I’ve written about the pillars of a solid Pinterest marketing strategy before but this time I thought it would be a good idea to deep dive into each Pinterest marketing pillar so that you can educate yourself on the area of your Pinterest strategy where you need the most help.
This is my Pinterest marketing strategy pillar series – every week I’ll release another deep dive into an area of Pinterest marketing so make sure to check back!
Here are the Pinterest Marketing pillars blog posts:
Pinterest Marketing Pillar #1 – Keyword Strategy
Pinterest Marketing Pillar #2 – An Optimized Pinterest Account
Pinterest Marketing Pillar #3 – A Content Marketing Strategy
Pinterest Marketing Pillar #4 – An Image Strategy
Pinterest Marketing Pillar #5 – A Consistency Strategy
Okay, let’s get started on our deep dive into Pinterest keywords and SEO.
Before you can create a keyword strategy for Pinterest, it’s important to understand what Pinterest SEO is and why you need to include it as part of your Pinterest strategy.
In this first pillar of a solid Pinterest marketing strategy, we’re going to peel the onion back on what it means to have a keyword strategy for Pinterest and we’re going to look at how to put one together.
What are Pinterest SEO Keywords?
So what exactly are Pinterest SEO keywords?
They are the words people that type into the search bar to learn more about something of interest – they are what makes Pinterest go around.
Pinterest is a search and discovery platform that is driven by keywords and user interests – it’s actually one of the biggest things that sets Pinterest apart from other marketing platforms.
Using keywords in your Pinterest strategy is important because it tells the algorithm who to show your content which is ideally your perfect fit client or customer.
RELATED READ: How To Use Pinterest to Market Your Online Business
What is Keyword Research on Pinterest?
Now that you have an understanding of what Pinterest keywords are, what exactly is keyword research?
Keyword research means spending time on Pinterest looking, finding, and noting keywords that people are using to find out more information about what you have to offer.
You, as a business owner, are only going to focus on finding the Pinterest keywords that work well for your business.
I recommend you create a spreadsheet to record the keywords you discover that way you don’t need to do the work again and you’ll have a place to refer to when you forget the keywords (because that will happen!).
How To Find Keywords to Target on Pinterest
Now that we know what Pinterest keywords are and why we need to use them, let’s dive into how to find keywords to target on Pinterest.
The Pinterest Search Bar
The Pinterest search bar is the perfect spot to start your keyword research.
When you log into your account look for the little magnifying glass and click on it. At the time of writing, the magnifying glass is located on the right side of your account, like this:
That will open the search bar and it looks like this:
From here, start typing in words you know that people use to describe what you offer.
Think about your ideal person and their pain points.
What words would they use to find information?
If you feel you’d be drawing a blank at this point, I recommend taking a look at the content buckets you have on your website.
What are the high-level words you used to categorize your content?
Start entering those words into the search bar and pay attention to what Pinterest is auto-suggesting as you type.
Here’s what it looks like:
Those auto suggestions are what pinners have searched in the past and are related to your initial search.
Make sure to hit enter so that Pinterest will show you the related searches to your initial search.
Collect as many keywords that you can find that are relevant to your business and what you offer.
RELATED READ: The Top Most Asked Pinterest Marketing Questions Answered
The Alphabet Method
To find even more related search terms you can use what I love to call the alphabet method.
It’s when you take your main keyword, type it into the search bar, hit enter, and then type the letters of the alphabet after the search term to see what else comes up for each.
Now, I will also be the first to admit that you can quickly go down a rabbit hole and find a lot of keywords this way.
Here’s what it looks like:
Complete this method of keyword research on Pinterest and you will start having a great collection of keywords to target.
The Related Keywords in the Search Results
The next area of Pinterest to find keywords is the related search bubbles found in the search results of a keyword search.
If you feel confused, don’t worry I’ll explain.
When you hit enter on your search, you can scroll through the pins returned in the search until you find the section that says “related searches”.
The great thing about using related searches as part of your keyword research strategy is that some of the suggestions will give you new ideas about what people are looking for in your niche.
You can then take those newly found search terms and enter them into the search bar and see what else you can find.
Here is what the “related searches” section of the Pinterest search results looks like:
Pinterest Ads Manager
Another goldmine to find keywords for your Pinterest strategy is the ads manager dashboard.
No worries – you’re not actually running an ad!
You are “setting up an ad” so that you can unlock the keywords and interests section.
To start, click on the ‘Ads’ tab on your account.
From there, select ‘create campaign’ and choose ‘Consideration’, scroll down until you see the red button that says ‘continue’.
That will bring you to the targeting details section. You want to select the option called ‘choose your own’.
Once you select this option, you’ll be taken to a page that has all of the targeting features.
You want to scroll until you see ‘Interests and Keywords’ – click to toggle this section down.
Make sure to choose ‘add keywords’ and then type the main keywords you have into the search bar.
Pinterest will begin to show related keywords along with an estimation of how searched the terms are.
The search volume is shown as a range and while you can’t get an exact amount of searches, you can at least you can see if your terms get a good amount of searches.
Pinterest Trends
The last place to check for keywords is the Pinterest trends tool.
In 2022, Pinterest made some major updates to the tool and it’s now full of very valuable information.
Not only can you find related keyword searches, but you can also see when the keywords are searched the most during the year.
This is invaluable information because it can inform your content marketing strategy.
Creating content for trending keywords will absolutely help grow your Pinterest account!
I plan to write an in-depth blog post about the trends too so stay tuned!
RELATED READ: Pinterest Traffic Strategy for Business
What Keywords to Target on Pinterest
Alright, you’ve collected a good amount of keywords – likely more than you know what to do with!
How do you decide what keywords to target on Pinterest?
The best advice I can offer is to target the most relevant keywords to the content you already have on your website.
From there, take a look at any keywords on your list that you don’t have content for and create it!
Understanding Keyword User Intent
It’s one thing to have a list of keywords and it’s another to understand the user intent behind the search.
What is the person searching hoping to find on the other side of the search?
Which user intent category does the search fall into?
It’s one thing to rank your content for a search term but if it doesn’t answer what the person was looking for, your results will fall flat.
Here are some user intent categories to consider:
- Problem-solving
- Research
- Information
- Product
- Planning
- Ideas
- Inspiration
Where do your keywords fit when it comes to user intent? Keep this in mind when creating content and crafting your Pinterest strategy.
Creating content with user intent in mind means you’ll have an easier time converting that person in the future.
RELATED READ: Which is Better for Business: Pinterest or Instagram?
Where to Use Keywords on Pinterest
Okay, now you have your keyword list ready to target but where do you use the search terms ON Pinterest?
Make sure to put your keywords in the following areas on Pinterest:
- Your account description.
- Your board names and descriptions.
- Your pin titles, descriptions, and text overlays.
Using keywords in these areas is what it means to optimize your pins and accounts.
Where to Use Keywords off of Pinterest
You shouldn’t only use your keywords on Pinterest, you should also use them on the website and/or landing page that you are linking your pin(s) to.
Pinterest is like Google – they have bots that crawl the linked web pages looking for the keywords so that they can get a full picture of what the content is about.
This is because Pinterest and other search engines are concerned with serving the best, most relevant search results for their users.
Make sure to sprinkle your keywords throughout your content and add them to your meta description.
That’s a Wrap…
There you have it – the first pillar of a solid Pinterest marketing strategy!
I’ve always said there are 5 main pillars and I used to place an optimized Pinterest account as the first in the lineup but I’ve changed my mind.
It makes much more sense to have keyword research as the first pillar since it’ll be the one that informs the rest of your Pinterest strategy.
If you find you’re getting an enormous list of Pinterest keywords, remember you can stop researching and focus on what you’ve found.
As your account grows and you create more content, you can weave in other keywords.
In the next post in my pillars of a solid Pinterest marketing strategy, we’re going to deep dive into how to optimize your Pinterest account.
What Pinterest keyword research method are you going to try first? Let me know in the comments!