Pinterest keywords How to maximise your pins
Why do we need Pinterest Keywords?
Pinterest is one of the biggest visual search engines on the web. If your business is active on the platform, or looking to be, you need to know how to search for the right Pinterest keywords to reach your ideal audience.
If you have not optimised your pin with specific keywords you will not rank high on the search, just like any other search engine. When a user searches all the pins rank with the specific search words in their description, title and text overlay will appear. To ensure your pins are ranking high in the search you need to make sure you have the right keywords.
Firstly I would advise you create a simple spreadsheets, or use a piece of paper if that is easier for you. Think of the audience you are targeting and begin to think of the areas they may need your help. Remember that the audience you are targeting do not have your expertise and will ask different questions than you may!
For example, they may search ‘Do I need a website for my business?‘ when you might think they are searching for ‘How to build a website for my business?‘.
Come up with at least two or three short tail keywords that best describe your business services. For example if you sold services in website design, your short tail keywords could be web design, website layout, website templates. The short tail keywords are only one to two words long, they are not very specific and cover a wide topic range. It will be harder to rank high in the search results if you use this strategy alone, as everyone will be using them.
Long tail keywords contain more than three words and are more specific. Pinterest users generally know what they are searching for, so using more keywords will help to target you audience more effectively. For example long term keywords could be how to create a website, website design inspiration, website design layout templates or website colour scheme.
How to find Pinterest keywords
The Pinterest search bar is a great tool for finding keyword ideas. If, for example, I enter ‘website’ into the main search bar a drop down will appear with suggested short tail and long tail keywords. These suggestions are the most popular searches on Pinterest at the time, so they are great for keeping up to date with what your audience are looking for.
If I then press enter, there are a number of coloured blocks that appear below. These are also keyword ideas that Pinterest suggest for your topic from popular searches.
If there are more than seven or ten keywords listed below a search then it is general thought that these are high ranking search words. If we click on one of the buttons to make a long tailed keyword, there will be more keywords listed as shown below.
The pins that are ranking at the top of the search have changed as the search has become more specific.
It would be my recommendation to use both of these methods to find keywords as you may find a greater reach using both short and long tailed keywords in your post titles and descriptions.
Another way to search keywords if you have a Pinterest business account is to create a test ad campaign. You can enter in the title of the campaign as ‘test’, then create the campaign.
As you can see there is a specific search for related keywords. This is another way you can find keywords that are ranked by how often they have been searched.
Try to go for keywords that are ranked high in monthly searches, but remember there is greater competition with these.
I would advise using the long tailed keywords in this search to find keyword combinations that are being searched for that are still high ranking but more specific. Remember most people on Pinterest already have an idea of what they are looking for, and have a question in mind.
Where to use your Keywords now you have found them
There are a number of places you can use your keywords to increase your rankings within Pinterest.
- Your Pinterest profile
- All Pinterest boards that you have created
- Each pin description
- Pin titles
- Your image names
- The meta description of your blog posts
- Your blog alt text
- Pinterest hashtags
- To your pin overlay text
Once you have your keywords you can create pins to link to your website and your blog posts.
Happy Pinning!
