Pinterest Keyword Research

As a beginner to Pinterest marketing, you’ve likely heard about keywords and how they are used on the platform. This post dives into the following questions:

What are keywords?
Why are keywords important?
How to perform keyword research?
Where to put keywords on Pinterest?

Mastering a deep understanding of how keywords are used on Pinterest will ultimately lead your ideal customers directly to your content. Keywords are a non-negotiable part of a sound Pinterest strategy.

What are Pinterest keywords?

Keywords in Pinterest are words and phrases that identify what the piece of content is about. Think of keywords as the who and the what of a particular pin.

For example, for my specific niche I may at times use the keyword home organization to describe my content. I may also use a narrow keyword such as pantry organization. Using a variety of broad and narrow keywords is useful depending on the business objective.

A keyword phrase is a series of words to describe my content such as home organization tips for busy moms.

Why are keywords important?

Using keywords in your Pinterest content is important because it is used to tell Pinterest important information.

Keywords help Pinterest identify what the nature of the pin is about. When Pinterest’s algorithm understands what your content shares, Pinterest can better index your content correctly and quickly, which then allows your content to be returned in appropriate searches.

The alignment of your keywords to Pinterest’s understanding of your content is important so that your content is shared to your ideal customer who wants to learn more about that specific subject matter.

If there is a misalignment of your content subject matter to how Pinterest understands it, this can cause an incorrect categorization which results in your content being distributed to the wrong audience or worse yet, not being shown at all.

This is especially frustrating when you as the content creator spend time to create the content which then isn’t shared with those you were meant to serve.

Keywords are the bridge for your content to reach the right audience.

How to keyword research

Let’s learn how to build bridges. Building bridges involves research. To be successful at helping Pinterest understand your content we perform keyword research in a variety of different ways. Not one way is sufficient in order to formulate the correct words and phrases to reach your ideal customer.

Combining multiple research options helps to formulate a well-rounded keyword strategy. Also note that there is an element of trial and error here. Testing the keywords you selected to use in research gives you more data points. Up until that point, the keywords found in your research are only guesses.

So put your guesses to the test. It’s the only way to know what will truly work.

There are many different ways to perform keyword research both paid and unpaid. My focus here are some free ways to find your keywords.

Pinterest Search Bar

Use the search bar in Pinterest to identify words and phrases that you would use to search for your content. This is a great starting point because you can actively see what pins show up in the search results. View the pins and analyze why those particular pins came up in the search.

Use search engine search bar

Alternately you can also use other search engines to perform keyword research.

I recommend that you take a look at Google. Put in your keywords in the Google search bar and see what other words and phrases are returned by Google.

The search results indicate frequently searched keywords and phrases. While it’s not known the frequency of how often the term is searched, by showing up in the search bar it’s safe to know that the terms are widely and commonly used.

While Google may be the first search engine that comes to mind, don’t forget about the power of YouTube as a search engine. Using YouTube’s search function can also lead to relevant and useful keyword terms and phrases.

Key areas to include your keywords

Now that you know how to get started with free keyword research tools, let’s dig into where to put these keywords.

The short answer is to put those keywords everywhere.

And I’m not joking.

Remember that Pinterest is a visual search engine. That means that it relies on Pinterest SEO to understand content on the platform.

If you haven’t heard the term Pinterest Search Engine Optimization, it’s a fancy phrase that speaks to optimizing your Pinterest profile so that you attract your ideal customer through visuals and keywords on the platform.

On all pin types there are several places to strategically insert your keywords so that your content is optimized on Pinterest.

Pinterest Pin Title

Each pin type has a title. This is one of the most important places to put relevant keywords.

It’s also the first place that users will look to learn more about your pin when it is found while searching on Pinterest. Both Pinterest and the user will reference the title to understand more about what is in the pin. That is why the title is so important to get right when publishing pins on the platform.

Pinterest Pin Description

Another spot where the keywords are especially important is the pin description. This field which can hold a maximum of 500 characters (including spaces) is where the user could add relevant keyword rich content to convey to both Pinterest and the ideal customer more about the pin subject matter.

The description alone can be what draws the audience in to take a closer look and ultimately head to the destination URL associated to the pin. If you are sending your audience to your own website and offers, that’s how you make conversions.

Conclusion

Using Pinterest keywords may be the most important aspect of your Pinterest marketing strategy. When done optimally, keywords have the ability to create a direct line between you and your ideal customer. Start building the bridges so that your audience can freely walk across and greet you with conversions and sales.

Want to apply my strategy to your Pinterest account? I’ve got a free resource to help. Please click on the button below to grab my Pinterest Account Checklist.

The checklist includes all the things I did to grow my audience from 31 to over 200,000 followers in nine months. My strategy works and I know it can also work for you so that you reach those you were meant to serve.

Southern California based Professional Organizer, Sandy Park, owner and founder of Tidy with SPARK shares her joy of organization with her clients.

She serves clients in Orange County as well as the hundreds of thousands of followers on her combined social media platforms.

Connect with Sandy through her website or by connecting through her social channels.