Best SEO Practices For Pinterest
Pinterest is used by over 150 million people every month, making it a viable alternative to fellow social media giants Facebook and Twitter. And yet, it is a largely untapped opportunity within the SEO industry. On the surface, it seems to be very different from Google, and that has caused it to be written off by those who fancy themselves to be experts in search engine optimization. What these people don’t understand is that the differences between Pinterest and Google should be embraced. After all, there is still plenty of content to be found on Pinterest, and it does feature a robust search engine that can be optimized for those who know how to do so. With that in mind, here are some Pinterest SEO practices that you can use in your next marketing campaign.
The Basics
Before you do anything else, you need to get some of the basics of Pinterest down. First of all, create a business account to gain access to the Pinterest ad manager as well as to the analytics you will need to monitor your campaign. If you already have a Pinterest account, converting it to a business account will be very easy.
Your next step will be to optimize your profile. Fill out the “about you” section with all the relevant information about your business, include a high-resolution logo, and come up with an SEO-friendly username. The username will be seen in your profile’s URL, so make sure that it conveys what your business is about and what your consumer base might want to find.
Finally, set up at least one board. Since you cannot pin any photos without a board, this step is crucial.
Preparing Your Website
You can link your Pinterest account to your business’s website and begin converting data from there to targeted Pinterest campaigns. Not only does this allow users to Pin images from your site onto their own boards, but it allows them to click through your own Pinterest board to your site to make purchases and learn more about your business.
The most crucial step here is to add the Pinterest tag and a Save button to your website. The Pinterest tag will allow you to set up conversion events on your site and track your profile’s progress, while a Save button will allow users to save images on your site to their own Pinterest boards. Both are easy enough to install, but it will require some basic knowledge of html code. You can find a step-by-step guide to setting up a Pinterest tag on your site here, while you can set up a Save button to appear automatically on your site’s images. There is also an extension for Chrome that will allow visitors to your site to convert your images into Pins on their board.
Finally, you will need to verify your website with Pinterest. This will add your main profile image to all of your Pins. Once again, this will involve the addition of a line of html code.
Research Keywords
Researching keywords for SEO purposes is a little more challenging than it once was, but it involves the same principles that it always has. Certain keywords will yield better search results than others, and it is up to you to find the keywords and searches that will be the most relevant to your business. Explore various topics that are related to what you want to promote on your Pinterest board, and pay close attention to what your competitors are doing. Finally, engage more with Promoted Pins. These are the Pins that tend to be the most popular on search engines, so check them out if you need some ideas for promoting your own Pinterest boards.
Optimize Your Boards
It won’t take long for you to populate your boards with Pins that are relevant to your business, but that won’t do you much good if your boards aren’t optimized. Know how to categorize your products, and try to use tags that are popular throughout Pinterest and on Google. Any captions you use for your images and for your boards should be keyword-rich, but don’t stuff your content with keywords in ways that won’t make sense. Not only could this turn visitor off of your content, but search engine algorithms are constantly being updated to filter out that kind of gibberish.
Also, make sure that your boards are organized clearly. Being transparent with your descriptions and organization will make it much easier for your visitors to find what they’re looking for, and it will make your own business seem that much more trustworthy.
Learn the Art of the Pin
Yes, there is an art to creating the “perfect” pin. It involves selecting the right dimensions for your images and using multiple dominant colors. The best aspect ratio for a Pin is 2:3, which translates to an image that is 600 pixels wide and 900 pixels high. You should also keep your boards looking colorful, but they should also have a consistent look. You don’t want anything to stand out or clash with the rest of your board. It’s nice to have certain images that “pop,” but not to the point of distraction.
Monitor Your Analytics
Having a business account on Pinterest will allow you to monitor your analytics so you can see how well your SEO efforts are really working. This will come in handy, especially since things can change incredibly quickly in the world of social media. As with any other marketing campaign, you will need to monitor what is working and what isn’t, and adjust things accordingly. If your captions aren’t showing up on search engine results like they should, rewrite them. If your Pins aren’t being shared among your followers, find out what is being shared and try to emulate that without deleting your existing Pins.
The important thing to remember about any kind of SEO is that it is simple in theory, but difficult in practice. Algorithms change along with people’s tastes, and you need to be able to change along with them.
Heather Hart
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