Your essential guide to organic marketing on Pinterest

What is Pinterest? 

The days of organic reach on social media might be disappearing, but that’s not the case for Pinterest. In fact, it’s exploding in popularity and offering businesses valuable opportunities to reach and engage with new, high-intent audiences using organic content.

More marketers and brands are realizing the potential of Pinterest to boost search engine rankings, drive valuable website traffic and build brand salience.

Pinterest isn’t just another social media platform.  While it’s often lumped into the social media category, Pinterest’s goal is to be a place of inspiration, rather than social networking.

A more accurate definition would be to call Pinterest a visual search and discovery engine. Here’s how the platform works: users can search, save and curate visual content (known as Pins) and add these Pins to a digital inspiration or mood Board. The entire platform is built on shareable, saveable visuals that can easily be discovered by users across the globe via their Home Feed.

One of the key features of Pinterest is the search ability of its content.

Unlike other visual-focused media platforms, Pinterest acts as a search engine where users can easily scout out new content based on specific keywords. Plus, each Pin includes clickable links that direct users to learn more (or even buy specific products) on the brand’s website.

While Pinterest has been around since 2010, it’s only just gaining significant traction now. The platform currently boasts 459 million monthly active users. That’s the biggest jump in usage that the platform has ever seen.

This offers a huge opportunity for brands and businesses to boost their search ranking and increase web traffic by sharing engaging, high-quality visual content on Pinterest.

How is Pinterest Different? 

While Pinterest and Instagram are both built on visual content – it’s a paradise for visual marketers, but that’s where the similarities of these platforms end.

In the words of Pinterest’s founders, they see the platform as a “catalog that’s handpicked for user“, giving users the ability to discover, save and curate visual content with ease.

In fact, the team behind Pinterest have been making a very deliberate decision to distance themselves from other social media platforms. Instead, the focus is to give users a place to save what’s useful and inspiring to them.

So, what exactly makes Pinterest different from other platforms?

• Focuses on finding ideas and inspiration, not documenting and sharing what users are doing with their network of friends and followers.

• Allows users to search for visual content using handy keywords, rather than scrolling through an endless algorithm-focused news feed.

Why should my business support Pinterest? 

• Pinterest offers significant organic opportunities

• Pinterest offers powerful SEO Benefits

  • Pinterest acts more like a search engine than a social platform, which means there’s stacks of SEO opportunities up for grabs. In fact, Google loves Pinterest and frequently places Pinterest pages at the top of search results (including SERP features and Google Image search results).

  • 75% of Pinterest users say they’re “very interested” in discovering new products, in contrast to 55% on other digital channels. By optimizing your Pins and Boards for your target keywords, you can easily reach new, high-intent users who are hunting for the products & services you offer.

  • Pinterest offers valuable opportunities to drive traffic to your website. Every Pin you share offers multiple clickable links, allowing you to easily move users from inspiration to action.

• Pinterest leverages visual search for marketing better than any other platform

  • Pinterest offers a unique opportunity for users to search for visual content. As a visual discovery engine, brands are able to reach valuable new audiences using keywords and skillful SEO-friendly best practices.

  • And if you’re trying to reach younger customers, Pinterest offers incredible opportunities. Pinterest Gen Z users grew 40% between 2019 to 2020 plus millennial audiences grew 35% in 2020 alone.

  • And these audiences are craving new ways to discover brands and products, with 62% of Gen Zers and millennials say they’d like to be able to search by image.

Leveraging Pinterest SEO for organic discoverability

Pinterest’s search engine capabilities are one of its strongest points of difference. This powerful visual discovery engine allows brands to organically reach new audiences and build meaningful brand awareness.

Unlike other platforms, Pinterest’s Home Feed is curated for users based on the kind of content they’ve recently searched for and saved. That offers incredible scope for brands to reach high-intent audiences who are already interested in and searching for topics related to your businesses.

So, how can you boost the discoverability of your Pins and Boards with SEO-friendly content?

• Conduct keyword research on Pinterest: start searching for keywords related to your business in Pinterest and see what recommended terms come up. This is an easy way to understand what popular terms you can try to rank for and inject into your content.

• Optimize your Pinterest Boards: did you know that Boards show up in Pinterest search results? That’s why it’s important to ensure your Board name and description uses SEO-friendly keywords to boost your chances of organic discovery.

• Optimize your Pins: the title of your Pins is one of the most important spots for SEO on Pinterest, so make sure to pepper in relevant keywords and keep this copy short, sharp and relevant (in under 100 characters).

  • Plus, your Pin descriptions are valuable real estate you need to optimize to boost your SEO. While you have 500 characters to play with, make sure to focus on adding keywords to the first 50-60 characters (as this is the preview text “pinners” will see in their Home Feed).

• Use Rich Pins: as we mentioned, Rich Pins offer extra opportunity to inject keywords into your Pinterest content. These Pins sync information from your website into your Pins, and allows you to drive users to your website, too. These Pin formats are free, but you’ll need to apply through Pinterest to access them. Currently, there are three types of Rich Pins:

• Product Pins: these Pins draw on metadata from your website and include the most current price, availability and product information directly from your site. These Pins are a great way to drive shoppers to your website to boost the likelihood of conversion.

• Recipe Pins: these Pins allow you to add the title, serving size, cooking time, ratings and ingredients from your website, with plenty of extra spots to inject SEO keywords.

• Article Pins: these Pins let you show the headline, description and the author of your latest blog posts on Pinterest. This enables you to re-share SEO-friendly blog content to Pinterest and allow these keywords you’ve used to boost your searchability.

Kicking off a Pinterest Strategy

Ready to put your newfound Pinterest knowledge into action? Now, it’s time to turn your attention to crafting an organic Pinterest strategy that will help you drive the best results from this platform.

Pinpoint your marketing objectives for Pinterest

Like any marketing platform, Pinterest requires a unique set of goals to ensure it’s serving a specific purpose for your business. Before you begin posting content to Pinterest, make sure to clarify your objectives and why you’re using this platform in the first place.

Some goals you might consider could be to:

The key here is to be specific about what objectives are most valuable to your business, and use these to inform your content marketing strategy for Pinterest.

Optimize your website for Pinterest

Pinterest offers incredible search engine opportunities and has the potential to drive high-intent users straight to your website. However, it’s important to check your website is optimized to perform at its best for Pinterest users.

Here are three actionable steps you can take:

Ensure your website is mobile responsive: 85% of Pinners use their mobile app, so make sure your website is responsive to mobile user traffic.

Install the Pinterest Save button to your website: this allows your website visitors to save content straight from your site to Pinterest, boosting your chances of organic discovery.

Confirm your website: this ensures you receive analytics from the Pins you publish from your site.

Conduct keyword research on Pinterest

As Pinterest operates as a search engine, it’s valuable to use its search functionality to optimize your content strategy.

By completing a keyword research, you’ll be able to understand what key terms Pinners are searching for and build these into your Pinterest content.

Simply use the search function on Pinterest to search for key terms related to your business, and create a list of related terms you can leverage for your upcoming content. Keep this list on hand and update it regularly to ensure you’re capitalizing on new topics and emerging keyword trends.

Design Pinterest boards aligned to your target keywords

Speaking of keywords, these popular phrases can be used to inform the boards you create as a business on Pinterest.

By designing your content pillars and boards around popular keywords, you’ll be able to effectively curate your content and reach new audiences who will be interested in your content.

Make sure to clearly name your boards using these keywords to maximize the benefits of your keyword research (and boost your chances of appearing in the search results).

Create a Pinterest content calendar

The key to gaining traction as a business on Pinterest is to show up consistently and frequently. To keep your audience engaged and growing, a content calendar for Pinterest can help you plan your posts in advance. Plus, this document will ensure every Pin you share is tailored to a marketing objective and target keyword.

When planning out your content for Pinterest, make sure to:

• Focus on high-quality visual content: as Pinterest is a visual-first platform, be sure to share a mix of branded imagery and custom graphics that showcase your brand’s visual identity.

• Educate and teach your audience something new: 84% of Pinners say that Pinterest helps them learn new things, so design your content to educate your audience. Think about creating how-to tutorials, educational videos and insightful infographics that showcase and share your industry expertise.

• Inspire your audience with aspirational content: give Pinners a reason to follow and engage with your content by sharing visual inspiration relevant to your industry (whether that be travel, interiors, style or anything in between).

The best way to be sure that your content is consistent, and your audience is growing, is to plan & schedule your Pinterest content. You can start scheduling your Pinterest Pins with Sked Social. Start a free 7 day trial, and if you like what you see, take 50% off your first month with code SKED50.

All the organic Pinterest format specs you’ll ever need

Now we’ve got your creative juices flowing, let’s chat about the specs and guidelines you’ll need to work with across all Pinterest content formats.

• Static Pins: single image only

  • File Type: PNG or JPEG

  • Max file size: 20 MB

  • Aspect ratio: 2:3 is recommended (1000 x 1500 pixels)

  • Title copy: up to 100 characters

  • Description copy: up to 500 characters

• Standard Width Video Pins: same size as a Static Pin

  • File Type: mp4, mov or m4v

  • Encoding: H.264 or H.265

  • Max file size: up to 2GB

  • Video length: minimum 4 seconds up to a maximum of 15 minutes

  • Aspect ratio: square (1:1) or vertical (2:3 or 9:16) is recommended

  • Title copy: up to 100 characters

  • Description copy: up to 500 characters

• Carousel Pins: features multiple images users can swipe through

  • File Type: PNG or JPEG

  • Max file size: up to 32 MB per image

  • Creative Quantity: 2 to 5 images per carousel

  • Aspect ratio: square (1:1) or vertical (2:3) is recommended

  • Title copy: up to 100 characters

  • Description copy: up to 500 characters

It all starts with a single pin

We’ve designed 10 Pinterest cover templates to get your started! They’re free and customizable. All you have to do is follow this link to start editing your Pins with Canva.

So, there you have it. When it comes to organic Pinterest marketing, it’s all about understanding how to optimize your content for reach and discoverability. By harnessing the power of visual storytelling and curating your Pinterest content for maximum discoverability, you can capitalize on the benefits of this visual search engine. High-intent users are ready and waiting to hear from your brand on Pinterest – it’s just a question of whether you’re showing up to engage and convert them.

The best way to be sure that your content is consistent and your audience is growing, is to plan & schedule your Pinterest content. You can start scheduling your Pinterest Pins with Sked Social. Start a free 7 day trial, and if you like what you see, take 50% off your first month with code SKED50.