How to Optimize Pinterest Content for Search and Get More Views
Pinterest users use the social media channel to shop, organize, and plan future purchases. They are not averse to being marketed to and majority have made a purchase from something they saw in a Pin. There are two very important things you can do to optimize your Pinterest account and prepare it for marketing to shoppers. The first is to convert to a free Pinterest – Get a Free Pinterest Business Accountbusiness Pinterest account if you have not already done so. Pinterest for business accounts have been the focus of many of my recent posts and videos. I’ve spent a lot of time lately talking about Pinterest for business accounts. Converting to one, which is fast and free by the way, gives you all the features that are available to business users like free analytics, scheduled Pins, paid advertisements called Promoted Pins, and the ability to upload video Pins. Plus you’ll also be able to claim your Instagram, Etsy, and YouTube accounts on Pinterest and connect Pinterest to your RSS Feed email campaingns. The second important step is to optimize all your Pins for text and image searches. Optimizing for search with clear images or videos that convey your marketing message are crucial for success on Pinterest.
How Do I Optimize My Pins on Pinterest?
Optimizing a Pinterest Pin has several meanings. Pins are returned in Google searches. Search engine optimization, abbreviated as SEO, is the practice of optimizing images and text so they may be found in online searches. Businesses are usually focused on Google search results and can spend a lot of their resources optimizing for Google SEO. But Pinterest has a variety of other ways to be found by shoppers including visual queries, in-app text search, and Google searches too.
When I Google for something like “cute summer outfits” Pinterest Pins appear as images in the search results page, often in the first row. Pin titles also often appear on the first page of text search results pages. Optimizing Pinterest for Google SEO includes naming the board for the search phrase that you want to be found for. When I query for “cute summer outfits” all the boards that turned up in the top twenty results were named for the keyword phrase.
Businesses should also optimize the text that appears beneath a Pin image so users can find products during Pinterest searches. Optimizing text means giving the Pin a meaningful title containing relevant keywords. If you don’t give your Pin a title, Pinterest will use the first 40 or 50 characters and set the title for you. A title is something you want to control and use it to grab viewers’ attention. You should optimize Pin text fields to give your product or brand every opportunity to be found.
Use as much of the text description below the Pin as possible. Each Pin has 500 characters to work with. If you are using a carousel Pin, each image can a unique description and link. The Pin descriptions should contain keywords relevant to the product and the action you want users to take.
Optimize Pinterest Content for More Exposure
Pinterest search is more than just optimizing text for keyword searches. There are other search features that center around image recognition. Pinterest offers many options for visual search and the key to accessing them is to start off with a clear image. Your graphics, photos, and videos must be sharp so image recognition software can catalogue the contents. While your creatives must be recognizable by image search engines, they must also still be appealing to Pinterest users. Images that show off your product or your brand in a way that users can understand how it works for them, how it fits into their lifestyle, and how to shop for it work well.
Pinterest Image Optimization
Pinterest images must be sharp and meaningful. That means no blurry images or obscure messaging. They need to convey your marketing message quickly to gain engagement in a busy newsfeed. If you’re using Promoted Pins make sure you’re not paying for clicks that don’t convert. With Pinterest’s one-tap Promoted Pins, the user has little time to understand your marketing message. Because of this, it is important that your images convey a marketing message that educates to consumer and deters those who are not interested. Overlays can help with this.
Pinterest Visual Search
Pinterest also has a visual search tool. It appears as a rectangular target that users can drag across a Pin image to search for more Pins with that same targeted portion of the image. If all or part of your image is blurry or intentionally unfocused (like depth of field portraits are) then you may be missing out on visual search benefits.
Pinterest Lens
The Pinterest Lens is a mobile camera app for both personal and business accounts. Pinners can take a photo of an object and search for similar images on Pinterest. Pinterest image search will find other Pins that contain the same image captured in your camera lens. The Lens app is supposedly for lifestyle and fashion Pins, but I took a photo of a Gatorade bottle and Pinterest showed me Product Pins to help me buy more Gatorade.
Top categories for lens searches are the typical Pinterest popular favorites: Fashion, Home Decor, Recipes, Cute animals, Health and Beauty, followed by vehicles and travel.
Product Pins
Product Pins, formerly Buyable Pins, have additional data on the Pin that gives a Pinterest user shopping options and pricing. Again a clear image that can be used with visual search and combined with the data of a Product Pin. Combinations of multiple search and shopping features can give your Pins a higher chance of converting.
Shop the Look Pins
Pinterest’s Shop the Look is yet another visual shopping tool. Shop the Look Pins have multiple white dots on top of the images. Users can tap the dots to shop for the product. Although, Shop the Look is supposed to be only for fashion Pins, it works on other products too. I use it for books. Once only for large brands, small businesses can tag their products too. Tagging products increases my Pin clicks by a factor of seven, sometimes more.
Be RePinnable
Make your Pins repinnable. Encourage other Pinterest users to share your content. If you’re using Promoted Pins once they are shared with someone else’s board they become an organic (or free) Pin. So encourage your followers to share your Pins. To be repinnable use background colors. Never leave a white background behind the product or focal point of your Pin.
