Pinterest Keyword Research: The Ultimate Guide (To Grow Blog Traffic)

So you’re looking for an easy Pinterest keyword research guide to find the best Pinterest keywords to grow your website traffic?

You’re in the right place.

What if I told you that you can find the best, most powerful Pinterest keywords in just 1 minute to drive massive traffic to your blog faster?

When it comes to building a solid Pinterest marketing strategy for your blog, you MUST understand how important Pinterest keywords are to your success. But there is a right way to use keywords on Pinterest — but also a wrong way to do it.

But where should you start? If you’re new to Pinterest keyword research, how do you know if you’re doing it right?

Ever since I started using Pinterest for website traffic, I’ve perfected my strategies by testing hundreds of Pinterest keyword hacks and Pinterest marketing techniques on my clients’ accounts. I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t, and I know how to find the best keywords in just a few minutes.

In this post, I’ll walk you through 3 simple, quick, and free Pinterest keyword techniques you can use right away to grow your blog traffic faster.

Let’s go!

Related posts:

• Pinterest SEO Guide: The Ultimate Strategy for Easy Blog Traffic
• What to Blog About? Find Blog Post Topics That Generate Traffic

Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links, meaning I receive a commission if you decide to purchase using my links, but at no additional cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more information.

What are Pinterest keywords?

So, hold on, what are Pinterest keywords exactly?

Keywords are specific words and search queries Pinterest users in your blog niche use to find the content they’re searching for.

For instance, if someone’s searching for “vegan chocolate cookie recipe”, Pinterest will go through every pin ever published on the platform and return the best results. And by best results, I mean the most relevant pins.

In short, keywords are simply an efficient way to organize content. They help Pinterest understand what your blog posts are about. That way, the search algorithm can match them with the users who are interested in your content.

Keyword targeting is a way to add context to your pins. They help Pinterest understand what your pin and your blog post are about and what you have to offer.

The Pinterest algorithm will then determine which users are interested in your content and distribute your pins to them.

Needless to say, you want to use relevant keywords that match your audience’s search intent. You don’t want to trick the algorithm by using popular Pinterest keywords just to attract views and clicks on your pins.

How can you grow your blog traffic with Pinterest?

Now, how can you master Pinterest keyword research to grow your blog traffic faster?

Finding and using relevant keywords on Pinterest isn’t rocket science. Once you understand the basics, you can use the right keywords in the right places and your traffic will increase faster than you expect.

It’s been years, but when I started using my Pinterest SEO techniques with the right keywords for my blog, I managed to double my traffic in just 6 weeks:

Although that was back in 2019, the same SEO techniques still work like a dream. I use the same strategy in my web design business to leverage my clients’ Pinterest accounts for fast organic growth.

Why?

Because Pinterest is and always will be a search engine. Therefore, search engine optimization (SEO) is the best way to gain traction on Pinterest.

I see tons of bloggers and marketing professionals make the same mistakes on Pinterest. They use it like social media, don’t see the results they expect, and give up.

Trust me, I don’t want you to be one of those bloggers.

Therefore, before we look at how you can find the best Pinterest keywords to grow your blog traffic, let’s take a moment to understand how Pinterest works under the hood. This will help you build an unbeatable Pinterest marketing strategy for your blog.

How does Pinterest work?

I’m often asked whether Pinterest works the same way as Instagram or Facebook.

Is Pinterest a social network?

To answer the question “is Pinterest social media”, you need to be mindful of how Pinterest works. Also, you need to understand how people use Pinterest.

Broadly speaking, people use Pinterest to:

1. Plan stuff for the future
2. Search and find ideas and inspiration
3. Save those ideas as pins for later use

Thus, pinners are looking for visual inspiration and ideas. When something catches their attention, they save it to their boards.

This is where Pinterest is totally different from social networks. Searching and finding interesting, helpful content and looking forward makes Pinterest unique — and oh so powerful!

For instance, think about X (Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram where a post only lives for a few hours or a couple of days. If you want to grow your reach and get organic traffic, you need to stay active and share new content every day.

But with Pinterest, instead of looking into the past or focusing on the present, people are planning stuff for the future.

Pinners are planners! They search, discover, and save it for later.

Thus, Pinterest is NOT social media. Pinterest is a visual search engine.

How does a search engine work?

If search engines feel scary and intimidating, don’t worry. I’ve built a couple of small ones myself and they’re really quite easy to understand.

What all search engines have in common is that they want to:

1. Gather as much content as possible in one place.
2. Sort that content based on its relevance to keywords.
3. Deliver the best possible content for each search query from users.

Based on this, what you want to do is to produce the best possible content for Pinterest users in your blog niche.

Let’s take a brief look at why Pinterest keywords are so important before we dive into our keyword research.

Why is Pinterest keyword research important in 2024?

Pinterest only has one goal: It wants to deliver its users the best possible content for each search query they do.

Therefore, your job is to get your content seen by the right users at the right time.

And that’s where you’ll need to do some Pinterest keyword research.

Keywords are direct indicators of what your audience wants from you. They are your best, most powerful tool for taking a peek inside your readers’ minds.

Knowing what your target audience wants is the ultimate blogging trick to provide content that will attract massive traffic.

Hence, you want to use the right keywords and phrases in your content so you can show up in their search results.

If they like your blog posts, they’re more likely to save it to their boards and share it with others.

In other words: If you want to grow your traffic using Pinterest, you need to start by knowing what your target audience wants to see.

Why you must use the right keywords on Pinterest

To distribute your pins to your target audience, Pinterest must understand what your pins and blog posts are about.

But since Pinterest is a visual search engine based on images, it works a bit differently than Google, for example.

Google actually “reads” your blog posts to determine what you’re writing about.

Pinterest only sees your pin image, the title, and the description you provide. Also, they look at your blog post but not in as much detail as Google.

Thus, you need a way to add context to the images you post on Pinterest.

Pinterest needs to understand what each pin is about.

For instance, let’s say you blog about baking. When you publish a new chocolate cake recipe and pin a beautiful photo of your delicious cake, how can Pinterest distribute your pin to the right users?

Here’s where keywords step into the game. You want Pinterest to match your pin with everyone who’s looking for the best chocolate cake recipes, right?

To have your pins displayed in the search results, you have to make sure you use the right, relevant keywords in the right places. We’ll come back to this in a minute.

Curious to learn how Pinterest decides when to show your pins to users?

Read my full Pinterest algorithm guide to learn how to improve your rankings to generate more clicks faster.

What Pinterest keywords should you use?

The best keywords for Pinterest depend on your blog niche and topic. If you’re completely new to Pinterest and you’ve never done any keyword research, tag along!

To get you started with keyword research on Pinterest, I’m walking you through two of the most powerful methods to find keywords you should use on Pinterest.

And you know what? There’s just one thing you must keep in mind with keywords on Pinterest:

You MUST put yourself in your readers’ shoes.

When you understand what’s going through your readers’ minds, you know exactly how to position your content any search engine out there.

You simply have to know what your target audience is searching for.

1. What do they need?
2. Which problems do they have?
3. What are they struggling with?

Understanding your readers will help you optimize your content to be seen by the right people in the right place.

Trust me, once you start thinking of Pinterest as a powerful search engine, you’ll automatically start creating better content for it.

With that said, let’s go through two different Pinterest keyword research methods. You can learn them right now in just a few minutes and start generating more traffic to your blog today.

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1: How to find Pinterest keywords with search queries (in 1 minute)

Seriously, this Pinterest keyword research technique will only take you 1 minute.

I’m talking about the built-in search bar on Pinterest. It’s the quickest and easiest way to find Pinterest keywords to grow your reach.

Here’s what you should do:

Step 1: How to use Pinterest search to find keywords

Start by logging in to your Pinterest account.

You’ll see a search bar at the top of your screen. Type a keyword related to your blog niche or topic into the search field and hit Enter to search.

Let’s do a quick search for “travel tips”. When you hit Enter, Pinterest will automatically show related keywords beneath the search bar:

This section is called the Pinterest Guided Search tool. These related keywords are based on long-term data about what users are searching for. You will see some changes over time, but most of the terms you see will remain the same over time.

The keywords you see on the far left are the most popular ones. Broadly speaking, they receive more search queries than the ones on the right.

However, you won’t always see these suggestions pop up for every search query you do. The more specific and granular your search query is, the less likely you are to see them.

If that happens, move on to the next method:

Our second keyword tool is the Pinterest autofill tool for search terms. It is built into the search bar on Pinterest. If you go back to the search bar and type in a keyword, you will see a dropdown selection with suggested search terms:

Hence, Pinterest will automatically suggest related keywords to autofill your search query just like Google does. Sometimes you will also see popular accounts for that keyword. (If they publish high-quality content related to your account, feel free to follow some of them.)

With the search autofill, you can easily find additional, more specific keywords that are related to your main keyword. Thus, you can use it to find more granular search queries your target audience is interested in.

These two tools should be your #1 Pinterest keyword research method this year.

It’s this easy, really!

Step 2: How to track your Pinterest keywords

To keep track of your keywords, it’s a good idea to write them down somewhere.

If you’ve never done keyword research before, just use a tool you feel comfortable with. It could be anything, like:

• Journals or notepads
• Trello boards
• Coggle mind maps
• Google Sheets
• MS Excel spreadsheets

I like working with spreadsheets, so I usually record my keywords in Google Sheets:

1. Open a new spreadsheet and create a column with your main keyword, e.g. “Gardening”.
2. Write down your related keywords in the same order as they appear on Pinterest:

Step 3: How to narrow down your search to niche keywords

If you used a high-level keyword that covers several sub-topics, you can always niche down. In other words, if you searched for “gardening”, it’s an umbrella keyword for tons of more specific ones, right?

Therefore, you may want to consider searching for more narrow keywords, or so-called long-tail keywords, too.

To do this on Pinterest, you can simply click on related keywords below the search bar.

For example, I’d assume “gardening ideas” has plenty of keywords to offer. I mean, you can find heaps of gardening ideas for different things in your garden, right?

Let’s search for “gardening ideas” on Pinterest and see what happens:

Not too bad! Apparently, lots of Pinterest users love finding new gardening ideas, like:

• Small gardening ideas
• Hippie gardening ideas
• Patio gardening ideas etc.

What we see is clear: If you plan to blog about gardening, you could narrow down your blog niche to just “gardening ideas”, for instance.

In our spreadsheet, you would create a new column with the title “Gardening Ideas” and pack all of the new related keywords there:

Step 4: Repeating the steps for more specific keywords

Depending on your blog niche, you could repeat these steps over and over again. Start with a high-level keyword and work your way to more specific, narrow ones one by one.

This will take you deeper into the blog niche with more specific search queries.

What do you think about this method? Let me know how it goes in the comments section!

2: How to do Pinterest keyword research using Pinterest Ads

For this method, you’ll need a free Pinterest business account.

If you already have one, awesome!

If not, signing up is super easy. You can either create a new Pinterest account to use as your business profile or convert your existing account to a business account.

You’ll find a detailed guide directly on Pinterest Business.

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Open Pinterest Ads

Log in to your Pinterest business account first.

Open the main navigation on the top left, and head over to Ads > Create campaign:

Step 2: Create a new campaign

Don’t worry, you don’t have to create a real campaign. We’ll just use the keyword tool to see what people are searching for.

Select Manual Campaign and click Get Started:

Step 3: Select campaign objective

Under Drive consideration, select Consideration:

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Continue.

Step 4: Select targeting strategy

On the next page, under Targeting strategy, select Find new customers:

Step 4: Feast on powerful keywords!

Now scroll down to Interests and Keywords, open the panel, select Add keywords and type in your main keyword into the search bar:

You will now see related keywords based on your main keyword, together with their estimated monthly search volumes and viewers. Let’s try searching for “dessert recipes”:

You’ll now see a bunch of related, high-traffic keywords.

At first glance, you can see heaps of popular keywords, some of them have over 5 million hits per month.

Hence, these are the best Pinterest keywords you could use for paid ad campaigns.

Pinterest wants businesses to use these keywords. They are the best, most valuable Pinterest keywords that allow businesses to achieve the desired results with their ad campaigns.

So, why not just use these Pinterest keywords right from the get-go in your content?

This Pinterest keyword tool should be your go-to keyword research tool. Use it before you create your boards, pins, and start pinning.

Where to use Pinterest keywords? Pinterest SEO 101

So far, you’ve learned three super easy methods to find powerful Pinterest keywords.

But where should you use those keywords on Pinterest?

To get started, make sure you track your keywords as we discussed above. This helps you organize them into categories. Also, you’ll find it easier to create enough Pinterest boards to cover all your blog post categories.

The most important thing with Pinterest SEO is to use your keywords strategically in your blog posts as well as on Pinterest.

Here are the five essential places where you should use keywords on Pinterest:

1. Blog post titles and meta descriptions
2. Pinterest board names and descriptions
3. Pinterest profile
4. Pin titles and descriptions
5. Pin image text overlays

Just make sure you use your keywords in a natural way. Only use keywords that are relevant to the blog post or URL each pin is linking to. The easiest way to do this is to follow these three steps:

1. Find out what your target audience wants and needs.
2. Create content that solves their problems.
3. Design and publish engaging pins using your keywords (without spamming them everywhere).

Using Pinterest to grow your blog traffic isn’t as difficult as you may think.

With just a few quick techniques, you can make sure you’ll get a fair return on the time you invest in your pinning strategy.

Want to learn more about SEO on Pinterest?

Having perfected my Pinterest SEO strategy since 2019, I’ve created the best Pinterest SEO guide out there, Smart Pinterest SEO. In this e-book, I walk you through everything you need to know about optimizing your Pinterest game for maximum traction on the platform:

This e-book is like having me sit next to you, showing you exactly what to do, when to do it, and how to get the best results. It’s a hands-on approach to perfecting your Pinterest game — as you follow along, you will learn and apply the exact same techniques I use for all my Pinterest accounts, including those of my clients.

You don’t want to miss out on this! Grab your Smart Pinterest SEO guide here.

Final thoughts: How to do Pinterest keyword research

Did you find my Pinterest keyword research techniques helpful? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Whether you’re just getting started with your blog or you’ve been blogging for a while, Pinterest keyword research is easy for anyone. 

All you need to remember is that Pinterest is a visual search engine. Basically, it works the same way as Google, but search engine optimization on Pinterest is much easier.

It all boils down to understanding your target audience. If you know what they’re looking for, you can produce valuable, targeted content to answer their questions and solve their problems.

Next, head over to my free ultimate Pinterest SEO guide for beginners to learn how to optimize everything you do on Pinterest with the latest best practices.

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