If you have ever done an online search for a recipe, craft activity, gift idea, makeup tutorial, home DIY project, or moreโฆ youโve probably ended up on Pinterest. And, if you have a small business, nonprofit, or side hustle, you may have found yourself wondering, โhow can I get my products and offerings noticed on Pinterest, too?โย
Well, youโve come to the right place! In this article, Iโm going to show you how to get your pins seen on Pinterest, plus how to create pins that people actually want to share. Iโll also show you some tips for optimizing your pins so they can be easily found using Pinterest search.
- What is Pinterest and how does it work?
- How do I get my pins noticed on Pinterest?
- 1. Pin whatโs popular
- Determine whatโs popular on Pinterest with the Pinterest Trends tool
- Use Pinterest Analytics to find out who your audience is and what theyโre looking forย
- 2. Share images that perform
- 3. Write interesting and accurate descriptions, being mindful of Pinterest SEO
- 4. Make it easy for others to pin your content
- 5. Repin responsibly
What is Pinterest and how does it work?
But first, letโs cover the basics. For starters, what is Pinterest? Pinterest is a social media platform, although it doesnโt operate in the same way as something like Facebook or Instagram. In fact, Pinterest defines itself as โa visual discovery engine for finding ideas like recipes, home and style inspiration, and more.โย
As opposed to sharing personal images from your life, Pinterest is a platform for creators, bloggers, business owners and more to share their products, advice, reviews, and general content.ย
So, how does Pinterest work? Similar to other social media platforms, Pinterestโs homepage, also known as the home feed, serves up content from people and businesses โ both ones that you follow and ones that Pinterest thinks youโll be interested in based on your recent activity.ย
In addition to the home feed, users can find specific content by typing keywords into the Pinterest search bar to bring up relevant results.
For example, letโs take a look at a screenshot of my own Pinterest home feed.
Here we can see that my home feed focuses a lot on three topics: food, home decor, and style. More specifically, vegan food, modern home decor, and winter style โ all things that I have been searching for a lot lately!ย
Youโll also notice that the Pinterest home feed has sponsored content shared alongside organic pins. While we wonโt get into the weeds on creating Pinterest Ads here, be sure to check out our tips on promoted pins and how to sell on Pinterest.
Now that we have an idea of what Pinterest is and how it works, letโs talk about how you can use it for your business and how to get your pins seen on Pinterest.
How do I get my pins noticed on Pinterest?
Like many social media feeds these days, the Pinterest home feed does not show content in chronological order. This means that your content isnโt always going to appear at the exact time and date that you pin it.
However, there are a few best practices you can follow to ensure that your pins are high-quality, being seen by the right audience, and driving results for your business regardless of when you publish them.
Here are five best practices you can use to get your Pinterest pins seen:
1. Pin whatโs popular
Itโs always a good idea to stay on-topic and share relevant content on Pinterest. For example, if itโs February, you probably donโt want to be sharing content about winter holidays such as Christmas or Hanukkah.ย
Tap into the content that your current followers and prospective followers alike want to see. This will ensure more engagement from users and will increase the opportunity for your pin to find a larger audience, or even go viral.
And the best part? You donโt have to guess what Pinterest users want to see. There are a few ways you can find out whatโs popular on Pinterest:
Determine whatโs popular on Pinterest with the Pinterest Trends tool
First, take advantage of the Pinterest Trends tool. Pinterest Trends will help you discover what people are looking for in your country. It shows the current weekโs top trends, as well as trending ideas across Pinterestโs most popular categories, such as fashion, food & drink, beauty, home, and travel.ย
Letโs say you own a home goods store. Pinterest Trends will help you identify what Pinterest users are most likely to be in the market to buy right now. For example, at the time of this writing, the top home trends on Pinterest are kitchen ideas and laundry room ideas. So, what does that mean for you? Itโs time to get your kitchen appliances and laundry room wall decor signs up on Pinterest!ย
Using the same home goods example, let me show you how Pinterest Trends can help you see an even more detailed view of whatโs popular. Using the Pinterest search bar at the top of the page, type in what your business offers. In this case, Iโve typed in โhome decor.โ Pinterest will autofill trending topics in the drop-down menu.ย
Then, you can choose one to view a chart of how many people have searched for that term over time. Under the graph, Pinterest provides related terms, as well as popular pins that are within this category.ย
Not only is this helpful for researching what Pinterest users are looking for, it can also provide you with examples for what type of content performs well on Pinterest and kickstart your planning.ย
Use Pinterest Analytics to find out who your audience is and what theyโre looking forย
Another great tip to see what Pinterest users are looking for is to focus on your followers. Use your Pinterest Analytics to find out things like:ย
- What types of content people have been pinning from your website
- What curated content has been doing well for you
- Which boards are getting the most engagement
- What your audienceโs top interests are
Note: Pinterest Analytics is only available to users who have converted their account to a Pinterest business profile.ย
For my Pinterest profile, my analytics show that my audience is predominantly female (a whopping 83%!) and between the ages of 25-44. This helps me identify who is consuming my content the most. However, the part to focus on here is the categories and interests section, which shows that 85.8% of my audience is interested in home decor and 73% is interested in DIY and crafts.ย
For me, this is perfect because this is exactly the type of content that I am offering on my Pinterest account! However, 52.4% of my audience is interested in education, a topic that I donโt currently create content for. This means this could be a good opportunity for me to create educational content.
Of course, if your business is focused on jewelry and your categories and interests analytics for your audience show that they are interested in vehicles, you probably arenโt going to want to pivot your content strategy to fit that mold, as it doesnโt align with your businessโ goals or objectives. Keep creating and curating the content your audience wants to see but also fits with your business model and you will see success.
2. Share images that perform
When scrolling through Pinterest, users are looking for beautiful images that represent the things they like or want to learn about. Catch their eye with great visuals from your own pictures or images you create with free online tools, like Canva or Adobe Spark.
When youโre creating and sharing pins that you want to get noticed on Pinterest, itโs important to pay attention to Pinterestโs best practices. For example, images on Pinterest should be high-quality, vertical images with a 2:3 aspect ratio (for example, 1,000 x 1,500 pixels) that will stand out in a userโs feed. Remember, if youโre ever unsure of what size to use for your social media images, check out our social media image sizes cheat sheet.
You should always make your brand the focal point of your pin image. For example, use an image that features your product or service front and center rather than in the background. You should also include your logo, if you have one. If you donโt have a logo, you should create a business logo in order to showcase your brand and build awareness.
Finally, consider adding text on your image to better explain what the post is about. For example, if youโre sharing a recipe on Pinterest, the pin may include a photo of the completed dish with a text overlay of what the meal is called.ย
If youโre sharing a video pin, make sure to start strong. Like most social media platforms, you have only a few seconds to make a good impression and grab the userโs attention. Start your video with a clear hook and your logo. Keep it to only 5-30 seconds and remember that a lot of people will be watching with their sound off, so keep it visual and donโt rely too heavily on audio or dialogue.
Now that Iโve covered what to post about and what your pin should contain, letโs talk about what your pin title and description should look like to give your Pinterest pins the best chance of getting noticed.
3. Write interesting and accurate descriptions, being mindful of Pinterest SEO
You have the right content. You have a beautiful, attention-grabbing photo. Both of these things will help to make your pins popular and encourage others to share them wide and far on Pinterest.
But how do you get your pins found in the first place? Thatโs where your pin titles and descriptions come into play.
Make sure that your pins, and Pinterest boards, have a title and description that include relevant keywords. Youโll want to approach Pinterest keywords in the same way you would with search engine optimization, or SEO, for your website. After all, Pinterest is, at its core, a search engine.
Using the research youโve done to find what content is popular, make a list of keywords that are relevant to your post.ย
Below is a great example from HomeGoods. The pin image features relevant products and has a text overlay related to Easter baskets. However, the title and description are doing the heavy lifting of making sure users will find this pin using multiple search keywords, such as โeaster morning,โ โeaster memories,โ โeaster basket ideas,โ โeaster decorations,โ โat-home holiday,โ and even โcrafts for kids.โย
Of course, you want to stay away from keyword stuffing. This is when you take a bunch of keywords and force them into your post. Most of the time, you end up with incoherent sentences and it sounds more like a robot wrote it than a human. Stick to conversational descriptions that feature a few keywords, but donโt overdo it.ย
If youโre posting a video pin, donโt forget to add video tags. Start typing a keyword into the โAdd tagsโ field and choose relevant ones for your post. This will increase your chances of having your pin seen by users in a relevant Pinterest search.
Finally, donโt forget to use alternative text, otherwise known as alt-text, for your Pinterest pins. This allows you to have a description of what can be seen in your pin. If someone who is visually impaired or otherwise using a screen-reader comes across your pin, the alt-text will be read to them so they can enjoy your content. Itโs an important piece in making the internet accessible to all.ย
Including alt-text also helps search engines like Google and Pinterest to understand the content of your image, further boosting your pinsโ chances of getting found in a search.
4. Make it easy for others to pin your content
Pinterest is a great way to keep visual bookmarks for websites youโve visited. For example, instead of adding a bookmark to your web browser for every page you visited recently that had a recipe youโd like to try, instead you can save an image from the website to a Pinterest board called โFoods to tryโ for later.
Your customers or supporters who visit your website and also use Pinterest might want to use Pinterest to bookmark your products, services, blog posts, or other content from your website. Make it easy for them to do so by ensuring that your website and/or store are set up to be used as Rich Pins on Pinterest.
Rich Pins are a type of organic Pin that automatically sync information from your website to your pins. If something on your website changes, the Rich Pin updates to reflect the change. Rich Pins are free to use and are available to anyone on Pinterest.
Rich Pins can be used for products, recipes, or articles. Product Rich Pins will include information on pricing, availability, and product information. Recipe Rich Pins include a title, serving size, cook time, ratings, diet preference, and list of ingredients directly within your pin. Article Rich Pins automatically add the headline or title, description, and author.
In the example above, you can see that this Rich Pin example includes the star ratings for the receipt, the ingredients needed, and cook time all within the pin itself. While weโre here, Iโd be remiss if I didnโt recommend you make this recipe. So good and one of my personal favorites!ย
Rich Pins are especially helpful for when someone else pins a page from your website. It allows you to have some control over what is being shared and ensures that pins will be up-to-date no matter when, or who, shares them.
You can learn more about how to apply for and begin using Rich Pins using the Pinterest Help Center.
5. Repin responsibly
The beauty of Pinterest is that itโs a community platform. By checking your home feed and searching for relevant keywords, you can find a lot of great curated and repinned content from other users on Pinterest that aligns with your audienceโs interests. Consider pinning other peopleโs content to your boards in order to add value for your followers.
But be aware of what youโre repinning! Make sure that you are only sharing content that links to a reputable source. This takes a few extra seconds of due diligence before clicking โpin,โ but itโs well worth the time to establish yourself as a responsible pinner in Pinterestโs eyes โ and those of your followers.
Click on the pin and make sure that the website matches up and leads to a reputable source. Sometimes people will spam on Pinterest by including a link that leads to a sales pitch or other unrelated content to drive traffic to their websites. Once youโre confident that the source is reliable, share away!
Sharing other peopleโs pins will also make them more likely to share yours in return, helping you to get noticed by even more Pinterest users.ย
With these tips, youโll get your Pinterest pins seen in no time
Now that youโve taken steps to make sure Pinterest users can find your pins on Pinterest, youโre on your way to Pinterest success.
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