Pinterest Best Practices to Boost Your Small Business Growth
If you're a business owner looking to expand your digital presence and increase the effectiveness of your marketing, you need to consider adding Pinterest to your marketing mix.
Pinterest is often underrated, but it is a powerful tool for businesses to leverage. It’s not just for the wedding venues and baking influencers! It’s more than just a platform for pretty pictures; Pinterest is a search engine that can drive significant traffic to your website. Whether you’re just getting started or refining your approach, these Pinterest best practices will help optimize your profile and boards for maximum visibility and engagement.
Read on to learn how Pinterest can work magic ✨ with your marketing and begin implementing these best practices right away.
5 Ways to Optimize Your Pinterest Profile
1. Create and Update Your Profile Name
If you haven’t set up a Pinterest account yet, go to pinterest.com and create one. Make sure you set up a business profile, not a personal profile.
If you already have a Pinterest account, be sure you’ve got a business account set up and properly named.
Your profile name should clearly state your business name and communicate what your business offers and where it's located, if applicable. A format like “[Brand Name] | [Description] + [Location]” works well.
For instance, our Pinterest Profile name — "Hoffbeck + Co | Small Business Consulting + Coaching” — effectively conveys both our business’s name and what we do, adhering to Pinterest's best practices for naming conventions. Another example is our client, Legacy Hill Farm. Their Pinterest profile name is: “Legacy Hill Farm | Wedding Venue Near Twin Cities Minnesota.”
It’s a missed opportunity to only list your business name! Be sure to include a short title describing what you do and your location, if applicable.
2. Enhance Your Profile Bio
Your Pinterest profile bio is prime real estate for your business's most important keywords. Include keywords that reflect what your business does, and be sure to include the location, if applicable. This will not only make your profile more discoverable but also attract the right audience.
For example, our Pinterest bio says:
“We are a boutique consulting firm and marketing agency based in Oceanside, California, offering strategy, finance, and marketing services specifically designed for small businesses.” This covers what kind of business we are, our location, and our services.
Our client, Legacy Hill Farm’s Pinterest bio says:
“Legacy Hill Farm is a luxury wedding venue located just 40 minutes outside of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota. With indoor and outdoor spaces, a peaceful French countryside setting, and exemplary personalized service, Legacy Hill Farm is the venue to host your grand and unforgettable wedding.”
3. Ensure Consistency Across Your Profile
Make sure your profile name, username, and website URL are consistent. This strengthens your brand identity and makes your profile look more professional, a key practice for building trust with your audience.
Example from our business:
Website URL: hoffbeck.co
Profile Name: Hoffbeck + Co | Small Business Consulting + Coaching
Username: hoffbeckco
Example from Legacy Hill Farm:
Website URL: legacyhillfarm.com
Profile Name: Legacy Hill Farm | Wedding Venue Near Twin Cities Minnesota
Username: legacyhillfarm
4. Claim Your Website
This is very important! Claiming your website is crucial as it verifies your Pinterest account as an official business account. Pinterest has a helpful article on how to do that. This also allows you to use Rich Pins, which automatically sync information from your website to your Pins, enhancing their value and utility.
To learn more about Rich Pins, head to the Pinterest article here.
5. Use Your Brand Logo
For a business account, it’s generally best to use your brand logo in your profile picture. This immediately signals to users that they’re engaging with a business, not a personal account, following Pinterest's best practices for brand consistency.
Strategically Create and Optimize Your Pinterest Boards
Align Boards with Website Content
Create Pinterest boards that directly relate to the topics, categories, or pages on your website. This allows you to link back to your site, driving traffic to it and improving your SEO. Aligning your boards with your website content is a recommended best practice that can significantly boost your online presence. For example, Legacy Hill Farm has a board titled “Wedding Planning Tips & Ideas” for their blog pins and one board for each of the spaces they have available at their venue, like “Private Suites,” “Outdoor Ceremony Site,” and “Fountain Courtyard.”
Simple, Keyword-Rich Board Names
When naming your boards, simplicity is key. Use primary keywords or key phrases that clearly describe what the board is about. Pairing specific, long-tail keywords with more competitive ones helps boost discoverability. For example, for our client Legacy Hill Farm’s Pinterest, boards like “Wedding Planning Tips & Ideas” and “Outdoor Ceremony Site” clearly convey the focus of each board while aligning with their beautiful event spaces and services, improving user experience and enhancing discoverability.
Add Keywords to Board Descriptions
When setting up your boards, include board-specific keywords in the descriptions. This helps users understand the types of pins they'll find and makes it easier for your content to appear in relevant searches. For example, Hoffbeck + Co has a board dedicated to "Small Business Growth Strategies," and the description includes keywords like "business tips," "entrepreneurship," and "marketing strategies."
Similarly, Legacy Hill Farm’s board, "Wedding Planning Tips & Ideas," uses keywords like "wedding planning," "wedding inspiration," and "Minnesota wedding venue" to attract couples searching for advice and inspiration. This approach ensures your boards are both informative and easily found.
Pinterest Pinning Best Practices
Focus on Outbound Clicks
The most important metric on Pinterest is outbound clicks. Saves, likes, and clicks are valuable, but your ultimate goal should be driving traffic to your website. Following this practice ensures that your efforts on the platform translate into tangible results for your business.
Conduct Keyword Research
Do thorough keyword research on Pinterest to identify long-tail keywords that your target audience is searching for. These keywords should be incorporated into your Pins’ graphics, file names, and descriptions to improve the visibility and effectiveness of your Pins.
For instance, for our blog “How to Choose the Right Fonts for Your Brand,” we used the following graphic, file name, and description.
Graphic:
File name: how-to-choose-brand-fonts-hoffbeck-co
Description:
Fonts are a key piece of your brand identity and can significantly impact how customers perceive your brand.
We’re breaking down some of the basics of typography to give you a better understanding of what makes up a font, including:
👉 Helpful lingo to know
👉 Key things to consider when you’re choosing brand fonts
👉 Resources to get you started
🔗 Head to the link in our pin to read the full post!
Repin with Slight Modifications
Repinning the same image to different boards is a good strategy, but to keep Pinterest’s algorithm happy, it’s ideal to make small changes to the image. A subtle filter adjustment using Canva, for example, can make the image appear new to Pinterest. All you need to do is take the same graphic, add a filter, and apply it at 1%, and the system will recognize it as different. You could also crop out 1 pixel, and it will be read as a different graphic. Super simple edit, not noticeable to the human eye, but the system will recognize it as being different. This tactic helps maintain content freshness.
Prioritize the First 30 Characters in Titles
While Pinterest allows up to 100 characters for titles, only the first 30 characters are typically visible in users’ feeds. Ensure these first 30 characters are the most impactful and include key information that would give someone clarity on what the pin is about.
Avoid Hashtags
Unlike other platforms, Pinterest doesn’t prioritize hashtags. Instead, focus on well-crafted, keyword-rich descriptions.
Post Consistently
Consistency is key to success on Pinterest. Whether it’s one pin a day or another schedule that fits your resources, maintaining a regular posting cadence helps keep your audience engaged and your content fresh.
Additional Tips for Success
Use the Right Sizing + Formats
Stick to a 2:3 aspect ratio for your images, ideally 1000 x 1500 pixels. Upload images as JPEG or PNG files, and keep them under 20 MB on desktop (or 32 MB on the app). This ensures your Pins look great and load quickly.
Use Alt Text
Alt text is an often-overlooked aspect of Pinterest SEO. Make sure to add descriptive alt text to your Pins to improve their accessibility and discoverability.
Utilize Pinterest Trends
While chasing trends can be resource-intensive, keeping an eye on Pinterest Trends can help you tap into what’s currently popular. Don’t stress about this or get too caught up in it, especially if you or your team don’t have the capacity, yet it’s worth noting here so you can have this on your radar and consider investing some time and effort towards keeping a pulse on trends.
By following these Pinterest best practices and set up guidelines, you can maximize your Pinterest business profile’s potential. The key is consistency, keyword optimization, and a strategic approach to content creation and curation. With time and a bit of effort, you’ll see increased engagement, traffic, and ultimately, business growth thanks to integrating Pinterest in your marketing mix!
For more insights on Pinterest best practices, check out these helpful resources:
P.S. Want help getting this all setup and done for you ongoing? Inquire for more info. 👇
Until next time,
Jessica
MARKETING + OFFICE COORDINATOR
P.P.S.
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