7 Pin Description Strategies to Increase Traffic
Pinterest is the ultimate source of evergreen traffic to your website. Crack this platform and your content can be seen by thousands of people.
Having optimised pins that the Pinterest algorithm loves is the key to your content marketing strategy.
Top quality pins are all about:
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Images that are optimised for Pinterest (check out my ultimate guide here)
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Engaging value packed content your audience can’t do without, and
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Keyword driven pin descriptions which gets your pins in your audiences feed and compels them to take action and click through to your website
So are you ready to unleash the power of Pinterest in your business?
Read on to discover how to write high converting pin descriptions in 7 easy steps.
Keen to learn more about building a business that (actually) works?
Check out these blogs with my top entrepreneurial resources, social media marketing & content ideas in:
Ready to Profit from Pinterest? then you should definitely check out my ultimate Pinterest guide.
This free (and highly detailed) cheat sheet gives you my exact 6 step process to attract more leads & make more sales for FREE using Pinterest.
How to Write Converting Pin Descriptions in 7 Steps:
Having designed a killer high converting pin image, you need to optimise the description.
Pinterest uses the pin description to work out what your pin is about and when they should show the pin.
It is all about relevancy on Pinterest, they want to show the most relevant pins when people search on the platform. So you can tell Pinterest what terms you should rank for through your carefully crafted pin description.
There are 7 pin description tips to help you optimise your pin for the Pinterest smart feed.
Pinterest for Beginners Pin Description Tip #1:
Include relevant keywords in your pin description. As Pinterest is a search engine not a social media platform, keywords are incredibly important. It is how you tell Pinterest what your pin is about and is a big component of how they decide which pins to show for your audience.
So just as with Google you want to research the keywords your audience might use on Pinterest to search for the topic you’re writing about. You want to choose keywords that people are actually searching for but aren’t too competitive to rank for.
The easiest way to research keywords is to type into the Pinterest search bar your main term and Pinterest does the hard work for you. You’ll see lots of possible keywords appear, these are actual terms people are searching for on Pinterest.
So in the example below my main search term is Instagram. I have typed this into the search bar and Pinterest has come up with lots of possible keywords underneath in the coloured rectangles, such as photos, themes, ideas etc.
You want to make sure there are at least 10 suggested keywords, this means it is a popular search term. Instagram is a good search term as there are a lot of suggested keywords, this means lots of people are searching on Pinterest about Instagram.
But Cats on Twitter is not a good search term as there are no suggested keywords so people very rarely search for this on Pinterest (not sure why, I mean I just lost 30 minutes checking out the videos!!)
Once I have a search term with plenty of suggestions, I tend to choose terms from the middle to the right. The first search term on the left is the most popular and therefore likely the most competitive. This will make it trickier to rank for.
So in the Instagram example I would probably choose keywords relevant to my blog or content from tips onwards e.g. ‘Feed’, ‘Followers’, ‘Tips’, ‘Inspiration’. You can then start to make long tail keywords from these terms such as Instagram tips for beginners, Instagram Inspiration, How to Get Instagram Followers.
Read on to discover how to use these keywords in your pin descriptions.
Pinterest for Beginners Pin Description Tip #2:
Tell the audience exactly what you pin is about and include your top keywords in the first 65-75 characters of the pin description as only these characters will show under your pin in the feed.
The rest of the pin description will be shown when a pinner clicks on the pin for a close up.
Pinterest for Beginners Pin Description Tip #3:
Pinterest are making continual changes to the smart feed and are starting to penalise keyword stuffing in your pin descriptions.
So don’t just cram as many keywords as possible in a nonsensical stream. It stands out a mile off and annoys your audience and Pinterest.
Try to include 2-3 main keyword phrases in a sentence.
Pinterest for Beginners Pin Description Tip #4:
Just as you tell a story with your pin, you should tell a story in your pin description.
Make it interesting and engaging for the reader (think speed dating but through pin descriptions!!)
Think about how can you make the reader interested in a very short space of time but be mysterious enough that you encourage them to click through. Try using questions, giving them just enough information so they know what your content is about, but not enough to answer their questions.
Pinterest for Beginners Pin Description Tip #5:
You should include a call to action in all your pin descriptions.
Ideally make it a small easy action for them to take e.g. click through to get your free workbook.
Words such as click, shop, listen, join are useful.
What call to action can you use to lead them to your content?
Pinterest for Beginners Pin Description Tip #6:
Make it clear what the benefits are for your audience if they engage with your content.
You’re asking them to part with their most precious thing – their time. So tell them clearly why it is worth their time to click through to your website:
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What will they get?
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What will they learn?
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What transformation will they go through?
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What problem will they be able to solve with your product or service?
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What will they be able to understand after reading your content that they don’t understand at the moment?
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What discount will they get?
Pinterest for Beginners Pin Description Tip #7:
Include hashtags that are relevant to your content at the end of your pin descriptions.
I usually try to include:
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1 hashtag specific to my business so I can easily find all my pins
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1-2 hashtags which are specific to the pin topic
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1-2 hashtags which are about the general topic of my business.
For example for my blog post on top podcasts for female entrepreneurs my hashtags were:
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#thestartupstudio – specific to my business
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#podcasts – specific to the topic of my blog post
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#podcastsforbusiness – specific to the topic of my blog post
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#femaleentrepreneurs – general topic relevant to my business
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#blogging – general topic relevant to my business
Why are pin descriptions so important?
Follow these 7 steps and you will have high converting pin descriptions which:
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Help you rank in Pinterest for the search terms your audience are actually using
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Help Pinterest understand what your pin is about, therefore increasing your chances of being shown in the Pinterest feed
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Engage your audience and intrigue them enough for them to click through
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Increase your save rates as your content is easily understood and seen as high quality
Bonus:
Ready to Profit from Pinterest? then you should definitely check out my ultimate Pinterest guide.
This free (and highly detailed) cheat sheet gives you my exact 6 step process to attract more leads & make more sales for FREE using Pinterest.
