Pinterest Keywords 101: What They Are + How to Use Them

So, you’ve heard that Pinterest is a search engine. You know that you should be optimizing for that search engine. But that’s pretty much where your knowledge ends.

HOW do you optimize for the Pinterest search engine?

What the heck are Pinterest keywords and how do you use them?

Do you have to be super techy to do it?

Well never fear, because I’m officially here to teach you everything you need to know about Pinterest keywords: what they are, where to find them, where to put them, and more!

So let’s dive right in.

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What are Pinterest Keywords?

According to Moz:

Keywords are ideas and topics that define what your content is about.

Moz

When it comes to Pinterest and other search engines (like Google), keywords are the words and phrases that someone puts into the search bar in order to pull up the results they’re looking for.

So, for example, if I was looking for something good to make for dinner tonight I might type in “easy dinner recipes” into the Pinterest search bar, and Pinterest would then pull up results for easy dinner recipes.

“Easy dinner recipes” are the keywords in this case.

Why use keywords on Pinterest?

Pinterest is a search engine, which means that people come to it looking for something specific. The first place they go to find what they’re looking for is the search bar, where they’ll plug in the keywords for what they’re looking for and Pinterest will pull up the results that match it. Google works the same way.

Pinterest pulls up these results by finding Pins that match the keywords which the user typed in. If a Pin doesn’t match the keywords they search for, then it won’t be pulled up.

So you want to be using Pinterest keywords on your Pins so that they’ll be pulled up when someone searches for whatever it is your content is about.

Pinterest SEO

The act of using Pinterest keywords in order to show up in the search results is called “search engine optimization,” or SEO for short. While it can seem like a highly technical thing, it honestly isn’t!

In the rest of this post, you’ll learn how to use keywords on Pinterest in order to up your Pinterest SEO game! So let’s dive right in.

How to Find Your Pinterest Keywords

The first step in Pinterest SEO is always to actually FIND your keywords. And doing that is a lot easier than you might think it is! All you have to do is head to the Pinterest search bar and start typing what you think someone looking for your content might search for.

So, for example, if you have a blog post about morning affirmations, you might type “morning affirmations” into the search bar.

When you do this, you’ll see that Pinterest suggests words to add onto your search, like “morning affirmations positivity” and “morning affirmations for women.”

These are your Pinterest keywords.

Because they’re showing up as predictive text, you know that these are phrases people are searching for on Pinterest, so they’re going to be the key phrases that you’ll want to use when you’re optimizing your profile, boards, and pins.

If you continue to do a few more similar searches (e.g. “affirmations for”), you’ll start to compile a pretty good-sized bank of keywords to use!

Where to Put Keywords on Pinterest

Once you’ve got your Pinterest keywords ready to go, it’s time to actually optimize your account and your pins! Here are all of the places that you can use keywords on Pinterest and how to use them in each spot.

Your Profile

The first place that you’re going to want to use keywords is in your profile itself. Namely: your name and your about me section.

Your name on Pinterest should be your name, obviously, but you also have space to ad a | and then some general keywords about the sort of content that you create.

So for my travel blog, for example, my name is: Addie Abroad | Solo Female Travel + Travel Photography.

Then, within your about me section, include a few more keywords – but be sure to keep it conversational and in a full sentence! Keyword stuffing will do you no good here.

When you optimize your profile with keywords, you have the chance of having your profile come up when someone is searching for the type of content that you create, meaning they’re more likely to click over to your account and on your pins, and maybe even follow you!

Pinterest Board Titles

The next place that you can add your keywords is within your Pinterest board titles.

You want to have a good number of boards that fit your niche and the type of content you create. And those boards should have titles that people are searching for (think “easy dinner recipes” instead of “get in my tummy”).

This helps Pinterest categorize your content and the pins you pin to your boards, and also means that your boards can show up in searches for those keywords!

Pinterest Board Descriptions

In addition to your board title, you also want to include keywords in your board description (don’t miss this one – so many people do!)

Here, you’ll want to write 2-3 sentences that describe what your board is all about and the kind of content someone can find on it. Within those sentences, include a few keywords.

For example, here’s how I included the keywords “how to use Tailwind,” “Tailwind strategy,” “Tailwind Tribes,” and “Tailwind tips” within this board description:

To edit your board description click on the 3 dots by the title of the board >> edit board. Then type in your description and click save!

Pinterest Pin Titles

Optimizing your boards and profile with keywords is a great place to start, but optimizing your pins themselves is where the magic really happens!

The first place to optimize your Pin is in the title itself. Usually, this will just be the same as your blog post title, but you can also get creative and experiment with 2-3 different keyword-rich titles for each piece of content that you create pins for.

Just be sure that, no matter what, your main keyword is included SOMEWHERE in your title!

Pinterest Pin Descriptions

The next spot to put your keywords is within your Pin description. Much like your board descriptions, this is simply 2-3 sentences about the pin and the content that it’s linking to.

Include what content is about, what they’ll learn, and a call-to-action to get them to click on the pin!

Blog Post URL

Finally, two other sneaky spots where you can add keywords OUTSIDE OF Pinterest is within your blog post URL and the image file name.

Changing your blog post URL from the auto-generated one to your main keyword is best practice for Google SEO – AND it gives another little boost to your Pinterest SEO as well!

So instead of a blog post about morning affirmations being “yourbloghere.com/post-name-02-01-05” you would change the slug (the bit on the end) so that it is “yourbloghere.com/morning-affirmations”

Image File Name

Another great spot to add some extra SEO juice is your image file name. Much like your blog post URL, you’ll want to change the default (like IMG123.jpg) to a keyword rich file name (morning-affirmations.jpg). This tells Pinterest what the image is about!

And there you have it: absolutely everything you need to know about Pinterest SEO and Pinterest keywords. Now go out and start ranking in Pinterest search!