How to Use Keywords on Pinterest! Complete Guide 2024

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Hey there! I’m sure that like any other Pinterest Marketer, you are looking to get ahead of the Pinterest game by getting your pins to reach as many people from your target audience as possible. The best way to do that is through keywords. Today let’s go through what Pinterest Keywords are, why you need them, where you need to use them and how to find them. Keywords are a very crucial part of SEO on Pinterest and it doesn’t work the same way as Google even though they are both search engines.

What’s Covered:

• What Are Keywords On Pinterest?
• Why Do You Need To Use Keywords?
• Where Should You Use Keywords?
• How To Do Keyword Research

What Are Keywords On Pinterest?

Keywords in general relate to ideas or specific words that are highlighted in a post or a pin to attract attention. These keywords are what will tell the search engine exactly what your post is about. These are the words or phrases that will make it easy for users to find the relevant content they are looking for. The more specific your keywords are, the easier it is for someone to find content like yours online. 

Why Do You Need To Use Keywords?

Although Pinterest is a search engine, it isn’t quite like Google.

Pinterest is a visual search engine. This means it heavily relies on keywords to figure out what the content of your pins is about. Pins that are posted with good keyword research usually make it to the screens of more of their target audience and ultimately get way more traffic to both their Pinterest and website. 

Considering the fact that an increase in traffic levels are what every Pinterest User is after, you can guess how important keywords really are to any Pinterest Marketer. Keywords increase your overall ranking in searches resulting in way more clicks than you can imagine. This is why keyword research is so important.

Where Should You Use Keywords?

Optimizing your presence on Pinterest requires you to completely drench your profile and its contents with keywords. I’m not even kidding when I say that. Your profile and your pins should be concentrated with the relevant keywords to your niche. This is so we can help Pinterest recognize our pins and content as high quality content. It’s at this point that Pinterest begins recommending more of our pins and our content to users who are looking for information that we’ve written or posted about on Pinterest. 

But where exactly do we include these keywords? I can answer that for you! 

Here are 10 places to optimize your profile with keywords.

• Add keywords related to your niche in your Profile name and Profile description.

• Add the same keywords to your Pinterest boards, Board titles and Board descriptions.

• Add keywords to your pins through Text overlay in the images, Pin titles, Pin descriptions and Alternate text. 

• Add the relevant keywords in your Hashtags. (Note that this point is usually overlooked for some reason by many people. Don’t make the same mistake yourself!)

• Try to include keywords in your Profile Bio. you may use words related to your niche here and there. Does not have to be too many keywords.

• Use Rich Pins! Rich pins in general are pins that give way more information about your pin’s content. Make full use of these pins to, again, try and saturate your profile with the relevant keywords.

• If you have a website that you are linking to your pins, make sure that you use Keyword Rich URLs. This can contribute to the overall SEO strategy.

How To Do Keyword Research

Last but not least, let’s talk about how to do quality keyword research. This part is important because we can talk all about what keywords are and where to put them but it’s absolutely no use if you don’t know what are the right keywords to be putting on all those destinations i spoke about earlier.

Step 1: Connect with Your Audience

The first step to doing this is to understand your target audience. This means figuring out who has a high demand for the particular niche which you have to offer on Pinterest. You can even use the Pinterest trends tool to narrow down what are some specific keywords. I’ve written a fully detailed article about the Pinterest trends tool and how to fully utilize it, so give that a read if you wanna be an expert on Trends. 

Step 2: Brainstorm

Next, you have to use your own brains a little. Ask yourself, if you were someone looking for the type of content you post on your Pinterest, what exactly would you search on the search bar? And there’s your answer, use phrases that you would generally ask as questions on your hashtags. You can even use the search bar on Pinterest to verify and check if your brainstorm ideas are on track.

Step 3: Analyze Your Competition

Moving on, you can also analyze your competition. There are definitely already tons, or at least a couple, of people on Pinterest that are already specializing in the same field of niches as you. Really analyze them. Look at their posts and what keywords they are using. Use them as a guide for your own keywords. But make sure these accounts you label as “competition” are all well performing pages on Pinterest. Take a look at their pin titles, descriptions. Board titles and descriptions, etc. basically every single destination that I mentioned for you to use keywords on earlier.

Step 4: Check Pinterest Analytics

Next, make sure you keep your eyes on Pinterest Analytics. Analytics shows you the trends of your own Pinterest account. A little update on the progress of how your pins and boards and account overall are performing. So take these updates as a regular indicator of whether or not you should be using certain keywords on certain pins. This should be based on how well these pins are performing.

Step 5: Test & Optimize Pinterest Keywords

Lastly, always keep evolving your keywords. Pinterest and its algorithm never stays the same. Just like the seasons change, so do people’s interests. For example, when Christmas is around the corner, people tend to be in a holiday mood. This is your indicator to make a few changes to the keywords on your pins. Obviously, you can’t always get the right or the best keywords right away. But that’s why it’s important to keep testing and optimizing your keywords. Every pin requires a bit of time before you can see its performance.

Now You Are Ready To Make the most of keywords on Pinterest!

You are now fully equipped with what you need to be a keyword master on Pinterest! Be very thorough with your keyword research and although it takes some effort, it will all be very worthwhile. Keywords hold so much more power than you would think and it’s about to show once you get to work.

If you’re too caught up with everything that’s going on and have no time to focus on your Pinterest, let me. I manage the Pinterest accounts of multiple established businesses and drive traffic from it directly to their websites, stores or landing pages. If you want to know what it might be like to work with me, drop me an email at hello@smartiac.org. I’ll send you a custom proposal! Happy pinning!