What is Pinterest SEO?

It’s no surprise that the majority of bloggers are claiming that a large percentage of their blog traffic comes from Pinterest.

I’m honestly not sure if that’s a great thing but if you can keep pushing traffic from Pinterest while driving up ad revenue, growing your email list and selling your products… I say go for it.

We as bloggers all start somewhere and while you grow your Pinterest traffic you can start to build a loyal audience who keeps coming back.

So how do you grow your Pinterest traffic? Well my first answer is Pinterest SEO and that is what we are talking about this week.

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Pinterest SEO

90% of Pinterest users are searching with unbranded terms on the platform.

What does that mean for you? In the sea of big brands now using Pinterest to drive traffic to their products and build brand awareness, you now have skin in the game. You have just as much opportunity to show up as these big brands.

The majority of Pinterest traffic is happening on mobile and there are millions of searches happening this month.

If you are at all confused on Pinterest best practices then head over and read the Pinterest Marketing Guide for 2021.

How Google SEO & Pinterest SEO Differ

Google SEO just like Pinterest SEO takes a long time to build. There is time investment and even investment in tools when you are building Google SEO, however with Pinterest thats not the case.

With Google SEO you have to build backlinks and your domain score is all taken into consideration when building your organic traffic.

If you have the time to do this… if you have money to invest in courses and tools then yes you should be building your Google SEO.

Ninja Tip: Use your Google keywords you find and put those into the search bar on Pinterest to see if it’s something people on Pinterest are also interesrted in. If you validate that in the search bar on Pinterest then definitely use it in your keyword strategy!

Building Your Pinterest SEO

Does Pinterest help SEO? Yes, yes it does. And we are going to cover that now.

I am going to give you some advice that I have seen work time and time again that I haven’t seen elsewhere.

I have been testing this with all of my clients and have seen nothing but great results.

But before we get into that let’s cover your key components of Pinterest SEO.

Key Components:

• Images
• Descriptions
• Titles

Now you knew these were your key components I’m sure but hey I have to mention it for the newbies in the back.

How does Pinterest search engine work?

Pinterest users are finding your pins through search, related pins and in their home feed.

Search results not only give you pins but also board suggestions.

The algorithm is showing you well optimized pins and boards which means for you to show up you need to do the same.

How does Pinterest rank pins?

Pinterest ranks your pins based on domain quality, relevance to search and pin quality. The algorithm also takes into consideration the board SEO you define for your profile too. So ensuring you’re optimizing your board titles & descriptions will help your pins rank better.

To learn more about relevancy go on over and read What is Pinterest Relevancy & How the Pinterest Algorithm Works

Pinterest will serve your pins based on their relevancy to the topic the user is searching for. Once they click your pin the algorithm is now serving your pin based on engagement. The more people interact with your pin the better it will do in the algorithm.

Be sure you are claiming your domain, pinning consistently and giving the platform high quality content.

If you can do that then you will have a great chance of ranking at the top and having your pins shown in the smart feed on user profiles.

But don’t stop there. Be sure to be checking your related pins and ensure that the pins being categorized below your pin in the related section are actually related. If they aren’t then you need to work on your SEO and possibly use a different image.

 

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How do I optimize my pins on Pinterest?

You start by searching for your keywords that you will use in your pin.

Research keywords that are relevant and on topic and keywords that I call parallel. They are related but not exactly on topic.

Once you have your keywords determine your main keyword that you will use on your text overlay.

Choose a high quality image and start designing your pin using your keyword in your text overlay.

Then you are going to write your description.

Once you have your pin ready to go you are going to pin it to the most relevant board first.

How do you write a description on Pinterest?

This is possibly my strong point when it comes to optimizing pins on Pinterest.

I wrote an entire post on Pinterest descriptions if you want to read that.

How to Write Your Pinterest Descriptions to Get More Clicks & Rank Higher

You are going to write like a superfan and use those other keywords that you found during your research.

You are going to use those keywords that you are wanting to rank for in the majority of the pins you create on that topic.

Use those keywords time and time again. I find with clients that I rank better for keywords when I literally carpetbag a search term.

The more pins I can get to show up in a search term the more likely people are to click on them and this has help me to rank my pins and client pins over and over.

Now please don’t do this with pins that aren’t at all relevant to a search term.

If you are trying to rank an organizing pin in “decluttering like a professional” don’t try to rank your pin about cooking a vegan dinner. Those are not related and it won’t work.

However, if you are trying to rank a pin on decluttering and you have a pin about cleaning tips then that is close enough that you could use that keyword. Cleaning and decluttering go hand in hand in my opinion.

This has also worked for pins that I ranked #1 when I was writing my mom blog.

I was writing on being an angry mom so I would use keywords like positive parenting tips and it worked.

Make sure you are using those keywords you want to rank for when you are creating new pins for old posts as well.

What tools can I use to find keywords on Pinterest?

Well I would normally say none but I am here to tell you that Pinterest Trends and the Pinterest Ads Manager are both great tools to find keywords on Pinterest.

Pinterest trends is only available to the US, UK & Canada users at this time.

You can use Pinterest Trends as well as your native Pinterest search bar to find the keywords to use and that ads manager keyword tool.

Pinterest SEO Ninja Tricks

I also have a couple secret ninja tips for you…

When you search for a term on Pinterest scroll through that search a little until you see the suggested keywords or boards. Those are keywords Pinterest is saying are related to the current term you are searching.

Use them! I love when Pinterest tells me what to use.

Lastly, if you are running ads on Pinterest then repurpose the data you are getting in your campaigns in your organic traffic.

If you’re needing help defining who your ideal customer on Pinterest is I’d love to welcome you into Pin Profit Academy where we host monthly trainings in a private community.

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