An Introduction to Pinterest Boards
If you’re new to Pinterest or an old hat, you need to understand Pinterest boards and how to use them in your marketing strategy. It is one of the main pillars which sets you up for winning the Pinterest search game. In this blog post, you will learn how to create successful pinterest boards in 7 simple steps.
What is a Pinterest Board?
A Pinterest board is essentially a place to group like items. Think of a Pinterest board or scrapbook where you keep all of your kids pictures. You get to pick how to group your information by naming these boards and organizing the information you wish to share with your followers or save for later as you plan a specific project.
What Pinterest Boards do for Your Pinterest Marketing.
As a creative online business owner, boards are an essential tool to utilize in your Pinterest marketing strategy. These boards help your audience, and the Pinterest algorithm(the search engine that connects your audience to you) knows what content you plan to share with the world. They are just one of the places you must use keywords to attract the right people. When your boards have keywords in the title and the description, it informs your audience and the Pinterest algorithm all about your content, who it is for, and what problem it solves.
How Many Pinterest Boards should you create?
One frequently asked question is, “how many Pinterest boards should I have?” The answer will depend on how much content(blog posts, products, lead pages, etc.…). I always suggest starting with 8-12 boards.
As time goes on, create boards that relate to your content and give differing perspectives or keyword insights into your content. Many of your pins will be able to fit into several different categories, aka Pinterest Boards.
The 7 Steps for Setting Up Your Successful Pinterest Boards
Use these seven steps to set up your Pinterest boards to attract targeted clientele. When set up correctly, your boards will be powerful partners to your scroll-stopping pins, helping them reach the right people who need your creative solution to their problems.
Step 1: Start With Topics Related to Your Content
The best place to start creating boards is to make a list of the top 10 (or more if you already have enough content) topics you will be sharing on Pinterest. If you’re a knitwear pattern designer, this list might include knitted hats and headgear, cardigans to knit, colorwork, and knitting. Etc… Keep them broad for now, and be sure you have or plan to have a good collection of content in that category. If you are very niche and only sell hat patterns, you may wish to make categories of hats like top-down beanies, hats side to side, colorwork hats, etc…
Step 2. Conduct Keyword Research
Now it’s time to use your list to conduct keyword research on Pinterest. You can use my Keywords for Pinterest Marketing Beginners Guide to help you get started.
You want to use the keywords you compile inside of both your Pinterest board title and description so that you are informing the Pinterest Algorithm/Search engine who your content is for. Keywords are the way that you get matched with your people.
Step 3. Start at least 8 Pinterest boards/categories
Here it’s best to start with at least 8 Boards. Each board will give you a place to share your content. You will want to pin each static pin to more than one board according to Pinterest best practices.
Each board will broaden the reach of your pin with added keyword juice, making it more likely that whoever is searching for your solution to their problem will find you.
I suggest writing down all your titles and keeping track of them and your descriptions in a spreadsheet.
Step 4. Write Board Titles
When you log in to Pinterest your business hub will come up. Click on your profile picture in the far right-hand corner and you should see your profile banner with your picture in a circle. Scroll down a bit and as of November 2021, you should see two options for viewing your account: Saved and Created. There should be a + sign in the right-hand corner. Click here and select “board” from the drop-down list.
Once you choose to create a board you will need to fill in your Board title. Use high-level keywords that are clear and informative not cutesy titles that may sound fun but don’t inform Pinterest or your audience what the board is all about. Short and sweet is best using a character limit of 50 including spaces. Keep your board secret until you have filled it with pins which is step 6.
Step 5: Save Pins to the Board
After you have created a board you need to select at least 10 pins from the pins they automatically pull for you so that it will inform Pinterest of what your board is all about.
After selecting what we call saves or re-pins, I suggest clicking on around 10 pins and going to the person’s website to pin relevant pins that won’t be categorized as a save/re-pin. This helps you in two ways it means that you are making sure that the info you are pinning is legit and relates to your topic and it avoids too many saves to your account which Pinterest doesn’t like for creators or business accounts.
The next step is to get your content onto these boards if possible you want to get at least 5-10 pin images up onto these boards. The more you pin of your content the better. They don’t all have to point to different URLs but diversity is good. It’s best practice to use a variety of images, text overlay, and pin formats (static, video, an idea pin if your ambitious… find out more here.)
Please don’t allow perfectionism to get in the way when using this checklist. If having a lot of your content on each board is stopping you from starting and this list sounds overwhelming just start with other people’s content and move on to the next step.
Step 6: Write Board Descriptions
Now that you have your keyword-inspired title it’s time to write a description written by a human for a human including natural keywords.
To do this you will need to go back to your saved page under your profile and click on your board. It will take you to a page with your Pinterest Board Title at the top followed by ellipses inside of a dot (see pic). Click this then select edit board.
Next you will see a pop up window where you can first select a board cover which you don’t absolutely need to worry about right now. Next will be your title and then a place to fill in your description.
Here is an example of how you could use keywords to naturally write an excellent description. This is something that you could write for a Board with the title of Knitted Colorwork Hats.
Here you can find the best tips on how to use colorwork in your knitted hats and beanies. Keep your family warm this fall and winter with hand-knitted comfy headgear. These free knitting patterns and step-by-step tutorials will help you make beautiful and useful knitwear for yourself or as gifts.
There is a character limit of 500 for your descriptions. You need to use both keywords and good grammar. I have successfully used Grammarly to help me make sure my descriptions are written for people and not only to please algorithm programming.
Remember how I had you keep those boards secret? Once a Pinterest board has a Title, Description, and Pins to get it started, you can go in and click to make it public.
CAUTION: Only make two boards public at a time to avoid a spike in activity that Pinterest may flag as possibly spammy activity.
Step 7: Schedule out those pins!
Now that you have your boards ready to go start creating pins and scheduling them out.
This will look slightly different for everyone, however, it’s best to create a system that works for you and your business. I personally use a batch system where I break down all the tasks included in creating pins and then I schedule a block of time to complete each batch of tasks.
One of the most useful tools I’ve used personally for scheduling, collaboration, pin creation, and some lovely analytics is Tailwind. The Tailwind App and its chrome extension make it easy for me to schedule out content and even to batch create pins that have clear graphics like for food bloggers or product creators that naturally already have a lot of images associated with each piece of content. Get $15 off of a Plus Membership when you sign up here.
3 Tips for Creating Pinterest Boards that Get Views
Don’t Get Too Cute
Don’t overdo it with cutesy titles and whity sayings. Be you but use Keywords first. Go back to your keyword list and allow it to help you craft your Titles and Description. The most important thing to remember is that Pinterest is a Search Engine with a Social Component. This means Keywords are Key.
Create Boards for Your Content
It can be tempting to start creating boards that interest you on Pinterest and that’s great for your personal use. If you love using Pinterest as a Pinner for your own inspiration and idea curation go ahead however keep these boards secret when using your Pinterest Business Account.
You don’t want people or Pinterest to get confused about your content. Keep your profile on topic and only create visible boards that you actually create content around. Less is more.
Keep Keywords Natural
Write with keywords as inspiration for actual sentences. You want to be clear and write for actual people not just to please an algorithm. As Pinterest leans more and more towards helping you gain followers and pushing people to view your profile, clarity is key.
Use clear conversational language and use something like Grammarly to edit your work.
Go start setting up your boards on Pinterest now and Sign up for my newsletter to be notified when I have more great Pinterest info to share.
You can use this blog as a checklist to help guide you through the steps. This is a major pillar in your Pinterest Marketing. If you already have boards use this as a way to optimize your boards, connect with your audience, and get visibility for your brand. Use these 7 steps and my 3 top tips to help you get laser-focused on what is important in your Pinterest Marketing.