How to Get Your Pins Seen on Pinterest

If you have ever done an online search for a recipe, craft activity, gift idea, makeup tutorial, home DIY project, or more… you’ve probably ended up on Pinterest. And, if you have a small business, nonprofit, or side hustle, you may have found yourself wondering, “How can I get my products and offerings noticed on Pinterest, too?” 

Well, you’ve come to the right place! In this article, I’m going to show you how to get your pins seen on Pinterest, plus how to create pins that people actually want to share. I’ll also show you some tips for optimizing your pins so they can be easily found using Pinterest search.

What is Pinterest, and how does it work?

But first, let’s cover the basics. For starters, what is Pinterest? Pinterest is a social media platform, although it doesn’t operate in the same way as something like Facebook or Instagram. In fact, Pinterest defines itself as “a visual discovery engine for finding ideas like recipes, home and style inspiration, and more.” 

As opposed to sharing personal images from your life, Pinterest is a platform for creators, bloggers, business owners and more to share their products, advice, reviews, and general content. 

So, how does Pinterest work? Similar to other social media platforms, Pinterest’s homepage, also known as the home feed, serves up content from people and businesses — both ones that you follow and ones that Pinterest thinks you’ll be interested in based on your recent activity. 

In addition to the home feed, users can find specific content by typing keywords into the Pinterest search bar to bring up relevant results.

The Pinterest home feed also has sponsored content shared alongside organic pins. While we won’t get into the weeds on creating Pinterest Ads here, be sure to check out our tips on promoted pins and how to sell on Pinterest.

Now that we have an idea of what Pinterest is and how it works, let’s talk about how you can use it for your business and how to get your pins seen on Pinterest.

How do I get my pins noticed on Pinterest?

Like many social media feeds these days, the Pinterest home feed does not show content in chronological order. This means that your content isn’t always going to appear at the exact time and date that you pin it.

However, there are a few best practices you can follow to ensure that your pins are high-quality, being seen by the right audience, and driving results for your business regardless of when you publish them.

Here are five best practices you can use to get your Pinterest pins seen:

1. Pin what’s popular

It’s always a good idea to stay on-topic and share relevant content on Pinterest. For example, if it’s February, you probably don’t want to be sharing content about winter holidays such as Christmas or Hanukkah. 

Tap into the content that your current followers and prospective followers alike want to see. This will ensure more engagement from users and will increase the opportunity for your pin to find a larger audience, or even go viral.

And the best part? You don’t have to guess what Pinterest users want to see. There are a few ways you can find out what’s popular on Pinterest:

Determine what’s popular on Pinterest with the Pinterest Trends tool

First, take advantage of the Pinterest Trends tool. Pinterest Trends will help you discover what people are looking for in your country. It shows the current week’s top trends, as well as trending ideas across Pinterest’s most popular categories, such as fashion, food & drink, beauty, home, and travel. 

Let’s say you own a home goods store. Pinterest Trends will help you identify what Pinterest users are most likely to be in the market to buy right now. For example, at the time of this writing, the top home trends on Pinterest are kitchen ideas and laundry room ideas. So, what does that mean for you? It’s time to get your kitchen appliances and laundry room wall decor signs up on Pinterest! 

Using the same home goods example, let me show you how Pinterest Trends can help you see an even more detailed view of what’s popular. Using the Pinterest search bar at the top of the page, type in what your business offers. In this case, I’ve typed in “home decor.” Pinterest will autofill trending topics in the drop-down menu. 

Then, you can choose one to view a chart of how many people have searched for that term over time. Under the graph, Pinterest provides related terms, as well as popular pins that are within this category. 

Not only is this helpful for researching what Pinterest users are looking for, but it can also provide you with examples of what type of content performs well on Pinterest and kickstart your planning. 

Use Pinterest Analytics to find out who your audience is and what they’re looking for 

Another great tip to see what Pinterest users are looking for is to focus on your followers. Use your Pinterest Analytics to find out things like: 

• What types of content people have been pinning from your website
• What curated content has been doing well for you
• Which boards are getting the most engagement
• What your audience’s top interests are

Note: Pinterest Analytics is only available to users who have converted their account to a Pinterest business profile. 

As an example, let’s say that my analytics show that my audience is predominantly female and between the ages of 25-44. This helps me identify who is consuming my content the most. However, the part to focus on here is the categories and interests section. If I primarily offer content on home decor, then I want to see stats that show the bulk of my audience is interested in home decor.

However, if most of my audience is interested in education and I don’t currently create content for education, it opens up an opportunity for me to think about creating educational content based on home decorating.

Of course, if your business is focused on jewelry and your categories and interests analytics for your audience show that they are interested in vehicles, you probably aren’t going to want to pivot your content strategy to fit that mold, as it doesn’t align with your business goals or objectives.

Using Pinterest analytics can help you to keep creating and curating the content your audience wants to see while also staying true to your brand and business model.

2. Share images that perform

When scrolling through Pinterest, users are looking for beautiful images that represent the things they like or want to learn about. Catch their eye with great visuals from your own pictures or images you create with free online tools, like Canva or Adobe Express.

When you’re creating and sharing pins that you want to get noticed on Pinterest, it’s important to pay attention to Pinterest’s best practices. For example, images on Pinterest should be high-quality, vertical images with a 2:3 aspect ratio (for example, 1,000 x 1,500 pixels) that will stand out in a user’s feed. Remember, if you’re ever unsure of what size to use for your social media images, check out our social media image sizes cheat sheet.

You should always make your brand the focal point of your pin image. For example, use an image that features your product or service front and center rather than in the background. You should also include your logo if you have one. If you don’t have a logo, you should create a business logo in order to showcase your brand and build awareness.

Finally, consider adding text to your image to better explain what the post is about. For example, if you’re sharing a recipe on Pinterest, the pin may include a photo of the completed dish with a text overlay of what the meal is called. 

If you’re sharing a video pin, make sure to start strong. Like most social media platforms, you have only a few seconds to make a good impression and grab the user’s attention. Start your video with a clear hook and your logo. Keep it to only 5-30 seconds and remember that a lot of people will be watching with their sound off, so keep it visual and don’t rely too heavily on audio or dialogue.

Now that we’ve covered what to post about and what your pin should contain, let’s talk about what your pin title and description should look like to give your Pinterest pins the best chance of getting noticed.

3. Write interesting and accurate descriptions, being mindful of Pinterest SEO

You have the right content. You have a beautiful, attention-grabbing photo. Both of these things will help to make your pins popular and encourage others to share them wide and far on Pinterest.

But how do you get your pins found in the first place? That’s where your pin titles and descriptions come into play.

Make sure that your pins, and Pinterest boards, have a title and description that include relevant keywords. You’ll want to approach Pinterest keywords in the same way you would with search engine optimization, or SEO, for your website. After all, Pinterest is, at its core, a search engine.

Using the research you’ve done to find what content is popular, make a list of keywords that are relevant to your post. 

Of course, you want to stay away from keyword stuffing. This is when you take a bunch of keywords and force them into your post. Most of the time, you end up with incoherent sentences and it sounds more like a robot wrote it than a human. Stick to conversational descriptions that feature a few keywords, but don’t overdo it. 

If you’re posting a video pin, don’t forget to add video tags. Start typing a keyword into the “Add tags” field and choose relevant ones for your post. This will increase your chances of having your pin seen by users in a relevant Pinterest search.

Finally, don’t forget to use alternative text, otherwise known as alt-text, for your Pinterest pins. This allows you to have a description of what can be seen in your pin. If someone who is visually impaired or otherwise using a screen reader comes across your pin, the alt-text will be read to them so they can enjoy your content. It’s an important piece in making the internet accessible to all. 

Including alt-text also helps search engines like Google and Pinterest to understand the content of your image, further boosting your pins’ chances of getting found in a search.

4. Make it easy for others to pin your content

Pinterest is a great way to keep visual bookmarks for websites you’ve visited. For example, instead of adding a bookmark to your web browser for every page you visited recently that had a recipe you’d like to try, instead, you can save an image from the website to a Pinterest board called “Foods to try” for later.

Your customers or supporters who visit your website and also use Pinterest might want to use Pinterest to bookmark your products, services, blog posts, or other content from your website. Make it easy for them to do so by ensuring that your website and/or store are set up to be used as Rich Pins on Pinterest.

Rich Pins are a type of organic Pin that automatically sync information from your website to your pins. If something on your website changes, the Rich Pin updates to reflect the change. Rich Pins are free to use and are available to anyone on Pinterest.

Rich Pins can be used for products, recipes, or articles. Product Rich Pins will include information on pricing, availability, and product information. Recipe Rich Pins include a title, serving size, cook time, ratings, diet preference, and list of ingredients directly within your pin. Article Rich Pins automatically add the headline or title, description, and author.

In the example above, you can see that this Rich Pin example includes the star ratings for the receipt, the ingredients needed, and cook time, all within the pin itself. While we’re here, I’d be remiss if I didn’t recommend you make this recipe. So good and one of my personal favorites! 

Rich Pins are especially helpful for when someone else pins a page from your website. It allows you to have some control over what is being shared and ensures that pins will be up-to-date no matter when, or who shares them.

You can learn more about how to apply for and begin using Rich Pins using the Pinterest Help Center.

5. Repin responsibly

The beauty of Pinterest is that it’s a community platform. By checking your home feed and searching for relevant keywords, you can find a lot of great curated and repinned content from other users on Pinterest that aligns with your audience’s interests. Consider pinning other people’s content to your boards in order to add value for your followers.

But be aware of what you’re repinning! Make sure that you are only sharing content that links to a reputable source. This takes a few extra seconds of due diligence before clicking “pin,” but it’s well worth the time to establish yourself as a responsible pinner in Pinterest’s eyes — and those of your followers.

Click on the pin and make sure that the website matches up and leads to a reputable source. Sometimes people will spam on Pinterest by including a link that leads to a sales pitch or other unrelated content to drive traffic to their websites. Once you’re confident that the source is reliable, share away!

Sharing other people’s pins will also make them more likely to share yours in return, helping you to get noticed by even more Pinterest users. 

With these tips, you’ll get your Pinterest pins seen in no time

Now that you’ve taken steps to make sure Pinterest users can find your pins on Pinterest, you’re on your way to Pinterest success.