How To Optimize Your Pinterest Profile & Increase Product Sales

​Pinterest is one of the leading social channels in website referral traffic. Learn the demographics of Pinterest users, how to optimize your Pinterest profile, and more. Learn 5 ways to optimize your Pinterest profile.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a virtual board. It lets users quickly and easily bookmark, organize, and share useful and beautiful visual ideas found on the web. Imagine looking through a bunch of different magazines and seeing things that you like, cutting them out, and organizing them onto their own specific board. This is exactly what Pinterest is made up of. Users “pin” photos and videos from websites or upload their own content and organize it into specific categorized boards.  

The Pinterest Demographic

Pinterest has over 70 million users.  80% of those users are women. Keep this demographic in mind when deciding to create a Pinterest account. What kind of services do you provide that is going to be of value to women?  If you’re a photographer, pinning your beautiful photos would be of great interest to women and shareable content that they want to pin. If you’re a construction company, your pins may be a little more challenging BUT still do-able. For example, a construction company could pin floor plans that they're capable of building or beautiful photos of homes that they have built in the past.

Think outside of the box when marketing through Pinterest. Your content needs to be eye-catching, shareable, and relevant to your audience.

Industry-Specific Content Ideas:

• Internet Retail Stores:  Put together an outfit and pin it along with a detailed description and a link back to your website.  (When filling out the description think about what pinners would search for to find that specific pin. Example: Blue cardigan, Blue Jacket, Blue winter jacket.

• Storefront- Take photos of your physical products. Make sure the photos are clear and beautiful as pinterest thrives from beautiful inspiring photos.

• Specialized Services: Whether you are selling Digital Marketing services, Construction services, or you’re a private baker, some great pins could be pictures of the services you provide, pictures of work you’ve done, How-To guides, etc.

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How to Optimize Your Pins

There are several ways to optimize your pins and make them searchable on Pinterest. For starters, when uploading an image, check to make sure the image is named using your targeted keywords. For example if I am a photographer wanting to pin engagement photos, I would go through each photo that I want to pin and make sure that it is named specifically.

To further explain, say I am pinning a photo of an engagement session with a couple who includes their dog. The photo name should say something like "Engagement shoot with blacklab dog." Be as specific as possible when naming your images. 

he next rule in optimizing your pins is to write a detailed description of the pin, with your targeted keywords being listed first.  Be sure not to stuff your keywords, the description needs to be engaging and easy to read.

The last rule in optimizing your pins is to “repin” you own pins. The number of repins factors in Pinterest search engine optimization.

Pinterest Drives Referral Traffic

The biggest benefit of having a Pinterest account for your company is that it increases referral traffic back to your website. Referral traffic is traffic that reaches your website through another source, like a link. With each pin you are able to enter in a “source.” Your source is going to be whatever website you want your customer to be led to when they click on that particular image. The great thing about having the “source” option is that you can choose between pinning images not only from your website directly but also from your computer.

Do you have amazing product photos that aren’t on your website? What about user-generated photos that you've seen on social media? Save those photos and upload them directly from your computer and add your website URL as the “source.” Once you input your website URL, customers that click on that picture will be taken to your company’s website and can learn more about the product, and hopefully make a purchase.​

Update July 22nd 2016; Pinterest has update the "source" to "website." You can now easily add your website to any pin by copy and pasting your url into the website form. 

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Showcase your Product with Pinterest

Pinterest is a great way to showcase your product or service through eye-catching images. Although this social media channel can be time consuming and tedious, it is very successful in assisting with website conversions and sales.

​Let an expert optimize your Pinterest account and get your services and products found. Inquire today about Social Media Marketing Services to get your company on the map. Pinterest is proven in increasing referral traffic, generating more leads, assisting in the purchasing process, and making the sale!