GRAEME BENGE SEO

The Real SEO Opportunities Pinterest Offers

Optimising web sites to gain greater visibility is an ever evolving process. Focussing on meta data and building masses of inbound links isn’t enough any more. The addition of social signals to the ranking mix now means that contributing to online communities is now a fact of life for real SEO strategies.

Pinterest is currently the big mover in social media. With sign ups coming in at a rate of knots, you can get the best out of the platform with a few of the following points.

Experiment with keyword repetition in Pin descriptions. Normal SEO practice is to be sparing however the Pinterest search filter or algorithm seems to respond to multiple uses of a keyword if it makes for a better description

Like Twitter, look for or create relevant hashtags for the keyword you’re focussing on.

Good Pinterest etiquette is to like or even better, respond to someone re-pinning your content. Like any social platform, the more you interact the more you will get out of it.

Sign up for Pinerly. Insight is what you need in order to make the most of your time spent on Pinterest. Pinerly provide analytics for your Pinterest efforts. Simply sign up and follow the instructions. Remember you can’t currently retrospectively use Pinerly so the sooner you sign up the better.

Check your time zones. Pinerly tells us that Saturday morning and Wednesday afternoon are the most popular times to Pin. Is that true of your audience?

Like Twitter, following and interacting with experts in your particular field will attract likeminded followers. So find the experts and like/re-pin their stuff.

If you can manipulate your image, add relevant text to it like a theme or message or if it is the cover of a board, add the title of the board.

This is a great tip for beauty specialists.  Put together how to guides. Pinterest’s visual medium relays instructions particularly well. YouTube has proven how hair and make-up tutorials are received.

Again, like Twitter, Pinterest allows for a descriptive bio in your profile. As well as the all-important home page link, get your elevator pitch in here to better qualify your potential followers. Consider:

• What you do
• Your unique selling point
• A compelling call to action

Make the most of Pinterest’s relaxed community. Discovery is the big lever of Pinterest. So make yourself a 3D entity by adding character, don’t be stuffy and have fun. You could create a board dedicated to you interacting with your offline audience.

Encourage re-pins by asking ”likers” to share it with their followers.

Encourage repeat visits and build loyalty by becoming known for a regularly themed Pin.

These are a few things I’ve seen in play, I’d be interested to see what other people are finding useful Pinterest tactics.