How does Pinterest SEO work, and what are the best Pinterest SEO tips to grow traffic?
The following Pinterest SEO tips bring over 200 000 people to my main blog every month.
No, I’m not joking, and I even share with you my exact Pinterest strategy for 2020 in this post.
Do you know the best part?
My traffic grew even more after that post, and in the same month – July 2020, I had over 270 000 page views coming from Pinterest only.
And my Pinterest SEO strategy is a huge part of that success.
So, how to rank on Pinterest for the terms you want? How to bring Pinterest traffic to your blog?
In this post, we talk about all that, and I give you exact tips on how to SEO on Pinterest.
Why does Pinterest SEO matter in 2020?
You need to know how to work with Pinterest SEO, no matter if you have a blog for the last five years or two months.
Why?
Pinterest isn’t a social media but a search engine, and as such, it works with an algorithm. Sounds like Google, right?
Almost.
There are a few crucial differences between Pinterest’s algorithm and Google’s algorithm.
- Pinterest is also a visual tool, so you need to transmit your message to your viewers in a visually appealing way.
- Pinterest picks on the changes you do faster than Google.
- It’s still faster to rank on Pinterest than to rank on Google – the rules are similar, but the timeframe to get good traffic from Pinterest is shorter than Google’s.
- Pinterest changes its algorithm faster than you can say “Pinterest” (ok, I’m exaggerating a little bit… but just a little), which makes it frustrating for many bloggers and forces us to adjust our Pinterest marketing strategies often.
- Pinterest is getting more and more popular, so try to look at it as an opportunity to expand your reach instead of a burden you must comply with. Once you start seeing the numbers, you will admit that it was worth it.
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10 Pinterest SEO tips prooved to work in 2020
See ten things you must do to rank on Pinterest for your keywords. Number 10 is my secret tip, but I’ve placed it last as it wouldn’t work unless you do all the work before that.
1. Claim your blog on Pinterest
I’m sure you’ve already read this in another three posts on Pinterest marketing, but I felt like I’d be cheating if I didn’t mention it also.
Claiming your website with Pinterest is your step number two after registering on the platform. What’s the first one? Creating a business account, of course.
Pinterest has a comprehensive guide on how to claim your website with them so that you could set up rich pins.
Once your pins are rich, they will stand out from the other pins. The users will be able to see your photo and profile next to the pin (or below if on mobile), which means that they will be branded.
They also automatically update with product availability, if you sell products.
And yes, rich pins make your content searchable and hence, improve your ranking on Pinterest.
So, claim your website and set up your rich pins.
2. Optimize your profile
This one is very important.
To be honest, it’s the one I neglected the most in the beginning, and though it doesn’t matter that much.
But optimizing your profile on Pinterest is like optimizing your CV when applying for a job. You want it to be up to date, so whoever visits your profile will be able to know exactly what you’ve been busy with.
There are a few steps to optimizing your Pinterest profile the right way:
- Choose a profile photo that represents your brand or shows your face. You’d prefer the latter as it’s proven that people like to connect with people and stay away from faceless brands.
- Display name – Yes, you want to include your brand’s name, but also place a few keywords that will help Pinterest understand what you aim for.
- About your profile – Here’s the place to fit your best keywords. Very few people actually look at your Pinterest profile and even less care about your “About” section. However, you must write a sentence or two that specify your business mission and how you help people. Form it in a way that wounds natural, but has your biggest keywords in it.
3. Optimize your boards
You have no idea how many times I’ve seen this.
A blogger is complaining they can’t bring any traffic to their blog from Pinterest. I go to check their profile and realize they have 105 boards on all topics possible – fashion, relationship, cars, hair, nails, books, babies, movies, and so on… and they blog about Self-development.
Here’s some tough love, if you’re in a similar situation.
You are a business owner now. See your Pinterest profile as a store. If you invite people into your store to sell them shoes, why placing fruits and veggies on the shelves?
Sounds weird, doesn’t it?
Well, that’s exactly how your profile looks like on Pinterest.
If you’d like people to associate you with a specific topic, your boards must reflect that topic—all of them.
Of course, you’ve got many other personal interests. That’s why you should also have a personal Pinterest account – to keep saving the things You care about, but you don’t blog about.
4. Making your boards strong
A huge part of Pinterest SEO is how strong your boards are.
We already mentioned you must keep only boards that reflect your main topics.
Make sure your boards follow these rules:
- Your board name must be a keyword you want to rank for.
- Write a board description that sounds naturally and includes as many keywords as possible.
- The pins you save to the board must be high-quality pins, reflecting the topic. If you pin third party pins, be sure they are strong and already rank well for your keyword.
- Pin as often as possible to the board to make it stronger. Ideally, you want to pin at least once a day.
5. Follow only people in your niche
I know this must sound weird, but here’s the thing.
You are a business owner now. (yes, I said it above too)
Pinterest cares about the content you put online, and they also care about the people you choose to “hang out with”. Choose only people who are already big in your niche and post high-quality content.
6. Hashtags
Using hashtags on Pinterest is one of the best ways to squeeze another 2-3 keywords in your pin description.
Don’t overdo it as I assume Pinterest will stop ignoring keyword stuffing very soon. Many people are placing 6-7 keywords in their pin descriptions, and that sounds like something Google had to ban years ago. Pinterest follows Google’s steps, so I reckon they will do something about it very soon.
7. Keywords
We finally arrived at that Pinterest SEO tip.
Keywords on Pinterest is a big deal lately.
You want to place the right keywords in your profile display name, the About section, and in your boards’ names.
But you also want to be very mindful of how you use keywords in your pins.
The ideal pin on Pinterest should have the main keyword on the following places:
- In the pin image itself – Pinterest can “see” what you wrote on the pin image;
- In the pin title;
- In the pin description;
- Have a hashtag or two with the keyword as well;
- In the URL, if possible – I know it’s not always possible, but if your URL includes your keyword, that’s awesome;
- If you post a video: find a tag that’s closer to your keywords;
- Save the pin to a board with the same keyword, either in the name or the board description;
- Pray for users to save your pin to boards that are as close to your topic as possible.
As I said, this is the ideal way to do things, but it isn’t always possible, so stick to it as much as possible, but don’t panic if a few things are out of your control.
I’ve got a full post on how to search for keywords on Pinterest here, to help you even more.
8. Make your pins are clickable
Pinterest is a visual search engine. Your success depends on how many people engage with your pins. To engage means that they have to open it, save it, or click on it.
How do you make people engage with your pins?
Make them clickable.
Here are my rules on making pins clickable:
- The image should reflect an emotion or a desired result;
- You want your pin image to be sharp, not blurry;
- You must use colors that pop up but don’t look spammy;
- The text on the pin image should promise something to the reader, and your description should repeat that promise;
9. Write descriptions that describe
One of the most critical Pinterest SEO tips is to write descriptions that actually represent the topic.
It could be a sentence or two only (even though you’ve got 500 characters to write more), but they should be appealing and promising.
I like to ask questions in my pin descriptions. This triggers the reader’s curiosity as they want to find the answer to that question or to compare their answer to mine.
10. Build authority with Pinterest
As I said, my last tip is my bonus-super-secret Pinterest SEO tip on this list.
And it’s about how you must build authority on Pinterest to build up your traffic.
How do you do that?
- Quality content. Pinterest cares about its readers and asks them if they’ve found what they were looking for. You want your pins to lead them to a place they will find information mentioned on the pin. Click baits live short.
- Consistency – You want to be consistent with your pinning strategy and your presence on Pinterest for at least a few months before expecting to see any results.
- New fresh information – either new blog posts or at least new pins on old posts must be added to your profile daily, and there’s no exception.
- Smart keywording in your profile, your boards, and your pins will show Pinterest that you are an authority, and you know your topic well. Hence, they will show your content to those who need it.
These were my top 10 Pinterest SEO tips. Check below what else I’ve got to offer you:
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10 Pinterest SEO tips to Explode Your Blog Traffic
Blogger, dreamer, procrastinator, and lover of everything soul-touching. My mission is to make you laugh, provoke your thoughts, light up your day and inspire you to fall in love with life and yourself.
Thank you for this post. This explains Pinterest in a way that I understand. Let me know when you get your course done because I will definitely take the course. Lots to learn when first starting out
Hey Melissa, thank you for your kind words!
I really enjoyed reading this post, do you have like pinterest growth course i can purchase?
Thank you for your kind words! I am working on such a course, should be out soon.