SEO for Pinterest: what it is, how to optimize and tips to improve your strategy and positioning
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2025 10:46 am
Pinterest is one of the platforms that, like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn, has gained a lot of ground among the digital platforms that successful companies must know how to take advantage of. Do you want to be one of them? Come here and discover everything you need to know to boost your online traffic with SEO for Pinterest!
Luis Herrera
Mar 15, 22 | 8 min read
SEO for Pinterest
Reading time: 6 minutes
Because this is a very niche platform that only displays mom database images, optimizing your Pinterest for SEO will help attract the right audience: visitors ready to buy whatever you're selling.
This is certainly a new term that needs to be understood in depth in order for social media marketing strategies to be successful and generate a large amount of valuable traffic.
Keep reading, you will find everything you need to know about this topic.
SEO for Pinterest: What does this new concept mean?
In simple terms, it is about optimizing the profile of companies that are on the platform, in order to attract comments, shares and followers, always with an alignment to their target audience. This optimization is of great help to the Pinterest search engine, which is why it is related to the application of specific SEO techniques for this space.
We can think of Pinterest as a self-contained search engine, one that displays vibrant images with keyword-rich descriptions of blogs, infographics, videos, and products. And, just like any other search engine, the main mission of this one is to deliver quality content to its users.
Sure, they make money through advertising, but their business model only works if people can regularly discover pins they actually want to see, whether through active searching or the predictive magic of the algorithm.
6 Key Tips to Optimize SEO for Pinterest
Just like traditional SEO for websites, integrating keywords into content marketing as part of a strategy to generate organic traffic is essential.
However, the platform's Search Engine Optimization goes a step further. As a visual medium, SEO optimization for Pinterest involves things like proper image formatting, generating engagement with the target market, and enabling the platform's special features like the "Save" button and " Rich Pins ."
The following 6 tips will teach you all this and more, so you can use all digital tools to your advantage as the powerful digital marketing strategy that it is. Let’s dive in!
1. Make the necessary initial preparations
If you already have a business account and a verified site, you can skip to the second tip. Don't have one? Don't be a drama, these two things are essential if you want to take advantage of everything this platform has to offer:
Step 1: Set up a Pinterest business account
A Pinterest business account is completely free and gives you access to Pinterest analytics so you can gain valuable insights into user behavior.
It also allows you to use Rich Pins and other features that work for Pinterest SEO that you will learn about later.
Setting up your business account is easy and free. Just follow these instructions and you're good to go.
Already using a personal account? No problem. Pinterest also provides step-by-step instructions on how to convert your personal account to a business account.
Step 2: Claim your business website on Pinterest
The next step is to claim your business on Pinterest. This lets the platform officially know that the company you claim to represent is actually yours; this step involves verifying that you own a specific domain and requires you to add a code link to your website.
Step 3: Write the company description
You have 500 characters to describe what you do and the value it brings to your customers, so make that space count!
Look at the profiles of brands similar to yours for inspiration and write something that truly captures their essence.
2. Create and pin quality content that is worthwhile
Any discussion about SEO, whether on Pinterest, your website, or any other platform, needs to start with quality content. There’s simply no way around it.
The truth is that search engine algorithms have become very smart at figuring out what people want to see.
The same is true for SEO for Pinterest. If you don’t start with solid content, you won’t get very far, because people don’t engage with the pins. In other words, they won’t comment, share, or save them. And they certainly won’t be inspired to follow you!
Most importantly, Pinterest's algorithm will know you're producing boring content, making it difficult or impossible to organically attract the type of audience you're trying to reach.
What type of content is good for Pinterest?
This isn't all about pretty pictures. Yes, it all starts with images, but these are often linked to a variety of content, including:
blogs ;
videos;
infographics;
ebooks and
products.
Just make sure you create an engaging image for each piece of content using software like Canvas to create eye-catching pins. And while Pinterest only lets you re-pin the same post four times a month, you can pin the same piece of content (a blog post, for example) as many times as you like, assuming you use different images.
In other words, the platform wants to see different pins, but these pins can link to the same high-performing content.
Of course, your audience won't want to see you pin the same blog post 100 times with different images, so we recommend creating 3-6 unique pins for each piece of content.
Before continuing, take into account these 3 contents to complement your reading:
Do you want to boost your brand, but don't know how? Discover these 16 best Digital Marketing tools!
Are you aware of what e-commerce is? Click here and get up to speed!
SEO: the tool to conquer the top of Google. Find out how you can do it in 2022!
3. Use guided search to get an idea of what users want to see
Before you dive into formal keyword research, you can get an idea of what Pinterest users are searching for by simply logging in to Pinterest and entering search terms related to the nature of your business into the search bar.
Let's say, for example, that you run an ecommerce store that sells animal-themed baby clothes. You have a nice little niche in that market and you want to get a sense of what Pinterest users are searching for in terms of related products.
You can start by entering “babies” into the Pinterest search bar and, just like with Google, it will start populating the search based on what other users enter.
4. Keyword research
Now it's time to take what you've learned from digging into Guided Search and see what Google has to say about it.
Here, you can access Google's free keyword planning tool to conduct successful keyword research . You'll also be able to see which phrases have the highest search volume and lowest competition.
Google Trends is also a useful keyword planning tool, and you can check out paid tools like Mangools or Ahrefs for even more data if you're on a budget.
While this is an analysis of Google searches as a whole and not Pinterest searches in particular, it is valuable information for a couple of reasons.
First of all , Google search data is huge, and even if it doesn't perfectly correlate with what Pinterest users are searching for, it will still give you a clear idea of what the market wants to see and
Secondly , Google searches send traffic to Pinterest SEO, so you could attract some external traffic if you provide great content.
Obviously, there’s a lot more we could say about SEO keyword research. It’s a big topic! But the most important thing to keep in mind is to find long-tail keywords that have a high search volume and aren’t incredibly competitive.
5. Write keyword-rich descriptions for pins and boards
Now that you have an idea of what your target audience wants to see and what they're searching for, it's time to create content that will appeal to them.
And with every piece of content, you must definitely add a complete description that includes those valuable long-tail keywords you discovered. Do the same with the boards you create to organize your content.
6. Feel free to use hashtags
From their humble beginnings on Twitter, hashtags have spread to all popular social media sites as a way to tag content, and Pinterest is no exception.
In theory, you can add up to 20 different hashtags to each pin description, focusing on related keywords or topics, but you probably won't want to use more than four on any given post.
Be careful, too many hashtags are distracting and can look spammy.
Be careful! You must include the link to your Pinterest business on your website.
5 SEO benefits for Pinterest
In short, brands use SEO for Pinterest to achieve better digital positioning.
Next, we will explore the 5 most outstanding advantages that make this site invaluable in search engine positioning techniques:
Pinterest offers reporting in Analytics – analytics will tell you which piece of content got the referring click, and allow you to click and view that piece on the platform. This empowers you to engage (thank, for example) with people who promote your content;
Excellent backlink building opportunities – Because this is a massive social network, the domain authority is excellent. As a result, you will be constantly indexed by search engines;
SEO for better Google rankings – Pinterest content is being crawled and indexed by Google, therefore, it will affect your SEO rankings.
Pinterest Search Box – With millions of visitors every day, people are searching for brands through the search box, where you can appear if you have SEO optimized content for Pinterest and
Web presence: Like Facebook, YouTube , Twitter, and LinkedIn, Pinterest has gained enough momentum and importance that excluding it for any longer could negatively impact your web presence compared to your competitors.
Luis Herrera
Mar 15, 22 | 8 min read
SEO for Pinterest
Reading time: 6 minutes
Because this is a very niche platform that only displays mom database images, optimizing your Pinterest for SEO will help attract the right audience: visitors ready to buy whatever you're selling.
This is certainly a new term that needs to be understood in depth in order for social media marketing strategies to be successful and generate a large amount of valuable traffic.
Keep reading, you will find everything you need to know about this topic.
SEO for Pinterest: What does this new concept mean?
In simple terms, it is about optimizing the profile of companies that are on the platform, in order to attract comments, shares and followers, always with an alignment to their target audience. This optimization is of great help to the Pinterest search engine, which is why it is related to the application of specific SEO techniques for this space.
We can think of Pinterest as a self-contained search engine, one that displays vibrant images with keyword-rich descriptions of blogs, infographics, videos, and products. And, just like any other search engine, the main mission of this one is to deliver quality content to its users.
Sure, they make money through advertising, but their business model only works if people can regularly discover pins they actually want to see, whether through active searching or the predictive magic of the algorithm.
6 Key Tips to Optimize SEO for Pinterest
Just like traditional SEO for websites, integrating keywords into content marketing as part of a strategy to generate organic traffic is essential.
However, the platform's Search Engine Optimization goes a step further. As a visual medium, SEO optimization for Pinterest involves things like proper image formatting, generating engagement with the target market, and enabling the platform's special features like the "Save" button and " Rich Pins ."
The following 6 tips will teach you all this and more, so you can use all digital tools to your advantage as the powerful digital marketing strategy that it is. Let’s dive in!
1. Make the necessary initial preparations
If you already have a business account and a verified site, you can skip to the second tip. Don't have one? Don't be a drama, these two things are essential if you want to take advantage of everything this platform has to offer:
Step 1: Set up a Pinterest business account
A Pinterest business account is completely free and gives you access to Pinterest analytics so you can gain valuable insights into user behavior.
It also allows you to use Rich Pins and other features that work for Pinterest SEO that you will learn about later.
Setting up your business account is easy and free. Just follow these instructions and you're good to go.
Already using a personal account? No problem. Pinterest also provides step-by-step instructions on how to convert your personal account to a business account.
Step 2: Claim your business website on Pinterest
The next step is to claim your business on Pinterest. This lets the platform officially know that the company you claim to represent is actually yours; this step involves verifying that you own a specific domain and requires you to add a code link to your website.
Step 3: Write the company description
You have 500 characters to describe what you do and the value it brings to your customers, so make that space count!
Look at the profiles of brands similar to yours for inspiration and write something that truly captures their essence.
2. Create and pin quality content that is worthwhile
Any discussion about SEO, whether on Pinterest, your website, or any other platform, needs to start with quality content. There’s simply no way around it.
The truth is that search engine algorithms have become very smart at figuring out what people want to see.
The same is true for SEO for Pinterest. If you don’t start with solid content, you won’t get very far, because people don’t engage with the pins. In other words, they won’t comment, share, or save them. And they certainly won’t be inspired to follow you!
Most importantly, Pinterest's algorithm will know you're producing boring content, making it difficult or impossible to organically attract the type of audience you're trying to reach.
What type of content is good for Pinterest?
This isn't all about pretty pictures. Yes, it all starts with images, but these are often linked to a variety of content, including:
blogs ;
videos;
infographics;
ebooks and
products.
Just make sure you create an engaging image for each piece of content using software like Canvas to create eye-catching pins. And while Pinterest only lets you re-pin the same post four times a month, you can pin the same piece of content (a blog post, for example) as many times as you like, assuming you use different images.
In other words, the platform wants to see different pins, but these pins can link to the same high-performing content.
Of course, your audience won't want to see you pin the same blog post 100 times with different images, so we recommend creating 3-6 unique pins for each piece of content.
Before continuing, take into account these 3 contents to complement your reading:
Do you want to boost your brand, but don't know how? Discover these 16 best Digital Marketing tools!
Are you aware of what e-commerce is? Click here and get up to speed!
SEO: the tool to conquer the top of Google. Find out how you can do it in 2022!
3. Use guided search to get an idea of what users want to see
Before you dive into formal keyword research, you can get an idea of what Pinterest users are searching for by simply logging in to Pinterest and entering search terms related to the nature of your business into the search bar.
Let's say, for example, that you run an ecommerce store that sells animal-themed baby clothes. You have a nice little niche in that market and you want to get a sense of what Pinterest users are searching for in terms of related products.
You can start by entering “babies” into the Pinterest search bar and, just like with Google, it will start populating the search based on what other users enter.
4. Keyword research
Now it's time to take what you've learned from digging into Guided Search and see what Google has to say about it.
Here, you can access Google's free keyword planning tool to conduct successful keyword research . You'll also be able to see which phrases have the highest search volume and lowest competition.
Google Trends is also a useful keyword planning tool, and you can check out paid tools like Mangools or Ahrefs for even more data if you're on a budget.
While this is an analysis of Google searches as a whole and not Pinterest searches in particular, it is valuable information for a couple of reasons.
First of all , Google search data is huge, and even if it doesn't perfectly correlate with what Pinterest users are searching for, it will still give you a clear idea of what the market wants to see and
Secondly , Google searches send traffic to Pinterest SEO, so you could attract some external traffic if you provide great content.
Obviously, there’s a lot more we could say about SEO keyword research. It’s a big topic! But the most important thing to keep in mind is to find long-tail keywords that have a high search volume and aren’t incredibly competitive.
5. Write keyword-rich descriptions for pins and boards
Now that you have an idea of what your target audience wants to see and what they're searching for, it's time to create content that will appeal to them.
And with every piece of content, you must definitely add a complete description that includes those valuable long-tail keywords you discovered. Do the same with the boards you create to organize your content.
6. Feel free to use hashtags
From their humble beginnings on Twitter, hashtags have spread to all popular social media sites as a way to tag content, and Pinterest is no exception.
In theory, you can add up to 20 different hashtags to each pin description, focusing on related keywords or topics, but you probably won't want to use more than four on any given post.
Be careful, too many hashtags are distracting and can look spammy.
Be careful! You must include the link to your Pinterest business on your website.
5 SEO benefits for Pinterest
In short, brands use SEO for Pinterest to achieve better digital positioning.
Next, we will explore the 5 most outstanding advantages that make this site invaluable in search engine positioning techniques:
Pinterest offers reporting in Analytics – analytics will tell you which piece of content got the referring click, and allow you to click and view that piece on the platform. This empowers you to engage (thank, for example) with people who promote your content;
Excellent backlink building opportunities – Because this is a massive social network, the domain authority is excellent. As a result, you will be constantly indexed by search engines;
SEO for better Google rankings – Pinterest content is being crawled and indexed by Google, therefore, it will affect your SEO rankings.
Pinterest Search Box – With millions of visitors every day, people are searching for brands through the search box, where you can appear if you have SEO optimized content for Pinterest and
Web presence: Like Facebook, YouTube , Twitter, and LinkedIn, Pinterest has gained enough momentum and importance that excluding it for any longer could negatively impact your web presence compared to your competitors.