How to Use Pinterest for SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is key to getting your content in front of consumers in organic search. But many of you are busy can’t devote hours per day trying to optimize your content for every platform out there. Thankfully, there are a few places where investing a little time can reap enormous benefits for your site traffic – and Pinterest is undeniably one of them. If you’re interested in increasing your traffic, read on to find out more about using Pinterest for SEO — including why it’s important and how you can optimize and prepare your site and content.

It’s no secret that, with over 150 million monthly users and well over 2 billion searches, Pinterest has evolved to become one of the more popular social media platforms. Pinterest also drives 5 percent of referral traffic across the web, which is major compared to other social media networks. On average, the platform’s users spend $58.95 whenever they head out shopping online. This number surpasses Twitter and even beats the spending power of Facebook users.

Even without the actual e-commerce component, Pinterest is an added platform for Google to crawl and find valuable information that will only serve to boost your presence online. This platform is especially unique as it gives consumers a peek into what topics, content, and products interest you as a thought leader. They like seeing what services or information you are currently jazzed about and want to save intriguing pieces and parts of what you’re putting out there.

Let’s not forget the fact that this platform is arguably one of the most important as content has a longer shelf-life and can reappear in searches for months — even years. A pin’s life is 100 times longer than Facebook and 400 times longer than Twitter. This is valuable when you consider the shorter shelf-life on other social platforms.

For the aforementioned reasons alone, you can see why it makes sense for many businesses selling to consumers to use Pinterest in your overall SEO strategy. Wondering where to begin? Here are 4 steps to get the most SEO value from your Pinterest marketing campaign.

Don’t let the flashiness and visualization distract you from optimizing content where it counts: keywords. So many marketers forget to do their part for proper SEO on Pinterest, and those that do won’t see the results they’d hoped for.

The best approach is to first use the guided search feature to determine what your key audiences are trying to find. Similar to Google, it recommends relevant topics based on past search history, common pins to your board, and words related to what you’re typing in.

After that, check what keywords are used in promoted pins from your industry. This will also give you a good idea of what your competitors are using (or not using).

Finally, look through topic categories provided by Pinterest that you can use in your posts. The easier you make it for Pinterest to crawl your content, the easier prospects can find you.

As a marketer, it’s important to remember to make it simple for people to both navigate to your website and to share content from your website.

• The best place to start is by first adding Pinterest rich pins so that you can segment your audience, set up conversion events, and report on overall performance. You will likely need a bit of technical developer support to ensure correct setup.
• Second, go ahead and add a “save” button to your website. This feature is, again, important because it allows people to save images, products, and content to their Pinterest board. This one will also require a bit of technical developer help to install.
• Lastly, be sure and verify your website with Pinterest. A verified site (similar to Google) makes your content prioritized in search results which, as we all know, is key to effective SEO.

If you haven’t taken this step, be sure to create a Pinterest business account. While you have the ability to create a generic account, a business account will allow you to take advantage of verifying your website, push consistent content, report on performance, and incorporate advertising.

To optimize for SEO, be sure your business account has a relevant “about you” section, an SEO friendly username so consumers can find you, and high-res branding that stands out. You don’t want people thinking your account is spammy. Keep it professional and keep it interesting.

Once you have all the other components installed, be sure you actually use the social platform. Your goal is to drive engagement to your Pinterest boards and, ultimately, to your website. Aim for re-pins, likes, and comments. Unlike Google who uses SEO metrics like backlinks and sitemaps, ranking in Pinterest has more to do with social shares and engagement.

To help accomplish increased engagement (especially if your profile is new), link your page to your other social channels so people can find and follow along. You can also leverage your friends and influencers in your circle to expand your reach.

In addition, take part in what’s happening on Pinterest. Follow other relevant brands you admire and partner with and engage with their content. Be sure to also set up boards that your consumers will partake in. For example, if you’re a coffee shop, you might have a board for your bags of coffee to sell, but you should also have boards for roasting tips and tricks, brewing products, ideas for relaxing winter gettogethers, news features on baristas in your circle, ethical bean harvesting, and so much more.

While SEO can feel overwhelming, there are a few platforms where a little investment into SEO best practices can take you a long way. Pinterest is one of those platforms. As a rapidly-growing visual search engine, Pinterest provides a massive audience and a long shelf-life for content.

Make sure you’ve optimized your Pinterest profile and connected your website, then get to work creating keyword-rich pins and quality boards to appease the Pinterest algorithm. Once you’ve learned the ropes, Pinterest can be a veritable gold mine for your website’s traffic!

Need additional strategy on SEO and content sharing? Reach out to our team today to learn more!