Pinterest, a site that allows users to create online bulletin boards of things they like, has introduced a new tool that allows websites to track the number of people pinning their content. The tool, called Pinterest Web Analytics, will allow registered sites to track the way users interact with content that’s “pinned,” or added to the users boards.

“Bloggers, businesses, and organizations often ask us, “what are people pinning from my websites?” These website owners help create the content on Pinterest and we wanted to help them understand which pieces of content people find most interesting,” a post on the site’s official blog said.

The tool offers information on user behavior on the site, including how many people are clicking on a particular picture. It also shows how many people “repin” a post, similar to retweeting on Twitter (News - Alert). “For example, if you have a travel blog, you’ll be able to see whether people are pinning your ski vacation posts or beach vacation posts more,” the blog post said.

The goal is really to help websites understand what content is resonating with people on Pinterest," Cat Lee, a product manager at the company, told Reuters (News - Alert).

"They couldn't really start charging people without some way of measuring the efficacy of the spend,” Greg Sterling a senior analyst with Opus Research told Reuters. In the meantime, Pinterest is still free for its users.

The tool is available to websites that are registered with Pinterest. This can be done by going into the settings section of the site and clicking “Verify Website.” The Web Analytics tool joins other tools that Pinterest has offered to businesses, including business accounts, buttons and widgets for websites.