If you have an online business, and specifically a blog and you are struggling with getting traffic, or maybe you have a Pinterest account but your pins are not getting enough engagement, you are probably not using Pinterest SEO or not using it properly.
Have you ever wonders how Pinterest decides which pins you are going to see first?
Do you think it is a random choice?
Like Google, Pinterest has its own algorithm to rank pins and accounts. Once you understand how Pinterest algorithm works, it will be easier to get more traction.
It is not too hard and not something you need to be an expert to success and ultimately get more traffic and make more money on Pinterest.
So, how do you develop an SEO strategy that will get found on Pinterest as a blogger?
This extensive guide will take through all the steps to help you leverage Pinterest to increase your website traffic and sales.
I have split our Pinterest SEO guide for bloggers into 6 parts, so you can read it from start to finish, or just head straight to the topic you want to learn more about.
Find Relevant Pinterest SEO Keywords
Before we get into the step you need to take to optimize your Pinterest account, it is important to know what are the four ways to be found on Pinterest in 2020:
- Smart Feed (or Home Feed) – When you open Pinterest, the Smart Feed will be the first thing you see. It is a personalized view which is based on what your search for in the past and your interests.
- Following tab – here you see content that was created by Pinterest account you choose to follow.
- Hashtag feed – Pinterest announced on 2017 that hashtags can now be used. In this guide we will understand how to leverage them to outrank your competition as still not many accounts are using them in their Pinterest SEO strategy.
- Search results – Just like any other search engine, you can search on Pinterest which will should your results based on a number of ranking factors.
There are a few ways to search for Pinterest keywords. You can find them quite easily.
1. Use Pinterest Ads
Just like Google’s keyword tool, Pinterest has its own. And you can use it to find keywords even without running an ad. This is only possible if you have a Pinterest business account.
[su_note note_color=”#F1F1F1″]Tip! This is the only place to see estimated Pinterest’s traffic for your keyword[/su_note]
How can you access it?
Go to Pinterest and click on Ads on the top life side of the page. Select ‘Create Ad’
In the “Business Goal step”, you can just leave it as it, and click continue or you can change it for your needs.
In the 2nd step, you have the option to select keywords:
You can then search for keywords and get the estimated monthly searches:
2. Use Pinterest Suggestions
Just like Google Suggestion, you can use Pinterest suggestions by typing a word into Pinterest Search.
Or you can just click enter and see suggestions right below the search bar and you can have more suggestions:
You can then pick a suggestion and see more ideas for long-tail keywords. So for example, if I click “How to” this is what I get:
And we can go on and get many suggestions for Pinterest keywords.
[su_note note_color=”#F1F1F1″]Tip! The keywords on the left side are the most popular, and then the popularity goes done as you look to the right side of the screen.[/su_note]
3. Search Keywords Volume Outside of Pinterest
Once you identified a few keywords, you should write them down and search for them in Google Keyword Planner and in your SEO tool.
You should note that Pinterest traffic is different from Google traffic but it would give you an idea of whether people are also looking for those keywords in Google.
Optimizing Pinterest Pins for SEO
Once you have selected your keywords, you should start using them in your pins. Each pin has several places where you can add keywords to.
Let’s explore them all:
1. Optimize Pin Images
First, don’t create ugly pins! Pinterest is a visual search engine and users tend to click on images that looks good and are appealing to them.
Here is what not to do:
I use Canva to create all my pins.
You should know that Pinterest is now placing a higher focus on Pinterest video pins. Check out this guide to start creating engaging video pins.
2. SEO your Pin Title
Pinterest’s pin title is as important as your image. This is what users see when the look at their screen looking for pins. This is what provides the added value to your pin image before deciding to click.
[su_note note_color=”#F1F1F1″]Tip! The title description can be up to 100 characters but the feed will only show the first 30-40 characters. So make sure the beginning of your title includes your keyword[/su_note]
[su_note note_color=”#F1F1F1″]Tip! Do not repeat what’s written in your pin image in your pin title[/su_note]
3. SEO your Pin Description
The same as the title, you can use your identifies keyword in your pin description. Here you can include more identified keywords to support your Pinterest SEO strategy.
However, do not stuff keywords. Use them naturally as part of a sentence that actually makes sense.
You should know that most people will not see your description as it is not showing up when you search for pins, however, this will help Pinterest algorithm know what your pin is all about.
4. Optimize Pinterest Hashtags for Pinterest SEO
Hashtags are a great way to display new pins in searches. As when you search for hashtags, the pins displayed on the top are the newest ones and then it continues with older ones, as the results are displayed in chronological order.
[su_note note_color=”#F1F1F1″]Tip! Hashtags only works in pin description so don’t try using them anywhere else[/su_note]
As with Instagram hashtags, you should use a mix of popular and more niche hashtags to increase your chances of discovery. Don’t go too broad (“#pinterest,” and “#blogging”). Instead, get more specific and relevant (#pinterestmarketing”, or “#bloggingforbeginners”).
[su_note note_color=”#F1F1F1″]Tip! The general advise it to use your hashtags at the end of your description.[/su_note]
4. Linked Page Title, Description, and Text
This is not really where you can place keywords for your Pinterest SEO strategy. But you should know that Pinterest do look into the linked URL that you’ve placed in your pin.
It also checks for your URL title, meta description and even to your page text. So make sure that the keywords you’ve used in your page are related to the pin title and description.
Optimizing Pinterest Account
Your Pinterest account is another place to optimize for Pinterest SEO.
1. Optimize your Pinterest profile
This includes your Pinterest name and profile description. You can use keywords in your name and in your description:
You Pinterest name will become your URL on Pinterest.
2. Optimize your Boards
Next it’s time to optimize your boards. You should your keywords in your board title and description.
It is recommended to be specific with your boards title so instead of creating a board called “Pinterest Tips” you can use “Pinterest tips for bloggers”.
You board description, just like your pin description and your profile description should be written in a natural way and should not be stuffed with keywords.
Update Blog Post for Pinterest SEO
Now we’ve come to the blog post itself that you are trying to promote through Pinterest SEO.
Even though the purpose of this guide is not to cover Goggle’s SEO strategies, it is important to note which SEO strategies can affect your Pinterest ranking as a blogger.
1. Blog post title
Your title should include your focus keyword, preferably in the beginning of your title.
2. Blog post text
Make sure there is a correlation between the keywords used in your blog post to the keywords used on Pinterest pin title and description.
Use keywords in your subtitles and through the text but again, not too much.
3. Blog post meta title and description
Use your keywords in your blog post meta description and you meta title. This is what Google is displaying in the search results for the people who look for those specific keywords.
4. Blog post images
If you want your audience to share your content on Pinterest, you should make it easy for them, by including pinnable images in your blog post.
Like you see here in this article.
[su_button url=”https://www.bluehost.com/track/earlyretiredmom/” background=”#ff4085″ size=”6″ center=”yes” rel=”nofollow”]Start Today[/su_button]
Important Factors That Influence Your Pinterest Ranking
Other than using Pinterest SEO, there are other factors that can highly influence your ranking on Pinterest.
1. Create fresh pins
Pinterest loves fresh pins.
As Pinterest is a visual search engine, creating new beautiful pins serve Pinterest purpose of inspiring their audience.
What are fresh pins?
It’s new image pins. And the focus here is on NEW.
[su_note note_color=”#F1F1F1″]Tip! If you have a blog post that you already create pins for in the past, you can create a new image and still use the same URL[/su_note]
Fresh pins does necessarily mean fresh content, or new blog post. It is all about the image itself.
2. Pin Consistency
Pin regularly. And regularly means every day.
If you want to rip any success from your Pinterest SEO strategy, you need to continually pin.
Without this, you may struggle to rank. This is one of the most important factor is not the most important one.
Either you do it manually by pining inside the Pinterest app, or you use an authorized Pinterest partner called Tailwind to do it for you.
3. Pin Engagement and Popularity
Pinterest loves popular pins this is what makes them quality pins which will get ranked higher.
[su_note note_color=”#F1F1F1″]Tip! When pinning other’s pins into your boards, it better to select popular pins that Pinterest already ranks high. The easy way to do it is to search for your keywords in Pinterest search and look at (and pin) the top results[/su_note]
4. Domain authority
Just link Google, Pinterest looks into your domain authority.
Specifically, what pinterest is looking for, is how popular the pins coming out of this domain are. The more users visit your website from Pinterest, the better as Pinterest will score your domain higher.
Tracking Your Pinterest SEO Performance
If you want to see how your SEO effort are paying out, you can use Pinterest Analytics for this.
Open Pinterest and go to the Analytics menu in the top left corner and select “Overview“.
On the left side you can select your filters and specify the time range, filtering for your account pins and so on.
In the main view, you can see your “Top Pins” performance.
Select “Link Clicks” in the drop down menu. As ultimately, blog traffic is what you really want to measure.
You can then identify your top tips, and focus on creating similar pins. You can also check which pin images for each post work best and schedule them in Tailwind SmartLoop
Conclusion
Driving traffic to your blog through Pinterest is not that hard. All you need is to follow the recommendations in this guide.
Focusing on Pinterest SEO definitely is easier than driving traffic trough Google. So if you are not using Pinterest for your blog yet, it is definitely recommended to start as soon as possible.
Stay consistent, write great blog content and make beautiful pins and sure enough, success will come.
Hope you enjoyed this Pinterest SEO guide for Bloggers. Looking forward to reading your comments.
Happy Pinning 🙂
