Boost Traffic With These Pinterest SEO Tips

While many are familiar with optimizing their websites for search engines like Google, Pinterest is often overlooked as a powerful search engine in its own right. 

With nearly half a billion monthly active users, Pinterest offers a massive opportunity for brands and content creators to drive traffic, increase visibility and boost engagement with eye-catching optimized visuals. 

In this blog, we’ll dive into the world of Pinterest SEO (search engine optimization), explain what it is and provide you with valuable Pinterest SEO tips and strategies to optimize your Pins, Boards and profile — helping you make the most out of Pinterest and reach a wider audience.

What Is Pinterest SEO?

Pinterest SEO is the optimization of content on Pinterest to improve its visibility in both the platforms' search results and general search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. 

The Pinterest algorithm collects information about your Pins, Boards and profile, like Google collects information about websites. It then uses that information to surface the best-matched content for a user's search query. By incorporating SEO into your Pinterest marketing strategy, you can increase the chances of being discovered by users searching for relevant content on Pinterest. Additionally, optimizing Pins and your profile can increase the likelihood of being shown or suggested to users, further expanding brand reach and growing your Pinterest followers in the process. 

Pinterest SEO Tips

When optimizing your brand's presence on Pinterest, many traditional SEO tactics, such as using keywords and the right image specs, translate to the Pinterest platform. Below are some essential Pinterest SEO tips to help you get started.

Make a Pinterest Business Account 

Creating a Pinterest business account is the first step toward establishing a strong presence on the platform. This type of account provides access to valuable features like ads and analytics that the standard account doesn’t have and can help you understand your audience better and optimize your strategy accordingly. If you already have a personal account set up, you can easily convert it into a business account — and don’t worry; your Pins and followers will stay where they are.

How To Create a Pinterest Business Account From Scratch

After navigating to Pinterest and hitting the signup button, follow the instructions below. It’s important to note that you can only set up a new business account from a desktop device. 

• Click on ‘Create a Business account’ and enter your email, age and create a password.
• Then click ‘Create account.’
• Fill out the fields to build your profile (see our next Pinterest SEO tip below for optimizing this step), then click ‘Next.’
• Describe your business in the available fields, then click ‘Next.’
• Decide if you want to run ads; if so, select this.  
• Lastly, select where you'd like to start or click the x to close out and go to your new Pinterest business account.

How to Switch From a Personal Account to a Business Account

Switching a personal account to a business account on Pinterest is easy, and you can do it on both desktop and mobile. If your personal account is linked to another Pinterest account, you’ll have to unlink them before the following steps.

• For desktop and mobile, log in to your account and navigate to ‘Settings.’ This step varies depending on the device you’re using.
• Click ‘Account management’ at the left of the screen on the desktop, and if using a phone, tap ‘Account management’ after Settings.
• Under ‘Account changes,’ locate ‘Convert to a business account,’ then click or tap ‘Convert account.’ 
• Fill out the fields provided to build your profile and describe your business. Click or tap ‘Next’ between each action. 
• You’ll then be asked if you want to run ads; select this if so and then click ‘Next’ if on a desktop and ‘Done’ if on a mobile device.
• On desktop, the last step is to select where you’d like to start. To go to your converted Pinterest business account, click the x icon.

Optimize Your Profile 

Optimizing your profile involves using relevant keywords in your profile name, description and board titles. This helps the Pinterest algorithm to understand your content better and improves the chances of your profile appearing in search results. There is likely a crossover between the keywords you use on your website or in ads to describe your brand or product that can be incorporated into your profile. Include these in the ‘about you’ section and add a high-resolution company logo.

Create Captivating Titles and Descriptions Utilizing Keywords

The classic tactic of adding keywords to your titles and descriptions might sound basic and like a no-brainer, but it should not be overlooked. This SEO for Pinterest strategy is vital for capturing the attention of your audience as they scroll and search through billions of Pins. Aim to create enticing titles that make your audience want to learn more, click on your Pins and ideally, go to your website. Avoid being generic, pushy or boring. Try to add titles that add value but are not clickbait. 

Claim Your Website 

By claiming your website, you gain access to analytics for the Pins you publish directly from your site, the Pins other people post from your site and it adds information to Pins. This added information allows users to find more details about your content. To get this intel, you’ll first need to add an HTML tag to the head section of your website’s source code for tracking. The tag allows Pinterest to confirm you own the website you want to claim. There are different instructions for how to do this based on your website service providers. Claiming your website and the next step, adding a Pinterest tag, can be a little tricky if you aren’t very technical. Implementing this strategy step would be a good time to lean on your dev support if the resource is available. 

Add a Pinterest Tag to Your Website 

Adding a Pinterest tag to your website is sort of like claiming your website, but with this piece of code, you’ll be able to track visitors to your website and what they do once they get there from a Pinterest ad. With this information, you can optimize conversions with access to conversion insights, accurately measure the performance of various campaigns and build audiences on Pinterest for targeting. Keep in mind that after adding this tag to your website, it can take up to 24 hours to show up in Ads Manager. 

Make Rich Pins 

Rich Pins provide additional information directly on the Pins pulled from your website, making them more appealing and informative to users. They are also convenient for keeping your content current as they periodically update to capture any changes made in the content on your website. By implementing Rich Pins, you can enhance your content's visual appeal and usefulness. There are three types of Rich Pins you can create. 

• Product Pins show the product availability, pricing and description from your site on the Pin. 
• Article Pins are used for sharing blog posts or article content from your website and will incorporate information such as headline, author and description of the post. 
• Recipe Pins provide a title and details from your website about the list of ingredients, the serving size, cooking time and more.

Use Pinterest to Find Keywords

The platform can be a valuable resource for finding keywords for your Pinterest strategy. By exploring the Ads section and utilizing the keyword targeting feature, you can discover relevant Pinterest keywords to optimize your Pins, ads and even names for boards on Pinterest. Additionally, the autofill feature in Pinterest's search function provides insights into popular and related searches, enabling you to tailor your content to meet your audience's interests. 

Dive Into Pinterest Trends 

Staying updated with the latest trends allows you to align your content strategy with popular topics on the platform. This helps increase your chances of being discovered by users actively searching for trending topics and ideas that fall into your niche. 

Using the Pinterest search ideas you’ve identified in the tip above, or even your most generic key terms, go to Pinterest Trends and see what people are most interested in. View demographic information, related trending Pinterest keywords, and even the most popular Pins based on your terms to help inspire what visual content to share on your boards. 

Add Trending Songs to Rich Pins

Adding trending songs to Rich Pins help make your Pins more engaging and memorable for users. Aside from helping set the tone and mood for your visual content, adding popular songs or sounds to Pins creates an instant connection between a user and your content, even if the Pin is something they’ve never seen. Specific industries can also take advantage of this feature like a fitness or wellness brand Pinning music videos or creating a playlist board. 

Use the Right Specs 

To ensure your Pins put their best foot forward, adhere to Pinterest's recommended image size specifications for photos, and when posting video. By following the correct image dimension, you can be confident that your content always looks its best. As a visual search engine, having properly formatted and appealing images will help increase clicks and boost engagement on your content. 

By implementing these Pinterest SEO tips, you can optimize your brand's presence on the platform, increase your discoverability, and effectively engage with your target audience.

Get Found on Pinterest With Dash Hudson

Dash Hudson's Pinterest Insights offer helpful analysis of your audience's engagement with your search optimized Pins. Uncover actionable strategies to boost revenue and maximize your ROI.

With Dash Hudson’s Content Segmentation tool, you can easily test out Board and Pin optimizations to see what’s resonating the most with your audience. The filter and data sorting capability can effectively measure the specific impact your Boards have. Also, filter insights by date range, categories, link clicks and more to fully understand which Pin types and content users engage with most.

FAQs

Do Pinterest links help SEO?

Pinterest links can help SEO by positively impacting backlinks, social signals, increased website traffic, and image search optimization. They contribute to website authority, visibility, and potential traffic from search engines. 

Does Pinterest help SEO? 

Yes, Pinterest can help SEO by generating backlinks and social signals that can positively impact website credibility and visibility.

Does Pinterest SEO pick up on words in images? 

No, Pinterest SEO does not pick up on words in images directly. Pinterest primarily relies on the text elements of an image, such as the Pin title, description, and alt text, to understand and categorize the content.