for images and videos. A tall Pin takes more of the screen and gives the headline room.
9. Make fresh designs for your best URLs. Pinterest says to "publish your own Pins with fresh, new content" and to "try not to repeatedly save the same Pins." A new image or a new headline angle for the same page can match a different search. Our guide to fresh Pins explains what counts as new.
10. Pin ahead of the season. Pinterest says engagement "can be impacted by language, location, seasons, holidays, formats and trending topics," and that good Pins "can continue to resurface seasonally." Publish seasonal Pins weeks before the peak so they are already showing when people start planning.

How to track outbound clicks beyond Pinterest

Pinterest counts the click. Your website analytics counts the visit. The two rarely match exactly, because they record different events: a person can click and close the tab before your page loads. Use Pinterest's number to compare Pins with each other, and your own analytics to see what visitors do after they arrive.

• Tag your links. UTM parameters let your analytics show which Pins and campaigns sent each visit. The link still points straight at your page, so it stays a direct link. Build them with the free Pinterest UTM builder.
• Claim your website. Pinterest says that without claiming and verifying your website, all content you save will be considered saved content, which the default Analytics view filters out. Check yours with the free website claim checker.
• Compare equal periods. Look at 30 days against the previous 30 days, not one day against another.

Case study: from 62 to 515 outbound clicks in 30 days

These are the only performance numbers we publish, from a brand-new Pinterest account we ran ourselves and documented in two case studies: month 1, manual workflow and month 2, with Growth Brain.

Impressions grew about 4.2 times and outbound clicks about 8.3 times, so traffic grew faster than reach. The workflow did not change between the months. In month 2 the same habits were simply done more consistently: Pins anchored to keywords with search intent, fresh variations with different titles and angles pointing at the same URLs, each Pin on a matching board, and a steady daily pace instead of bursts. Since that test, every Pin Growth Brain prepares waits for the owner's approval before it publishes.

Read it with its limits. It is one account, one niche and two months, organic only, and a new account often grows from its first month to its second anyway, so this is not a controlled experiment and not a promise of results. If your Pins are not getting impressions at all, start with our checklist for Pins getting no views; if they cannot be found, see why Pins are not showing on Pinterest.

Get more clicks from Pins you approve

Raising outbound clicks comes down to steady, keyword-led Pins that match their pages, and to fixing the ones that get seen but not clicked. PinBoostr turns your blog posts and product pages into Pins with AI-written titles, descriptions and designs, and its Click Doctor points out the Pins worth rewriting. You review and approve each Pin before it publishes through Pinterest's official API, paced across the week. Start free for a month with no card; plans start at $19.99 a month (pricing). See the Pinterest scheduler to plan your week.

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