There may be affiliate links or adverts within this post. This means that by purchasing a product through this link, I will earn a very small commission. This is of no extra cost to you, and you are under no obligation to buy. All opinions about any products are my own and I only recommend products I am passionate about. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. For more information please visit our 'Disclaimer' page.
Pinterest, it can give the most experienced bloggers a headache. Why? because SEO for Pinterest can be hard to grasp. Pinterest also has changed slightly over the past couple of year which has left seasoned bloggers with a solid Pinterest marketing strategy having to rethink everything.
But what if you’re just starting out, or you’ve been trying to figure out Pinterest for a while and it just doesn’t seem to be working for you and your hearing crickets each time you look at your blog stats?
Chances are you aren’t properly utilizing the SEO opportunities on Pinterest for your pins to give them the best reach to the biggest amount of readers.
How do you do this? well, lucky for you my friend I have laid out everything you need to know for SEO for Pinterest, and more specifically, your pins. It is possible to get viral pins as a newbie and as a blogger who has low traffic because I have had a couple myself.
Take note of the points below on how to SEO your pins for amazing traffic. Once you’ve got the hang of it, it is will become second nature and super easy. Like they say “It’s easy when you know how” and I’m giving you access to a lot of information that some bloggers charge money for.
What is Pinterest?
How often do we see Pinterest chucked into the social media group? I see it on Pinterest all the time! Well, folks, it’s not social media. Do we treat it the same as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram? No.
Pinterest is actually very similar to Google. Why? Because its a search engine with a twist. The twist is that Pinterest is that it’s a visual search engine. Everyone on Pinterest is competing for your clicks with the best images, with topics that answer the questions they want answering.
What are people using Pinterest for?
As business/ blog owners we use Pinterest for promoting our content, our email lists and products that we sell. Regular users are using Pinterest to find people like us. People with real-life experience of the problems that they want solving.
For example, for me, the breastfeeding topic has been a huge success. I have written a post on breastfeeding tips for new mums as well as breastfeeding essentials. This answers the questions of ‘What are the essentials I need for breastfeeding?‘ and also ‘How can I make my breastfeeding journey easier and successful?‘
To succeed on Pinterest you need to make sure that you are providing the answers to the problems that your audience have.
Related: 10 Do’s and Don’t of Pinterest that EVERY blogger should know.
What is SEO for Pinterest?
SEO for Pinterest is actually quite simple. It’s similar to making sure a blog post is SEO’d. You have your keyword and you make sure you use that keyword so that Google knows what your post is about.
Pinterest uses keywords for the very same reason. They need to know what your Pin is advertising, and they do this by using keywords and hashtags. In my opinion SEO for Pinterest was made a little easier with the introduction of hashtags last year because it works in the same way as Instagram. Users can search for a hashtag, and all the posts using that hashtag will show up.
Must-haves for your Pins for maximum SEO for Pinterest!
So, you’re ready to start making your pins for your amazing content but aren’t sure where to start to make sure that they make the most impact and highlight how great your content is. Lucky for you I’ve got 6 tips for killer pins!
Optimal Size
As you probably know, Pinterest has a tiled layout. This favours vertical images. There are optimal sizes in which you create your pins to make sure you get all the deserved real estate on that feed that you deserve. Too small and your basically giving away traffic to others, too big and you risk Pinterest cutting your image off which again, gives away traffic to other businesses and bloggers.
Engaging Text
This is the stop dead in your tracks headline that each and every pin NEEDS to have.
10 Breastfeeding Tips
Or
10 Showstopping Breastfeeding Tips
Which one would you rather click on? Create a headline that grabs the attention of your audience and makes them think you are the best source of information.
Aesthetically Pleasing + Relevant Image
Choose an image with either white space or lots of space with a lighter colour. You can always choose to have an overlay box to contain your text, which is what I do. If you’re talking about the best beauty products, find some pretty pictures of make-up (or take your own). If you’re talking about newborns, find some cute baby pictures. The picture has to reflect the copy. Imagine if you used this picture.
It’s a beautiful picture unless you’re talking about the 10 best ways to get your baby to eat their vegetables. It’s completely unrelated and misleading.
Branding
There are 4 very important elements of a great pin that you need to make an impact on Pinterest. This is the most important part of SEO for Pinterest because you could have a great description and a killer blog post. If your image isn’t up to standard and click-worthy, how is anyone ever going to know?
Colours
Choose colours that are on-brand. Use the same colours for your text and overlays as you have on your site, and keep them consistent.
Text
Use the same font on every pin. This helps towards people starting to recognise that it is your pin without even having to click on it. Choose 2 different fonts, one for the bulk of your text and the other to put emphasis on certain words that you want to catch the attention of your audience.
Layout
The layout is also important. Personally, I create 3 different pins for each blog post that I write. I have 3 different but very similar layouts. I use overlays on all 3, except each overlay is in a different place. You can see them at the end of the post.
Web Address
Finally, adding in your watermark to your pin, because believe it or not, people actually do steal pins. Have your blogs web address at the bottom of your pin to show who it is meant to belong to. It also gives your audience a clue to whose site they are going to be sent to when they click through.
Optimised + Relevant Description
Your description of your pin is what makes your pin show up in search terms. So obviously you need to make sure that you’re using relevant keywords within your description.
Hashtags
Hashtags are the final piece of SEO for Pinterest. They are your last line of offence. Use very relevant and niched down hashtags to make sure that you will appear within those search terms. They work just the same as Instagram, so it’s really simple.
Related: Graphic Design is Easy with this Amazing Tool!
How do I make sure my description is SEO for Pinterest?
So, now you have a show-stopping pin. Now for the description. This is the part that gets your pin seen when people search for answers on Pinterest. It also makes sure it turns up in all the relevant searches that you have created your content for.
In your description, you need to make sure it is jam-packed with relevant keywords. You are already going to know some keywords for your content since you have already SEO’d your blog post. So make sure to include that as well.
The best way to find relevant keywords for your post is to type some search terms into Pinterest. You will find keywords appear underneath as you can see below.
As well as looking at what else appears in the drop-down when you are typing a search term. This means that other people are searching for very similar things and it could be a good indicator of extra keywords.
A great tip is to look at other peoples pin descriptions when you have searched for something. Maybe they have a keyword in there that you didn’t think of?
SEO for Pinterest Using Your Audience Insights.
Next stop, your analytics. You will only have access to these if you have converted your Pinterest profile into a business profile. If you haven’t done this, go and do it now.
You want to be looking at your audience insights. It should look very similar to this.
Being a mum blogger, it is only natural that 60% of my audience is interested in parenting topics. The screen you really want to look at though is the one on the right. This tells you, which aspect of the parenting category that your audience is most interested in.
When trying to promote a post, make sure that it is written for your audience, this means checking these insights to make sure that your audience is going to actually read your content. The right-hand screen also helps to provide a few hashtags ideas for you as well, as these are also am an important part of SEO for Pinterest as I mentioned previously.
I’ve got killer looking pins, now what?
Now comes the best part, the part where you get to release these pins into the big wide world of the internet and watch them take off!
First of all, you need to place them in your blog post. I choose to have mine at the end, but you can experiment with different placements. Then you need to enter in your keyword-rich description into the ALT section of your pins.
So, next is different if your hitting post now or schedule.
If you are scheduling your post ahead of time (go you for being organised!). Either, make a note in your diary of when you need to start pinning your pins or you can use my favourite lifesaving tool!
Tailwind!
You can literally schedule your pins in minutes and then you don’t have to worry about forgetting to pin them the day your post goes live. I love it, it saves me so much time. It’s like you can set it and forget it, exactly what I need as a busy mum of two!
If you aren’t using Tailwind (try it for free here) then you can manually pin your pins, and honestly, some people much prefer to do this because they feel it gives them more control over their Pinterest account, which is totally cool I just don’t have time on my side most days.
Related: Tailwind is Made for Mum Bloggers.
Always make sure that you pin to the most relevant board first. Example: this post, will get posted to my blogging board before ANYTHING else. This is so that Pinterest understands that this is a post about blogging and not something else.
Finally, don’t forget to utilise the Tribes feature on Tailwind. You don’t have to be a Tailwind user to use tribes either, which I think is awesome! Tribes are effectively like an extra 5 group boards. It’s a great way to get your content out there to a new audience within your niche so that your reach can grow.
So there we have it! With this formula, you can achieve the perfect SEO for Pinterest. You will have higher chances of getting a viral pin, which is what every blogger dreams of as you see floods of traffic to your blog. Make sure that you follow this for each and every pin and you won’t be disappointed.
Still, need some guidance for Pinterest? Elna from Twinsmommy.com has a great course, which I have taken. It helped increase my traffic and gave me more insight into how each element of Pinterest works. Its called ‘Ready Set Blog for Traffic‘. What initially drew me to this was the price, it was super affordable unlike so many of the other courses out there. So head on over and take a look.
Got a question? Ask me below!