Keywords, like signposts, point people in your direction.
Keywords are essential for directing traffic to your website and are a vital part of your Pinterest marketing strategy. If you’re just beginning on Pinterest this is a good place to start learning about keywords.
In this article, we look at:
- Why keywords are important for SEO
- How to search for keywords on Pinterest
- Where to place keywords
- Quick peak: Pinterest Trends Tool
Ready to get started now? Download the Keyword Kit, your guide to keywording on Pinterest. Includes checklists and bonus worksheets.
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Why Keywords are Important for SEO
First, it’s important to know that Pinterest is a search engine, albeit a visual search engine. Similar to Google and other search engines, a ‘search window’ is populated with a topic or query. But instead of text, Pinterest results deliver pages of images to answer your search.
These images are called Pins and often include text overlay. Text overlays encourage more traffic and have higher click-through rates. Maybe you already guessed it?! Text overlays are an important place to include keywords.
When a Pin image is clicked it opens to a larger horizontal image that includes a description on the right.
The Pin description explains what the Pin is about. Ideally, the Pinner will want to learn more and will click through to your website, or at the very least save the Pin to their most relevant Board.
A well-thought-out Pin directs traffic to your website
Pin descriptions are essential for the Pinterest algorithm to do its work. By placing keywords in the Pin description, and Pin title, you are connecting the Pin to the webpage it’s linked to. These keywords are the signposts that help Pinterest direct your pin to the right people and appear in the right search results.
Say you’re an artist posting your work on Pinterest, you’re more likely to be discovered when you add words to both your Pin images (as text overlays) and Pin descriptions explaining the artwork.
While posting an image alone (no text overlay) can work, it is your selection of keywords that will boost your Pin being discovered.
What’s really key (wink) is how you, as the artist and business owner, choose your words. It is important to know what people are searching for as it relates to your business.
Keywords are the link between what people are searching for and the content you are providing to fill that need. (source)
How to Search for Keywords
By knowing how to search for keywords you’ll discover what your people are looking for and how you can frame your content to deliver.
Researching keywords will help you understand:
- what your client needs
- what problems they are trying to solve and/or
- what they are struggling with
For example, if you’re an abstract artist hoping for your art to be discovered on Pinterest, your first step is to see what comes up when people are looking for ‘abstract art’.
Like Google, when you enter words into the Pinterest search window, a list of suggestions drops below. These are your cues to what Pinners are looking for, let’s say they’re interior designers. In the example above, you can see that abstract art painting is the most searched long-tail keyword* related to abstract art.
The keywords that appear at the top of the list are the most popular.
*Scroll down to the glossary for more on long-tail keywords.
Take this a step further to see what comes up when you search for abstract art paintings. On further analysis, it seems that people searching for this long-tail keyword phrase are more apt to be other artists looking for how-tos, rather than interior designers looking for artwork.
So what are interior designers looking for? You can search for this in a number of ways through Pinterest, such as searching art for interior designers.
Like many who visit Pinterest, interior designers are looking for ideas and inspiration. It is up to you to give your future clients what they are looking for.
It is well worth the time to research and write down keywords.
You want to build a list of core keywords and long-tail keyword phrases to use throughout your Pinterest marketing. Over time you can integrate or test out new keywords and phrases.
Use the Keyword Kit to Find Keywords on Pinterest
Find out how to search for keywords inside Pinterest with my handy marketing tool, the Keyword Kit !
The kit will help you unearth the right keywords to direct Pinners to you and your business. It’s yours for ‘nada’ when you join my email list.
Bonus
Inside the Keyword Kit, you’ll find places outside of Pinterest for sourcing not only keywords but also the inspiration for crafting marketing content. Also included as a bonus are worksheets to organize your newly foraged keywords.
Where to Strategically Place Keywords
First consider that keywords are links to your website, landing page, or blog. They are the signposts that direct traffic for search engine optimization. Want to geek out on SEO? Check out this overview of SEO as it relates to this blog. Want to deep dive into SEO, then head on over to SEO expert Brian Dean’s website.
Who doesn’t love to geek out on SEO?
Eight Places for Keywords
The keywords used in your Pin are a reflection of the words written (and images found) at the URL where the Pinner will end up once they’ve clicked through your Pin. Pins that are cohesive rank higher on Pinterest. That is, be sure that the Pin and all its elements are related to the linked content. Importantly, the content on your Pin must also relate to the Board where it lives.
Keywords also belong on your Pinterest Profile.
It used to be that only 160 characters were allowable for your Pinterest Bio (the About section under ‘Settings’). Now you have 500 characters to write your heart out and use keywords!
Pinterest has limits, that is character limits when writing Pin and Board descriptions and titles. Check out my Simple Guide to Pinterest Character Count Maximums here.
Strategic placement of keywords is part of Pinterest SEO
If you want to get noticed, place keywords in these eight places within Pinterest in your Profile, Boards, and Pins.
- Profile Name
- Profile About a.k.a. Bio
- Board Title
- Board Description
- Pin Image Text Overlay
- Pin Title
- Pin Description
- Pin Graphic Filename
Remember to write in legible sentences.
Use good grammar when writing Pin descriptions. Avoid keyword stuffing*. It’s an outdated technique for luring potential clients and it is quite frowned upon by Pinterest, and Google for that matter.
Long To-Do List? Let me help you. Check out my Pinterest Management and Coaching services here.
The Pinterest Trends Tool
A few years ago Pinterest introduced the Pinterest Trends tool. To be exact, in December 2019 this tool was created to help marketers, of businesses large and small, investigate the best times throughout the year to promote what you have to offer.
Pinterest Trends is another marketing tool inside Pinterest for finding keywords.
Pinterest is an ever-evolving platform, and as such the Pinterest Trends Tool has become a robust resource to inform your Pin creation. Inside the Pinterest Trends Tool, you’ll find two ‘pages’ for researching keywords.
On the first ‘page’ you’ll find:
- Trends matching your Pins in the Region you market to
- Top monthly trends in your region
- Lists of trending keywords that are growing for a particular month, year, and season.
On the second ‘page’ you’ll find a graph that displays how a particular keyword or long-tail keyword trends over the course of a year.
For example, type a business-relevant keyword into the search bar. I chose paintings. A drop-down menu will appear with a selection of the current top searches. Choose the most relevant to you. In this case, I selected Paintings on Canvas.
The graph shows that a decline in the search for Paintings on Canvas starts to happen in July. Conversely, the graph displays a higher interest starting to grow in the Spring. The best time to schedule a Pin is when the trend is growing, in this case, early Spring. Once posted a Pin takes time to index, or to be understood by the algorithm, which can take at least six weeks or up to 3 months.
Granted, the data for these graphs are based on history which may be skewed somewhat for the current year. Over time, as you build out a keyword library, you’ll discover which keywords are timeless and which are most potent at specific times throughout the year.
Take note of the Related Trends below the graph. These also serve as useful keywords. See if they’re right for your marketing goals.
How to Access and Use the Pinterest Trends Tool
Knowing what topics are trending, and the keywords related to your passion is essential for creating Pinterest content that resonates with your audience. The insights gleaned from using the Trends Tool will help create Pins with higher engagement leading to more outbound clicks and higher traffic to your website.
For an in-depth tutorial on How to Access and Use the Pinterest Trends Tool read here.
Access the Pinterest Trend Tool at Trends.Pinterest.com
That’s a Wrap
At least for today. I hope you’ll contact me with any questions. If you have any, feel free to drop them in the comments. You may also contact me through the links listed below under “Let’s Stay In Touch”.
If you found this article helpful, please share it or Pin It.
Meanwhile, grab your Keyword Kit, today. It includes all you need to master your search for keywords:
- Keyword Foraging Guide
- Pinterest Keyword Placement Checklist
- Website Keyword Placement Checklist
- Keyword Worksheet & Tracker
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Glossary
Long-tail Keyword: Keyword phrases that are more specific and longer than commonly used keywords. Long-tail keywords get less traffic, but because they are specific they usually have a higher conversion value.
For example, if the main keyword is paintings, long-tail keywords could be:
- abstract paintings
- acrylic mixed media paintings
- paintings with colors of aqua blue and sea green
Keyword Stuffing: The practice of ‘stuffing’ keywords into content that is non-sensical, but loads a web page, or Pin description with keywords in an attempt to rank high for SEO. This practice will hurt more than help your content get discovered.
Let’s stay in touch
- Let me know how things go in the comments, below.
- Hang out with me on Instagram for quick Pinterest tips and encouragement @Frieda.Creates.
- Follow me on Pinterest, of course!
