If you want to know how to create the best Pinterest boards for your business so you can connect to your ideal pinner and get them into your community, this mini-tutorial will show you exactly what to do and what to focus on.
It’s a smart move to get your Pinterest boards in order. They’re one of the ways you can get your business in front of Pinterest’s 459 million users who just happen to be looking to connect with new businesses that inspire them.
What’s also cool about Pinterest is that it’s a huge traffic driver – the platform handles over 2 billion searches a month – who wouldn’t want a slice of that traffic?
So, if you’re looking to properly optimize your Pinterest business account or clean up the boards you currently have, this guide will help you do just that so make sure to pin this post to refer to later!
Let’s dive into how to create the best Pinterest boards so that you can start driving traffic to your website and transform your business using Pinterest marketing.
What Are Pinterest Boards?
The first thing to understand is exactly what Pinterest boards are.
Boards are where pinners save and organize the ideas that have inspired them so they can easily return to the idea they’re exploring. Those ideas are saved in the form of “pins” which are graphics that are uploaded to Pinterest by content creators aka business owners looking to connect with their audience on Pinterest.
Pins are shown in the pinners Home Feed (often referred to as the Smart Feed), Today tab, or the Following Feed.
Pinners create boards to keep the things they’re interested in organized. From there, pinners can further organize their pins using board sections.
For example, I may have a board called ‘Dinner Recipes’ that I can further organize using sections called ‘Chicken Recipes’, ‘Pasta Recipes’, and so on.
For businesses marketing on Pinterest, boards are a way to attract the ideal person to your content.
The idea is to create boards that ‘explain’ what your business is about. In other words, the boards found on your Pinterest business account should efficiently let pinners know what you’re all about.
Why Do Pinterest Boards Matter?
Pinterest boards are one of the most important variables to a solid Pinterest marketing strategy. Actually, Pinterest boards are a foundational item to your successful strategy.
They help the Pinterest algorithm identify what a pin is about which then leads to the proper distribution of your content. In other words, boards help your content get in front of the eyes of people who want to consume your content.
It’s important to get your pin description right and just as important to save that pin to the most relevant board so that you successfully tell Pinterest exactly what that pin is about and who to show it to.
Pinterest boards matter because they are an important piece of a well-optimized Pinterest account. Getting your account optimized means connecting to your audience and growing your business.
How Many Pinterest Boards Should I Have?
There are no hard and fast rules for how many boards you should have on your Pinterest account.
You should look at creating enough boards to cover the content categories on your website.
Every business is unique and it’ll really depend on how much content you have and how much you can keep those boards moving with fresh pins.
You don’t want to create a crazy amount of boards especially if you aren’t sure you’ll be able to consistently pin to them. Boards that don’t get pinned to consistently can drag down your account.
That might make you wonder about seasonal Pinterest boards. For example, you wouldn’t pin to your Halloween board in the Spring. It’s okay to have them on your account, the Pinterest algorithm is smart enough to know that fresh pins won’t be added to those boards during off-season times.
So it’ll really come down to how often you can pin to your boards with fresh content and how many categories you have on your website.
A good starting place is to have 2 to 3 boards for each content bucket.
The goal is to clearly and accurately define what your business is about through your boards – the Pinterest user should be able to land on your profile and understand immediately what your business is about and what kinds of content they can connect with.
How To Find Pinterest Board Name Ideas
We’ve clearly defined exactly what Pinterest boards are, and why they matter, but how do you find board ideas in the first place?
Our first recommendation is to skip the cute board names – they will do nothing for you and you’re likely the only person who finds them cute. 🙂
Now that we have that out of the way, here are our best tips for finding Pinterest board names that will attract your ideal audience and help your pins in the algorithm.
Use The Guided Search
The picture above is of Pinterest’s guided search. Click on the magnifying glass at the top of your account and enter the words that best describe the content you’re looking to create a board around. Start with the top-level words and drill down as you go.
Let’s look at an example.
Our own Pinterest account is about, well, Pinterest marketing. So, to find a great board name idea, I type in words I think pinners will use to find my content.
When I type in ‘Pinterest tips’, the search results will auto-populate showing me additional keyword combinations pinners are using to find content on the topic my business is about.
If I hit enter on my search, colored tiles will appear at the top of my account letting me know other words pinners are using to find content on my search. I make note of all of them and store them in what I like to call my Keyword Vault.
Here are some of the keywords I find when I use the seed keyword ‘Pinterest tips’:
➝ Pinterest tips and tricks
➝ Pinterest tips for business
➝ Pinterest tips for bloggers
➝ Pinterest tips for beginners
The keywords noted above are referred to as long-tail keywords. If I were using this method to find good board names, I would create a board ‘Pinterest tips’ with the intent of being able to pin most if not all of our content to that board. I would then create a new board for each of the search terms above because they target different audiences and we have content that will appeal to those pinners.
Use The Related Search Terms
You can also use ‘related search terms’ found in the results of your keyword search. That seems like a bit of a tongue twister so let me break it down.
Once you type your seed keyword (top-level words your ideal person uses to find your content), hit enter and scroll down until Pinterest shows you other related search terms. Sometimes, they can be the same ideas found in the guided search tiles but OFTEN you can find some real golden nuggets that they don’t show. When you do see those, create a board!
Here’s what it looks like:
Look At Your Analytics
Another way to find board name ideas is to look at your Pinterest analytics to see what content is already performing well. If you don’t have a board to cover the idea, go ahead and create one!
Have a new Pinterest account? You can also check your Google analytics to see your top content. Build boards around those ideas to start.
It might just spark new ideas that you’ve missed previously.
Repeat the steps above until you’ve compiled a list of keywords pinners are using to find content like yours.
How To Decide Which Keywords To Use As Pinterest Board Names
The goal is to create boards around the categories on your website. We always begin with a top-level board and then drill down from there.
Let’s look at an example.
If I were running a food blog about healthy eating here is how I would organize my dinner recipe boards.
Top-level: Dinner Recipes (every dinner recipe can be pinned here).
Drill-down boards: Healthy Dinner Recipes, Quick and Easy Dinner Recipes, Gluten-Free Dinner Recipes, Low Carb Recipes, Keto Dinner Recipes, and so on.
For every category of your content, aim to have 2 to 3 relevant boards and add more as your account and/or content grows.
How To Make Pinterest Boards
Now that you have your board ideas list ready to go, it’s time to start creating your new Pinterest boards!
How To Create A Pinterest Board
Visit your profile and click on ‘saved’. Click the + on the right side of the page. A drop-down menu will appear, select board.
Select your profile by clicking on your picture.
Once in your profile, select ‘saved’.
Locate the + symbol on the right side of your profile and click it.
A drop-down menu will appear, select board. A pop-up will appear to create a new board. Fill in your new board name and hit create!
Viola! You’ve created a new board for your Pinterest account!
How To Edit A Pinterest Board
Once you’ve created some boards, you’ll want to edit them to add a keyword-rich description or for various other reasons as your account grows.
To edit a board, visit the ‘saved’ section of your profile and click on the pen icon located at the bottom right.
A pop-up with edit options will appear.
From there, you can add your description or update the one you already have.
If you want more options, don’t use the pen icon, instead, click on the board.
Once there, select the three dots. A board options menu will appear.
Here are what the options mean:
EDIT BOARD – leads you to the place where you can edit the board description.
SHARE – the option to share the board with other pinners or to your other social media channels, email, or to get a link to the board to embed it somewhere else.
MERGE – you can merge the board with another board. This is a great option if you have too many boards around the same topic or the board doesn’t perform well. You can add it to a performing board and not lose any of the content.
ARCHIVE – you can archive a board if it no longer serves your business. The content will remain on Pinterest but no one will be able to pin to it. Change your mind? No problem! Scroll to the bottom of the board section in your profile to review your archived boards. You can unarchive the board if you need it back on your account.
CREATE PINCODE – similar to QR codes, Pincodes allow you to create an image to add to your business card or other publication. From there, people will be able to scan it and be taken directly to your board or profile.
How To Organize Your Pinterest Boards
Your boards should be organized in a way that when a pinner visits your profile, they know exactly what your business is about. With our client accounts, we put their top category boards first. On our own account, boards such ‘Pinterest Tips’ and ‘Pinterest Marketing’ are in the top rows since that is what we talk about the most.
Once you decide on your board order, here is how to organize your Pinterest boards.
Go back to your profile to the ‘saved’ section that houses all of your boards. Instead of selecting the + symbol to create a board, you’re going to select the one beside it to organize your boards.
From there, a menu will appear asking you how you want to sort the boards.
Here are what the options mean:
A TO Z – sort your boards in alphabetical order.
DRAG AND DROP – choose the order the boards appear in.
LAST SAVED TO – displays the last boards save to as first.
So, which way should you organize your boards? We prefer to ‘drag and drop’ boards so that we can showcase the most relevant categories at the top. 🙂
Should I Use Board Sections?
Board sections were introduced as a way to further organize the pins on a board.
For businesses, we don’t recommend using them because they do nothing for your SEO and end up being a waste of time.
One thing to note is when you merge a board it becomes a section in the board you merge to. That doesn’t mean you have to pin to that section.
New Pinterest Board Ideas
Once you’ve created boards and your account is growing, it’s good to audit what boards you have and if there are any others that could be added to connect further with your ideal audience.
We recommend keeping a spreadsheet with new Pinterest board ideas.
That wraps this mini-tutorial about how to create the best Pinterest boards for your business. Always remember that the goal is to have 2-3 boards for every category of content that you have. As your account grows or you add more content, you can add additional boards to cover that content.
Keeping a list of keywords that describe your content is smart and a timesaver – you’ll use those keywords in many different places!
Drop any questions below and we will be sure to help you! 🙂