Pinterest Algorithm & Pinterest Search (2021 Guide)

Over the past couple of years, Pinterest has become one of the major sources of traffic for marketers, especially bloggers and e-commerce website owners. When most people think of search engines, they only consider platforms like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Nevertheless, Pinterest is one of the most commonly used search engines out there.

Pinterest is like a web-based bulletin board, as it allows users to save and organize their searches to various boards. Since search engines use certain criteria for ranking content, knowing the fundamentals of SEO strategies is important if you want to master the Pinterest algorithm.

In this guide, we will let you in on everything you need to know about the Pinterest search algorithm, and how you can boost the SEO performance of your posts with this knowledge.

What Is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a very popular social platform, and it is a visual search engine where people can find ideas such as style and home inspirations, recipes, tutorials, design ideas, mock-ups, and more.

This platform has billions of Pins (which are images that people pin on the platform), and this makes it easy for people to find ideas to spark inspiration.

When you find Pins you love on Pinterest or the internet, you can save them to boards, organize them, and make them easy to find later.

Are you new to Pinterest? Here is a comprehensive course on how to use Pinterest.

Why Every Website or Business Should Use Pinterest

Pinterest provides a great opportunity for websites and businesses, and there are so many reasons why every business owner should use it. It will help to enhance the exposure of your business and drive more traffic to your website. One pin can generate more pins, which can lead to more pins, and so on. Here are some of the reasons why this platform is important for websites and businesses:

Increased Conversion: Pinterest can convert most of your browsers into buyers. The platform will help to reduce the processes and steps between discovery and conversion, making it easy for people to locate your business and patronize you. Pinners on this platform are more likely to convert to sales or lead much faster than other social platforms.
Drive More Traffic to Your Site: Pinterest drives a lot of traffic. If you are looking for a great tool to boost traffic to your site, then you can rely on the power of Pinterest. When setting up your business profile on this platform, you will add and claim your website, and this will make it easy to drive traffic to your site. As a site or e-commerce store owner, you should know that the higher the traffic to your site, the higher your conversion rate.
High User Engagement: Pinterest controls a lot of traffic, as many users come to the platform to gain inspiration and look for ideas. Most users also like sharing the content they find on the platform with other users in smaller groups, and this is good for your business. It means when you pin something about your business, Pinners will keep sharing your pins, and this will make your pins go viral.
Advanced Tools: Pinterest also has a wide range of advanced tools that you can use to promote and expand the reach of your business. It features some tools such as Rich Pins, Pinterest Analytics, and more.

Pinterest Search Algorithm

Pinterest is a visual discovery engine, but most people see it as a social network. The Pinterest algorithm is the part of this system’s configuration that determines what a user sees on their Smart Feed.

The Pinterest algorithm works like other search engines such as Google and Bing that use specific information and criteria to rank content. This is why mastering the Pinterest algorithm requires basic knowledge of SEO strategies.

The Pinterest algorithm uses various information to determine what pins to show users whenever they type any keyword in the search bar of Pinterest.

Pinterest Resources:

The Four Major Factors that Influences Ranking on Pinterest

How does the Pinterest search algorithm work? It is very difficult or almost impossible to know the exact ranking factors that this platform uses. However, there are a couple of vital points that Pinterest shared with its users that they can focus on. The four major factors that influence how pins are shown to users are:

Pin quality
Domain quality
Pinner quality
Topic relevance

Note: these factors are not listed in any particular order. This means no one is more important or significant than the other.

Pin Quality

Pin quality measures the number of interactions or engagements with your Pin. The interaction and engagement include comments, saves, close-ups, and click-through. The more engagement you have, the higher the rating of your pin quality. One of the most vital parts of pin quality is how your followers first react to it. If your followers react and engage with the pin quickly, Pinterest will show your pin to a larger number of people.

Pin quality is very important, and for you to get a higher pin quality rating, your pin needs to be popular and engaging. You can improve your pin quality by making the titles of your posts compelling enough to make big impressions. You should also create pin-worthy pictures and graphics that are not only looking beautiful but provide valid and useful information. Here are a couple of things you can do to create viral, click-worthy pin images:

Use High-Resolution, High-Quality Pictures: When creating pin images, you should only use high-resolution, high-quality images. You should consider taking your own pictures with high-quality cameras or use free high-resolution stock images from platforms like Pexels or Unsplash.
Pin Tall Graphics: One of the best practices for creating viral, click-worthy pin graphics is to make sure the graphics are tall. The height of the graphics should be more than the width. Pinterest recommends that you use an aspect ratio of 2:3 (width to height).
Use Text Overlays: To increase the engagement and pins of your posts, you should consider adding a teaser or benefit-driven title on top of your graphics. Use a highly visible font, keep the message short, and make sure people using mobile devices can see it clearly.
Use the Recommended Photo Size: For instance, 1000 by 1,500 pixels.
Add a Giveaway Preview: If you are posting an article that includes a free giveaway (downloadable), you should use a small cover picture for the pin. With this, users will be able to have a quick review of the content of the giveaway, making your pin more attractive to click.
Use Your Company or Business Logo: This is one of the best practices that Pinterest recommends. You should add your website URL or logo to every pin you publish.
Include Your Website Link: You should also add the link to your website, store, or blog to your profile. After creating your Pinterest for Business account, you can add and verify your website. Make sure the link is working after you add it, as a little mistake can prevent it from opening. You should also make sure your website is well-optimized and load quickly.

Domain Quality

Domain quality is how this visual search engine sees the quality of your site. This factor measures how popular the pins of your website are. Pinterest uses this algorithm to detect the popularity of pins coming from your site. The more interactions your pins get, the higher your domain quality would be. Interestingly, there are a few ways you can enhance your domain quality ranking, some of which include:

Convert Your Personal Account to Pinterest for Business Account: If you want to fully harness the potentials of this visual discovery engine, you should create a business account or convert your personal account to a Pinterest for Business account. With a business account, you will have full access to the in-depth features of this platform such as website visits, analytics, as well as the number of repins you get.
Claim Your Site: Adding a link to your site or blog is good, but claiming the website is much better. When you claim your site, Pinterest will see you as an engaged and legitimate pinner. It also means that your pins are coming from a verified source, and this will drive more traffic to your site.
Use Rich Pins: Adding Rich Pins to your website is another great way of improving your domain quality ranking. With this feature, you can transfer information from your site to the pin. Thanks to Rich Pins, your content will never be outdated on Pinterest, as rich pins are updating constantly.
Pin Only Relevant, High-Quality Content: Pinterest will continue to recommend and show your content to more users when you create and pin only relevant, high-quality content that encourages comments and saves.

Pinner Quality

Pinner quality is the factor that measures the effectiveness of a Pinterest content creator. This factor scores the level of interaction with your pins, your pinning frequency, as well as your interaction with others. This platform tracks the level of success your old pins have achieved but uses your re-pins to score you. Re-pining high-quality content can help to boost your pinner quality score while repining low-quality content can affect your score negatively.

The recent changes in the Pinterest algorithm prefer pinners to share fewer high-quality content than sharing a lot of low-quality content. Tailwind – a Pinterest partner – recommends that content creators should publish 15 to 20 pins a day (both new pins and repins) for optimal results. Here are some of the best practices for maintaining a healthy pinner quality score:

Pin Consistently: One of the secrets to having a higher pinner quality score is to be pinning daily and consistently. This will help to keep your account active all through the day.
Pin Relevant, Popular, and High-Quality Content: This is another vital thing you need to consider doing if you want better pinner quality scores. You should only pin popular, high-quality, and relevant content that will drive more traffic to your profile. When a pin brings more viewers to your profile, they will be introduced to more pins on your profile. This will help to increase your engagements, interactions, and more.
Use Pinterest Analytics: You can use Pinterest Analytics to determine and join the train of the latest trending pins to boost your Pinterest traffic and enhance your engagement.

Topic Relevance

Pinterest uses this factor to determine whether or not to show your content when users are searching for something. The Pinterest algorithm decides whether to show your content or not by analyzing the hashtags and keywords on your pin. Does this sound similar to search engine optimization? Well, that is because it is actually SEO. Pinterest is more than a social network; it is also a search engine. Here are a few tips to help you create more relevant pins:

Conduct Keyword Research: You should conduct keyword research with the search query on Pinterest itself.
Keyword Positioning: You should strategically position some intelligent keywords in your board description, Pinterest boards, as well as your pins.
Optimize Your Pinterest Profile: Another great way of making your content appear on search results is to optimize your Pinterest profile. To optimize your profile, add some keywords in your bio and after your usernames. The keywords should describe what you do and what your business is about.

How to Beat Pinterest Algorithm

There are a couple of tricks that you can use to beat the Pinterest Algorithm, some of which include:

Add Keywords Everywhere: If you want to beat the Pinterest algorithm, you should add keywords to different places such as your profile name, profile description, board descriptions, board names, pin descriptions, pins, blog posts, blog content, username, and more.
Use the New Features of Pinterest: Harnessing the long list of tools provided by this platform is another great way of beating the Pinterest algorithm.
Add Relevant, Fresh Content Constantly: You should always update your content and add fresh, relevant content consistently.
Attractive Images: You should try to make your images stand out from the crowd. Use the best Pinterest practices while creating pins. Your images should have an aspect ratio of 2:3.
Spend Some Time on Pinterest: You should also be very active on the platform if you want to beat the Pinterest algorithm. Being active means being online, interacting with the platform and other pinners, seeing Pinterest ads, and more.

Final Thoughts

With the information provided in this guide, we believe you now know what the Pinterest algorithm is, how to use it to your favor, and how to increase your views and traffic. Pinterest is a very useful social network, and you can only take advantage of this platform when you know how it works.

Pinterest Resources

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