Vincent NG
Welcome to day 6 of the 31 Days to a Better Pinterest Page. For day 6, I’m going to be discussing about the importance of filling up and creating Pinterest board descriptions.
I hope you’re enjoying all the tips and tricks that have been taught so far. If you’ve missed the previous days, you can read up on day 4 and day 5.
It’s Hundreds of Small Things that Make the Difference
John Wooden is recognized as one of the greatest sporting coaches of all time. He built a basketball dynasty, winning 10 NCAA basketball championships with the UCLA Bruins. Winning any championship 10 times is never easy, but to do it with a team is next to impossible.
One of the factors that led Coach Wooden to such amazing success was his belief that players needed to master the small things.
“There was no single big thing that made our UCLA basketball teams effective, not the press or the fast break, not size, not condition—no single big thing. Instead it was hundreds of small things done the right way, and done consistently.”
Consistency is vital, and that’s something my good buddy Jeff Sieh of the Manly Pinterest Tips show reinforces a lot. But the other aspect is being able to do the small things right that help lead to big results. And in our case, it’s about taking the time to fill out your Pinterest board descriptions.
Small Changes Can Bring Drastic Results to Your Pinterest Page
I’ve come across Pinterest boards that have great board names, but unfortunately the board descriptions are left completely blank.
An example of this would be a board created by Starbucks titled, “Real Food.” The board description has been left completely blank.
When people click on it, it’s evident that it’s about food because of the food pictures they pin, but is this food that’s considered healthy? Is it food that’s made with all natural ingredients? Or is it recipes that staff at Starbucks like? What does Starbucks mean by real food?
While Pinterest is a visual medium, and users that land on a Pinterest board may scan the pictures, there’s a chance that they are going to read the board description.
A good board description is similar to a meta description in Google. (Meta description is the description you get under the main headlines of Google search results.) A good description will encourage the user to look at your pins more carefully and put them into a specific mind set.
Words have power.
A Good Pinterest Board Description Has Keywords and an Explanation
Weilos is a mobile app for people who are looking an inspirational and supportive community while trying to lose weight. The gist is that people share motivational selfies of their journey to losing weight without feeling judged.
Here’s the description for a board by Weilos which is rich with details. It contains keywords, an explanation of what the board is about, and even has a call to action to join.
Would a Stranger Know What Your Pinterest Board is About?
If someone were to land on your Pinterest board through Google, or through a search term on Pinterest and your board came up, would she have a clear idea of what the board is about? Would she know that the board is designed to be a resource for her?
I feel that many of us believe that people only discover our Pinterest boards through Pinterest itself, but forget that search engines bring potential viewers as well.
On top of that, board descriptions also help with search results within Google search, and this allows for opportunities to have more keywords that you want to be found for than just using your board’s name.
What Google does very well, is that it associates certain search terms with other related words to provide better and relevant search results to searchers.
If you are selling women’s shoes, Google may look for words that are commonly associated with women’s shoes such as women’s fashion, high heels, flats, running shoes in the text areas to determine how how relevant and high a search result should be.
By filling in your board description with keywords that are associated with your board title, it can help customers understand what your board is about and also help your Pinterest board rank higher in Google.
How Long Should Pinterest Board Descriptions Be?
Pinterest board descriptions can be at most 500 characters. Which is a lot of space for you to describe your board and any keywords that you want to be found for.
Just because you can use 500 characters doesn’t mean that you should. Use the right amount that’s in the best interest of your customers.
The full descriptions will show up on the desktop version of Pinterest and the iPad app.
For the Android smartphone app, only the first 134 characters of the board description will show. Anything beyond that will get cut off. I don’t believe there’s a way to view the full board description on the Android smartphone app, but if someone knows a way, please leave a note in the comments. 🙂
Day 6 Actionable Step
For day 6, go back and take a look at all your boards that you have control over. Fill out the boards that have no description first. Then take the time to look over your other board descriptions and see if you can improve them.
Additional Resource:
Wednesday nights at 6pm (PT) Kelly Lieberman hosts #PinChat on Twitter. Kelly does a great job of interviewing guests on the show, and fostering conversation.
So if you’re looking to learn more about Pinterest, and connect with other pinners, then you need to drop by #PinChat on Wednesday nights.
Now it’s your turn. Have you found that adding board descriptions have been helpful in gaining more followers? Or are you finding that they’re not that important for your business.
Leave your thoughts in the comment section, and please feel free to ask any Pinterest related questions.
Pinterest Question from Bon of MathFour.com
Bon from MathFour.com asks, “When I follow someone, should I follow all their boards or just the ones I really want to? And how does that affect my stats, clout, juice, etc.?”
Answer: I find Pinterest most enjoyable when you follow what you really want to. This way you’re more likely to see pins that you want to see.
When you choose the option “Follow All” it automatically follows all the boards that a person creates and will create. This is why you may end up being confused about a pin that seems “off brand” from a person you follow.
Another tidbit to be aware about is that you also follow any group boards that that person creates, so if the person is actively recruiting more and more contributors to the board, you will see pins contributed to that group board.
In terms of clout, stats, and anything that affects influence and ranking, I can’t say for sure whether following all their boards or a few does. In the past, if you had more followers and those following, that had a bearing on search rankings.
However, it seems that Pinterest has updated it’s search algorithm in a major way and so I’m trying to figure out what other factors affect search.
Thanks for your question Bon.
