I feel like Pinterest is this little secret that nobody really knows about. When you think about growing your business and how to drive traffic to your site, Pinterest isn’t really the first thing that comes to mind.
When I first started using Pinterest, I honestly had no idea what a HUGE difference it would make.
Pinterest was a total gamechanger for my blog and now generates more than 40% of total traffic to my site.
So yes, Pinterest is essential to growing your blog and using keywords the right way is key to that strategy. Because Pinterest is a search engine (just like Google!) and targeting the right keywords on Pinterest ensures people will find your pins.
Without doing keyword research, you’re basically creating content blind.
Related: How to Set Up Rich Pins on Pinterest in 5 Minutes
In this comprehensive guide I’ll cover:
Content List
- What are keywords on Pinterest?
- Secret to finding keywords on Pinterest
- How to find niche specific keywords that people are searching for
- Pinterest’s auto-suggest to find broad keyword ideas
- Pinterest’s guided search function to find long-tail niche keywords
- Pinterest Ads: Keyword Planner
- 4 Key Areas to Optimize for Pinterest SEO
- Craft a catchy pin title to attract more traffic
- Add keyword-rich pin descriptions
- Pin Images
- Destination Link
- Pinterest Boards
What are keywords on Pinterest?
Keywords on Pinterest are words you use to let Pinterest know what your pins are about in order to rank them in Smart Feeds and search results. Adding niche specific keywords in your pin description and image helps Pinterest users find your content.
Secret to finding keywords on Pinterest
The secret to using keywords on Pinterest is to niche down and target a specific audience. Targeting the right keywords lets you reach people who are searching for a specific topic on Pinterest.
Pinterest has a very powerful search function – at the top of your Pinterest account, you will see this search bar:
This is how people find content and it’s key to them finding yours. So targeting the right keywords in your pin descriptions will help your pins appear in specific search results.
Instead of targeting a very broad keyword like ‘blogging’, you can niche down and target more niche topics such as:
- blogging for beginners
- blogging tips
- blogging for money
Narrowing your focus and optimizing around niche keywords will increase the likelihood of ranking highly on Pinterest’s Smart Feeds and search results.
Related: 10 Ways to Drive Massive Pinterest Traffic to Your Blog
How to find niche specific keywords that people are searching for
There are 2 ways to find niche specific keywords that your audience are looking for on Pinterest:
- Pinterest’s auto-suggest
- Pinterest’s guided search function
Pinterest’s auto-suggest to find broad keyword ideas
Pinterest’s auto-suggest helps you find broad keyword ideas based on your primary topic.
Your primary topic can be 1-2 words, describing your industry / niche. Don’t get too specific here, you want the initial keyword research phase to be as broad as possible.
Pinterest’s guided search function to find long-tail niche keywords
Next, use Pinterest’s guided search function to find more specific, long-tail keywords.
The guided search function is simply the ‘colored tiles’ under the search bar. You’ll have to hit enter on a keyword first and those colored tiles will appear.
Voila! You’ve got a TON of specific, long-tail keyword ideas to optimize your pins around.
Pinterest Ads: Keyword Planner
I recently started using Pinterest Ads and found this amazing feature in the campaign setup:
Pinterest Keyword Planner!
You need a Pinterest Business Account to use Pinterest Ads. At the top left, navigate to ‘Ads’ > ‘Create ad’.
Create a test campaign and click ‘continue’ to the ad group level.
Scroll all the way down until you see this ‘Keyword’ section.
Now, type in your primary keyword. Start off with a generic seed keyword, like “blogging” for example.
Pinterest’s keyword planner automatically suggests related keyword ideas with their monthly searches.
That is a goldmine of information! What we can do next is choose 10-15 keywords from that list with the highest search volume and use them in our pin titles and descriptions. Such as:
- blogging tips
- awesome blogging
- blogging info
- blogging life
- blogging inspiration
- better blogging
- blogging tips ideas
High volume keywords have at least 10k-100k in monthly searches. The benefit of choosing keywords with high search volume is high traffic potential. You’ll reach more people by optimizing your pins with high volume keywords.
And Pinterest tells us how much your estimated audience size would be if you promote your ads with those keywords:
Voila! That’s how you can drive more traffic to your pins by using Pinterest’s ad platform to find high volume keywords.
4 Key Areas to Optimize for Pinterest SEO
There are four key areas to optimize for Pinterest SEO in your pins:
- Pin title
- Pin description
- Image
- Destination link
Craft a catchy pin title to attract more traffic
Titles, titles, titles!
Your pin title should be the headline of your blog post or page. Add your primary keyword in the title and craft a catchy title.
Generally, adding numbers and power words in the title attracts more click throughs!
Add keyword-rich descriptions in your pins
Think about what keywords people would type to find your content. Pinterest is a search engine, so we have to use SEO.
Adding keyword-rich description to your pins will help rank your pins on Pinterest Smart Feeds and attract more traffic to your site.
- Summarize in 1-2 sentences what your linking page is about.
- Sprinkle 8-10 niche specific keywords in your pin description.
Most people neglect this part or they just add their title in the description. No no, friend. You’re missing out big time if that’s all you’re doing for Pinterest SEO.
Pin Images
Did you know Pinterest uses Smart Lens technology to read your image and find related images?
That’s how Pinterest finds related pins to show you based on the pin you clicked on. So when you’re creating your pin image, include your primary keyword.
This plays an important role in your pins getting found by the right people and might boost its virality too.
Destination Link
Pins are in fact links to the original source of your image, meaning your website. That’s how Pinterest provides traffic to your website. People view your pins and click through to the destination link.
At this stage, all we have to do is paste your blog post or page URL to drive traffic from Pinterest.
Finally, Pinterest Boards.
A Pinterest board is where you save your pins. Use keywords in the board title and board description. Easy peasy.
I recommend creating at least 4-5 boards to segment and house your pins.
- Board 1: Main board with all your pins (i.e, LeanneWong.Co)
- Board 2: Primary blog category pins (i.e, SEO)
- Board 3: Primary blog category pins (i.e, Pinterest Tips)
- Board 4: Primary blog category pins (i.e, Content Strategy)
Each board will be optimized towards a specific topic. For example, my board about SEO will contain all my SEO related pins.
This boosts the topical relevance of my board for SEO content and boost its ability to show up when people are searching for ‘SEO’ on Pinterest.
YAY! That’s my entire process for keyword strategy for Pinterest SEO. If you enjoyed this guide, feel free to share it around!
27 People reacted on this
Thank you so much for your great tips!
I would love to understand:
Should i use in the description with just keywords, and if yes, whats the best mount?
Example: ” blogging for beginners, blogging tips, blogging for money ”
Or i should write a description that contains all this keywords?
Thank you!
Pinterest definitely exploded my traffic on my site! Such a great tool to use for exposure.
*Samantha- http://www.herjournalblog.com
Cheers!
I’ve been using Pinterest forever and didn’t know you could edit pins and add keywords like that. Pinning this post to refer to later!
Yay!!
Great tips. I’ve recently been focusing on Pinterest and seeing the results pay off. It is a great tool for driving traffic. Thanks for the additional tips on SEOing images and destination URL’s. Cheers.
That’s great to hear, Rosemary! Happy for you 🙂
I love using PInterest! I could really up my game with my descriptions – thanks!
Thats awesome!!
This is so helpful to me! I’m trying to grow my Pinterest but i don’t think it’s working for now
Oh no! I’ve another article on Pinterest traffic growth here, hope it helps you dear: https://www.leannewong.co/tips-pinterest-traffic-blog/
This is such great information. It is always so important to keep focused on pinterest as it drives so much traffic. It is not always easy, and we have to keep focused. And of course, it is so much fun!
I absolutely love Pinterest! One of the best ways to drive traffic organically.
I try very hard to pick the right keywords. IT’s a lot of work but worth it!
For sure!
This was incredibly helpful! I’ve been trying to grow my Pinterest account so this will be useful to me.
Cheers!
It’s a great post, but I honestly feel like I am doing these things and still don’t get the traffic I was hoping for! I will try to add even more niche keywords into my pin description and boards, thank you for this article!
Oh no! I also have another guide here on how to drive traffic from Pinterest (with more info on using Tailwind and creating viral pin images), how this would help: https://www.leannewong.co/tips-pinterest-traffic-blog/
Pinterest has always been the enigma of social medias to me. I know there is value there but, unless you are selling a craft or design service, figuring out how to utilize it has baffled me. I think your research will help. Thanks
Pinterest can be used for ANY niche! Don’t miss out on this amazing platform 🙂
These are great tips! I definitely need to get better about using keywords on my pins and overall building a better strategy!
That’s awesome, Amy!
I feel pretty foolish, I have spent so much time working on SEO for my blog articles, and then just considered Pinterest an extension of the article. I can’t wait to try out your SEO suggestions for my next pin and see how it helps. Thanks for sharing!
Cheers!
These are such great tips! Pinterest really is a great traffic driver!
Thanks, Brittany!