What is Pinterest? 
The social media organic reach days are disappearing, but not on Pinterest. In fact, this platform is exploding in popularity, and it is giving business a valuable opportunity to get through and engage with new audiences with high intent through an organic content.

More and more marketers and brands understand how Pinterest can be leveraged as a source of search rankings, drive valuable website traffic, and build brand salience.

Pinterest is not another social media site.  While it is so often lumped in with the rest, the purpose of Pinterest is not to be a social networking site, but a source of inspiration.

A more accurate definition would be to call Pinterest a visual search and discovery engine. Here's how the platform works: users can search, save and curate visual content known as Pins and add those Pins to a digital inspiration or mood Board. The entire platform is built on shareable, saveable visuals that can easily be discovered by users across the globe via their Home Feed.

One of the major strengths of Pinterest is that all its content is searchable.

This is unlike other media, which are visual-centric in their approach. Pinterest works like a search engine; there, users can readily browse for new content through any keyword. Furthermore, all Pins have links attached, which allow users to look up more information on that product or even make purchases on the brand's site.

There's one thing, however: the fact that Pinterest launched as early as 2010 and its popularity has come late. Currently, it records 459 million monthly active users. In short, this is the biggest ever increase in user engagement recorded by the service.

There is an extraordinary opportunity here for brands and businesses looking to drive web traffic, including search rankings. Here, they can just post amazing, high-quality visual content on Pinterest, thus pushing up web traffic.

What's Different About Pinterest?
While Pinterest and Instagram are both based on visual content, it is a marketer's heaven for visual content, but that is where the similarity between these platforms ends.

As the co-founders of Pinterest describe it, the platform is a "catalog handpicked for user," and it makes it very easy for the users to discover, save, and curate visual content.

In fact, the Pinterest-running team has been making a very deliberate choice to keep itself far from other social media. It is here where the focus will be to give users a place to save what is useful and inspiring to them.

So, what really makes Pinterest different from all the other platforms?

It focuses on finding ideas and inspiration rather than documenting and sharing with their network of friends and followers.

This lets users search for visual content with handy keywords, rather than having to scroll through an algorithm-driven news feed that's never-ending.

Why should my business care about Pinterest? 

There are enormous organic opportunities on Pinterest

The golden days of organic reach are dead for most social media platforms. But not for Pinterest. In fact, 95% of Pinterest's top searches are unbranded, which means huge scope for businesses to reach new audiences.

A number of users shopping on Pinterest increased by 50% in the first half of 2020, and that figure is only expected to rise as the platform gains further popularity.

Users are coming to Pinterest to find their next purchase, and research shows that 89% of users are on Pinterest for purchase inspiration.

Pinterest offers powerful SEO benefits

Pinterest is much more of a search engine than a social platform, so there are stacks of SEO opportunities up for grabs. In fact, Google loves Pinterest and frequently places Pinterest pages at the top of search results (including SERP features and Google Image search results).

75% of the users on Pinterest say that they are "very interested" in discovering new products compared to 55% on other digital channels. You can easily reach a large number of high-intent users who are actually hunting for the products & services you offer by optimizing your Pins and Boards for your target keywords.

Pinterest affords enormous opportunities for traffic-driving; each Pin shared represents multiple clickable links to guide users from inspiration to action.

Pinterest uses visual search for marketing better than all other platforms

Pinterest uniquely allows users to search for visual content. Because it's a discovery engine for images, brands are allowed to reach valuable new audiences with keywords and SEO-friendly best practices.

And if you're trying to reach younger consumers, then you have an incredible opportunity there. Pinterest Gen Z users increased 40% from 2019 to 2020 and also increased millennial audiences by 35% in 2020 alone.

And these consumers are looking for more opportunities to discover brands and products, with 62% of Gen Zers and millennials saying they want the ability to search by image.

Using Pinterest SEO for Organic discoverability
The strength of Pinterest's difference is its search engine. This is an extremely powerful visual discovery engine that enables brands to reach new audiences organically and to build meaningful brand awareness.

Unlike other platforms, the Home Feed on Pinterest is curated for you based on the type of content you've searched for and saved recently. That offers incredible scope for brands to reach high-intent audiences who are already interested in and searching for topics related to your businesses.

So, how can you boost the discoverability of your Pins and Boards with SEO-friendly content?

Conduct keyword research on Pinterest: start searching for keywords that relate to your business in Pinterest and see what terms appear as recommendations. This is an easy way to get a sense of the popular terms you can try to rank for and inject into your content.

Optimize Your Pinterest Boards: did you know that Boards show up in Pinterest search results? That's why it is important to make sure that your Board name and description uses SEO-friendly keywords that will boost your chances for organic discovery.

Optimize Your Pins: the titles of your pins are one of the most important SEO spots on Pinterest, so pepper in relevant keywords and keep this copy short, sharp, and relevant-in under 100 characters.

Plus, your Pin descriptions are valuable real estate you should optimize to boost your SEO. Although you have 500 characters to play with, focus on adding keywords in the first 50-60 characters (that's the preview text "pinners" will see in their Home Feed).

Use Rich Pins: Since we just went over Rich Pins, these hold even more possibility of placing keywords within your Pinterest content. These Pins will synchronize information from your website into your Pins and also enable you to send users directly to your website. The formats for these Pins are free, but you have to apply through Pinterest in order to get access. There are currently three types of Rich Pins

Product Pins These Pins rely on metadata from your website and contain the latest price, availability, and product information directly from your site. Product Pins are a fantastic way to drive shoppers to your website, thus increasing the probability of conversion.

Recipe Pins: these Pins allow you to add the title, serving size, cooking time, ratings and ingredients from your website, with plenty of extra spots to inject SEO keywords.

Article Pins: these Pins let you show the headline, description and the author of your latest blog posts on Pinterest. This enables you to re-share SEO-friendly blog content to Pinterest and allow these keywords you've used to boost your searchability.

Launching a Pinterest Strategy
Now that you have recently acquired knowledge on Pinterest, it is time to put it into action. Here, focus your attention on developing an organic Pinterest strategy that best helps you achieve the desired results from this platform.

Pinpoint your marketing objectives on Pinterest
Similar to any marketing platform, Pinterest needs an unique set of goals for it to be serving a purpose for your business. Ensure you clarify your objectives before posting content to Pinterest itself.

Some of the goals you can consider include:

Increase traffic on your website.
Increase brand awareness.
Boost sales and conversion.

Be specific about what objectives are most valuable to your business, and use these to inform your content marketing strategy for Pinterest.

Optimize your website for Pinterest
Pinterest offers incredible search engine opportunities and has the potential to drive high-intent users straight to your website. However, it's important to check your website is optimized to perform at its best for Pinterest users.

Here are three actionable steps you can take:

Ensure your website is mobile responsive: 85% of Pinners use their mobile app, so ensure your website is responsive to mobile user traffic.

Install the Pinterest Save button to your website: this allows your website visitors to save content straight from your site to Pinterest, boosting your chances of organic discovery.

Check your website: that way, you will get the analytics of the Pins posted to your site.

Do keyword research on Pinterest
Since Pinterest is a search engine, it is really important to use the platform search functionality to refine your content strategy.

Having done keyword research, you'll find out what key words people are searching for and then you can add those words to your Pinterest content.

Just search for the keywords related to your business using the search function on Pinterest and generate a list of relevant terms you can use for your future content. Have this list at hand and refresh it periodically to ensure you are capitalizing on new topics and emerging keyword trends.

Create Pinterest boards that align with your target keywords
For keywords, one can use those commonly trending phrases to inform the boards they are creating for your business on Pinterest.

Creating the content pillars and boards through popular keywords ensures curating your content appropriately, making you reach other people interested in your content.

Ensure that you name your boards clearly with these keywords to get maximum keyword research (and chances of being shown in search results).

Create a Pinterest content calendar
The secret to winning on Pinterest as a business is to show up frequently and regularly. A content calendar for Pinterest can help you plan your content in advance so that you can maintain an active and growing audience. You will also use this guide to ensure each Pin posted is focused on a specific marketing objective and keyword target.

As you are creating a content plan for Pinterest, be sure to:

Focus on high-quality visual content: Pinterest is a visual first platform and high-quality branded imagery and custom graphics that call out your brand's visual identity must be shared.

Educate and teach your audience something new: 84% of Pinners say that Pinterest helps them learn new things, so design your content to educate your audience. Think about how you could create how-to tutorials, educational videos, and insightful infographics that highlight and share your industry expertise.

Inspire them to want it: give Pinner's something to keep following and come back for with inspirational material relevant to your industry. whether travel, interiors, style, or anything else.

Plan & schedule your Pinterest content. You'll know your content is consistent, and your audience is growing. You can begin scheduling your Pinterest Pins with Sked Social. Sign up for a free 7-day trial, and if you like what you see, take 50% off your first month with code SKED50.
All the organic Pinterest format specs you'll ever need

Now that we've gotten those creative juices going, let's discuss the specs and rules you'll be using across all Pinterest content types.

Static Pins: one image only

File Type: PNG or JPEG

Max file size: 20 MB

Aspect Ratio: 2:3 is recommended (1000 x 1500 pixels)

Title copy: up to 100 characters

Description copy: up to 500 characters

Standard Width Video Pins: same as a Static Pin

File Type: mp4, mov or m4v

Encoding: H.264 or H.265

Max file size: 2GB

Video length: minimum 4 seconds and maximum 15 minutes

Aspect ratio: square (1:1) or vertical (2:3 or 9:16)

Title copy: up to 100 characters

Description copy: up to 500 characters

Carousel Pins: multiple images users swipe through

File Type: PNG or JPEG

Max file size: 32 MB per image

Creative Quantity: 2-5 images per carousel

Aspect ratio: square (1:1) or vertical (2:3)
 Title copy: 100 characters max
 Description copy: 500 characters max
 Collection Pins: one primary image with three smaller images above
 File Type: PNG or JPEG
 Max file size: 10 MB
 Creative Quantity: one hero image and a minimum of 3 secondary images, but up to 24

Aspect ratio: All creative must be the same aspect ratio. Square (1:1) is recommended for no cropping
Title copy: up to 100 characters
Description copy: up to 500 characters
Story Pins: Multiple videos, images, lists, and custom text as one Pin
File Type: Images - BMP,.JPEG,.PNG,.TIFF,.WEBP. or Video -.MP4,.MOV,.M4V.

Max file size: Images 16 MB for Mobile, 20 MB for Web; Videos 100 MB

Video length: Between 1 and 60 seconds.

Resolution: For your creative to fill the full screen, use 1080 pixels x 1920 (9: 16 aspect ratio)

It all starts with a single pin

We designed 10 free Pinterest cover templates to get you started. All you need to do is click on the link above to start customizing your Pins with Canva.
And that is it! Organic Pinterest marketing basically comes from knowing how you can better optimize your content for reach and discoverability. Tap into the power of visual storytelling and curated Pinterest content for maximum discoverability and take advantage of everything that this visual search engine offers. High-intent users are ready and waiting to hear from your brand on Pinterest-it's just a question of whether you're showing up to engage and convert them.

Plan and schedule your Pinterest content. That way, you'll be assured of the consistent content and growing audiences. Start pinning your Pinterest Pins today with Sked Social. Sign up for a free 7-day trial and get 50% off your first month with code SKED50.