You want to know how to start a Pinterest account from scratch, because you’re a total beginner? In today’s post, I’m going to walk you through exactly how to do that. 

From putting your email address in to create an account, all the way over to making the profile ready for public view. Plus we’ll cover every little thing in between, including the settings that you need in order for your profile to be fully optimized. 

I’ve been doing Pinterest marketing and education for roughly nine years, now an approved Pinterest educator, and I’m excited to have you here today!  

Finding Pinterest keywords for your profile

I’m going to show you the exact steps for how to start a Pinterest account. But before we even do that, I want to walk you through the four ways to find keywords on Pinterest. This will ensure your profile is optimized from the very beginning so you don’t have to go back and redo things. 

These blog posts will walk you through how to do keyword research for your profile. Review those if needed beforehand and then come back here. 

• A Step-by-Step Guide to Pinterest SEO Strategies to Boost Traffic
• 6 Places to Use Keywords to Optimize Your Pinterest Profile

The main ways to find keywords on Pinterest are the native search bar, the Pinterest trends tool, and the ads tool. And then a couple of supplementary options are Pinterest Predicts in the global content calendar. 

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How to start a Pinterest account from the start

Now let’s jump into the tasks for getting started with how to start a Pinterest account. First step is you’re going to create your account and I’m going to show you how to do that now. 

To get started with a Pinterest account, a Pinterest business account specifically: 

1. Go to Pinterest.com. 
2. Click the ‘Sign up’ button in the top right hand corner. 
3. Then make sure, down at the bottom, you choose ‘Create a business account’ 
4. Input your information you want to use, then click ‘Continue’. 
5. You can select what topics you’d like in your feed that align with your business. 
6. For your goals, select: increase online sales, generate leads, and drive traffic to our site.
7. If it asks about running ads, opt for not running ads right now. 
8. Then finish by clicking ‘Share ideas’, and it will to take you to creating a pin.

You can play around with making a pin, but I’ll come back to that later and walk you through it thoroughly. But now we need to set up all of your profile settings correctly. 

Setting up your profile correctly

Now that you have your account set up, we’re going to finish setting up your settings. From your Pinterest profile, click ‘Edit profile’ and you’ll see the entire Settings menu on the left with everything you can do.

Display name

The first thing that you need to do is actually set up your display name. Now your display name does not just have to be your name. It can be your name and your main keyword that people will find you by. Because when people search those keywords, your profile will more likely show up in the search bar. 

For example, I have ‘promoted pins’ in my display name so I show up in the search bar for that term. 

Profile bio

Same with your bio. You want to use keywords in your actual bio. Use keywords that tells people what you do, how you help them and in what way you help them.

I’ve highlighted the keywords that I have in my bio while also incorporating them into sentences describing how I help my audience. 

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Miscellaneous profile items

Upload a profile photo, it can be your logo or a picture of yourself, whatever is the face of your brand or business. As long as it’s clean, clear, and easily identifiable. 

Add your website and email address for followers to be able to contact you. Remember that everything in these profile settings are visible to the public, so have an appropriate email address. 

Once you’re done, hit the ‘Save’ button. Be sure to check what your profile looks like, and you can always click the ‘Edit profile’ button anytime to adjust what you see. 

Claiming your websites and socials

Next we are going to move on to the claiming and the shopping settings. There’s a lot more information you may need to know with each type of site you’re claiming is yours, so find your applicable one from this list for the specifics. Do those that apply to you and come back here.

• How to Claim Your Instagram, Etsy Store, YouTube Channel & WordPress Website on Pinterest (YouTube video)
• How to Claim Your SquareSpace Website on Pinterest (2025)
• How to Claim Your Shopify Website on Pinterest

Next, go into ‘Social permissions’. There are a few settings here that you may choose to turn on or off based on what you want.

There are two settings here I recommend you keep specific though, to support maximized marketing growth. 

• Allow downloads and sharing:  keep this OFF because we don’t want anyone downloading and using your original content.
• Autoplay videos:  keep this ON so that your video pins stand out in the feed by auto playing when seen.

Uploading your Pinterest profile banner

The assets you create for our profile are board covers, a profile banner, and Pinterest pins. Right on your profile, click the edit button to add your banner. Make sure you check these things:

• Use the maximum image size of 800px by 450px.
• When you download it, make sure it’s a PNG before uploading it to Pinterest.
• Look at your banner on both desktop and mobile to make sure it fits both. 

Here is my banner from my profile. Bonus tip: use your banner for more guidance on how you can help your audience, so include your website or a call to action that helps them. 

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Start a Pinterest account with great boards

Next we’re going to circle back around to creating your Pinterest boards. Now, if you need a strategy around creating Pinterest boards, visit these two posts here and get that pre-work done.

• The Ultimate Guide to Create Your Pinterest Board Strategy
• How to Create a Pinterest Board Strategy for Your Shop (Etsy & Shopify) 

Let’s create a board together. You already have your keyword search terms in mind as the board title, have that ready.

1. From your profile, click the + button, and select ‘Board’.
2. Type in the desired name of your board from your keywords.
3. Select collaborators if you want other profiles to also contribute to it.
4. Once you’re in the board, click the three dots, then ‘Edit board’.
5. Paste in your board description you’ve already created, and click ‘Done’.

Uploading your Pinterest board covers

To create a board cover, you are going to want to go to Canva and you’re going to want to create a design that is 1000 x 1000 pixels. Download it at the maximum size quality. 

If you’ve already gone through the board strategy posts I listed above, you’ll know that I prefer board covers that are simple and easy to read, not full fledged pin designs. Here are examples of what my board covers look like. 

In order to get a board cover, you have to upload them as pins first. So from inside your board, click the + sign and then ‘Create Pin’. This is where you can drag and drop your board cover design. You can even upload all of your current drafts at once to work on simultaneously. 

• Use the same board title as the title of your board cover pin.
• Use the same board description as you did for your board cover pin description.
• Link to your website. 
• Make sure the board you pin it to is the same board you created it for, in the drop down on the upper right. 

If you get a popup about the recommended pin size, don’t worry about it and stick with the square design you’ve already made. Select ‘Publish immediately’, and then click ‘Publish’.

Now that you have your board cover created and added, you now need to apply those board covers. Go back into editing your board, then you can select which pin to apply as the cover. Pick the one you just uploaded, and you’ll see it applied.

Remember to finally make your boards public in case you kept them private while creating them. Trust me, I’ve made this mistake many, many times and you think I would learn my lesson, pinning to boards that no one can see. Don’t make the same mistake!

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Publishing Pinterest pins to your boards

Now what we need to do is actually create our first set of pins to publish on your board. Follow the same exact process for your pins as you did when uploading your board covers. 

What I like to do is create at least one pin per board when I’ve created new boards. That way I have a minimum content on there and it’s not just sitting empty with just a board cover. But remember your board covers are Pinterest pins and they do link to your website. So there is something there for people to visit. 

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Advanced Pinterest board practices

This brings us to the next step, which is more advanced, where we’re going to cover board sections and board header images. As of this post, these are fairly new and not necessary, but can create more optimized real estate on your profile and with your pin content.

How to create a board header image on Pinterest

This is similar to your profile banner, except it’s only for when someone opens up your individual board. Board header images are absolutely a bonus for you, it is not necessary to do. It will not make any difference towards your strategy. This is just something that you can do if you want to, but you don’t have to, it certainly looks a bit nicer and I use them.

Your board header image is roughly 600px by 350px. Now I don’t have any Pinterest exact sizing because I wasn’t able to find this in their help documentation. But I’ve tested this out and I believe it’s about 600px by 350px. 

Just like everything else, upload the image for your board header to Pinterest as a full Pinterest pin. Then to make this next setting work, you have to use your mobile device. This option isn’t editable on desktop yet. 

1. From your board, click the three dots in the top right hand corner, select ‘Edit board’.
2. Click the header image section and select your banner pin to apply it to your board.
3. Click ‘Done’ and refresh on both your mobile device and desktop to make sure it looks good. 

How to create Pinterest board sections

The last thing I want to talk to you about that is also a little bit more advanced is your

board section. So let’s say you have a lot of content within one theme. For example, you have a board called Best Vegetables For Raised Beds. Then within that category, you have a bunch of different vegetable blog posts that apply to raised beds. Rather than having all the vegetables random on your board, you can section them out. You want to organize them a little bit more beautifully in case a viewer is looking for all you have on one certain vegetable, topic etc. 

For my example, I have saved a handful of my pins all about how to start a Pinterest account (Pinterest profile setup), optimizing that profile, templates and products to support, board strategies, etc. Now I’m going to separate them into board sections.

1. From your board, click the ‘Organize’ button.
2. Select the pins that you want to put into the same section, then click the ‘Create section’ button that will show up at the bottom (it looks like a file folder.)
3. Name your board section, and click ‘Save’.

You can even drag and drop the board sections, also the pins within each section to the order that you want. So maybe you have a bunch of pins that correlate to a step by step process, or tutorials in an order that you recommend, you can organize them that way too.

Final thoughts on how to start a Pinterest account

You have now learned about everything needed to start a Pinterest account from scratch:

• Creating your boards
• Optimizing them with titles and descriptions
• Adding board covers
• Adding a board header image
• Organization board sections
• How to create Pinterest pins and publish them 
• Uploading a profile banner
• Your display name
• Having an optimized profile bio
• Claiming your websites and links

Now that you know how to set up your Pinterest account and you know what steps to take, you might be wondering, well, what about the strategy? 

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Next steps with your Pinterest marketing strategy

Well, I’ve got you covered because Pin Profit Academy has all of the strategy and support that you are ever gonna need in order to run your Pinterest marketing for yourself. So if you want strategy, all your questions answered, if you want hot seats and deep dives, come visit us in Pin Profit Academy. 

It’s my low ticket Pinterest marketing membership where you can come get the support you need and do the work that needs to be done. If you want to watch videos on Pinterest marketing and strategy, head right on over here and dig into my Pinterest Marketing Strategy playlist.

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