Pinterest board Ideas
PINTEREST BASICS 2 - CREATE BEAUTIFUL AND SEARCHABLE BOARDS
This is the second part of my Pinterest Basics series where I will guide you through the Basics of Pinterest so that you can start your Pinterest marketing journey with a fully optimized, beautiful and interesting Pinterest account.
Today we talk about Pinterest boards and how you can make them beautiful and searchable.
1. BEAUTIFUL PINTEREST BOARDS THAT ARE INTERESTING TOO
Every other Pinterest "expert" recommends that you should start creating your Pinterest account with 10 boards.
I don't know if there's any real reason behind that advice or is it something that someone has just come up with at some point.
Oh well, you can start with 10 boards or 20 boards or even just 5 boards if they are the ones that will attract your target audience on Pinterest. You can always add more boards so don't worry about it!
When I help with my Pinterest clients to optimize their Pinterest accounts, I always start with 20 boards and with 20 pins to each board. That's has came as a useful start for my clients.
HOW TO KNOW WHAT KIND OF BOARDS YOU SHOULD CREATE?
First, you should brainstorm what kind of boards your target audience would like to see.
You can do a keyword research, and name your boards based on terms that are searched a lot on Pinterest.
People can also search your Pinterest boards on Pinterest, so you should make them visible.
You can make your boards visible by using highly searched keywords. I always advice my clients to not use any fancy words on Pinterest - except if those fancy words are the exact ones that your target audience are searching for on Pinterest.
Being too fancy on Pinterest is not a very effective strategy. Do not name your food recipes board "Yummy" as it will most probably not be seen on Pinterest searches.
You can have more than 1 board dedicated to similar kind of pins. For example you can have a board for "wedding flowers", and a board for "beautiful bridal bouquets", and they both can contain same pins.
Research your target audience's preferences. In addition to what they are searching on Pinterest, check who they are following and what brands they are keen on.
Here's an example of potential optimised board names for a wedding gown vendor:
- wedding gowns 2018
- wedding dresses
- wedding gowns with sleeves
- wedding gowns lace
- wedding gowns mermaid
- wedding dresses vintage
- wedding dresses ball gown
- wedding ideas
- wedding inspiration ideas
- summer wedding dress
- wedding guest dress
etc.
Notice how every board name is related to weddings. You can create other kind of boards too but keep the industry or niche related boards on the top rows of your Pinterest account.
RECOMMENDED BOARD TYPES
Based on your business and brand, I can recommend you to have certain boards that usually are pretty popular on Pinterest. You should think whether these boards fit to your brand and business model. If not, leave those boards out and concentrate creating boards that better match your business.
1. Quotes
Everyone loves quotes, sayings, poems, inspirational words. Different kind of quote boards are really popular on Pinterest. Find your niche specific quotes and create a board for them. You can positively associate your own business to inspiring quotes.
For example, florist could have a floral quotes board or flower poems board.
2. Your own content
Whether you are selling products, services, or just being an inspirational influencer, create at least one board for your own content. Pin all your content to that board. That way your followers and fans will easily find your content and they don't have to search it from the other boards.
Remember that you can (and absolutely SHOULD!) pin your own content to many different boards, not just that one board.
3. Seasonal boards and holiday boards
Pinterest is pretty seasonal and people are pinning things for holidays and different seasons.
For example, you can create boards for summer fashion, spring food, holiday gift guides, Thanksgiving recipes, Valentines table settings etc.
4. Client boards
Try to incorporate your clients to your Pinterest boards. You can create a board where you show your clients' Instagram photos when they are using your product or start pinning your client testimonials. There are multiple ways to create interactive Pinterest boards where your clients are the main focus.
5. Top categories Pinterest boards
I know there are Pinterest experts who say that stick to boards that are only relevant to your business. I partly agree with them but partly not.
You can create boards which fall under the top Pinterest categories to broaden your audience on Pinterest. If you do it sophisticated way, it won't harm your brand or business.
Try creating boards of top Pinterest categories home, DIY, food, or travel.
6. Group boards
Create your own group board for your niche. Join your niche related Facebook groups and promote your new group board. You start to build your Pinterest authority when you have a group board that you're supervising. Remember to write clear group board rules.
Take action: Create different boards under different categories to broaden your Pinterest audience. Pin your own images to different boards, not just one board.
BEAUTIFY YOUR BOARDS
If you want to create a coherent look to your Pinterest account, consider creating a specific branded Pinterest board covers.
With specific board covers you can brand your Pinterest to match your business' brand. That way your brand will also gain more brand exposure on Pinterest.
Another great option which I'm using for many of my clients is to deliberately choose the board cover image. Most of the time I try to create coherent look for choosing cover images that have similar kind of color or aesthetics.
You can also choose images which will match your board's content really well. For example, your gardening tips board could have a board cover image that is very earthy green.
Make your own pins to be among first ones to be seen on your boards. How to do that? Pin them regularly to the boards.
2. BOARD DESCRIPTIONS + PINTEREST SEO
On Pinterest, all comes to writing effective descriptions - this time it means you have to write keyword rich descriptions to your boards.
Very few people will write effective, targeted and long board descriptions. It's a great way to get your boards to be discovered on Pinterest. Don't leave that board description area just blank but fill it up with your important keywords, and phrases.
If you don't know where to start when thinking about your Pinterest keywords, look first your website and blog.
What kind of words you are using there? Is there any particular keywords that are driving traffic to your site? What are your blogging categories? Maybe those keywords could work on Pinterest, too!
You should search best Pinterest keywords with the help of Pinterest's own search bar. When you start typing your keywords on Pinterest search, Pinterest will automatically suggest keywords to you. Try to find long tail keywords as general keywords have lots of competition on Pinterest.
Even though you are writing long and keyword rich board descriptions, remember to keep them descriptive, too! You can just list your keywords and separate them with commas but I recommend using short paragraphs instead. "Keyword stuffing" is not a problem on Pinterest at the moment but everything can change so I recommend that you use whole sentences if possible when you tell people what kind of pins that certain board consist of.
You can also use Google Trends (it's free!) to find inspiration for your keywords.
NEW!! You are able to use hashtags also on Pinterest. At the moment, pins with relevant hashtags are displayed by time added. It means that there's no need to update your old pins with hashtags but instead incorporate hashtags to all your new pins.
Try using less active hashtags as it means your own pins will be longer on top of the pins when someone searches that hashtag. Pinterest has recommended not to add more than 20 hashtags to each pin.
Do not forget to add a relevant category to your board! You don't want to create a food recipe board and categorise it as "women's fashion".
If you have missed the first part of Pinterest Basics series, you can find it here: Pinterest Basics 1
