If you’re wondering about Pinterest SEO best practices, and how to write the best Pinterest descriptions and titles for Boards & Pins, we’ve got you covered!
There is an art and a science to it., just like with everything else on Pinterest, and we have it down.
When you get the art right, you’re appealing to a reader’s emotions, challenges, and desires for the future.
When you master the science, your Pinterest SEO will improve. That leads to more and more distribution and website traffic.
I’d call that a win-win!
In this blog post, we’re breaking down how to write Pinterest descriptions and titles for Pins and Boards. Plus we’re talking about why they’re so important for engagement, traffic, and the Pinterest search engine!
Simply put, Pinterest descriptions and titles give more context for your Boards and Pins, they are the first contact between your Pin and the audience. They give Pinterest users a clue as to what kind of content they’ll find Pinned to your Boards, or what your Pin is about!
Good Pinterest descriptions and titles drive engagement, traffic, and reach.
In 2018, Pinterest created a study of 21,000 Pins, where they analyzed Pin designs and captions, and what they found will amaze you! Here are just a few highlights:
Clearly, descriptions matter to people on Pinterest. And, as it turns out, they matter to the Pinterest algorithm too!
To further support these results, in a 2020 webinar with Pinterest’s Current Partnerships Manager, Lucy Matthews, we asked her about the possibility of using the same title and description for several Pins at once. Not only was her response categorical, but her explanation made all these concepts much clearer.
When you’re creating titles and want to use the best title and description for a Pin, both should reflect information about the Pin and what can be expected when clicking through.
Titles that don’t accurately reflect an image or a landing page are already less valuable to Pinners and will not perform as well.
-Lucy Matthews
Pin descriptions are absolutely vital to Pin distribution. By finding and including relevant keywords (that relate to the page you’re linking) in your Pinterest Pin description, Board title, and description where the Pin is saved, you send a signal to Pinterest about your content (think: Pinterest SEO!)
These keyword signals in your Pin title, Pin description, Board Title, and Board Description help Pinterest surface your Pin to the right people and in the right search results.
As with Google, don’t use random unrelated keywords, only relevant keywords. You want to avoid being reported for spam on Pinterest!
Need help finding keywords that relate to your content? Give Tailwind’s Free Pinterest Keyword Finder a try.
Pinterest Pin descriptions display in slightly different spots, depending on whether you’re using Pinterest on a desktop or the mobile app.
On a desktop, your Pin description will appear to the right of your Pin image and under your Pin title when selected. On Pinterest mobile, the description appears underneath the Pin image, just after your Pin Title.
Pinterest Board descriptions appear at the top of your Pinterest Board, just under your profile picture. This space helps clue your followers into the contents of your Board, and what type of Pins you’ll be adding to it!
Now that you know where to find these descriptions, and what they’re supposed to do – let’s talk about why writing great Pinterest descriptions is so important.
If Pinterest Pin descriptions matter so much – you may be wondering – why are they missing half the time? Sometimes you see them on mobile, but not on desktop. Or you might see them on some Pins and not on others. If you manage several accounts for clients, you may see them on some and not others.
It’s actually not uncommon. Here’s what Pinterest has to say:
“Your descriptions might look different across Pin formats and devices. Sometimes people will see the full description in their feed, and sometimes they’ll only see the Pin title or a few words of the description.
No matter what shows in people’s feeds, know that your description is working hard behind the scenes to get your content in front of the right people.”
Now let’s talk about Pinterest description and title best practices, and how to write them for your Pins!
Whether you add a Pin directly to Pinterest or are scheduling a Pin with Tailwind, you’ll see a box for a Pin description.
Not yet using Tailwind for Pinterest? Sign up and save hours each week on your Pinterest marketing strategy!
As for what to write in your Pin description, you’ll want to include anything that might help people decide if your Pin is relevant to them. The more details the better. Imagine you had 10 seconds to tell someone what your linked page was about. What would you say?
Let’s be honest – writing perfect Pin descriptions for all your Pins that include the elements above can be a little…daunting. In fact, our members said it was more than daunting – they confessed they actively avoided it!
Don’t worry. We have a brand new Pinterest description generator tool that can help. Meet Ghostwriter!
Ghostwriter is a powerful AI tool that can create natural-sounding Pin descriptions in record time. Simply upload your Pin image (or schedule from Tailwind Create), click the “Ghostwrite For Me” button on your Pin details screen, and input your information.
Ghostwriter will ask you for:
Then, in the time it takes you to sigh over the prospect of saying the same old thing in another way, Ghostwriter will generate 3 possible Pin descriptions for you.
You can make a few tweaks, have Ghostwriter try again, or save your brand new Pin description as is! It couldn’t be easier, and our members love it!
In fact, 100% of the testers in our beta group said they were likely to continue using Ghostwriter again. . Want to try it for yourself? Ghostwriter is available on all Tailwind plans, including our forever-free plan!
You have up to 500 characters for your Pin description. That’s plenty of space for the natural use of keywords, including a CTA, and all the information people need to know about what your Pin and the linked content can do for them.
When your caption appears in the feed, it’s the first 30-60 characters that are most likely to appear. Put the most important, most compelling parts first.
Similar to descriptions, Pinterest titles play a crucial role in engaging your audience. Since the title and the art may be the first things your audience notices about your Pin, we could even argue that they are more important to your CTR and traffic. Let’s examine the characteristics of a winning Pinterest title idea.
Understanding the elements of a strong Pin description is nice, but how does that translate to creating an effective caption?
A simple way to think about crafting your Pin description is with this template:
Let’s look at a few Pin examples – one for each of the four objectives: awareness, email signups, online sales, and offline sales.
Here, we’re TravelBali, a vacation resort :
Looking for an all-inclusive, family-friendly vacation holiday? TravelBali has easy packages and financing to help you plan your dream trip. Swim with stingrays, relax on a catamaran, and end your day lounging by one of our four giant pools with swim-up bars!
Kids stay and play for free. If adventure holidays are your thing, we have that – rock climbing, cave diving, hang gliding… Or if you prefer a relaxing holiday, enjoy our spa with massage, sauna, mud bath, and facials – and of course, the beach with crystal waters and sand for miles! Choose your dates now.
The keyword usage here is strong.
Great for attracting Pinners who are just starting to plan out a vacation. Notice that the brand name is near the beginning, and how compelling the copy is. I’m ready to pack my bags!
Now we’re home decor business :
For luxury linens at discount prices, think Adlers! From gauzy, no-iron summer curtains to luxurious holiday linens for the most decadent of family gatherings, we have everything you need at prices up to 80% off every day.
Be the first to hear about new styles and price cuts when you sign up for our email list.
Again, keywords to attract people who might be interested in THIS particular content. There’s also a strong call to action and an enticing promise of up to 80%. Who would want to miss that?!
Now we’re an athletic shoe company ♀️:
Perfect for back-to-school, running a marathon, or running errands in style – Maple has the name-brand sneakers you want at the prices you need. We have shoes for men, women, and kids at prices starting at just $19.99.
Trendy and supportive, all our trainers offer arch support, breathable linings, and the latest colors. Plus, we offer free recycling of your old shoes! Find your style now.
Adding in mention of a price, plus spelling out exactly what you offer make this a strong caption. Including your differentiator (free recycling) can also make you stand out in a sea of sameness.
And finally, we’re a skincare company :
Summer sun left your skin in need of rescue? Check out our top 5 picks for affordable facial skincare products to rehydrate, fade discolorations, and leave all signs of summer skin damage behind!
Strong keywords here, and a quick, to-the-point statement of what you’ll read if you click. You don’t have to use all 500 characters to say it all!
If, like me, you find you sometimes need a refresher, why not download our Pinterest Toolkit now? It includes all of these examples, plus lots more great resources to help you make your best Pins on Pinterest ever!
Now that you’ve mastered Pinterest Pin descriptions, your Pinterest Board descriptions will be a breeze!
Stuck on how to write a Pinterest Board description? Here are some helpful templates to follow:
If you remember nothing else about writing the best Pinterest descriptions, remember that:
And make sure you grab our Pinterest toolkit. When you put compelling images and powerful descriptions, you’re going to see your reach, engagement, and traffic reach new heights.
Start a forever free plan of Tailwind for Pinterest!
The best part is, you don’t need to slap down a credit card. All of these features and more are available on our forever-free plan!
Tailwind can help take those time-consuming marketing tasks off your plate so you can put your focus to better uses for your business. You just leave the scheduling, posting, and creating to us.
In the ever-changing world of social media algorithms, it can be difficult to keep up with the newest and most effective practices. And when you operate a business it’s crucial to reach the masses. So, you might be thinking, “If I Pin It, They Will Come.” But, sadly it’s not that easy! Luckily, we are here to help.
Creating beautiful Pins is only part of the equation on Pinterest. You’ll also need an eye-catching title and an engaging and informative Pin description. That’s the bare minimum, but there are also some tactics you can use to elevate your chances of your Pins getting seen – including keywords.
So, is it better to use hashtags or keywords in Pin descriptions?
Here’s the short of it – keywords are better on Pinterest, and hashtags are best on Instagram.
Why? You see, Pinterest isn’t a social media “platform,” it’s a search engine. Even though Pinterest did try to incorporate hashtags into their algorithm, they simply didn’t work. Users don’t use hashtags in the search bar so there’s no point to include them in your description. You’re much better using those characters for keywords instead.
Great question! The Pin description is the “caption” or description for a Pin post.
And the Pin title lives above the Pin description in a larger bolder font. The title is shorter than the description as it explains what the post is.
In contrast to the title, the Pin description goes into more detail. A Pin description usually focuses on the who, what, where, when, and why of the post.
It also pulls the reader’s interest further into the Pin and is a great place to put a call-to-action to click through a link or save the Pin!
Creating Pinterest boards is essential for organizing your Pinterest Pins. Pinterest descriptions provide Pinterest users an idea of the type of content that will be pinned to your boards or what your Pin is about.
Make sure to add your Pinterest board description as you create the board. But, if you forget or don’t have time you can always add it later.
To find your board description on Pinterest, follow these steps.
Captions on your Pinterest Pins are what connect your Pin with the users. So, it’s essential to create quality ones. Pinterest Pin descriptions are found in slightly different spots, depending on if you’re using Pinterest on the mobile app or desktop.
On a desktop computer, Pin descriptions will appear next to your Pin image on the right.
On the Pinterest mobile app, the Pin description will appear below the Pin image, just below your Pin Title.
A description link in Pinterest is a live link that is placed inside a Pin’s caption!
Adding a link in the description to a Pin is a great strategy for getting more Pinterest followers to engage with your content outside of Pinterest. This approach can lead to more traffic wherever you link to.
It’s also important to make sure you include a call-to-action to incentivize followers to click through.
It’s most optimal if you create Pins that relate to your outbound link so that the traffic doesn’t go to waste.
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