Pinterest for SEO – How to Increase Your Web Visibility

SEO and Social Media

Not only is it a useful tool for keeping in touch with customers, but social media has also formed a significant part of the social media strategy for most organizations, big and small.

Within this growing space, Pinterest has evolved into a hugely profitable SEO and social media resource for digital marketers and social media specialists. More and more, we’re hearing about Pinterest marketing and the value it brings, and it’s easy to see why.

With a recorded audience of over 320 million monthly users, and serving as a visually engaging, creative alternative to Google, Facebook or even Instagram, there is a huge opportunity for businesses around Pinterest, especially forming part of mobile SEO. In order to improve SEO, or develop an SEO for a mobile strategy, Pinterest shouldn’t be overlooked.

Pinterest Best Practices

Interestingly, Pinterest brands itself as a “discovery” platform, where users can find and “pin” new ideas via search engine functionality. However, what sounds like a completely organic discovery process shouldn’t stop savvy marketers from understanding how best to use the platform and ensure their content is seen by potential new or future customers.

So, if you’ve ever wondered how to improve SEO, here are some of the top tips for incorporating Pinterest to improve SEO efforts, build your social media strategy and increase your visibility.

Practice Using Pinterest

This should go without saying, but you should test the water first. Even the savviest marketers working in social media SEO admit that every social platform is very different, and Pinterest is no exception. First, create an account and begin by browsing the wealth of content on offer.

To save time later, you could create a personal account first for learning and research, and convert it to a business account later. Just note, you won’t be able to view the same comprehensive visitor metrics from a personal account that you can as a business user.

Still, from the outset, give yourself an SEO friendly username since it’s included in your profile’s URL and can, therefore, be optimized for search engines. Remember to complete the “about you” section too and populate it with your company information, a lot of which could be taken from your website.

Expert Comment

It’s good not to forget about the SEO process opportunities that come with social media channels. Often, these are the best and most engaging platforms to share and promote the content that later supports the final results of SEO. It’s not different in the case of Pinterest. Though it may not be obvious at first, Pinterest is a nice tool for supporting your site with outside links – it has a great DA! How to do it? For example, prepare an infographic with vital information from your recent article, share it on the platform, and add a nice link leading back to your content. Voila!

Pro tip! Don’t forget to match Social Media channels to your industry! Not every channel will be equally effective in some cases!

Asia Nicpoń

SEO Specialist

Set up a Board

You can’t start adding Pins without first starting aboard, so create one, to begin with. Your keyword research for Pinterest will play a large part in the work you do and will ultimately inform Pinterest’s search engine how you categorize your products, so launch an appropriately named board for now, and you can add others later.

It’s worth noting that these boards will be the first thing users will see when they visit your profile. So, you can start with one to get the ball rolling, but it’s definitely worth planning other boards or particular themes, depending on your wider SEO strategy.

Update Your Website for Pinterest

Your social media strategy is closely linked to your website and, after you build your presence on Pinterest, visitors will move freely between the two. After users have pinned your content, with all relevant information present, potential customers may be inclined to visit your website, so make sure your site is equipped to take transactions or inquiries.

Likewise, make sure you populate your website with engaging, relevant imagery.

Add Pinterest Tag and Save Button

Make sure you opt to add the Pinterest tag (similar to a Facebook pixel) to your website as it’s a vital part of any future organic or paid campaign. The simple piece of JavaScript will help you set up conversions and report on your profile’s performance in your website stats. This reporting will also steer you on how to tweak or improve your Pinterest content in the future.

Also, Pinterest’s Save button, a short piece of HTML code, allows users to save images from your website directly to Pinterest, which is very useful.

There is even a browser extension that allows users to pin internet-wide content to boards, in case you were to spot anything you like. It’s worth noting that this could apply to your website too, so always aim for engaging imagery.

Use Keywords

Keywords are crucial and should be researched carefully since it’s how users will search for and find your content. Don’t just name images functionally but, rather, consider exact search phrases and combine keywords that users would type in to narrow their search. You can also explore popular topics and check how similar imagery, or even competitor content, is defined on Pinterest.

Think like a Pinterest user and how they might search as specifically as possible to find that one photo or piece of inspiration hidden in a great but very crowded database.

Use Image Alt-Tags

If you’ve ever researched how to improve SEO, you’ll be well versed in image alt-tags. Using accurate alt-tags on your images (for your website too) will help them rank higher in searches as Google can capture the data. Remember, this will also be relevant if Pinterest users make use of your website’s Save button, or the browser extension while surfing the internet.

Make the Most of a Pin

Pinterest has described the most successful pins as being “beautiful, interesting, actionable”. If you follow this format for your imagery, it will translate into more engaging content because you’ve planned it with Pinterest best practices in mind.

Ideally, use the popular 2:3 portrait aspect ratio for your images, though it’s not essential. With mobile SEO in mind, you want your images to be clear, particularly when viewed on phones which is where the majority of the audience will be browsing from.

Use Metrics

Like any practice, you should use Google Analytics (or your chosen platform) through your website to evaluate engagement and new traffic which Pinterest is bringing to your business. With the majority of Pinterest users on mobile, this has the potential to give an added boost to your SEO for mobile stats and reporting.

You should also experiment and try pinning varied content, judging which images work best for you, as it varies across different industries.

With Pinterest, don’t go for the hard-sell and don’t judge conversion too harshly, especially in the early stages. It’s about learning and experimenting.

Conclusion: Use Pinterest For Social Media Strategy

Pinterest marketing provides a big opportunity to build engagement from a new audience. As users become more switched on to your products or services, and trust is established, they’ll follow your profile and content for continued inspiration, or to refer back later.

All in all, this is a great way to engage with users, build your brand and web visibility. And, as always, it should consistently function and serve as part of your overarching SEO strategy, to help achieve your objectives.

We love working with our clients on a range of long-tail SEO and performance-based advertising strategies. If you’d like us to help improve SEO and discuss your individual retarget=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer”uirements further, please get in touch for a consultation.

Did you use Pinterest in your social media strategy? Let us know in the comments!