In this article, you'll learn all about Pinterest SEO; best practices, and tips on using Pinterest for SEO.
Specifically, you'll get a full Pinterest SEO strategy that you can use to help your content rank higher on the social media platform itself and in the search engine results pages (SERPs) across Google, Yahoo, and Bing for your keyword targets.
The ultimate goal of this digital marketing guide is to give you a list of proven SEO methods to increase the visibility of your content, create more quality backlinks to your website or blog, and get your brand noticed where it matters most: on Pinterest and in the search engines.
After reading this page, you'll know the best ways to use Pinterest for SEO to improve your website's domain authority and page authority, as well as get your content found by more Pinterest users on the platform.
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What Is Pinterest SEO?
Pinterest SEO is the process of optimizing Pinterest content to rank higher in search engines and on the Pinterest platform so that more users find relevant content. A good Pinterest SEO strategy will increase the visibility of your pins, your brand, and the number of quality backlinks to your website.
Is Pinterest Good for SEO?
Pinterest is good for SEO because Pinterest helps you get more targeted traffic to your website and organic backlinks from other website owners. Pinterest is also good for SEO because you can help search engine algorithms understand your content so that it ranks and indexes correctly for its target keywords.
After you finish reading this Pinterest SEO tips, you can see these articles about:
How to Create a Social Media Content Strategy
What Are Some Social Media Goals to Set for Businesses?
Pinterest has high domain authority and content published on the platform can be ranked in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing to help your business get more visibility in SERPs for its products and services. By utilizing the mixed power of SEO and Pinterest, you can increase the number of people who find your content on the social media platform and through organic search queries.
Pinterest SEO Strategy
Best Practices & Tips on Using Pinterest for SEO
1. Think about an SEO-friendly username
The first step in this Pinterest SEO strategy guide is about your username on the platform. The username you choose will be added to the URL of your Pinterest account.
If you want to use your Pinterest account for SEO purposes, it's worth thinking about a top-level keyword that your audience might search for and including it in your username.
You can change your username on Pinterest at any time by following the steps below:
- Log in to your Pinterest account via a web browser.
- Click on your profile picture in the top right corner.
- Scroll down until you see the "Edit Profile" button, then click it.
- On the public profile settings page, scroll down to the "Username" box.
- Enter a new username.
- Click the "Save" button for the modifications to take effect.
2. Optimize your Pinterest name for SEO
The next step to doing SEO on Pinterest is to optimize your display name. This is a separate field from your username, as mentioned in the previous tip.
The strategy here is to add keywords to your display name while using words that accurately reflect your brand. This will help your Pinterest account get discovered in relevant search queries while promoting your brand name.
Try to use as many keywords as possible and not repeat too many of the same words. The display name field is limited to 65 characters, so you want to make the best use of them for SEO and branding purposes.
To change your Pinterest display name, simply go to your public profile settings page and edit the "Name" field at the top of the screen.
The image below is a good example of a Pinterest account that targets the keyword "Simple SEO". And if you search for this keyword on Pinterest and filter by "Profiles", you'll see the account owner rank at the top of the list.
3. Create a business account
Another great strategy for using Pinterest for SEO is to create a business account. By having a business account, you can have access to Pinterest Analytics to track your performance and Pinterest Ads Manager if you ever want to pay to promote your content on the platform.
For creating a business Pinterest account, there are two options:
- Add a business profile to your personal account by selecting the down arrow in the top right corner of the page to open the menu and choose "Add Account."
- Create a new business account separate from your personal profile by going to the Pinterest business account login page to create it.
4. Verify your identity by claiming your website
Claiming your website is another valuable Pinterest SEO strategy for long-term success. When you claim your domain(s), you get these additional benefits:
- You'll be able to list your website's URL on your profile.
- You'll have access to analytics on the pins you post from your website and analytics on the pins other people create from your content.
- You can also verify your business as a merchant on Pinterest.
- Your profile picture will be included in your pins.
Claiming your website can be done by adding a few lines of HTML code to your website header file or by uploading an HTML file to the root domain. You can check this page to see the official documentation on how to claim your website on Pinterest to verify your domain.
5. Optimize the About section of your profile
The next step to getting the most out of your Pinterest content is to optimize the "About" section of your profile. This tip applies to both your personal and professional accounts.
Your Pinterest bio must always include your most important keywords in addition to describing why users should follow your account. So be creative and take advantage of the 500 character limit. The more keywords you can add in a natural way, the better your Pinterest description will be optimized for SEO to help it rank better for relevant searches on the platform.
6. Do some keyword research on Pinterest
Before you begin to pin content on Pinterest, you need to know what keywords are popular on the social media platform. As with SEO on Google, there's no point optimizing your pins for keywords that people aren't searching for in the search engine.
Fortunately, Pinterest gives you the answer to the keywords you need to target with the autocomplete feature in the search bar. When you type in a keyword, Pinterest suggests related terms that include that word. These recommendations are keyword phrases that Pinterest users are actively searching for on the platform and should serve as your guide to optimizing your pins using the specific tips below.
For example, if you type the phrase "SEO tips" into the Pinterest search bar, the following suggestions will appear, as you can see in the image below: SEO Tips and Tricks, SEO Tips for Bloggers, and SEO Tips for Business Marketing. This tells us that you should optimize your relevant pins for these specific keyword phrases to get the most visibility on the platform and drive the most traffic to your website.
You can also see this article here about the best Pinterest keyword research tools that you can use to generate new keyword ideas that can help you reach your target audience.
Why Pinterest SEO Is Important
Pinterest SEO is important because optimized content posted on Pinterest resurfaces again and again for new users to find your website. By focusing on Pinterest SEO, you can attract more visitors for months, not minutes as with other social media platforms.
How Does Pinterest Rank Pins?
Pinterest ranks pins based on four factors: domain quality, pin quality, pinner quality, and topic relevance. In many ways, ranking a pin on Pinterest is identical to ranking content on Google, as Pinterest wants to rank pins that provide the best user experience.
Here's a look at the factors involved in ranking pins on Pinterest:
Domain Quality: This refers to the quality of your website based on the metrics that Pinterest's algorithm measures for SEO. The most important metric is the number of items pinned from your site. That's why it's important to regularly pin new links, enable rich pins on your account, and create engaging, high-quality content that encourages other Pinterest users to pin your URLs to their boards.
Pin Quality: Pinterest's ranking algorithm tracks every instance of your website's pins. This includes the freshness of the pins, the popularity of those pins, and the engagement rate on each pin. That's why it pays to create the most engaging images and videos for your content to improve overall pin quality metrics.
Pinner Quality: Pinterest also rates the quality of the Pinner on the social media platform when ranking pins. This SEO score is primarily based on the frequency of activity and perception of your content based on the aforementioned pin quality metrics. To improve your pin quality, you need to be active on Pinterest, engage with your followers, and share content that gets a lot of engagement and saves.
Topic Relevance: This refers to using keywords for SEO on Pinterest. Similar to Google's search algorithm, keywords affect the content that appears in Pinterest's search results. Therefore, the most thematically relevant pins are those that are optimized for specific keywords and appear higher in the rankings for Pinterest users to find.
Pinterest SEO Summary
This was a guide to Pinterest SEO, and I hope you enjoyed it.
As you've discovered, a good Pinterest SEO strategy can help you in three main ways: improve your brand awareness on the platform, increase the number of boards that rank well on Google, Yahoo, and Bing for your target keywords, and create more high-quality backlinks to your website to increase your business' visibility online.
By using Pinterest for SEO the right way, you can penetrate more of the market with your content and get in front of the right target audience who can create more organic backlinks to your website from their own sites and blogs.
