What You Can Use Secret Pinterest Boards For

If you’ve been on Pinterest for a while, you probably know what a secret board is. But if you’re newer to the platform, think of them as your own private corner of Pinterest: the place where you can plan, collect and create without anyone seeing what you’re up to.

And honestly? They’re underrated.

Secret boards can be both fun and functional. They’re perfect for personal inspiration, future projects, and, when used intentionally, they can play a key role in your Pinterest marketing strategy.

Let’s break down how to use secret Pinterest boards both personally and professionally.

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What Are Secret Pinterest Boards?

Secret boards are private boards that only you (and anyone you choose to invite) can see. They don’t appear on your public profile or in search results, which means you can pin freely without worrying about how it looks to others or whether it fits your brand.

They also don’t have any affect on your Pinterest SEO which means they don’t signal anything to the algorithm about your content or pins. This is true for those that have a personal or business account.

Fun Ways to Use Secret Pinterest Boards

I’ve used secret boards for just about everything over the years. And honestly, that’s part of what keeps Pinterest fun is that it’s not all business. If you want access to the fun, personal pinning without messing up the business side of things, secret boards are a great place to store all personal content.

Here are a few of my favorite ways to use them:

• Wedding planning: When I was planning our wedding, I pinned everything from dress inspiration to table decor to cake ideas, all in one place. I referenced that board constantly. I shared it with make up artists, pinned things I wanted to go back to, etc.
• Shopping list: Pinterest is a great place to save products you want to purchase (a wishlist of sorts). I love how visual it is and the ability to quickly hop off the platform or remove things when they’re no longer of interest.
• Future travel ideas: My travel bucket list is a secret board full of dream destinations and guides I want to come back to when it’s time to plan a real trip. You can also do actual
• Vision board: Similar to the above idea, vision boards are all about aspirational content and the vibes you want for the upcoming year… Pinterest is the perfect place to find these beautiful photos to capture what you’re hoping to achieve, where you’re hoping to go, how you’re hoping to feel, etc.
• Event planning: I’ve used secret boards to organize recipes, decor ideas, and activities for holidays like Thanksgiving and our annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party.
• Random obsessions: I may or may not have had a “Hotties” board circa 2008. (We’ll call that one a relic of the early Pinterest era.) But if you’re going through some sort of temporary hobby… someone else on Pinterest has too. Store your crochet patterns, Lego builds, Ikea wardrobe hacks, etc.

Why Business Owners Should Use Secret Boards Too

Secret boards aren’t just for wedding inspo or vacation dreams. They’re actually a really smart part of an effective Pinterest marketing strategy when you’re using Pinterest professionally. I’ll share more on that below, but here are some fun, creative, biz ideas for secret boards.

1. Create content inspiration boards. Save ideas from other brands in your niche. You can have secret boards for all kind of content you want to use as a jumping off point:
   • Blog posts (whether it’s similar content you want to create, a title phrasing you found compelling, etc.)
   • Photo ideas (for brand photoshoots, location scouting, etc.)
   • Pin inspo (pin designs that perform well in your niche or that you want to create your own template-version of)
2. Plan future launches. Have a new product, service or blog series coming up? Start a secret board for it. Collect Pin ideas, brand inspiration, photoshoot examples and anything else you want to round out this launch.
3. Test new ideas privately. Not sure if a topic or aesthetic fits your brand yet? Use a secret board to experiment before adding it to your public presence.
4. Collaborate with your team. If you work with a designer, photographer or any social media professional, secret boards make it easy to share inspiration and direction before content goes public.
5. Plan a rebrand: Pinterest is a goldmine of branding inspo from logos to colors to fonts to aesthetic imagery that portrays your new brand, collect it all in one board. Send to your designer or reference as you DIY your own brand.

How to Use Secret Boards During Profile Setup

When I optimize a Pinterest account for a client, I always include secret boards as part of the setup process. They’re a necessary “behind-the-scenes” step that helps your public profile look clean, stay organized and be strategic from day one.

Here’s how to use them during setup:

1. Create all new boards as secret first. You don’t want to make it public until it’s fully optimized for best chances at teaching the Pinterest algorithm what this board is about and what searches it will fall under.
2. Research SEO-friendly board titles: There is SO much that goes into this from Interests to keywords to search volumes… but basically: you want the board titles to be simple and to-the-point. Nothing cutesy. Always searchable and a mix of broad and niche boards that describe the content you create.
3. Fill each board with 10–15 high-quality pins. These can be from your own website or from other creators in your niche. Pinterest likes to see that boards are active and relevant. When you use other people’s content that Pinterest has already successfully indexed and ranked… that helps it get clear on what to expect from your pins that will go out. After this… I rarely see a need to pull in other people’s content, but it is useful in the optimization stage.
4. Write SEO-friendly board descriptions. Use keywords naturally in 2-3 sentence board descriptions to help Pinterest understand what each board is about.
5. Publish when ready. Once your boards feel complete and optimized, you can make them public all at once. This creates a polished, professional-looking profile from the start.
6. Make secret irrelevant boards. So much of what I do in a Pinterest profile optimization is making boards secret. Here are some reasons you want to do that:
   • You no longer create content about that topic. Maybe your niche changed or you’ve since rebranded.
   • That topic is a personal one. See above examples of boards that never need to see the light of day.
   • That board is too broad/a mismatch of pins that don’t work together under one umbrella keyword. They either need to be separated or just start from scratch if it’s mostly other people’s content.

This approach is exactly what I teach inside my Bare Pinimum Profile Setup eBook, because your Pinterest foundation sets the tone for everything else you do on the platform.

The Bottom Line

Secret Pinterest boards are where strategy and creativity meet. They’re your space to plan, organize, and dream, without worrying about how it looks on your public profile or more importantly having it confuse the Pinterest algorithm.

Use them for your personal life, yes, but also there are fun options for business use. Whether you’re collecting content ideas, prepping a launch or building your profile from scratch, secret boards help you stay intentional and organized behind the scenes.

Want Help Setting Up a Strategic Pinterest Profile?

If your Pinterest account feels like a random mix of boards and ideas, my Bare Pinimum Profile Setup eBook will walk you through exactly how to optimize it the right way.

You’ll learn how to:

• Create keyword-rich boards that attract your ideal audience
• Use secret boards strategically during setup
• Design a profile that looks polished and performs beautifully

And if you’d rather we just did it for you… of course, we’re here for that too!