Although Pinterest has some social features, it’s really more of a visual search engine. And when it comes to search engines, you need people to be able to find your content and pins in the first place with SEO (search engine optimization, or in this case we’ll mainly talk about keywords). Here’s what you need to know about Pinterest SEO strategy and keywords.
Pinterest SEO Strategy and Keywords
One way to get people to see your content in the first place on Pinterest is with a strong keyword strategy. Where can you put keywords? Well, everywhere! A keyword is something that a person can search on Pinterest OR they might see your pin as a related or suggested pin because based on the keywords, Pinterest believes it’s similar to someone else’s pin.
You have to think about Pinterest as a search engine so you can make it as easy as possible for people to find your content. Although Pinterest has technology that tries to “see” what the visual content of your pin is and show related content, you’ll get a much better reach if you write descriptions and titles for things that are as obvious as possible.
For example, if you have a pin about Boston cream pie and your whole account is about recipes and baking, then Pinterest can try to look at your pin to see what it’s about using the “Pinterest Lens,” but the technology isn’t 100% there yet. Plus, sometimes we use stock photos of unrelated items for blog posts that don’t have a super obvious visual (like using photos of desks and laptops for a post about marketing).
So in order to optimize your account for these dessert, food, baking, and recipe kind of keywords, where should you be writing about that stuff?
Where to Put Keywords on Pinterest
1. In the pin description- Write descriptions that are both enticing for the reader AND easy for a robot search engine to understand. You might say “This Boston cream pie was such a hit at our family gathering last night! Click through the learn how we made Grandma’s secret Boston cream recipe for a quick and easy dessert idea.”
2. ON the pin image itself and in the image’s actual name (instead of IMG435.jpg, you can actually add more keywords by naming your pin boston-cream-pie-recipe.jpg). You can also create pin images that have a text overlay on the photo. For example, a photo of your delicious pie that also has the text “Easy Boston Cream Pie Recipe.”
3. In your profile description- as we mentioned in an earlier lesson, make sure you get some good general keywords (in this case, “easy recipes,” “desserts,” and “baking”) in your actual profile description and your business name.
4. In board titles- Rather than having cute board names like “Yummy!” and “Things I Want to Make” it’s better for your Pinterest reach to have very clear and searchable titles like “Easy Dessert Recipes” and “Gluten-Free Cake Recipes.”
5. In board descriptions- Similar to individual pins, you can write keyword-rich descriptions for each of your personal boards. When similar content is grouped on a board like this, you’ll have a bunch of the keywords in the same place and make it more likely someone can find your content via search.