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Search Optimize Your Pin Descriptions with Keywords

Day 9 of 31 Days to a Better Pinterest Page

Welcome to day 9 of the 31 Days to a Better Pinterest Page. For day 9 I’m going to discuss search optimizing your pin descriptions with keywords, search terms people use, and making the most out of your pin descriptions. Keywords are search terms that people use.

I want to make it clear, that keywords are just a small factor in Pinterest’s search algorithm, it is not the only aspect of optimization that matters.

One of the ways for new users and potential customers to discover what you sell is through Pinterest search. It’s a similar mind set to the way that people search on Google. When people search on Google there’s a certain intent, and that intent, depending on what’s being searched, could lead to a sale.

One of the ways to help you rank higher in Pinterest’s search results for pins is by ensuring that you place keywords into the pin’s description. This will increase the chances of your pins being found for that particular search term.

I typed into the search box under pins for the term “wedding dress mermaid.” This is one of the pins that showed up in the search results. While the keyword in the description is not exact, it uses the keyword wedding dresses mermaid, it’s very similar.

Wedding Dress Mermaid

By ensuring that you put your keyword in the pin description it helps with Pinterest search results. Other factors that play a role include whether it is a rich pin, shapes, and colors within the pin itself, a number of repins the pin receives, and the previous number of pins that have come from that specific url.


Pinterest Tip

If you’re wondering what type of search terms people are searching for on Pinterest, go to the search box on the desktop version of Pinterest and start typing in a search term such as, lamps. If you wait for two second you’ll get an automated list of popular search terms people look for on Pinterest.


Keywords are Important in Pinterest Guided Search Results

If you feel that Pinterest has a lot of different types of search engines, it’s because they do. On mobile Pinterest apps, you can use Guided Search to help you discover new Pinterest content.

How Guided Search works, is that as you start typing in search terms on your mobile device, Pinterest will also make suggestions of other search terms to add to help you find more relevant search results.

For example, when I type in Vancouver, other words such as Canucks, Aquarium, and Island pop up. Guided Search helps users discover content unexpectedly.

All of a sudden they were typing in Vancouver, but are now curious about the Aquarium, so they add that term into their search result.

This leads them to a whole new set of results for Vancouver Aquarium.

This is why it’s important to have descriptions that are not just using one keyword, but having similar keywords.

To find out what type of words others associate with a single keyword, start typing it in on the search and see what other words that pop up that you can use in your pin descriptions.


Keywords in Pin Descriptions Can Help with Google Search Results

Adding keywords can also be helpful in Google for extremely niched search terms. At the time of this writing, I typed in the search term “Day 8 of 31 Days to a Better Pinterest Page.” And this was the fourth result shown to me on the first page of Google search results. It’s a pin that I had pinned onto a group board.

31 Days to a Better Pinterest Page Pin


Adding Your Website to Pinterest Descriptions

The beautiful aspect about Pinterest descriptions is that websites are clickable on the desktop version of Pinterest, though they aren’t clickable on the mobile apps.

By adding your website at the end of the description, viewers on the desktop version can click on it without the need to double click on the pin itself to go back to your website. However, if you have a long and ugly url that’s filled with squibbles and squabbles, then I suggest not putting it in.

Also, don’t add generic url shorteners like bit.ly or goo.gl to your descriptions. They don’t work. You will see some companies that have customized short urls like BuzzFeed and Hubspot and their shorteners do work.

Have a Click Through Action

While Pinterest focuses on discovery and inspiration, it’s also a great place to go window shopping. Don’t be afraid to add call to actions to your pin descriptions, though you shouldn’t over do it. Look at your pins from a customer perspective.

If what you saw on your Pinterest page was from another business would you keep looking at their pins if everything was about buy buy buy. Or would you be more receptive if they offered great resources, and had the occasional sales message?

Optimizing Your Pin Description Lengths

According to Dan Zarella, he found that pin descriptions that had about 300-350 characters in their pin descriptions has the most number of average repins. However, it’s a bit tricky because if you’re just over or under it can result in dramatic drop in the average repins which is quite interesting.

For the most consistent results in terms of getting more repins, it’s best to have a character limit between 100 – 200 characters.

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Day 9 Actionable Step:

Take the time to look over the last ten pins that you pinned from your website, or that link back to your website. Are they filled with keywords that people would look for on Pinterest? If not, take the time to change them so that they are keyword rich.


Additional Resource:

Want the encyclopaedia of Pinterest statistics, check out 120 stats about Pinterest. It will blow your mind.

What are some ways that Pinterest descriptions can be improve to help serve potential customers better? I would love to hear your thoughts, please share them in the comments.

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Written by Vincent NG

I’m a social media marketer, particularly for Pinterest, It all started back in 2010 when Pinterest was in beta. It was the fastest independent website to get 10 million unique visitors in the U.S. This really struck a chord with me, and it was then that I knew that Pinterest was going to be a powerhouse in the world of digital and social media marketing.