10 ways you can SEO proof your Pinterest
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Let’s talk about the Pinterest Smart Feed
Some of you may have heard this term either on Pinterest or through others, but you don’t know what the heck it means.
Well, let me help you with that. The Pinterest “Smart Feed” is an algorithm & is the first page you land on when you log into your Pinterest.
The “Smart Feed” is another term for home feed. It’s like how Instagram has a popular page. Pinterest has its Smart Feed page.
What does it do? Because of its algorithm, Pinterest wants to show you a mixture of good content that is to your preference - the categories you search & pin for regularly. So instead of seeing the newest pins of your favourite categories first, you’ll see the best pins first.
The algorithm helps break down the quality of a pin, ranks the pin, finds interests & places the content in front of viewers who are searching for it.
So now, hopefully, you get the gist of what the Pinterest Smart Feed is, we can talk about how to get your content on the smart feed.
Find your business objective
A business objective is what end goal does your business want to achieve - what is your takeaway.
Before you start using Pinterest, really think about why you think Pinterest can help your business & how you are going to implement it in your business.
Is your goal to get more web traffic? Promote your products or services? If so, do some research on whether your business fits in with the Pinterest demographic. To help I’ve got an article called How Pinterest is your business's new best friend.
It’ll help broaden your perspective on Pinterest, show you where your target audience is & where your business perfectly fits in.
Pinterest basics 101
Now that you’ve got a business objective in mind let’s learn the basics, shall we:
Creating a Business account
You can simply convert your personal account to a business account by going to settings - account settings - convert to a business account. If you don’t have an account already, you can just create a business account when you first sign up.
Your display name
Make sure you put your business name & the role of what you here. For example The Wallflower Creative | Pinterest Manager.
Choosing a friendly username
When creating or changing your account you want to make sure you have your username (which is your profile URL that appears in the internet browser bar) as something that your viewers can easily find. Mine is “thewallflowercreative” just the same as my business name.
About you
For this section, you want to use a polite, friendly tone & just briefly explain what you do & who you serve (your target audience). Try to add a CTA in there as well.
Profile picture
If your business is named after you or you have a business name please still use a picture of yourself rather than just your logo. Viewers like matching faces to the business & it can build a faster, trustworthy bond.
Also make sure you're using a full-faced, clear picture of yourself, not a pixelated picture from a weird angle. Plus try to avoid unprofessional-looking selfies as well.
Following
Start by following at least 100 influencers in your niche. It’s always good to see what your other competitor is up to & how you can learn a few tips & tricks from them.
Creating & Organising your Pinterest boards
If you haven’t got any boards yet on Pinterest, you going to want to start off with 5 -10 custom boards that need to have 15-20 pins in each. They need to have a mixture of your own original pins & other influencers relevant content to the theme of that board.
Stuck on what boards you want to create? Well, I’ll give your very first & most important board of all, your website board.
First, create a board name after your business. Second, you need to make sure that always stays as the first board on your layout. Thirdly, you need to consistently add your own blog posts or products to this board.
So what about the other boards? A great way to find out what boards you should create is finding out what your target audiences interests are. You can find that out by:
Following
There is a “Following” navigation button on Pinterest, which allows you to see what your following like. This could range from what your target audience likes, to what your competitors like to pin.
Competitors boards
I’m not saying you should be a copycat, but just look at what others in the same business as you post about, what boards of theirs have the most popular following etc.
Audience Insight.
If you already have a few followers & a Pinterest business account, you want to go over to the “Analytics” navigator & scroll down to “Audience Insight”.
Here you can find out what categories & interests they like, what specific things they like in
those categories, what age group they are, what devices they use & where they come from
You can then base your boards around your audience.
Rich Keyword Research
If you know a little about SEO, then you should know keywords play an important part in regards to search engines, because it’s the only way search engines know what your content is about.
On Google, keywords influence & rank what appears in searches & it’s the same with Pinterest.
While the pin quality & content quality tell Pinterest what & how important your pins are, keywords tell Pinterest what the pin is about.
So how can you use keywords on your Pinterest?
Well, luckily for you I’ve made a special freebie called “Pinterest SEO Survival Guide”. It’ll help you put keywords in the best places on your Pinterest profile.
To get the freebie just sign up for the wallflower squad newsletter below & it’ll be in your inbox in no time.
Optimise your website
Make sure that when you have a website you need to do these two things:
Connect your Pinterest account to your website so people can access your Pinterest through your site easier.
Enable the share button on your content like blog posts, products, gallery images & album pages. That way visitors can share your content with their followers.
Pinterest tag is Pinterest's analytics tool that tracks visitor actions on your site after seeing your Promoted Pins. The Pinterest tag requires a piece of JavaScript code that you put on your website.
To learn more about the Pinterest Tag click on the link here to find out more.
Designing Click-worthy Pins
To understand how to design click-worthy pins we need to break down the anatomy of a pin to see what you really need to focus on.
Size matters
According to Pinterest, they recommend a 2:3 ratio so 1000px x 1500px up to 1000px x 2100px. The minium size you can go though is 600 x 900 pixels
Text matters
Use simple & clear typefaces, use only a handful of words but make them enticing & try to place the text on a clear background. If you haven’t got a clear background try to use a backdrop behind the words instead.
Where to create pins.
Personally, I recommend Canva which is a graphic-design tool. You can create anything from social media posts, blog posts, logo’s & a lot more. Plus Canva can recommend the best sizes for your posts without you trying to figure them out for ages.
As an alternative, you can also use Photoshop if you feel more comfortable designing posts there.
What colours to use
Pins with a mixture of dominant colours are reported to get 3.25 re-pins than pins with one single dominant colour. When choosing stock photos try to keep them bright with a contrast of dominant colours & remember to keep the images upbeat for your audience.
Read more about pin design here - How to design slay-worthy pins that convert
Pin Descriptions
The max length you are allowed to write on your pin description is 500 characters. Your pin description is probably the second thing viewers see after clicking on your pin.
So you need to make sure that you're telling your audience WHAT they can get out of your product/blog post, HOW will it benefit them & WHY should they be interested. But most importantly use Pinterest keywords as much as you can.
You don’t need to fill the whole 500 characters because you can easily write around 100 characters. That should be enough to explain what the product or article is about.
Social Engagement
Now this one is hella important. Social engagement is what’s going to help your content spread & make connections within your niche. So here’s what you need to do:
Gaining a Following
Whether you're on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or whatever, start spreading the word that you're on Pinterest. If you want more of a following on there, then let people know.
One way you can advertise yourself on Pinterest is on your Instagram or Facebook story. Just drop your profile or username on there or if you are lucky & have a following over 10,000, you can add a link on your story to take them to your Pinterest.
Find Pinterest group boards
Those are in your niche. One way to find new boards is by going to your competitor's profile & seeing what boards their involved in & seeing if the board is open for new members. Then you've got a new group board to join.
Also, you want to make sure you when you are in a group board you stick to board rules & post at between 1-3 pins a day in each one.
Tailwind Communities
Communities is on Tailwind which is a scheduling tool that helps you post your content to Pinterest & Instagram. Communities basically do the same thing as group boards do. You join communities that are a part of your niche & share your content as long as you share others.
Communities are the new IT thing more so than group boards in my opinion & is a great place to earn more exposure & connections to other business owners in your field. Sign up here for Tailwind communities today!
Inviting other influencers
To collaborate with you on a group board or Tailwind communities to help you grow a following & gain more exposure.
Pinning Often
The recurring question that everybody always asks - how many times should I be pinning a day?
In my opinion, you should try pinning at least 5 - 15 pins a day. Sounds like a lot, right? To be fair, it is, but that’s as much as you need to start getting on that “Smart Feed”, a.k.a the home page.
How do I know it works? Head on over to my article How using Pinterest made my client’s website go viral & you can see the results for yourself.
Another way to check to see if you're building a following & getting more traffic is to use Pinterest Analytics. It can show you how many views your profile gets, how many save your pins, scroll by pins & the number of visitors who click on your pins to go to your website.
Google Analytics
What is Google Analytics? It’s a FREE analytics software that can tell you some pretty, saucy statistics. It is a great piece of software that can help you get a better understanding of your customers interests.
It can be very useful for seeing how much traffic your pins are driving & how it's converting visitors into subscribers or clients.
Google Analytics is a great way to show you the traffic you're getting from pins that were saved by others and so does Pinterest Analytics so it’s great to check both.
So, whether you’re a blogger, or an online creative business & you want to learn a more in-depth truth about your traffic, then install Google Analytics today to see where you can improve your results.
In conclusion
Now that you have more knowledge & an idea of what tools to use, it’s time to start SEO proofing your Pinterest. So what are you waiting for? Go finesse the hell out of your Pinterest & start building your very own business empire today!
