Digital Marketing Mastery: Insights, Strategies, and Tactics for Success

How to Use Pinterest for SEO

both of pinterest logo
Pinterest logo

Pinterest is one of the hottest online social hangouts right now. People use it to find ideas on what to fix for dinner, ways to recycle household objects, ideas for arts and crafts projects and a multitude of other ideas. But Pinterest can also be used to create interest in a website, or to encourage users to participate with your brand. Pinterest is built around a social environment which shares common interests which in SEO terms translates into backlinks; but very valuable backlinks because they are relevant and “worth” more in the search engine algorithms for ranking sites. There are some specific strategies that can be used:

The Basics of Using Social Media for SEO

Pinterest is a social media site just like Facebook or Twitter. It is essential to use the same type of online social etiquette used on these other sites. For instance, when a user follows you on Pinterest it is important to follow them back. Comments on your posts should also be reciprocated by making comments on as well as liking their pins. It is equally important to make other web content easy to share on the Pinterest platform by adding its share buttons to content on your site or business blog.  There are also several SEO strategies that are unique to Pinterest.

Pinterest Business Accounts

Late last year, Pinterest launched their business accounts which allowed users to register for a business account. With the business setup it is easier to get a site verified, add Pinterest widgets and buttons to the company blog or site and add links to both your Facebook and Twitter accounts. One of the most important aspects of optimizing a Pinterest business account is to use a straightforward name. The field in which the company name is entered can contain any number of characters, but usernames are limited to only 15 characters which can be challenging for those whose business name will not fit. In these cases choose a straightforward name that is obviously related to your business.

All Important Backlinks

Backlinks are an essential part of an SEO campaign. Pinterest has “nofollow” links which will not count as much when calculating SEO worth. However, the traffic generated is very valuable. Always include the reference link with pins and if you when you are re-pinning a post that is featuring your product or content you can edit the description and add a full link. It is important to not shorten the URL as Pinterest is known for marking pins that have shortened links as spam. By including a link to your site it will help reinforce the association with your brand as well as open up the pathway for more purchases.

Optimizing On Pinterest

In order to bring in long term SEO traffic, image titles or descriptions should be optimized. The title of an image and its caption are the only information that a user will get. For this reason, it is very important to use very clear descriptions as it’s the only context that the potential customer will see. By adding a solid description of the pin it will give a user a good reason to click through which can also lead to even more re-pins which will help to increase your visibility greatly.

You can also optimize your page’s “about” section on Pinterest. In this section you have about 200 characters to use so use it wisely. This is plenty of room to place an overview that is key word rich. You can succinctly tell who you are and what you do. And if you are really good you can get your URL added in too.

 

 

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