Although it is often overlooked, Pinterest can be a great way to drive traffic to blogs and businesses.
Those who are looking to use Pinterest as a way to increase the organic reach of their website should make sure to post high-quality images and infographics, as these are the most-pinned types of content on the platform.
What is Pinterest SEO?
To optimize your Pinterest profile and website for more organic traffic, focus on Pinterest SEO. This will involve making sure your website is easy to find and navigate on Pinterest, as well as ensuring that your pins are high-quality and engaging.
1. Set yourself up for success
If you have a business account and a verified site, you can skip ahead to tip #2. If not, you need a business account and a verified site to take advantage of everything Pinterest has to offer.
Set up a business Pinterest account
A business Pinterest account does not cost anything, and it provides you with Pinterest analytics so you can get useful information about user behavior. Additionally, it allows you to utilize Rich Pins and other Pinterest features, which will be described in more detail below.
Choose an SEO-Friendly username
The username you choose will be part of the URL for your profile, so it’s important to think about what your audience might be searching for when choosing a username.
Claim your business website on Pinterest
The next step is to confirm that the business you are claiming on Pinterest is actually your own. You can do this by verifying that you own a specific domain. To do this, you will need to add a link of code to your website.
Write your company description
Please provide relevant details about yourself in the “about you” section, and include a high-resolution company logo.
This will make it easier for people to save your Pins.
2. Prepare your website
Add the Pinterest Tag
Essentially Pinterest’s equivalent of the Facebook pixel, this small piece of JavaScript will allow you to:
- Set up conversion events on your website.
- Segment your audience.
- Report reliably on your profile’s performance.
Add the Save Button
This HTML code will allow you to increase the reach of your campaigns to beyond Pinterest. Once installed, users can save images from your site or app to their Pinterest boards.
The Pinterest “Save” button can be added to images on your site to increase traffic to your Pinterest page, gain more followers, and expose your brand to more people.
The “Save” button can be set to appear by default or to appear when the user’s cursor hovers over the top-left corner of the image.
Verify Your Site
To add your profile picture to all of your Pins: 1. Verify your website. 2. Go to your Profile and select “Edit Profile”. 3. Scroll down to “Website” and click “Verify now”. 4. Enter your website’s URL and click “Verify”.
3. Create and pin quality, engagement-worth content
Before you can rank in search, you must have quality, linkable content to support your optimization efforts. The quality of your content is the most important factor in ranking in search engines. You need to have well-written, informative content to support your SEO efforts.
Although some people may think that they can fool search engines by stuffing their website with keywords, this technique will not work because search engines have become very good at determining what users want to see. Quality content is much more important than quantity, so take the time to write something that will be valuable to your readers.
What kind of content is good for Pinterest?
Pinterest isn’t just about pretty pictures. Yes, it all starts with imagery, but those images often link to a variety of content, including:
- Blogs
- Videos
- Infographics
- E-books
- Products
When using software like Canva to create pins for each piece of content, be sure to make the pins engaging and visually appealing.
4. Set traffic and conversion goals for your business
In order to be successful on this platform, you need to first figure out what Pinterest can do for your business and set some goals.
- How does Pinterest fit into your wider marketing strategy?
- Does your target audience actively use Pinterest to find content like yours?
If you decide that Pinterest is right for you, you can use the Pinterest tag to track a variety of conversions on your website.
Pinterest offers a step-by-step guide to help you generate leads through conversion campaigns.
5. Use guided search to get an idea of what users want to see
The terms that come up when you search will not give you exact data on how often that term is searched– that is what the next step is for. For now, consider this step as a chance to explore all the possibilities.
One advantage of Pinterest is that it is easy to find specific types of content because users categorize their pins into “boards” according to theme. If you want to find new ideas, look at what other users have pinned on similar topics.
6. Keyword research
Google provides a free keyword planning tool to help users find keywords related to their desired subject matter. This tool not only identifies relevant keywords, but also allows users to see which phrases have a higher search volume and lower competition. Google Trends is another helpful keyword planning tool, and there are also paid tools like Mangools or Ahrefs which provide even more data.
First, Google’s search data is very large, and even if it does not match up perfectly to what Pinterest users are looking for, it will still give you a good idea of what the market wants to see. Second, Google searches provide traffic to Pinterest, so you could attract some external traffic if you provide good content.
Use guided search
If you’re looking for guidance while searching on Pinterest, the platform can help you find more relevant results by suggesting semantically related terms. These are based on popular search queries for each topic, so they can be helpful in narrowing your focus.
Test out promoted pins
The idea is to use AdWords to test certain keywords before launching an entire SEO campaign, in a similar way to how SEO professionals do.
Explore niche topics
Fortunately, finding keywords for your particular niche on Pinterest is easy because Pinterest already categorizes and sub-categorizes topics.
The goal is to explore all topics relevant to the business, see how ideas are categorized, and understand how the competition is targeting specific keywords.
7. Write keyword-rich descriptions for pins and boards
Each piece of content should include a description with the longtail keywords to increase the chances of the content being found.
If you want to get a detailed look at how Pinterest ranks content using keywords, Pinterest engineers published an article on Medium.
8. Organize and optimize boards
Your board titles and descriptions are important for two reasons when it comes to SEO on Pinterest. First, they provide an opportunity to tell Pinterest’s search engine what your board is about, which can only help improve your visibility. Second, they provide potential customers with an easy way to see if your board is relevant to what they’re looking for.
Your board titles and images are the first things users will see when they come to your profile, so you’ll want to make them super clear and eye-catching.
9. Be descriptive
When creating descriptions for your images on Pinterest, it is important to include detailed descriptions with your target keywords. This will help Pinterest locate and show your images in relevant searches.
The description of your content preview encourages users to click on your site.
10. Schedule pins with tailwind
The most powerful and affordable Pinterest scheduling app on the market is Tailwind. It is an effective tool for growing your Pinterest traffic.
Tailwind allows you to Pin content to a variety of boards on a regular basis, using the desktop or mobile app.
11. Aim for engagement
User engagement is very important on Pinterest because it increases your Pin’s visibility in search, which leads to more traffic and conversions on your website.
Use the following tips to improve your engagement and increase your search visibility:
Link your Pinterest account to your other Social Media accounts
Your existing followers on other platforms will become more aware of your brand.
Invite relevant Pinterest influencers to collaborate on a board to grow your own following
If an influencer pins one of your posts, your content will be seen by a larger audience.
Include text as an overlay on your images
Based on the search for “SEO,” it appears that Pins with a text overlay tend to have a higher ranking.
Use a website like Canva to create multiple pin images
By testing the performance of your designs, you can identify which template is best suited for your needs.
Pin on a consistent basis
Buffer suggests that pinning at least five times a day will result in the greatest reach.
Follow relevant boards
Pinning items to your board will help you reach a wider audience and grow your network.
Track performance
If you want to learn more about how well your Pinterest profile is doing in terms of organic search, looking at Pinterest analytics is a good place to start.
12. Join group boards
Group boards are boards that are hosted by other creators and allow members to pin their own content as well as the content of other members of the board.
The basic idea of a group board is that each member shares Pins from other creators in order to help everyone get more exposure. However, each group board usually has its own specific rules.
13. Feel free to use hashtags
The most important thing is for your hashtags to be relevant to the content you’re pinning. Some Pinterest users believe that using hashtags increases the number of views in the initial burst after you pin something.
14. Add the Pinterest tag to your website
The Pinterest tag will not improve your SEO directly, but the information you learn from tracking conversions will be very helpful in guiding your SEO efforts in the future. Using the Pinterest tag to track conversions will show you which keywords are most effective in driving customers who make purchases to your site.
Kinds of conversions you can track with Pinterest tag
- Page Visit
- Searches on your website
- Add-to-cart actions
- Checkouts
- Signups
- Video views
- And more, including customized tracking of specific event
15. Use rich pins
If you are an ecommerce company that uses Pinterest, Rich Pins are essential because they make sure that the pricing, product descriptions, and other information on your products are up-to-date. This is important because it means that if you change the price of a product on your website, the change will be reflected automatically on your Rich Pin for that product.
Aim for long images
The best size for a Pin is 1,000×1,500 pixels, or a 2:3 ratio.
It is especially important that images be long on mobile devices, but Pinterest also displays longer images on desktop computers (which often get the most clicks).
Use eye-catching colors
Make sure your Pins don’t get lost among the others by using colors that will make them stand out.
Include enticing, keyword-rich titles
It should be clear that keywords are essential for both Pinterest SEO and clicks. Use descriptive titles to make your pins more visible in the Pinterest feed and encourage people to click through to your site.
16. Use best practices when formatting images for pins
This data suggests that longer images are better for Pinterest because 85% of traffic comes from mobile devices. The optimal size for an image is 1,000×1,500 pixels.
Choose colors for your content that are eye-catching and make it stand out from other content on the page.
17. Study your analytics
One of the best things about having a Pinterest business account is the wealth of data it provides access to. Pinterest analytics can help identify keywords that attract traffic and lead to conversions, as well as spark engagement. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
To learn more about Pinterest analytics and how to use them effectively, read our blog post.
18. Consider Pinterest ads
If you’re thinking about using paid ads on Pinterest, it could be a good idea to try them out. Like Google Adsense, Pinterest uses a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) model, so you can set a budget and test the ads without taking on too much risk.
Pinterest has a few different ad formats that you can choose from.
The most popular ones include:
- Standard (image).
- Video.
- Shopping: Pins users can click on to buy instantly.
- Carousel: Users can scroll through multiple images.
- Collections: Mix photos with product images.
19. Optimize for Visual Search
The Pinterest Lens technology is the best in the market for visual search. You can use your smartphone camera to take a picture of an object or piece of clothing, and Pinterest will be able to identify it and suggest similar Pins.
Lens is a interesting piece of technology that can understand the different parts of an image and then suggest other related posts. With this “reading” ability, Lens encourages creators to think about not just keywords, but also aesthetics.
Finally, Pin regularly. Posting regularly on Pinterest is essential for increasing engagement and improving your ranking on the site.