How To Rank For Keywords On Pinterest

This post will show you how to rank for keywords on Pinterest.

Yesterday, I accidentally stumbled on some of my pins and noticed a few ranked for their keywords.

It was a pleasant surprise, to be honest, as I wasn’t expecting them to rank so quickly.

Lately, I’ve been working hard on my Pinterest marketing game, and it is nice to see some results despite all the craziness on Pinterest right now.

As always, I’ve decided to backtrack and document my exact strategies for getting my pins to rank.

To be honest, I like to think that I was simply lucky.

About three months ago, just before lockdown, I decided to switch up my blog strategy.

I was ready to take Pinterest seriously, but then I needed to create the right content that worked for Pinterest. (See how to choose a Pinterest-friendly niche for your blog.)

So, I took my lifestyle blog and pretty much dissected it.

Currently, travel traffic is down worldwide, so I have to double down on my beauty and general lifestyle content.

But then, I noticed that some keywords took off faster than others. I just needed to find the sweet spot.

So, I took each niche and broke them down into sub-niches.

Before then, I ran my niche through the Pinterest search engines to see what beauty content was being searched for.

Thankfully, skincare on my lane is a very popular keyword.

I didn’t stop there.

Next, I did further keyword research for skincare to see the exact keywords I could easily get traffic from.

I’d like to point out that I initially struggled to get traffic to my beauty content.

But all that changed once I spent more time doing further keyword research.

My beauty content currently brings me the most traffic each month.

Also, my most popular post is about beauty.

I’d also like to mention that I tried to work on my lifestyle content before I succeeded with my beauty content.

It turns out that the Personal Development niche is a massive driver of traffic on Pinterest.

As always, I researched again and figured out the essential keywords on which I could create content.

So far, it’s been going well, even though I have a single viral pin in my top 10 performing pins.

Otherwise, the niche brings me regular daily traffic.

Now that you know how my strategies got me results let me show you how you can do the same.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to rank for keywords on Pinterest and get massive traffic to your blog.

Do a keyword research.

I’m sure you can understand why I iterate the importance of keyword research.

One of the ways you can understand how Pinterest works as a platform is by studying the keywords.

Doing this regularly will help you identify patterns to improve your results with Pinterest.

So, the first thing you need to do before you can rank for keywords is to identify them.

• First, enter your niche into the search bar. This will typically be one word or a phrase, such as skincare or personal finance.
• Next, go through each niche to gauge the broadness of keywords under it. A short-tail keyword like skincare is extensive. (You can determine this by the number of longtail keywords under one topic).
• Copy out all the keywords into a Google sheet and study them. You would want to combine long-tail keywords because it is easier to rank for them. So, go down your list and focus on keywords from the middle to the end. Those are easy to rank.
• When you’re done, choose your keywords and create great content for them.

Keyword research is easily one of my favourite things to do on Pinterest.

It helps me create relevant content and effortlessly Implement Pinterest SEO.

Create fresh pins for your keywords as regularly as possible.

I’m sure you are aware of the current Pinterest algorithm that prioritises fresh pins.

One of the reasons my beauty content ranks is that I take photos and create fresh pins weekly.

Do you know how stressful it is to take new photos of old posts every weekend?

But I do because it is the most essential way to create fresh pins.

This is why all my pins are littered all over those keywords.

Using original photos to create fresh pins is an easy way to rank for keywords on Pinterest.

This is why food content gets so much traffic from Pinterest.

Serious food bloggers invest in food photography, which gives them a lot of photos to create fresh pins.

Which is what Pinterest wants.

You are basically populating the keywords with your pins until they eventually rank.

Many pins that rank for keywords have one version, and that’s it.

But by creating fresh pins regularly, you are attempting to remove those sometimes old and outdated pins from their spot.

So, whatever keywords you want to rank for, ensure you constantly create fresh pins for them.

Implement Pinterest SEO

So, you have done some excellent keyword research and have many fresh pins ready to be published.

How do you ensure that your pins are SEEN before they are ranked?

Simple!

Make sure you’re implementing Pinterest SEO.

In simple terms, make sure the following areas are rich in keywords;

• Profile name and bio
• Board titles and descriptions
• Pin image/graphic
• Pin titles and descriptions

Aside from your pin titles and descriptions, the rest don’t have to be the exact keywords.

Just make sure your profile is well-optimised with relevant keywords for your niche.

A simple tip I use for my accounts is to archive boards without optimised pin titles and descriptions.

Having just three boards optimised for Pinterest SEO is better than 50 boards that are not.

When uploading your pins, return to your Google sheet with keywords and see how they appear.

Craft your titles and descriptions exactly or similar to them.

Do this every single time you upload a fresh pin.

If the blog post you’re linking to is relevant, experiment with different long-tail keywords to take it even further.

If it’s is not, create blog posts for all the long-tail keywords you want I rank for.

Use hashtags

Many people have a love-hate relationship with hashtags on Pinterest because they feel that they are irrelevant.

I absolutely cannot do without them.

They help me boost my fresh pins fast!

Also, I think they are responsible for the first surge of traffic from a fresh pin.

If you use the Pinterest mobile app to upload your PIN, take advantage of the different hashtags.

Like you would with your Instagram hashtag set, mix popular, less popular, and niche ones.

If you don’t think they make any difference, do an A/B test.

Publish two pins with and without hashtags and see the results.

Other tips

• Focus on trending topics. Use Pinterest Trends and the Popular Searches bar to get content ideas.
• Identify upcoming trends on other platforms outside Pinterest. They tend to eventually find a place on Pinterest. For example, for skincare, I know that I have to start creating content for trending brands like Cerave and The Inkey List because they are becoming increasingly popular. When you learn how to identify trends early enough, you could easily be at the top of them and rank for the keywords when they eventually find their way to Pinterest.
• Hack your way through with video or story pins. A lot of people still haven’t yet jumped on video pins. Creating yours for keywords without them helps you rank automatically.

In conclusion, these are my exact strategies for ranking keywords on Pinterest.

I hope you find them as helpful as I did.

Next steps:

If you’re unsure how to get DAILY traffic from Pinterest, start with the Pinterest Optimization Worksheet.

When you’re done, use Ell’s Course (affiliate link) to enhance your Pinterest efforts.