Thursday Press #152: heeeeere's Pinterest! 🪓
[3 OCT 2024] a not-so-scary movie...
It couldn't have been more than 10 normal 15-year-old strides from the doorway of my dad's bedroom to mine, but that night, as the shadowy apartment stretched out in front of me, becoming interminably long between the two points of light, I crossed it in less than 5.
It was an early fall night in 2012 when I watched my very first actually scary movie.
In the movie theater.
After which I had to walk home.
In the DARK.
In the bright lights of our apartment complex, I was cool as a cucumber. But once we turned out those lights to go to sleep, it was a whole different story…
All of a sudden, every shadow was a ghost.
I didn’t want to look in the mirror or out the window in case there was a face there, just waiting for me to spot it and scream.
So yeah, I did consider asking my father to get out of bed and escort me across the couple of feet of darkness separating our rooms.
(Do I remember why I left my room in the first place? No, of course not.)
Luckily this experience didn’t scar me. I still enjoy the odd spooky movie from time to time, I just have ✨rules✨ now, like we have to have the lights on and I won’t be going to the bathroom by myself
Yknow, normal things like that!
Because the truth is — when you can’t see what’s actually there, even the most innocuous thing is scary.
The distorted reflection in the window is just my cat walking in the background.
The car behind you that’s made the same 3 turns in a row is actually just following the same Waze detour as you.
And maybe, just maybe… behind every comic book villain and horror movie haunt is a misunderstood guy with a tragic backstory…
Okay, do I actually think there’s a secretly soft and nerdy Adam Brody-type hiding behind the Jason mask? No. This isn’t a “forgive mass m*rderers” manifesto.
But there is one villain who’s been made out to be scarier than it actually is — or really, there are two —
The Abominable Snowman from the claymation Rudolph movie
The Pinterest Algorithm
Pinterest: A Not-So-Scary Movie
Pinterest isn’t running around the streets of your quaint New England town with a chainsaw waiting to jump out and slash your traffic.
It’s just trying to make money out of you by serving up ads every 4 pins (which is another kind of scary altogether, but I digress)
The sooner you realize that, the sooner you can stop blaming algorithms for your lack of results and start taking action that’ll actually get you closer to your goals.
Side note: blaming the algorithm, any algorithm, is giving literal robots more power and agency than you. with love, pls stop.
So what tf is Pinterest anyway if it’s not designed to make your life harder in a marketing horror flick?
It’s several things:
A visual search engine with social media-esque properties
A place to curate inspiration and ideas
A corporation trying to make money & grow its users
Once you’ve decided that the Pinterest algorithm isn’t so scary after all, you can start to understand it.
And to understand the Pinterest algorithm, you need to understand Pinterest SEO.
This could literally be an entire course on its own — in fact, it already is! — but here’s the WHAT YOU MUST KNOW RN brief:
>> Pinterest SEO is a lot more simple than Google SEO. It mostly boils down to keywords.
>> You can use the Pinterest search bar to do all of your keyword research, no extra tools required.
>> The foundation of your Pinterest SEO comes from your keyword research, profile optimization, and boards, but your Pinterest “house” is built with the individual pins you publish.
There are three primary locations to optimize your pins:
Pin titles
Pin descriptions
Pin images
1. In Your Pin Titles
Your pin titles should be straightforward and compelling, prioritizing a main keyword (or two) that relates to the subject of the pin.
Bonus Pinterest SEO Tip: If you have extra room in your pin title, include the board title you’ll be pinning to in the pin title! This keyword match is the stuff of Pinterest SEO dreams!
2. In Your Pin Descriptions
With 500 characters available, your pin descriptions are one of the best places to pack in as many keywords as possible!
However, you want to do this without keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing refers to just loading the description with a string of keywords without context. (And the same applies if you’re just using hashtags.)
Your pin descriptions should be descriptive (duh), relevant, and keyword-rich. Typically, I aim to include at least 5 keywords in each description, including the main keyword from the pin title, and long-tail variations of that keyword.
3. In Your Pin Images
Unless you’re just pinning an image without any text on it, you should be optimizing your pin images for Pinterest SEO, too!
Since Pinterest is a visual search engine, the algorithm will actually scan your pin image for any text it can “read”.
When designing your pin graphics, try to include a relevant keyword in the text overlay to give Pinterest even more SEO data to work with!
For the rest of the Pinterest SEO breakdown, you can read this blog post! It also has links to other free Pinterest & keyword resources.
01. EDITOR'S PICK:
Your Comprehensive Guide to Pinterest SEO
When it comes to Pinterest SEO, there are two main components:
Keyword research, which is what most people focus on, &
Actually using those keywords
It’s that second bit that I find trips up most of my clients, even the ones who feel comfortable and confident where SEO and Pinterest are concerned!
That’s why I’m hosting a workshop specifically dedicated to all things Pinterest SEO. 🙌
It’s chock-full of examples and actionable steps you can take so you finally know what to do with all those keywords!
The workshop will be in November (date TBD), but you can sign up for the waitlist here to know when it’s live and snag a sweet presale deal!
Chat next week!
Sarah