Are you on a content binge, trying to learn to Pinterest for total beginners? If that’s you, then this post is for you. I will take you through the steps you need to take as a total beginner to get started and set yourself up for success. Let’s dive right in.

I recently gutted two profiles and rebuilt them from the ground up. This brought me back down to earth when it came to creating the foundations of an excellent Pinterest profile. I will walk you through some of what I did for those two profiles in this post and the next in this two part series.

Both of those accounts existed on Pinterest. They just didn’t utilize the platform to its full extent. So, even though I had to gut the profiles, that doesn’t mean they are not total beginners like you if you are starting your profile. Some of the things that I will be telling you about today are what I did to those profiles. 

PART 1 Pinterest for Total Beginners

As a total beginner, chances are you have started consuming content from different creators, and you may be feeling confused. You may wonder:

• Do I need to create hundreds of pins?
• What about group boards?
• What are keywords, and where do I use them?

Let us clear up that confusion and start at the very beginning with keywords.

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How to find keywords on Pinterest for Total Beginners?

I don’t want you to worry about creating boards or pins on Pinterest right now. Start thinking about how your audience will find your product or your service. What will they search for to find you?

I take people through this exercise when I try to get them to brainstorm the keywords their audience is searching for. 

Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. At the bottom, draw a third section. 

In section one on the left, I write down everything you do in your business. The four things I do in my business are:

1. Pinterest marketing
2. Pinterest automation
3. Graphic design
4. Ads

Out of these four things, if there is content you create, freebies, or something you sell, write them down on the right side of the page. 

In that bottom section, write down the questions people ask about your products, services, or content. What are the most common questions that you get?

Take all you have written down on the page to Pinterest and start searching in the search bar.  If I were starting my Pinterest profile for my agency, I would search for things like:

• How to create Pinterest pins?
• How to use Tailwind? 

These may be elementary beginner topics, but they are things that my audience is searching for. Next, I will pay attention to the search results.

I will look at the search results and see what comes up.  Next I’ll check out the autofill in the search bar to see what comes up.  I also may toggle on the search bar on the left that says all pins, boards, and shop. 

That drop-down menu is just to the right of the search bar. I will even toggle over to boards to see if other people are creating boards on this topic. 

RELATED:  6 Places to Use Keywords to Optimize Your Pinterest Profile

How to create boards on Pinterest?

Think about the pillars you create for the content and the product in your business. Think about those pillars when you are brainstorming those questions. 

• What’s needed in my business regarding my products and services?
• What do I create in my business for things I am giving away for free or selling?
• What are the most common questions that people ask me? 

Once you have done this work, you should begin to see some pillars define themselves. That is where we are going to start with creating your boards. 

So for me, my four major pillars are:  

1. Pinterest marketing
2. Pinterest ads
3. Graphic design 
4. Automation 

Think of an umbrella. Things can spider web out underneath the umbrella. Each of those topics will then have other big topics. 

For example, with automation we will have Tailwind, native pinning, Planoly, and Later, and underneath each of those heavy hitters can be additional topics. 

You can see how you could create a ton of boards but don’t do that right now. I want you to think of your overall pillars and try to start with about ten boards. Once you get the ball rolling, you will begin to come up with other ideas for boards that you can create. So the very initial keyword research is to create your boards. 

Each of those boards is going to need a description. Each pin description on Pinterest is up to 500 characters, except idea pins. But we are not talking about those today. 

Think about the board title. So if the topic of the board were ‘How to use Tailwind,’ then I would think of five different keywords that people are searching for to find that board. These may include:

1. How to use Tailwind
2. Tailwind communities or tribes
3. Pinterest marketing for beginners
4. Pinterest strategy for beginners
5. How to get more blog traffic

When using your keywords, you don’t just have to think about the on-topic keywords; you can also think about parallel ones. Parallel keywords are highly relevant, but they run parallel to the main topic. 

For example, ‘How to get blog traffic’ runs parallel to Pinterest Marketing strategy. If you are looking for keywords about umbrellas, you may also be looking for keywords about rain gear or how to stay dry in a monsoon. 

RELATED:  How to Use Keywords to Optimize Your Pins on Pinterest

Optimize your profile bio and display name

Once we have our boards solidified, we will move on to other relevant areas on your profile, the number one being your display name. If you look at my Pinterest profile, you will notice that it says ‘Promoted Pins, Marketing Agency, and Educator.’ I do that very strategically. 

It includes the main keyword that I want to rank for:  Promoted pins marketing and promoted pins. But if someone were to search even longer than that, I would also come up. So I have a long tail keyword that I aim to rank for in my display name alongside my name.

I use ‘Heather | Promoted Pins Marketing Agency & Educator’ as my display name. You could use ‘Umbrella salesman how to stay dry in the rain’ as your display name. 

The display name for one of my clients is ‘[Client name] | Simple Beauty Tips for Busy Moms.’  This is a super long-tail keyword, and each of those is a keyword by itself. So optimize your display name.

Right after that, you must optimize your bio. You have a lot more space to do your bio now than you used to. You can actually only see 138 characters of it, so these 138 characters should be power-packed with keywords you want to rank for. 

In your bio, I want you to tell us:

• Who are you?
• Who do you serve?
• How do you help them?

While these things are not mandatory when you’re just starting, you might as well go ahead and do them now, so you don’t need to go back and do them later. These few things help visually brand your profile so your ideal customer can quickly identify themselves in your content. If you want to go beyond that 138, you are welcome to do so. 

Now, the next thing is going to be claiming your domain. You want to make sure that the domain is claimed, but that is not a necessity in this Pinterest for beginners tutorial. Check out this link below for a tutorial on claiming your domain if needed.
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Ready for more Pinterest for Total Beginners?

Once you’ve completed all of that, you’re ready for the next steps. So CLICK HERE and head on over to PART 2 in this series and let’s go!

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