Pinterest is a visual search engine which means in order for your pins to be found on Pinterest, you need to not only create scroll stopping images (the visual part of the recipe) but, you also need to be using keywords in order to rank in search (the search part).
There are 7 main places you need to be using keywords including: display name & bio, pin title, description, and text overlay, board title and description. You can learn more about these top 7 places by heading to my latest blog.
In this post, I am sharing 2 of the best ways to find keywords on Pinterest so you can make sure your pins are actually found by users.
Pinterest Search Bar
The Pinterest search bar is by far my favorite way to perform keyword research because it is quick and easy to use.
Head over to Pinterest and start typing in a keyword that you think your audience is searching for. If I was a food blogger looking to share a butternut squash soup recipe, I would start off by searching basic keywords that my audience might be searching for, in this case “fall recipes.”
When I first start to type in “fall” you will see that I am served a variety of keywords; however, the first one is the only relevant keyword we want to target.
Fall isn’t specific enough so I am going to want to finish it out by adding the word “recipes.” Now you will see that even more words apply to my butternut squash soup recipe including “fall recipes dinner,” “fall recipes vegetarian,” and “fall recipes healthy.”
While using broad keywords are useful, you want to get even more specific. I recommend typing in exactly what you believe your ideal customer is searching for.
When I type in “butternut squash soup” I am served a ton of long-tail keywords that are highly relevant to the recipe/blog post I am creating pins for.
You will want to add these to your keyword bank.
You may want to get even MORE specific considering the fact that your soup was made with coconut milk.
If your soup doesn’t contain apple or curry make sure you do not use those keywords. The last thing you want is for someone to head to your blog post to only find a recipe that isn’t what they were looking for. Hello high bounce rate. Use only keyword words that are relevant to your content.
Once you have compiled your list of keywords you’re ready to write your pin title, description, and text overlay. I always aim to write 3-5 sentences with 5-7 keywords. You have 500 characters so maximize that space.
Pinterest Trends
The next best way to find keywords on Pinterest is to use the Pinterest trends tool. Head over to trends.Pinterest.com and once again, type in your main keywords. This tool not only tells you whether or not it is a highly searched term and when it is searched the most throughout the year, but you can also compare keywords which is by far my favorite part.
When I type in fall meals, I see that this term is search the most in October which means this is when I want to make sure I am pushing out this type of content.
You will also see the little boxes below titled “related searches” which are also great keywords to add to your keyword bank.
From there, you can type in another keyword that you think your ICA is searching for to see how it compares.
As you can see, fall recipes beats fall meals by a landslide which indicates that most of your consumers are searching that term rather than fall meals. Even though one far out ranks the other, it still may be wise to use both search terms.
So there you have it, my top two favorite ways to find keywords on Pinterest. If you are looking to learn more about how to do this on your own, schedule a free discovery call today.