When it comes to growing your blog traffic with Pinterest, 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.
What if I told you that you can find the best, most powerful Pinterest keywords in just 30 seconds to drive massive traffic to your blog faster?
It’s true! Keywords play a huge role in building a solid Pinterest strategy for your blog. And they’re super easy to find!
But where should you start? If you’ve never done keyword research before, how do you know if you’re doing it right?
Even if you’re 100% new to Pinterest keywords, don’t worry!
In this post, I’ll reveal two simple techniques you can use right now to grow your blog traffic fast. They’re easy and quick, and I’ll walk you through both of them step by step.
Oh, did I mention both methods are 100% free? Ok, great. Let’s get started!
Here are a few related articles you may want to read, too:
- Pinterest SEO Guide: The Ultimate Strategy for Easy Blog Traffic
- What to Blog About? Find Blog Post Topics That Generate Traffic
- How to Start a WordPress Blog on Bluehost in 30 Minutes: Step-by-Step Tutorial
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 in their index and return the best results. And by “best”, 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 and match them with the users who are interested in your content.
What Pinterest keywords are NOT:
Keyword targeting is a way to add context to your pins. They’re a way to help Pinterest understand what your pin and your blog post are about and what you have to offer.
Now, keywords aren’t there to game the Pinterest search engine.
Even if you find tons of great keywords, make sure you only use relevant keywords in your pins.
You don’t want to trick Pinterest users to click through to your blog only to find something they’re not looking for.
Thus, you want to use keywords wisely to ensure that the right users find your content.
Alright, let’s move on to how you can grow your blog traffic with Pinterest next.
How can you grow your blog traffic with Pinterest?
Now, how can you make good use of keywords on Pinterest to use the platform to grow your blog traffic quickly?
Finding and using relevant keywords on Pinterest isn’t rocket science. Really, you just need to understand a few basics and you can start pinning your content with the right keywords and see your traffic increase faster than you think.
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:
However, I was spending too much time tweaking my pins and figuring out when to pin new content.
To save time, I invested a few bucks in a Pinterest scheduler called Tailwind to automate my pins.
You can give Tailwind a try and schedule 100 pins for free here.
But the thing is:
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 right 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 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:
- Plan stuff for the future
- Search and find ideas and inspiration
- Save those ideas as pins for later use
Thus, pinners are looking for visual inspiration and ideas.
And 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 Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Each post and tweet only lives for a few hours or a couple of days.
You need to stay active and share new content daily to increase your exposure and blog traffic.
But with Pinterest, instead of looking into the past or focusing on the present, people are planning stuff for the future.
In other words, pinners are planners!
They search, discover, and save it for later.
Thus, Pinterest is NOT social media. Instead, Pinterest is a search engine.
And what all search engines have in common are keywords! So, if you’ve never done keyword research, now is the perfect time to start!
But before we jump into our keyword research, let’s take a quick look at how search engines work.
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:
- Gather as much content as possible in one place.
- Sort that content based on its relevance to keywords.
- 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 are Pinterest keywords important in 2023?
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 keyword research.
You see, keywords are direct indicators of what your audience wants. 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?
Then grab your FREE Pinterest Algorithm Checklist below! It includes all the steps you should take to keep the algorithm happy so that Pinterest distributes your pins to as many users as possible.
Also, read my complete 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.
- What do they need?
- Which problems do they have?
- 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.
1: How to find Pinterest keywords with search queries (in 30 seconds)
Seriously, this keyword research technique will only take you 30 seconds (or less!)
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.
Here’s how I usually start finding my Pinterest keywords for the topic “blogging”:
When I type in a keyword in the search bar, Pinterest automatically suggests related auto-fill search phrases I can use. Neat-o!
This should be your #1 Pinterest keyword research method this year.
Let’s consider another blog topic. For example, let’s assume you’re blogging about gardening.
So, let’s use “gardening” as our keyword and see what happens:
Love the green colors, nice!
Sometimes you will see those colored little boxes with words right above the search results.
Please note: Pinterest has disabled this feature for some users and topics, so don’t be surprised if you don’t see them.
If you do see them, the good news is: those are popular keywords!
They are related keywords that people use when they’re searching for pins about “gardening”. The most popular keywords an queries are:
- Gardening design
- Gardening ideas
- Gardening projects etc.
It’s this easy, really! And how long did it take you?
Bonus Tip: 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.
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:
I like to work with spreadsheets a lot, so I usually record my keywords in a Google Docs spreadsheet:
- Just open a new spreadsheet and create a column with the title “Gardening”.
- Then, just 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:
- Patio gardening ideas
- DIY gardening ideas
- Flower 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 find Pinterest keywords 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 whole new Pinterest account to use as your business profile, or you can 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.
Then, navigate to Ads > Overview in the menu bar on the top of the page:
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.
In your Ads overview, you’ll see different options for creating a new campaign.
Let’s use the “Awareness campaigns” tool. To get started, click on the Promote button:
Step 3: Name your pseudo campaign
Next, you’ll see an overview called “Set up your campaign”:
You can leave most fields blank, but you have to enter a campaign name. Just use whatever you wish, e.g. “Test Campaign 1”.
Step 4: Feast on powerful keywords!
We’re almost done here! I told you this would be easy!
On the next page, scroll down all the way to the “Keywords” section. This is where we’ll do all the magic!
In the right column, you can type in a keyword for your blog topic. Pinterest will automatically show you related keywords and their monthly search volumes.
Let’s try “gardening” again:
You’ll see a bunch of related, high-traffic keywords listed in the right column now.
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?
Trust me, 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 two super easy methods to find powerful Pinterest keywords – in just a few minutes. But where should you use those keywords on Pinterest?
In short, you want to track your keywords as we discussed above. This will help 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 you want to use your Pinterest keywords for SEO benefits:
- Blog post titles and meta descriptions
- Pinterest board names and descriptions
- Pinterest profile
- Pin titles and descriptions
- Pin image text overlays
Just make sure you use Pinterest keywords in a natural way.
Find out what your target audience wants and needs. Then, create content that solves their problems. And finally, create engaging pins using keywords without sounding too spammy.
Trust me, 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?
Awesome! Head over to my ultimate Pinterest SEO guide for beginners to learn how to optimize everything you do on Pinterest with the latest best practices.
Final thoughts: How to find powerful Pinterest keywords quickly
How are you feeling? Did you find these methods for finding Pinterest keywords helpful? Please share your thoughts in the comments below! I’d love to hear how your keyword research is going!
Whether you’re just getting started with your blog or you’ve been blogging for a while, keyword research on Pinterest is easy for anyone.
All you need to remember is that Pinterest is just a 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.
That said, if you haven’t started your blog just yet, head over to my Step-by-Step Tutorial to Start Your Blog in 15 Minutes! I’ll see you there!
And, if you already have a blog but you’re not using Pinterest yet, make sure you sign up NOW! It’s the quickest and easiest way to start growing your blog by generating traffic and readers.
Here are a couple of helpful posts you may want to read:
- How to Find the Best Blog Hosting? Blog Hosting Review
- The Best WordPress Themes For Blogs (Free and Paid)
If you enjoyed this post on how to find the best Pinterest keywords, just drop me a line in the comments below! How do you find Pinterest keywords that get you the most traffic?
P.S. If you found this post helpful, please share it with others, too! I appreciate your support – thanks!
Happy pinning!
– Mikke
