PotPieGirl's Pinterest SEO Tips This info is sold as is and does not guarantee any results. You do not have rights to share, sell, and/or give away this guide. This guide is for YOUR use only. All content is property of Jennifer Ledbetter aka PotPieGirl from PotPieGirl.com and OneWeekMarketing.com Pinterest is a social site meaning it's power comes from the users within the site and THEIR actions. It's like the old TV commercial for Breck Shampoo ( and they told 2 friends, and they told 2 friends and so on) once you put a pin on Pinterest, if others find it interesting, they will repin it (share it) with THEIR followers on Pinterest who then will share it with their followers and so on and so on. This can result in a LOT of traffic for your site. http://seobyjennifer.com/pinterest-guide went into great detail about capitalizing on the social and viral nature of Pinterest. It's full of GREAT info and will really help you get the most from Pinterest. While I am a very social person, I'm not into all that social stuff when I'm WORKING online. Yes, I absolutely like to set up my boards and all that just as she says, and I'm also going to employ some of the new techniques she suggests because they are all good stuff but I take it a bit further. Here's the thing - when I am WORKING online, every action I take is done for a reason to either get traffic, make sales, increase exposure for my brand, etc etc. Just sitting there pinning pictures is not something I do for fun (well, not when I'm working... I have been known to get stuck on Pinterest looking and stuff it's HIGHLY addicting). When I use Pinterest for work, it is there to serve a purpose. Actually, using it properly serves quite a few purposes for me. 1. Bring traffic to my sites/web pages 2. Links to my sites/web pages 3. Social proof (ie, others liking, pinning on their own, and repinning)
4. Sales/earnings 5. More Exposure in Google While the info you just read in Denise's guide covers the first 4, it seems very few talk about the 5 th more exposure in Google. That's right, Pinterest SEO. You see, Pinterest is just one little part of something I call my Leverage Web. This is a concept I teach my One Week Marketing members about that involves using many free-to-use sites to get ultimate exposure in Google. Heck, sometimes it's massive DOMINATION in Google. For many people, their whole goal and focus is getting ONE web page ranked for their target keyword. I've seen people stress and obsess over where that ONE web page ranks and go totally whacko if that page ever drops in ranking. To me, that is silly and a big waste of energy stressing over it. Perhaps you've noticed that when you do a search on Google that there are usually TEN results shown on the first page for that search result? Why have only ONE? Why in the WORLD would you only have ONE? Me? I want ALL TEN of those places and I can get them all using FREE sites. Yes, do it all FOR FREE. That is what we learn over in One Week Marketing. There is a ton of free money to be made online. All it requires is YOU and your time to go grab it. (and yes, knowing HOW to do it sure helps! I've been working and perfecting my techniques for years. What I learn, I share with my One Week Marketing members so they can do it, too).
Moving on - Pinterest is one part of my Leverage Web. I can get my Pinterest stuff to rank well in Google. That brings me extra traffic AND takes a high-ranking spot up in the Google search results that my competition does NOT have. Remember, if I have all 10 of those first page search results, the odds are damn good that someone searching for that keyword will end up on one of MY web pages and into MY Leverage Web. Once I can get them into my Leverage Web, Google is needed less and less and THAT is a good thing. Google is fickle really fickle. Your one page might rank great today and disappear forever tomorrow. It is silly to risk it all on ONE web page. Plus, if you have MORE than one page targeting your keyword phrase, if one bites the dust, you still have plenty of others out there working and ranking to keep your income stream going while you go make another page to take the place of the one lost. In other words, ONE lost is NOT an entire income stream lost. Pinterest is one site I use to build my Leverage Web for a target keyword. Getting it to rank is really pretty easy. Here's how I do it. PotPieGirl's Pinterest SEO Steps 1. Create a new board with your keyword phrase as the board title. I try to have a nice mix of leverage boards and normal boards. I don't ever want my account to be viewed as spammy so I am sure I have a lot of boards. Some boards are just recipes and stuff I collect and aren't really targeting anything and a few other boards are very specific and have a very specific goal for them to rank and bring traffic into my Leverage Web.
Moral of all that- try to have many boards and only a percentage of them keyword-targeted. So, if for example, you want your Pinterest board to rank for dog training tips, that's exactly what you'd name your Pinterest board. Then you'd write a nice board description that uses your phrases. Don't over do it, just be sure your description uses words that helps Google know what it's about. Pinterest is NOT the place to be spammy...lol! Tip: BEFORE making your board, do a quick search on Pinterest to see how many OTHER boards are using that exact phrase as their title. Just put your phrase into the Pinterest search bar, click to search, and then change the results to boards. If there are more than 3 boards using that exact phrase as the title, the odds of your breaking in and getting YOUR board to rank high in Google are slimmer. Not impossible, but it's gonna take way more work and time. Personally, I only choose phrases that Pinterest shows NO other boards using as their title. I'm not one to bust my butt to build out a site I do not own, so I want it to be as easy as possible to get my board to rank and I want it to happen as quickly as possible. My rule is if I see more than one Pinterest board with my EXACT phrase as its title, I don't use that phrase I pick another phrase. Up to you, but that's how I do it. 2. Keywords Pinterest allows you to put keywords in your pins. These are those hashtag words you see. Things like:
#recipes #blue #funny #kitchen #crafts etc, etc. Those hashtag words are CLICKABLE and when you click them, it takes you to results showing other pins that have that same keyword/hashtag. Problem is, people use them wrong well, in my opinion and using Pinterest for my purposes, they are used wrong. For example: If you make a pin on your board about Dog Training Tips, and then put the keyword #dog in your pin content, what happens when someone clicks that hashtag? You've LOST them! They are now out and about Pinterest looking at other pins from tons of other people and YOUR chance to get that traffic to your site is gone. You lost them and knowing how Pinterest is and how Pinterest users are the odds of them thinking about or finding YOUR pin again is over. For me, the purpose of Pinterest keywords/hashtags is to keep people IN my Leverage Web. When they click a hashtag, I want them to see more from MY boards and MY pins. Got me? So to do this, I had to borrow a page from what the big companies do to brand their stuff on Pinterest they make UNIQUE hashtags. Ever seen a competition from a big company being run on Pinterest? For example, they'll say Pin xyz, tell us why and use the hashtag #their-uniquehastag? Here is a list of pinterest competition examples look and see which ones you
can find that are doing this and then click their unique hashtag to see what happens: http://pinterest.com/thevillage/pinterest-competition-examples/ So what happens when you click their unique hashtag in their Pin description? That's right, you get a page full of OTHER pins all with the SAME hashtag. To me, that was brilliant! I was actually very surprised to see that many of these contests do NOT use unique hashtags they're missing the boat. For example, let's say I enter one of these contests. I make my pin and then make sure their unique hashtag is in my pin description. When MY followers see my pin, there's a chance they'll click that hashtag and a) enter the contest as well and then THEIR followers will see the pin and click the unique hashtag, and on it goes with my follower's followers...and I'll probably share the contest with my followers as well. When someone clicks that unique hashtag, all results are JUST pins with that hashtag ie, still in that company's Leverage Web. You can do that same thing with YOUR everyday pins as well to KEEP them in YOUR Leverage Web. For every board (or topics you pin about that are related) create a totally unique hashtag that only YOU use on your pins about that topic. Here's how I do it: Here is one of my boards about camo party supplies: http://pinterest.com/potpiegirl/camo-party-supplies/ See up in the board description that hashtag I have created? Notice it is also in all my pins for that board. AND, if you click that hashtag in any of my pins, what happens? Yep, you get a page full of MORE pins that have that same hashtag ie, MY pins. Also notice that (as of this writing) if you search Google for my target phrase,
you'll see my Pinterest Board on page 1. So people search Google, find my board click a pin...then, they will click thru the pin to my site, or click to see other pins, and/or click my unique hashtag. And, hopefully, they will repin, or like, or follow my board as well. Play with using unique hashtags they can be very effective. Note: It takes the Pinterest search feature a few days to catch up. So it you start and use a unique hashtag today, it might be 4-5 days before clicking it shows any results. I don't know why that is it just is. 3. Filling Up Your Board Now that you have your board made and decided on a unique hashtag to use for all your pins on that board (as well as any other pins that might fit that topic as well), you're ready to start filling up your board. When I start a new board, I like to put my general topic into the Pinterest search bar and find other pins I like and repin them to my new board. If the description the original pinner put in isn't descriptive enough keyword-wise, I'll change it up and then I'll always add my unique hashtag to the pin description as well. The original pinner won't mind it only helps their pin get found better by a targeted group of people looking for pins like theirs. I'll also go and follow other boards that are similar, but not competitive (if that makes sense). So for my camo party supplies idea, I'd go find other pinners/boards that are about camo OR about party supplies and follow them. I don't want my boards to appear one-sided or selfish. I also want to begin to gain some traction from other pinners. I also really DO want my board to be a useful resource for anyone looking for pins on my topic. I'll also take a little trip through Google's search results to see if I can find any good images from other sites to pin to my board. You can even use Google Image search for this, just be SURE your pin links to the actual source of the
image. Don't try and cheat that it's tacky and wrong... and you'd be mad if someone used YOUR image with THEIR link, wouldn't you? Build your board out with some GOOD pins and try and get the attention of other pinners in your general topic. When you're pinning, be sure the description area is filled out in a way that not only describes the picture to people, but also to GOOGLE. It's best to use your keywords early in the description as well. If the pin is from your site, go ahead and pop the url of the pin in the description area as well. I know there have been plenty of times I've found a pin, clicked it, and it went no where and that is annoying (and pointless). So adding the image url into the description can help people so it's ok in my book to do it. 4. Uploading Pins It's a good idea to have a few pins on your board be images that you literally upload from your computer as opposed to just using the Pin It bookmark tool to add. Once it's uploaded, you can then click to edit it and add your pin source url to it. I don't know why, but Pinterest likes pins that are uploaded to their site and it seems to help your new board get some traction and start showing up in their search results when you isolate the search results to show boards. Remember: the Pinterest search feature is slow it can take a few days to recognize a new board or hashtag so it shows when you search for it. 5. Getting Your Board to Rank in Google Your Pinterest board is just like any other page on the web it will need to be found and indexed by Google to get it to show in Google search results. To help this along, build some links to your board. If I have a niche site for my board (which I almost always do), I will link to my board from my site a simple, 'check out my board on Pinterest' is usually plenty enough to help Google find/rank it AND to encourage real PEOPLE to check it out and follow it as well.
Share the url to your board the same as you'd share any other url you can Tweet it, Facebook it, link to it, etc etc. Bonus Tip:Pinterest also has RSS feeds both for your whole account AND for each board. For your whole account, just add feed.rss to the end of the url, like this: My account url is: http://pinterest.com/potpiegirl/ For my account rss feed, it looks like this: http://pinterest.com/potpiegirl/feed.rss For a specific board, just add.rss to the end of the url, like this: This is my board: http://pinterest.com/potpiegirl/camo-baby-showers This is the rss feed url for that board: http://pinterest.com/potpiegirl/camo-baby-showers.rss You can do all kinds of things with RSS feeds so play with them to help your board get more exposure and links for your board from other sites. That's about all there is to Pinterest SEO. It's actually very simply once you train yourself to do it correctly. If you use images that are interesting to Pinterest users, it won't take long until the viral nature of Pinterest starts bringing good and consistent traffic to your sites/web pages. On the last page, I'll list some of my resources... Also, feel free to get a FREE One Week Marketing Sneak Peek membership here and come check out my exclusive training center. We LOVE free money online! Jennifer ~PotPieGirl
Resources: How to Make Money Online for FREE: Totally free webinar I made explaining how to making money online for free really works. Pinter Power Denise's awesome guide to really dominating with Pinterest. Awesome Pinterest Wordpress Theme Ever wanted to make a site that looked like Pinterest? This is the theme that does it. Pinterest Power User Guides Great course that covers EVERYTHING Pinterest, from how to properly set up your account, how to get more exposure for your boards/pins, how to get LOADS of followers and much more. Free ebooks from PotPieGirl: Cash Now! How To Dig Out Of Your Financial Blackhole on YOUR Terms Brick Wall Busters: Breaking Through the Wall Between You and Your Earnings Goals Online