How To Optimize Your Pins With Pinterest SEO

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Did you know Pinterest is really a search engine?

Yep. It usually gets lumped in a “social media,” but how much socializing do you really do on Pinterest? Not a lot, right?

Because it is a search engine we need to treat it like one, and that means incorporating Pinterest SEO.

If you are trying to promote your blog or online business on Pinterest you need to target the right keywords so that you can get higher rankings and traffic.

In order to make the most out of Pinterest for your business, there are some best practices and strategies that you can try out to optimize your Pinterest SEO.

How does Pinterest search work?

When you type in a certain topic, in the Pinterest search bar your results for related pins will show up along with other relevant keywords. This is helpful since you can see what other words out there that you can use and maybe next time you can incorporate them in your own Pinterest SEO.

When it comes to what pins show up on Pinterest search, the Pinterest algorithm has certain factors that help them determine the visibility of your pins on Pinterest search:

Domain Quality

This refers to how Pinterest sees how much quality your website has. It can tell if your website is producing high-quality content or the popularity of the pins from your site.

Pin Quality

This is all about how popular or engaging your pins are. Pinterest will determine your pin having good or high quality, if it gets a lot of comments, click-throughs, or saves.

This is basically the amount of engagement the pin has. All versions of the pin will also be taken into consideration.

Pinterest likes to see that you are getting at least a .2-.3% click-through rate. You can calculate this by dividing your clicks on that pin by your Pinterest impressions.

Pinner Quality

This takes into consideration how active you are as a Pinterest user and how you are as a content curator. It also considers how often you pin and if you have relevant and high-quality content.

Relevance

This refers to how important your pins are to your audience and what they are searching for, what they need, etc. The kind of keywords you use will determine what your pins are and if they are relevant to your niche audience.

In order to make the most out of pinning your content, make sure that your pins are relevant and engaging so that they will get shared more and get more engagement from your audience. Other pinners will also find your relevant content more useful and will repin and engage more.

Pinterest SEO best practices

Using the Hashtag Feed

If you haven’t heard hashtags are now a thing on Pinterest. For years they did not encourage hashtags on the platform but in 2018 they updated it those guidelines. You are allowed to pin up to 20 hashtags on a pin, but it is best when pinning to only use 2-3 hashtags.

When you add consistent and meaningful hashtags to your pins, you can appear in a relevant hashtag feed and get your content out there. The key here is to use the hashtags on your newest pins since they are ranked by how recent they were placed.

This means you don’t need to go to your old pins to add any hashtags since most likely they won’t have any significant effects.

In order to find the best hashtags for your pin descriptions, you need to do some research. You can do these through the Pinterest search tab and typing in keywords related to your topic.

You can then find various keywords and similar bloggers in the same niche and you can take inspiration and gather information from that. Make sure you jot them down so you can look at them and review them later on.

What’s important to remember is that hashtags are not meant to replace your pin’s keyword rich description, but rather, they add a little bit more to your pin descriptions.

You can also check out the Pinterest mobile app to see which hashtags are trending right now. If they apply to your niche, you can use them as well.

Using the Pinterest Smart Feed or Home Feed

The smart feed will determine what your audience or the users will see on their home feeds. The feed will categorize and prioritize those pins that are deemed high-quality based on their algorithm.

The pins that will be shown on the smart feed will be taken from 3 kinds of content.

• Repins and saved pins from the people they are following
• Related pins
• Promoted Pins

The more content you have that can be distributed and seen in these kinds of content pools, the more visibility, and engagement you can get.

Increase the quality of your domain

You can improve your ranking by getting a business account, claiming your website, and also by enabling rich pins.

Rich pins are beneficial since they can add more important information on your pins directly from updated information on your blog.

Be Consistent and active

In order to make the most out of your Pinterest SEO, it is better to spread your pinning out than to pin a ton of pins all at once. If you manually pin try to do little pinning sprees spread throughout the day or use Tailwind to easily schedule your pins

Related: How To Use Tailwind To Schedule Your Pins

I like to use Tailwind to schedule my pins because it helps me stay consistent. The more consistent you are as well, the more Pinterest’s algorithm will rank you higher.

You can get a free one month trial of Tailwind when you use this special link.  

Fresh content is preferred and even if it’s from an old article, it can still be considered “fresh” if you create a new graphic or a new pin description. 

Keep underperforming pins

Some people might wonder if pins that aren’t doing or didn’t do well should be deleted. The answer is no. Even if a certain pin has low repins or engagement, it won’t affect your other pin’s chances of distribution so there’s no need to spend time and effort to delete these pins.

Oftentimes, a pin will take off months after it has been repinned. Just because it isn’t a winner now, doesn’t mean that it won’t do well later!

Gaining more engaged followers

Although having a lot of followers is a good thing, if most of them don’t engage or share your content, this isn’t a good thing and won’t benefit you. It is better to have a few followers who regularly engage.

That being said, there are ways that you can attract and gain more followers, who hopefully will be engaging and are loyal to your brand. The more your followers share and engage, the more your content will also be shared and distributed to more people who can become potential followers.

Aside from helping Pinterest recommend you to others through optimizing your profile and pin descriptions, creating a business account, and pinning regularly, there are also other ways you can get more followers by:

• Installing A Pinterest Widget In Your Sidebar
• Using A Tool Like Milotree
• Consistently pinning relevant content – This makes it so Pinterest recommends you and your boards to other pinners.

Creating high-quality pin images

The best type of pin image or graphics should be tall rather than wide. This is so that they can be more visible as they take space in the feed.

The recommended image size is 600 x 900 pixels or a 2:3 ratio.

You can do up to 600 x 1250 px but if you also go longer than this, it could get cut off.

Make sure you use a high-quality image. There are tons of sites that have free blog stock photos that you can download and use to create graphics.

I like to create my Pinterest graphics in Canva. It is a free design tool that allows you to create templates for your pins. This speeds up your Pinterest graphic creation a ton! 

Generally, I will use a bright stock photo and have my text take up the top third of the graphic. Use big bold text on your graphic to catch the readers eye and always put your URL or watermark somewhere on your image. I like to put mine centered on the bottom of my pin.

If you have a freebie that you created for that post you can easily create a mockup in Canva to feature your opt-in. This helps showcase what they will be receiving and will make them more likely to click through! 

Where do you put your keywords for Pinterest SEO?

Optimize Your Blog Post

Pinterest SEO doesn’t only happen on Pinterest. You can set yourself up for success on your blog too!

WEBSITE BLOG POST TITLES

First of all, you need to go back to the core of your blog post and usually, that starts with the title of your blog post! I keep my blog post pretty straight to the point and avoid adding in fluff. Include the value of the blog post, maybe the reader’s pain point you are going to address and make sure to include your keyword. 

If you have enabled Rich Pins on your site then your blog post title will also pull in automatically when your pin is pinned on Pinterest.

WEBSITE IMAGE DETAILS OR ALT TEXT

Using the right image description or image details on your website is very important. Whatever website platform you may be using, WordPress, Squarespace, etc., you will always have the option to input the details of your images.

Some platforms even just automatically pick up the file name of your image and input it as your image detail. Using the right keywords here is important is because it is also used to find you in search engines and Pinterest.

This is so important because if someone pins your image, Pinterest automatically loads whatever description you may have listed for that image. You won’t be able to change that pin description once someone has already pinned it to their board.

The last thing you want it to show is a jumble of numbers of letters that gives away no information whatsoever about where that pin is from or what it is about.

Optimize your Pinterest profile

To make your profile as SEO friendly as possible, you can add your keywords in your username, business name, or bio.

Your username will be the URL in your Pinterest profile so putting keywords in there can be beneficial. Your business name will come when you have a business account and you will also be able to claim your website. 

PINTEREST PROFILE AND ACCOUNT NAME

On Pinterest, your step one for incorporating keywords into your account is through your profile name and account name. If you are a business or a blogger, make sure to apply for a Pinterest business account. It’s free to sign up or to convert your existing personal account.

Next is to make sure your URL (Username) and your business name is the name of your blog or business.

PINTEREST PROFILE DESCRIPTION

When it comes to your bio, you can write create a straight to the point, and useful bio with helpful keywords to give your audience as much information as possible. You can also put a call to action there as well.

Your Pinterest profile description should also use keywords. These should be simple and informative on what your blog or business is about, but it should also show your personality.

Remember that people need to quickly have an idea of who you are when they read your description. You need to make your description short and sweet. Try to incorporate at least 2-3 of your keywords into your description.

Optimizing your boards and pin descriptions

This may be the most important part of this entire post. Pay close attention!

Many people overlook their board titles and even worse their board descriptions. If you do not optimize these to areas of your account there is very little chance that your pins will rank on Pinterest.

PINTEREST BOARD TITLE

Your Pinterest board titles are important for Pinterest SEO. It is the first thing people see when they search for a certain topic and it will be the first thing that would get their attention apart from your images. Once again, keeping it simple here is the way to go.

Instead of naming your board something that only you would understand or think is funny, go for a straightforward 2-4 words that describe what the board is about. 

When pinning your new pins make sure to pin to your most relevant board first. So, for example, if we were pinning our new chocolate cookie recipe we would pin like this:

First to our cookies board, then to our chocolate board, then to our desserts board, then to our recipes board and so on.

Pinning to your most relevant boards first helps Pinterest understand what your pin is about.

PINTEREST BOARD DESCRIPTION

Your board descriptions should also include keywords. Keep it to about two to three sentences. It’s long enough to include your keywords and let the pinner know what your board is about.

PINTEREST PIN DESCRIPTION

Pin descriptions are one of the most important things on this list. Include your keywords for that post there in the pin description.

Try to write a couple of sentences that explain the post and the value the reader will get if they click through.

Use the long-tail keywords that come up for your main keyword in the Pinterest search in your description. That will make it so Pinterest is more likely to show your pin when a user includes one of those long-tail keywords.

You May Also Like These Pinterest Posts: 

• The Ultimate Guide To Pinterest For Beginners 
• How To Use Tailwind To Grow Your Blog Traffic 
• How To Make Money With Pinterest Affiliate Links

Want to learn more about how to maximize your presence on Pinterest? Grab a spot in my FREE five-day course Pinterest Primer and get access to over an hour of video lessons on how to use Pinterest!