Vincent NG
In a previous blog post I discussed how to make your pins more searchable within Pinterest, and how important it was to have them found. Pins being found in search is vital because any time you type a search term into Pinterest’s search box, it automatically shows results of pins. However, Pinterest is encouraging people not only to discover pins, but boards as well.
As of this weekend, Pinterest rolled out a new feature known as “Follow Boards.” I first saw this featured rolled out about a week ago for only a few hours, and then it disappeared, and now it’s back. Huzzah! BUT it’s still not available to all users, and is slowly being rolled out.
With this new feature, Pinterest now recommends boards that you should follow. It also displays different categories. When you click on them, you’ll find a series of boards that you can follow.
Another feature that has started to slowly roll out, is the search function on the top left hand side of the picture.
If you would like to see a summary of what that’s all about then feel free to watch the video, but if you enjoy reading, then read on my friend.
Pinterest Wants Users to REALLY use the Search Boards Function
As the new features start to roll out for everyone, the ability to have your boards found for search terms is becoming absolutely critical. Pinterest knows that people are searching for specific pins, but wants to connect people more to boards and encourage users to search for boards.
Pinterest wants to make a big deal of featured boards (no doubt for future monetization) and board searching. It’s actually making the search board function redundant, since there already exists a search box for boards on the top left hand corner of the desktop version.
But Pinterest has also added the search boards box into the new “Follow boards” menu. There’s two different places that a user can use the search box, trying to raise the profile of that particular search option.
I decided to do a search in both those different boxes. As you can see from the photo below, both showed the exact same results. Both are using the same algorithm to determine which boards to show a user for a search term. This is why, if you haven’t, you really need to start search optimizing your boards for Pinterest search results.
3 Tips to Search Optimize Your Boards
Use Keywords in Your Board’s Name
If you want your board to be found in search results, then it’s best to name them after search terms that people are searching for on Pinterest. If you’re specializing in Linkedin and you want people to search for your board, you probably don’t want to call it, “Linkedin Awesomeness!” Sounds really catchy, BUT, nobody is probably going to search for that term.
What you want to do is name your board a common search term such as, “Linkedin Marketing Strategies.” This is the name of one of the boards that Canada’s #1 Linkedin expert, Melonie Deodaro, has titled, and not surprisingly it ranks number one in Pinterest search results for that keyword for boards.
It’s always best to name your board after the exact search term you want to be found for, but you can also use broad search terms (terms that have the keywords in them, but don’t match exactly) in your board titles and this can help with the ranking.
If you look at the example with the keyword, Pinterest tutorial in the picture that was used early on, you’ll see that Naturally Curly has their board ranked in the third position, and that’s because the name of their board is Naturally Curly Pinterest Tutorial. They used the keyword in their board’s name.
For Naturally Curly to rank quite high for such a keyword, even though it was not the exact keyword is because of two other factors.
The Number of Followers Matter
The number of followers that a board has matters in the way that a board is ranked search results for specific search terms. The board may not have a lot of pins, like in the case of Naturally Curly, for the search term Pinterest tutorial, but the sheer number of followers the board has makes up for it, with over 4000 followers for that board.
The reasoning behind this is because if Pinterest sees that you have a lot of followers for that board, that it must be a relevant board for that search term, or else if the board wasn’t relevant to people then they wouldn’t have so many followers.
Ensure you have some amazing visual content on your boards, so that you’re able to increase your followers for them.
The Number of Pins Helps in Rankings
The number of pins for each board will also help it rank higher for search terms. As the number of pins increase, as well as your follower count, then you should see a rise in the rankings for those boards for that keyword.
This is why for your Pinterest marketing strategy you should focus on a limited number of boards to start. Don’t go crazy trying to create boards that have NO RELEVANCE to your customers or audience.
If I’m following Marvel Comics on Pinterest, I don’t want to see pins about recipes or foods. I want to see pins that are geared towards the comic geek in me.
Now these are most likely not the only factors involved. So even if you have the most followers, have the exact keyword for your board’s name, and have the most pins, that doesn’t mean that you’ll be ranked number one. I do promise it will help you rank higher over time.
Other potential factors
Make Sure You Follow Users
This is all speculation, and based on my observation but I believe that the number of people you follow will also play a small role. I noticed that a blog about Vancouver has a board titled, “Vancouver”, it has 1200 pins, much more than the other Pinterest boards with the same board name but ranks very low in search results. The account has followers but the user doesn’t follow any user. This lack of following others may be a signal that this user is not engaged with Pinterest or is a spammer. A signal to downgrade their search results.
Group Boards that Have Too Many Members
Group boards with large number of contributors will most likely not show up for search results for boards. There have been a few group boards that have shown up in results, but compared to boards created by individuals it’s a very small number. If you’re looking to get your board ranked for a certain search term, you’re much better off trying to do it as an individual than through a group board.
Do you have any tips or tricks to search optimize boards in Pinterest, I would love to hear about them in the comments.
