If you are not using social media marketing to get blog traffic you need to change up your game, & do it quickly!

You should be creating Pinterest pins & descriptions based on search engine optimization (SEO) & don’t worry, I’ll show you exactly how to do that!

Here for the Video Tutorial? No Problem, just click here!

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. For our purpose, SEO is when a company (like Google or Pinterest) crawls our content and decides what it’s about. 

The links in this post may contain affiliate links. This just means that at no cost to you, if you make a purchase – I’ll make a commission. Read More Here.

How does Pinterest SEO Work? 

As a new blogger Pinterest marketing is going to get the most organic traffic to your site & completely for free.

Pinterest is a search engine which means that they have an algorithm that crawls your content on Pinterest & decides where you will rank. 

The big difference here is that Pinterest won’t look at your blog posts – it only sees your pin titles, pin descriptions, & your profile. 

If you want to work on Google SEO – I recommend the FREE SEO course over at Her Paper Route.

Does my profile name & description matter?

Absolutely. Every single word & picture you put into Pinterest is searchable. Take a look at this for example: 

You can see that when I search for “Toddler” – it gives me three profiles that contain the word “toddler” in their name – YES, their name! 

It find Loveevery | all things baby + toddler, Susan Allison | Busy Toddler, Jamie Reimer – Activities for toddlers and preschoolers at home.

Your profile absolutely matters. You will want to use as many keywords as you can, while sounding natural.

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Places to use Pinterest Keywords

There are different places on the Pinterest platform that you can use keywords & you should be using them everywhere.

Optimize your Pinterest Profile Name

You’ll want to place keywords within your name. I’ll show you exactly how to find keywords below; but here’s a look at both of my Pinterest profiles.

Keep in mind that the older your Pinterest account the more likely you are going to rank.

It may take a while to be found using search – but the earlier you start, the quicker you’ll get there. 

Optimize your Pinterest Profile Description

Another place you want to add keywords is your profile description. Add keywords that you want to rank for here because Pinterest will crawl it!

Optimize your Pinterest Pins & descriptions

Most importantly make sure you are using keywords in your pins & pin descriptions. 

Hashtags are a thing on Pinterest, but I don’t use them because I don’t believe that people actually search using them. 

Instead, I’ll make sure my descriptions have keywords written out within them – many keywords. 

You will notice that most of the higher ranking pins don’t stuff keywords & don’t use hashtags, which tells me that they aren’t necessary. 

Just make sure to naturally use as many keywords as you can & add a few more at the end using commas. 

Optimize your Pinterest boards & descriptions

You will want to use keywords as your Pinterest board titles. Then within your board you will want to use a ton of keywords as the board description. 

Check out Pinterest Board Covers for a more in depth look at this.

Optimize your images

Anytime you put an image on your website you will want to change the Alt Text. You can do this right when you upload the picture. 

When you create a pin on Canva, make sure to use a keyword in the name. You don’t want your picture to be known as just a number. 

Also – make sure your pin image has words on it & make sure Pinterest will be able to read the words. This is so important. 

How do people find you on Pinterest?

Now that you’ve done all this optimizing, how do people find you anyway? 

A pinterest user might find you in their home feed, following feed, the more ideas feed, or just by searching in the search bar. 

The Home Feed

Pinterest shows content in users’ home feed based on what they are saving to their boards, their board titles, and their profile keywords. 

Essentially, Pinterest tries its best to get to know its Pinterest users & tailor content directly to their interests.

Which means, if someone is interested in pregnancy for example, Pinterest is going to find pins that have that keyword somewhere within it.

Of course, pregnancy would be hard to rank for – but hey – someone has to, why not you? 

The Following Feed

This is pretty simple. This shows pins of the people you follow. SEO doesn’t really matter here. 

The More Ideas Feed

This is what you see when you’ve clicked on a pin & it gives you a whole bunch of “more ideas” underneath. These will relate to the pin that you clicked on. 

This feed has a huge advantage for you!

When you add a pin, it will give you “more ideas” underneath – if they relate to YOUR new pin; you used the correct keywords. 

If they have nothing to do with your pin – you didn’t. 

Pinterest Search & Hashtags

This is when someone directly searches in the search bar. A user can just type a search word or phrase or they can type a hashtag. 

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never searched with a hashtag.

If it’s just one word it wouldn’t matter. What I mean is ‘Toddler’ & #Toddler would get similar search results. 

You want your pin to rank here & the only way it can do that is if your pin has whatever keyword they are searching for, so make sure you use multiple keywords within your pins! 

How to Find Pinterest Keywords in Pinterest

Let’s get into the fun stuff! I love doing keyword research & I’ll show you exactly how to do it. 

Track it

You will want to create some sort of document to track your keywords. 

Hopefully, you have niched down & many of your posts will be about similar things.

Which means, you will reuse many of these keywords &/or use them in a different way. 

Many times, while I am doing keyword research I find ideas for future posts! 

I use a very simple excel worksheet. You can just type the main keyword in one column & all the sub keywords in the other columns. 

1 – Choose a Keyword 

For our example, I am going to use the keyword preschooler & do some research for my other blog over at  Mamma, it’s okay. 

2 – Enter the Keyword into the Search Bar on Pinterest

3 – Take note of the words that immediately show up

These are your power words! 

• preschooler activities at home
• preschooler schedule at home
• preschooler bedroom
• preschooler activities
• preschooler lunch ideas
• preschooler games

Some of these would be great future post ideas!

4 – Press enter on the main keyword

Write down all of the words that show up here in your tracker. These are the keywords you want to rank for. You can also gather ideas for future posts from these words.

5 – Continue clicking on sub keywords

Write all of the keywords that would relate to your original blog post or an upcoming post. 

Next you will use the right keywords in your pin title & your pin description. 

To optimize your profile, you will want to search for keywords that relate to your overall mission & blog niche. 

Complete keyword research at least once a week

It’s best to schedule out some time in your week to complete keyword research. Once you start, you’ll find yourself doing it for much longer than expected. 

So be careful with your time – I recommend setting some kind of timer & holding yourself to that time frame. 

You really can get lost in keywords. 

532 Pinterest Keywords ebook

I can spend hours doing keyword research & figured I should allow others to benefit off of that, so I created an ebook with 532 keywords covering 13 different niches. 

I’ve done the legwork for you! It’s incredibly affordable too (only $3). 

It will save you hours of keyword research, so you can focus on content! 

Buy 532 PFK Now for $3

What’s inside:
532 Keywords for you to use on Pinterest.

✔ 40 Keywords for Pregnancy & Baby
✔ 40 Keywords for Mom & Parenting
✔ 42 Keywords for Kids & Education
✔ 40 Keywords for Beauty & Self care
✔ 42 Keywords for Health & Fitness
✔ 40 Keywords for Blogging and Business
✔ 40 Keywords for Finance & Budgeting
✔ 40 Keywords for Mindfulness & Motivation
✔ 44 Keywords for Food and Drink
✔ 42 Keywords for Home & DIY
✔ 40 Keywords for Personal Development
✔ 38 Keywords for Pets
✔ 44 Keywords for Travel

Want to take Pinterest to the next level?

Here are some of the best Pinterest courses out there.

• Pinterest with Ell (Newly Updated!)
• Pinterest Simplified with Cate from Sweet and Simple Life
• Ready Set Blog for Traffic with Twins Mommy
• Pinterest Perfection with Twins Mommy

Pinterest Keywords Video Tutorial

Are you optimizing your Pinterest account & using Pinterest to the best of your ability? How can I help? 

You may also like:

• Pinterest Strategies
• Facebook Strategies
• How to Create & Upload Pinterest Board Covers