Pinterest SEO: How To Boost Audience Reach & Organic Traffic?

‣ Pinterest SEO refers to the set of practices and strategies that help in ranking content on Pinterest and gain visibility.
‣ It helps businesses to attract their target audience and drive organic traffic to their websites. So, they use it to promote their products and services.

Even though Pinterest brings to mind aesthetic home decor, cool street fashion, and pinned mouthwatering recipes, it is actually more than that.

Especially in the digital marketing space, Pinterest plays a vital role in driving audience engagement and boosting organic traffic.

Since over 570 million users visit Pinterest monthly to explore and curate their favorite pins, it holds the potential to reach an audience base of nearly 32.5 million with a single ad.

Moreover, the report from Thunderbit points out—

“Pinterest ads have been shown to deliver 32% higher return on ad spend (ROAS) than other digital platforms”.

So, naturally, Pinterest is becoming a key interest for anyone looking for ways to grow their organic website traffic.

But unlike other socials, Pinterest also acts like a search engine, where users look for new products, brands, and whatnots. So, like Google, ranking in Pinterest searches is quite essential.

And, for that, the right SEO strategy should be implemented. In this blog, I am going to dive into the core aspects of Pinterest SEO to explore—

• What it is and how it works,
• Its relevance for bloggers and businesses,
• Its best strategies, common mistakes, and more.

Stay tuned!

What Is Pinterest SEO?

To explain in simple words, Pinterest SEO refers to the optimization practices and strategies that help boost content visibility and drive organic traffic.

Unlike traditional SEO, Pinterest SEO primarily focuses on the major ranking factors for Pinterest — engagement metrics and social media shares. That is, it doesn’t rely on technical SEO or backlinking methods as such.

Additionally, relevant keywords for Pinterest posts are identified and used in a completely different way than traditional SEO keywords. So, the keyword research and optimization techniques also vary.

How Does Pinterest SEO Work?

Before diving into how Pinterest SEO works, it is essential to have a comprehensive idea about Pinterest’s ranking model.

Unlike a Google SERP, Pinterest ranks content using a proprietary algorithm — Smart Feed. This personalizes the ranking order based on the user preferences, engagement, and search activity.

So, the key ranking factors of Pinterest include—

• Engagement metrics — Pins with higher engagement rank better.
• Content Freshness — Newer content is shown over older or reshared pins.
• Pinner Authority — Pins from credible accounts are shown more in ranking order.
• Pin Quality and Format — More visually appealing pins with high-resolution images and compelling overlays are ranked and shown in user feeds.

So, Pinterest SEO provides strategies and best practices that optimize the content based on these factors. Naturally, the content then ranks better and drives audience engagement.

Why Is Pinterest SEO Important For Bloggers And Businesses?

As a digital platform, Pinterest is quite essential for both bloggers and businesses to promote their products and services.

For a blogger, Pinterest acts as the space offering both inspiration and promotion. So, they can explore the creative, aesthetic, and appealing pins to get inspired.

While also using the same platform to promote their websites. That is, with every pin, they can backlink their website and improve the organic traffic or conversion rates.

According to the Reddit user’s comment on the relevance of Pinterest for bloggers—

“Yes, Pinterest can be quite effective for getting new visitors to your site. Now with the roll-out of Idea Pins, you can create short pins to promote your blog posts with high-quality images. It’s a great visual way to get the attention of other Pinterest users, you can join group boards and promote your pins there as well with like-minded folks”.

As for businesses, Pinterest can be the best platform to promote their products. Given that Pinterest searches are becoming the new norm, as per the report from Search Engine Land—

“More than a third of consumers — 36% — said they start searches on Pinterest instead of Google”.

So, businesses can use Pinterest SEO to rank on the feed and boost their overall revenue. Moreover, they can also expand their audience base through this social platform.

What Are The Best Pinterest SEO Strategies?

To give a push to your organic website traffic and improve your online visibility, here are some of the best SEO strategies to optimize content for Pinterest—

1. Relevant Keyword Research

Keywords are the foundational element for any SEO strategy. So, finding and using relevant keywords on Pinterest is also necessary.

Given that Pinterest searches are technically visual, the keywords for the searches are different. So, there are 2 methods to conduct the keyword research in Pinterest—

‣ Using The Search Bar Recommendations

Firstly, users can follow the recommended searches for a specific keyword from the search bar.

So, when the user types in a word in the search bar, Pinterest automatically recommends related searches. Mainly, these are keywords that others are searching for.

As the Reddit user comments on keyword research for Pinterest—

“I used Pinterest to grow my blog, and it’s really about using keyword phrases. You have to apply SEO to Pinterest. I recommend clicking the search bar to see what’s popular and being searched. Also, when you start typing, recommended keywords show up as well that people normally search for”.

So, bloggers and businesses can use these keywords in their content to help Pinterest show their content for the searches. This way, they can improve their online visibility.

‣ Using Pinterest Trends On Seasonality Insights

Alternatively, bloggers and businesses can follow the search volume of the Pinterest trends to compare popular keywords and use them.

So, for that, they need to visit the Pinterest Business Account and enter the relevant keywords. Then, they can check the volume and related trending keywords.

And, based on these insights, they can choose the keywords that bring more visibility to their content.

2. Pin Optimization For Search Visibility

Optimizing pins based on the ranking factors can immensely improve ranking and gain visibility. From pin designs to descriptions, all needs to be clear, engaging, and optimized.

So, bloggers and businesses need to optimize the pins in the following way—

• Using optimal image size and ratio — 2:3 aspect.
• Including clear and readable overlays on images.
• Maintaining branding through colors and fonts.
• Using high-resolution images for pins.
• Regularly uploading pins to keep the freshness of content.

Apart from this, the pin titles should be within the optimized range. That is, creating a compelling title within 40 – 100 characters, having the keyword at the beginning.

Moreover, the description for the pin should be conversational, have primary and secondary keywords, and include a clear call-to-action. This way, the pin is optimized to appear for searches.

3. Analytical Tool To Track SEO Performance

Finally, businesses can use an analytical tool to track and monitor the SEO performance for their pins.

So, they can adjust strategies and make necessary changes to improve their visibility and audience engagement.

How To Use Pinterest Analytics For SEO Insights?

Unlike other social media platforms, Pinterest comes with a built-in analytical tool — Pinterest Analytics — which helps in assessing the performance of the pins.

That is, it provides deep insights about the user search behavior, pin engagement, and ongoing Pinterest trends. So, businesses can use them for monitoring and adjusting their strategies.

Some of the key metrics analyzed by the tool are—

• Impressions — Showing the number of times the pin appeared in searches and feeds.
• Repins — Data on the number of times the brand pins have been saved by users in their own boards.
• Outbound Clicks — Number of times users clicked on the link to visit the websites through the pins.
• Close-ups — The amount of users zoomed in on the pin to view the image.
• Engagement Rate — Collective number of saves, clicks, and interactions with the pins on the platform.

So, based on these insights, it is easier to understand how the pins are performing, identify what is not working, and what should be changed to improve the stats.

Common Pinterest SEO Mistakes To Avoid

Just knowing the SEO practices is not enough. To ensure you are utilizing Pinterest SEO properly, your strategies need to be perfect. That is, there should be no mistakes.

So, here are some of the common mistakes to avoid for building a foolproof Pinterest SEO strategy—

• Ignoring Pinterest’s role as a search engine and treating it like social media.
• Neglecting relevant keyword research for optimizing pins and profiles.
• Inconsistently using keywords for pin titles, descriptions, and profiles.
• Using low-quality images or disproportionate items.
• Non-aligning keywords with the context of the pins.

Now, building online visibility and boosting organic traffic is difficult. But by using the right Pinterest SEO, anyone can achieve it in a jiffy.

So, with this complete guide in hand, what’s stopping you? Go ahead and optimize your Pinterest and skyrocket your website traffic today!

FAQs

As Pinterest SEO is trending, here are some common questions around it.