2 Easy ways to know if your Pinterest SEO is strong!
Pinterest SEO. I am sure you have read a few different posts on how to use proper SEO on Pinterest. And if you have, I can guarantee you have read some mixed information, and you aren’t sure what is correct, so you ended up here.
Or this could be your first stop in your Pinterest SEO research.
No matter how you ended up here, today, I will show you the TWO factors I look at to know if my Pins are optimized properly and my keywords are strong.
This little trick I will show you today is a trick my Pinterest Ad’s manager, who works at the Pinterest corporate office in San Fran (Hi Emily!), taught me years ago. It’s been a great way to know I am on the right track in terms of optimizing my content with the strongest keywords possible!
Pinterest is a search engine.
Yes, duh, I am sure you know this. But, I like to mention it as many users think it’s a Social Media Platform. And while it does have some social media aspects to it, at the end of the day, it’s a visual search engine.
Search engines operate on an algorithm. And the way the Pinterest algorithm knows where to place your pins is based on the image, the wording on the pin, AND, most importantly, the SEO you use to optimize your pin (+ the board you are saving it to, but that’s a topic for another day.)
Making sure you have correctly optimized trending keywords in your pin title and description will help the algorithm know who to show your pin to.
Factor 1: “More like this.”
When you upload your pin on Pinterest, optimize it for SEO, then publish it to the most relevant SEO-optimized board; you can then click on “see your pin.”
When you see your pin, you can scroll down, and you will see: “More like this.” This is the algorithm showing you similar content based on the SEO/topic/image of your pin.
It’s the first indicator you did something right. If you scroll down and see pins that fit with your pin, you know your pin is on the right track.
Here is my client’s pin on home decor.
Here is what Pinterest is recommending based on the SEO (and image) of her pin:
Because I optimized her pin with proper Pinterest SEO and was sure to do keyword research via the guided search AND the trends tool, her SEO is strong. Based on that, and the image, we can see that Pinterest is showing us pins like the one I just created for her.
The SEO of this pin is relevant because the algorithm is placing it with other content it belongs with. In turn, showing this pin to users searching for home decor, then saving her pin to home decor-specific boards, showing the algorithm more relevancy and expanding the reach even more.
Which leads me to Factor 2: Boards
Let’s look at another client of mine. I created and optimized this pin for her on ADHD. If you click on the pin and then click on “see more stats” at the top, you can then scroll down to see which boards users are saving this pin to.
As you can see, her pin is being saved to very relevant boards.
As I was talking about above, because the SEO of the pin is strong and relevant, this pin is shown to users searching for ADHD content.
Then, those users have a chance of seeing this ADHD-specific pin in their smart feed, then they will hopefully engage with it and save it to a relevant board. This shows the algorithm even further how relevant this pin is, and the algorithm expands the reach.
A few things I want to mention:
- Factor 2 can only be done once the pin starts to get engagement. So don’t stress if your pin isn’t getting saves immediately. Pins take time to rank, especially if you have a newer account or let your account sit untouched for a longer period.
- I would focus more on Factor 1. “More like this.” That will tell you right away if your pin is optimized properly.
- Now, let’s say you know you’re using proper Pinterest SEO and did keyword research before optimizing your pin, so the SEO is, in-fact strong. Then you may want to reevaluate the image and wording on your pin. Is the image relevant to the SEO on the pin? Is the wording on the pin image relevant to the SEO of the pin?
- If you answered yes to the last two questions in #3, you then have to look at the SEO of the board you saved your pin to when you first published it.
- Is the SEO of the board strong? Name? Description? Is your board description keyword stuffed?
See all of these factors work together to help the algorithm decide who to show your content to.
Now, let’s say your pin aligns with other relevant pins when you look at “more like this” after you post it. Then after a week or so, the reach is still low; that is when you may have to take a look at your Pinterest boards.
While the SEO of your pins is important, the SEO of the board that pin is saved to when you post is equally important. So even if the SEO of your pin is strong, but the board you are saving it to is “weak,” it will end up limiting the reach of the pin.
This is why you want to be sure you use proper Pinterest SEO from your pins to your profile and your boards. They all work together as a team!
I realize your head may now be spinning! But I promise, it’s easier than it seems once you get it down!
If you want a little help learning exactly how to optimize your account from top to bottom, step-by-step, click HERE!
Happy Pinning!
xo Megan
