When you create a Pinterest marketing strategy you should be thinking about more than just the Pins you’ll make. Pinterest strategy also includes keywords, boards and scheduling just to name a few.
Most Pinterest strategies fall apart when marketers forget to connect their pinning efforts to a workflow that will help them to sustain the effort they’re putting in.
Pinterest strategy isn’t about doing more… It’s about doing the right things in the right order but also finding a time to be creative and curious.
Let’s work through the foundations of your strategy and the order you should build it in.
Pinterest Keywords – The Foundation of Every Pinterest Strategy
Pinterest keywords determine who sees your content. Pinterest states that the lifespan of Pins on their platform is 13 months which is quite a lot longer than social media posts. Part of that longevity is the SEO capability you can inject into your Pins via keywords users are searching on the platform.
Keywords inform Pinterest about your audience via:
- Board titles
- Pin titles
- Pin text overlays
- Pin descriptions
You don’t need hundreds of keywords… you need keywords aligned with your content, topics and offers. Generally I suggest using a minimum of 5 keywords for every Pin and board description.
Start your keyword strategy with who you’re targeting and how they are searching for your brand on the platform.
For example, if you’re a jewelry seller you should start with who wears your jewelry and what those people are searching for in relation to your product.
In this example, you can see the Pinner is searching for “vintage jewelry” and there are additional suggestions they can click on to further filter the search results.
Using these keywords among the other suggestions can help you connect to your audience when they are looking for you.
You should also use these keywords on your Pinterest board titles and descriptions, Pin text overlays and Pin descriptions. Each of these are an opportunity to get your content in front of the right people.
How to Find Keywords on Pinterest – 3 Ways
There are 3 ways to find keywords on Pinterest and the best part is you can do this for free right on the platform. There is no need to pay for 3rd party apps!
The Search Bar
The first way to find keywords is using the search bar. Now nestled within the search bar is an autofill that acts very much like Google. It has a predictive function. Once you search for a keyword and then hit enter you’re faced with a variety of options to use from there.
Now some features like the predictive bubbles won’t be available in every area around the world. If that is the case you can still use the search bar opting for the autofill in the search bar.
Inside each search result are a few different little bonuses as well. One of them is the related searches that can give you additional keyword ideas based on the topic you initially searched.
The Trends Tool
The Trends tool on Pinterest allows you to search for keywords related to your topic but this tool also gives you extra data. You’ll see when a keyword is popular, percentages of popularity based on the week, month and year. You can filter out by growing, seasonal, monthly and yearly trends as well as shopping trends.
I would suggest starting in the search trends menu, apply your industry and search for terms that you want to potentially use.
The Ads Manager
This last method gives you actual keyword volume where the Trends tool gives you an estimate.
You will navigate:
Create campaign
Choose “consideration” as the campaign type and toggle off the optimization for performance plus.
Click the ad group name or continue
Navigate down the page to “interest and keywords” and open this menu
Click on keywords
Now start searching for your keywords here. You have a couple of options. First, add your keywords to the list on the left or highlight the keywords in the menu and click ctrl+c on your Windows or cmd+c on your Mac and paste that into a sheet to use later.
What is a Pin Description?
A Pin description is part of your Pinterest Pin that helps your audience to understand more about your content. It also helps the platform to index your Pin so users can find it when they search. Pin descriptions are up to 800 characters long.
What is a Text Overlay?
A text overlay is simply the text you can place on your Pin design in a creative design tool like Canva.
For example, in this Pin, the text overlay reads, “14 Vintage Earring Styles That Are Making a Comeback,” and the target keyword is “vintage earring styles.”
Pinterest Boards – Where Pinterest Understands Your Content
Pinterest boards aren’t just a place to save content, they’re how Pinterest understands what your account is about. Every board you create provides context. When boards are clearly named, intentionally organized, and aligned with your keywords, they help Pinterest categorize your Pins correctly and surface them in relevant searches.
A strong board strategy prioritizes clarity over creativity. Board titles should reflect what people are actually searching for, not clever brand language. Descriptions should reinforce the topic and make it obvious who the content is for. Most importantly, boards should be built around content you can publish consistently. A well-structured board filled with relevant Pins gives your content longevity and increases the likelihood that Pinterest continues resurfacing it over time.
Well-named boards help Pinterest:
- Understand your content
- Match pins to the right searches
Boards should be:
- Clear
- Keyword-informed
- Aligned to actual content you can consistently create
Pinterest Pins – The Asset That Actually Gets Distributed
Pinterest Pins are the thing that you should focus on once you have your keywords and boards in place.
Unlike social posts that disappear quickly, Pins are designed for discovery. Each Pin is a new opportunity for Pinterest to understand your content, match it to search intent, and distribute it to users looking for that topic. This is why one URL should never rely on a single Pin. Creating multiple Pins for the same piece of content allows you to test different messaging, visuals, and angles while increasing the chances your content is surfaced in more searches.
Effective Pins prioritize clarity over creativity. Strong text overlays, clear titles, and aligned descriptions help Pinterest understand exactly who the Pin is for and when it should be shown. When Pins are created with keywords, boards, and user intent in mind, they become long-term traffic assets rather than one-off posts.
Variation matters more than aesthetics:
- Titles
- Text overlays
- Pin descriptions
When creating Pins for your URLs focus your efforts on creating variations that meet different Pinners where they’re at in search. Alternate through various keywords, designs and types of pins. For example, you can create an image Pin, a video Pin and an infographic Pin for each URL and it would reach different audiences.
Each of those can then be pinned to the most appropriate board based on the keyword. If your Pin is about vintage earrings then you can put it on the earrings board but if its focus is vintage jewelry as a whole then you can put it on your more broad board for jewelry.
Pinterest Scheduling – Where Strategy Becomes Sustainable
Pinterest rewards consistency and scheduling your Pins in advance allows you to publish strategic content.
You get to pull all these pieces together and schedule them to go out when you want them to.
You can use the integrated Pinterest scheduler or you can use a tool like the Viraly post scheduler.
I made a video showcasing how to use Viraly you can follow.
Scheduling allows you to:
- Batch content
- Maintain consistency
- Support long-term visibility
A good Pinterest scheduler should:
- Support Pinterest publishing through the API
- Fit into your Pinterest content workflow
- Make Pinterest easier to maintain, not harder
- Allow you to see analytics in one place
- Easily allow you to upload and edit your content before and after it’s scheduled
If you’re wondering about the best time to post on Pinterest we have an article that explains everything.
How These Pieces Work Together, In Short
- Keywords inform boards
- Boards provide context for Pins
- Pins get distributed through scheduling
- Scheduling supports consistency and longevity
If you can follow this while staying curious about the platform and how your audience is using it you’ll find a lot of success.
A Pinterest Strategy You Can Actually Stick With
Pinterest doesn’t require daily attention. It requires a connected system. When keywords, boards, Pins, and scheduling work together, Pinterest becomes predictable instead of overwhelming. You’ll find a routine in your workflow and the more you use the platform, the more you strategize with your brand, the better you’ll get and the more you’ll grow.
If consistency is your sticking point, scheduling tools like Viraly can help you turn strategy into action.
