Pinterest SEO: Do THIS and the Algorithm Will LOVE You

What if I told you everything you thought you knew about Pinterest was only a fraction of what it's actually capable of? Sure, Pinterest is a great social platform for interior designers or fashionistas looking for inspo, but once you start diving deeper, you'll discover something incredible. Pinterest isn't just for sharing mood boards. It's an incredibly powerful search engine, and it's one with huge opportunities for your business. So let's explore how we can make the Pinterest algorithm absolutely love you. There are two primary ways to get your content found on Pinterest the Home Feed and search. The Home Feed is basically the algorithm showcasing content it thinks users will be into based on behavior. And search is where users search for things like cookie inspiration, for example, to find new things. What you'll find is that people are searching Pinterest for the kind of content you're already probably creating for your business. You just haven't optimized it for this particular platform yet. So with a little bit of time planning and creativity, utilizing Pinterest as a social search engine could be a huge game changer for you. So here are some tips I learned about using Pinterest to boost SEO. HubSpot writer Randy Bray has an incredible piece called 20 Pinterest tips to Drive Discovery and Clicks that was really informative and easy to digest. I'm including a link below so you can check it out for yourself, but I'm going to run through eight of the most helpful things to get you up and running. Tip 1 Set up a business account this is key because it gives you access to the Pinterest Business Hub and analytics to really dig down into how your content is performing. This will even let you add a hidden Pinterest tag to your website which lets you track the visitors who visit from Pinterest. This means better insights on performance, the kinds of audiences you're reaching and and platform specific conversions. Tip number two Mandy recommends optimizing your Pages about section. Pinterest gives about 500 characters for the section. Plenty of space for a simple, concise but descriptive and keyword rich overview of the who, what and where of what you do. And even though it's a lot of work to perfect this part, don't forget to add the simple stuff like you know your website URL and here's something especially critical I learned Research top keywords just like you would for a traditional search engine. You can do this by using traditional research methods like Keyword Surfer or Google Ads Keyword Planner to plug in whatever might be relevant, for example Cookie recipes and cookie ideas. That way you can see how much search volume those terms have and be able to see recommended suggestions. Cookie Recipes has a lot of overlap with the more niche Christmas cookie recipes that can provide insight on how you might be able to funnel more users to your content by matching their search intent. Another even easier way to do this is by using Pinterest's own autocomplete feature to see what pops up. Tip number three One of the best things you can do is use the 100 characters available in a pin title to include keywords. Here's a great example from Vessi Comfy waterproof shoes for healthcare workers for this PIN that links to one of their products. It's very specific and I would bet that it's matching a specific search trend they saw. To build on that, they made sure to write some keyword heavy description copy in the PIN description, which is tip number four for Mandy. There are 500 characters available in the field and you can see that it's packed full of keywords of the kinds of people who might be searching for shoes like this. This isn't a place for keyword stuff jargon though. This is a place for thoughtfully describing your pins. Add links to your pages or products and think about related terms that might catch a user's eye. After you craft the perfect copy, it's time for tip number five. Make sure to include some sort of call to action. It can be sending the user directly to your website or just to follow your board or maybe Click unrelated pins. CTAs increase engagement of your pins, which in turn makes the algorithm surface your stuff more often. Even though using those keywords are important, great visuals on Pinterest are a must. So next tip number six it's critical you optimize your pins for visual search. You want your stuff to really stand out. To use that Vessi example again, their pin had an eye catching visual that blatantly shows what the content is about, shows off the product, and even includes a testimonial. This is where HubSpot's free Pinterest templates for business can be super helpful. It makes it incredibly easy to get started creating visually appealing images for your pins. It's awesome. Tip number seven I learned from my Pinterest deep dive was to rename your photo files to include keywords. I'm not going to lie, it's a tedious task considering this is a visual heavy platform, but as an example, Christmas Cookie Recipes 2024.jpg is a lot more searchable than a random string of nonsense. Now one of the craziest things I learned from Mandy is tip number 8 keep track of trends you come across and pinjack them. Meaning create pins or a board relevant to your brand based on what's already popular. For example, when the Barbie movie was at peak popularity, shoplook created a board of Barbie inspired fashion and added links to back to their store. This takes some work and you've really got a strike while the trend is hot. But one simple way to do this might be to recycle existing content by changing the title and description to be holiday or season specific. For example, gift ideas for men becomes Christmas gifts for men during the holidays. Things like that. This is the perfect place to get really creative with your Pinterest content and expand your brand. So after all of this, you've kind of done all the heavy lifting. But what other easy tips are there for making sure your Pinterest SEO is on point? All right, rapid fire, here we go. First, pin consistently. The more quality, high engagement pins you create, the more likely you are to get funneled into the feeds and searches of users. Pin new stuff at least once a week to keep your boards feeling fresh. Number two make sure your videos and images are sized for Pinterest videos should always be in portrait mode, just like on Instagram or TikTok. Number three, add backlinks to your website. These won't help boost SEO authority, but they will funnel users back to your site. And number four, Explore niche topics. That Vessi pin from earlier is a good example of this. Just like you did with keyword research, you want to see which topics adjacent to your business you might be able to target in order to draw more users to your content. I really can't emphasize enough how much of a contribution Pinterest can make to your SEO, and it's definitely worth investing the time into. Don't forget that HubSpot's got these free templates to get you started creating eye popping pins for your page. Head down to the comments to let me know about any Pinterest tips and tricks that have worked for you. And don't forget to subscribe to the HubSpot YouTube channel for more of my videos. Now if you'll excuse me, I got some pinning to do, my friend. Until then, I'll see you next time.