How Is Pinterest Different Than Other Social Media Platforms?

Pinterest is a search engine more than a social media platform. Hopefully, you’ve heard that by now, but if you’re like me it’ll take you some time to internalize that and figure out how to use it to market your business better. Read below to see places where you should put keywords on Pinterest!

Like Google, Pinterest has its own SEO and algorithm hacks that can help place you as an expert and a trusted source for information in your niche. You basically just have to make it easy for Pinterest to understand what you are about (by adding keywords over and over again) and get engagement to show Pinterest that you are helping its users and giving them what they were looking for.

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Pinterest Search Bar Is Your BFF When It Comes To Making The Keywords You Place On Your Pinterest Page

It’s my favorite part about Pinterest, because people are seeking out what you’re sharing. For my wedding blog, they’re looking for reception decor ideas and I’m giving it to them. That helps the user, because they found answers. That helps Pinterest, because they satisfied their user. That helps me, because I look like the expert.
THAT’S A WIN WIN WIN, YA’LL.

Forget the days of waiting for people to scroll past your content and then having like 2% of them actually looking for straw crossbody bags or wedding planning quotes.

Your ROI is just significantly higher on Pinterest (mainly because your investment is usually just minimal amounts of time). So, spend the time upfront to optimize your Pins and profile and you’ll start rolling in the clicks and web traffic in no time!

Places To Put Keywords on Pinterest

1. Profile name:

Not to be harsh, but unless you’re a celebrity or like Chiara Ferragani, people have no clue who you are and will NOT be searching for your business or name.

Sure, you want to have your business name in your profile to brand it, but you also want to have a couple keywords that describe your business or yourself. Take my profile for example, if people are searching for an expert on Pinterest, I want them to find my profile. This way, they don’t have to know my business or brand at all. They can just happen upon my profile by typing in “Pinterest” in the people search bar.

2. Board names:

One thing that a lot of people do is get too cutesy on Pinterest. There’s literally no point to think up cute names, because people are not going to type in “One day” in hopes of coming across wedding photography. They’re going to type in “wedding photography.” Don’t lose the chance of getting those potential readers/clients, so just name your boards with a relevant keyword.

3. Board Descriptions:

Another frequently missed opportunity is using the board descriptions to stuff extra keywords in. Make sure they apply to what the board contains, but you’re just telling Pinterest over and over again, this is what I have to offer your users.

4. Blog Post Title/Product title:

Often people try to make social media work for their content instead of trying to optimize their content for social media. I get that we can’t fit every piece of content we write or product we sell into easily summed up, highly-searched keywords BUT I do think we should try to utilize Pinterest when we can. It’s telling us exactly what content people want to see (trending and evergreen), so why wouldn’t we try to please the masses if we could.

I often will have a rough blog post idea in mind or, if sponsored, a product that I need to showcase. I will take that rough idea and use the Pinterest search bar to see what people are looking for surrounding that topic. Do they want a 5 minute braided hairstyle? Do they want wedding budget tips? And how do they phrase these things when they’re typing it in? What keywords can I incorporate into my title that encompass the content and will likely be searched by thousands of potential new readers/clients?
For example, I would’ve never thought “summer wardrobe capsule” for the below post, but it encapsulated what I wanted to share AND I new it performed well on Pinterest. This gets me new eyes on my content. WIN WIN WIN.

P.S. The way Pinterest finds this blog post title is in the rich pins. It will be there alongside your pin and is searchable. Also, it will likely carry over in the below keyword hotspots.

5. Meta Description:

If I’m being completely honest, this is the one spot I usually forget to add keywords, but it’s totally a missed opportunity so be better than me!!

First of all you need the Yoast widget (or something similar, that’s just what I know). Second of all, you need to type in a new meta description (otherwise it auto-populates with the first sentence of your post) that includes your keyword. Yoast was meant for “real SEO,” but Pinterest rich pins will grab the meta description and add them to your rich pins as well. So you’re ranking higher in Pinterest AND Google by doing this. YAS.

6. Pin Graphic:

Since Pinterest is a visual search engine, it can obviously read images well. That means that creating graphics for your content that are the optimal size + have text overlay that include your keywords is essential. There is a whole slew of things you need to consider when it comes to graphics, but to start, just make sure the text contains your keywords. This is much easier when they’re in the blog title, but there are ways of adding it (without looking spammy) if you chose a more cutesy blog title.

7. Pin Caption:

I’m assuming this is the one we all know about, so I saved it for last. Your Pinterest caption should be direct and to the keyword point. Layer that puppy will potential things people will be searching for in regards to your content/product. This is where you get the most space and where it looks the least desperate/spammy, so I don’t like to lose that real estate.

What To Takeaway From This Blog Post:

• There are many places to put keywords on Pinterest to help optimize your profile and make your profile more searchable!
• Pinterest reads images so place keywords on your Pins & Idea Pins!
• Keep the keywords general but still niche-related!
• Board descriptions are your friend when to comes to adding those extra keywords that might not fit in your board name!
• Always, ALWAYS add the captions + pin descriptions!

If you’e confused about how keywords work, places to put keywords on Pinterest, or how can you can find keywords that perform well on Pinterest, I would love if you checked out my online course all about the in’s and out’s of the platform. Or if you’re not a DIY-er and want me to do the work for you, that’s cool too.Just head here.

Follow @pinterestforbloggers on Instagram for more Pinterest Tips & Tricks.

More Helpful Links:

• Here’s Why You Need To Start Using Tailwind ASAP
• 10 Most Popular Categories On Pinterest
• 3 Common Mistakes Bloggers Are Making With Their Pinterest Profiles
• Get your first month of Tailwind free here!