Episode 019: Everything Pinterest and SEO w/ Sidnee from The Pinner’s Circle

Hello, hello, and welcome back to Everything SEO. I’m super excited about today. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard me talk about it before, but I’m sure if you’ve been around the Kama Mama Co. before, you’ve heard me mention Pinterest. I actually used to be a Pinterest manager. But it just wasn’t aligned with what I like to do.

I only picked up Pinterest because I was doing blogging for companies and they were like, Hey, can you hop on my Pinterest too? And I was like, sure. Fell in love with it, but it is not something I want to spend all my time on. Much prefer creating the content to pin. But anyways, I’ve actually done a few studies on how Pinterest pulls in.

And so I wanted to just bring on a Pinterest expert to kind of give her insight on how Pinterest works with SEO, how Pinterest can help your business. And all the other good things. So I’d like to introduce you to Sydney and she can tell us a little bit about herself too. Well, first off, thank you so much for having me.

And yes, I will spend all the time on Pinterest. So feel free to just hand it all over and I’ll take it. But as she said, I’m Sydney. And basically what I do is I help life first business owners create marketing strategies with Pinterest so that they have time to live their life and show up online. But while they’re enjoying life offline, and basically if you’ve ever typed into Google how to grow your business without social media, Pinterest is the answer to that.

Absolutely. what I do. I can stand behind that. I, even though I didn’t do anything for my Pinterest until lately when you did the VIP week for me, it was still going strong from when I did stuff from like two years ago. I still had viral pins. And so that was pretty, it’s pretty interesting to see. But anyway, so.

Like I was saying, I brought Sydney on because I feel like SEO and Pinterest go so well together. Part of it is that Pinterest is kind of an SEO platform, right Sydney? Yes, totally. It is not social media. You think about it as like a social Google. That’s a good way to put it, but I know it’s like more image based too.

Right. Visual search engine. So I know that, like when I go back and I do. Stuff for blogs. I’m always thinking about the images on them and optimizing them for SEO and I’m sure the same goes for like optimizing graphics. For Pinterest, so how does that kind of, so I guess just like take me through how Pinterest kind of affects how people show up online because I know like it kind of works like a search engine while it is like a visual search engine, but how does like it impacts like your overall visibility, right?

So. Let’s say, for example, like me, I’m someone, I have three kids, I’m busy, I don’t want to spend all my time marketing my business on social media because, one, that’s exhausting, two, I just don’t really like it. Same. Yeah, three, it just takes away so much time from what I want to be doing. So, by utilizing Pinterest, I’m able to implement my Pinterest strategy.

In my pajamas, essentially, at night while I’m watching Netflix, I take a blog post or an Instagram post with a good chunk of information or something like that, and I repurpose it into pins. For Pinterest. Mm hmm. So basically I just create a bunch of different graphics, write some pin titles and pin descriptions with keywords, and then upload that to Pinterest.

And from one blog post, I can get anywhere from 10 to like 50 pins per blog post, depending on just your strategy, content, all that stuff. Mm hmm. But by doing that, and by spending, you know, an hour, While you’re watching Netflix in your pajamas, you are showing up, which I know we’re going to talk about this in a little bit, but we, you know, you’re showing up with backlinks for your website and SEO, and you’re also showing up with pins that people are searching for on Pinterest, the content that people are already searching for.

So basically, if someone types in, let’s use you as an example. If someone was typing in how to write a blog post, and you had a pin that says how to write a blog post, you know, on Pinterest, you are showing up there, and you have that exact keyword, so you’re one of the first people that shows up, people click on your pin, it appeals to them, visually appealing, and click out, go to your website, or wherever your online space is, and from there they’re able to read your blog post, dig into everything about you, pinners are known to like, You know, kind of stalk people a little bit in the best way possible, just kind of learn everything they can about someone.

And from there, they really want to make that decision of like, Oh my gosh, she just gave me so much incredible information. Now I am going to inquire to work with her, or I’m just going to give her my email address and see what her emails are like, or take a next step. Pinners are so much more like.

Realistically, they are more likely to take action on your website or from somewhere than, like, someone on Instagram. They’re not gonna go to your link in bio, or if they do, it’s like, you know, one people out, or one person out of your thousand followers, and it just converts a lot better, I’ve seen. And so, really, Pinterest is just that magic.

People are not utilizing. I think that’s a super big similarity between SEO and Pinterest though, is that people are on there to problem solve. Whereas, you know, on Instagram, you’re providing value or you’re selling. You’re essentially. Putting yourself in front of them. They’re not necessarily searching for you, but they’re already following you.

So you’re showing up anyways, whereas like with Pinterest or Google, like people are searching to solve their problems. They’re searching for a product. Like they’re already, they’re actively trying to problem solve. And so when you show up, it’s a little bit easier to convince them, Hey, you know, this is your solution, this is a digital product, or maybe you need to hire me because I’m the solution.

And I definitely see the similarities there and just bring it back to, to blogging and Pinterest together. Um, I actually really enjoyed that part. I feel like Pinterest pulls from blogs so well. Um, are they a requirement, kind of, to be on Pinterest though? It, it depends. I like to, if you have a blog, I say 100 percent be on Pinterest.

If you have a website, and maybe you don’t blog, but you have service pages and freebie opt ins and stuff like that, you can still be on Pinterest. Obviously, you’re not going to have A plethora of content to pull from to pin over and over and over as if you had a blog, but I mean, you can make it work.

You can pin one time a day is better than pinning no times ever, you know, so even people with a stand store, they can be on Pinterest. It, it’s really just showing up and pinning and working with what you got. If your goal is to have a website one day, I would say, hey, just get on Pinterest and pin what you have right now.

Because then you’ll build up similar to Google and SEO authority, all that stuff will build up your profile. So you were saying like building the backlinks and to kind of build off of that, I mentioned this in the beginning, but In March of 2023, I actually went back and I saw that Pinterest was building more like high, high authority backlinks and normally social media and you know, Pinterest isn’t quite social media, but I think that’s why they can get kind of do this versus Instagram.

So when you drop your link on Instagram, there’s not a huge backlink build. It’s, it’s really not there. It’s like a social backlink. It’s, it’s just kind of exist. It doesn’t hurt, but it’s not. It’s not super, super valuable. And that’s on Instagram, Facebook, even Twitter or threads, wherever you are. But on Pinterest, these pins that were ranking top for some random keywords, it wasn’t every keyword, but like, it seemed to be high traffic keywords or high in demand keywords, it would build a backlink to that person’s website, and it would improve their domain authority, and I would start seeing increases in the traffic and the keywords that they were ranking for, for their other content that was related to this, so I thought it was super cool, and Do you, when you do Pinterest, do you kind of put that in there too?

Like you’re thinking about, is this going, is this going to perform super well on Pinterest and potentially like bring it back to Google? I think a lot of times I will have that in the back of my mind, but honestly, I create content mostly for Pinterest, because Pinterest trends and Google trends usually line up.

So if you keep up with the Pinterest trends tool, and then you can kind of compare it to the Google trends tool, like, things line up a lot more than you think. So if you just stay up to date with Pinterest. Trends on platforms, then usually you’re pretty good to go there. I’ve seen that as well. I’ve seen that a lot of like how to’s or even why’s are like top tips or lists and stuff.

They’re, they’re pretty much, they do just as well on Google as they do on Pinterest or Pinterest as Google and kind of just go back and forth. So when you create one, it just, it’s utilized on both platforms. Now I have noticed a difference in inspirational content or like technical content. So for example, I’ve done some blog posts on technical, the technical side of SEO, and it doesn’t get nearly as much attention on Pinterest as it does on Google, but I also do some lists for like some of my favorite things.

So like I have a blog post about. My favorite show at website templates for service providers. And it’s not doing super great for, for Google because it’s a, it’s a pretty competitive keyword and it is pretty specific as well, but on Pinterest, it’s doing a lot better. Yeah, Pinterest loves that inspiration and those how to, so if you can give someone like, you know, inspiration roundup lists, like those quick, like, little blurbs of things and then the how to’s, like, how to solve their problem.

If you create that kind of content, you will do incredible on Pinterest because that’s what pinners are there for. They’re there to solve their problems and get new ideas. Absolutely. I always say that Google takes a hot minute to, to pick up on your stuff, but once it gets happening, like once, once, once you’ve been at it for a while, it can take even just a day for your stuff to rank, but it, it takes that super slow while it feels super slow to us, but it’s, it’s pretty much a normal timeframe to, to start seeing results.

It. Pinterest is pretty much like that, right? Pinterest is the same. I tell people. Hold out, just keep going, be consistent for at least three months. But that magic number I see is like eight months of consistency. Usually around eight months, all of my clients, all of my students will kind of see that first like viral pin takeoff.

And they’re like, Oh my goodness. It’s just that consistency, that same thing with SEO and blogging, just like getting started and doing it. And that’s why I said too, like. Maybe you’re planning a website in the next couple months, get started on Pinterest now to start building that up. Because you’ll still have to build up SEO and Google and all that good stuff too, so you might as well start on a platform that you can start on now.

So is it a big deal if you like skip a day or say you forget for a week? No, so exactly like you said earlier, you weren’t consistent on Pinterest. For a little while, but you saw stuff from two years ago doing well. My first viral pin I had probably almost three years ago is still going, and I haven’t touched that blog post, repinned any of that content, any of that.

There have been seasons of my life on my own Pinterest, like when I first started my business, I neglected it for probably a good six to twelve months. It was still bringing in. Like, thousands of outbound clicks to my website every day, and I wasn’t doing anything with it. Pinterest is the most forgiving platform.

When you’re just starting out, I say be consistent as much as possible. But like, once you hit that like, six to eight month mark, if you want to go on vacation and don’t want to schedule any pins, or you forget, or you’re like, hey, I just want to take a week off, come back next week. Like, you’re totally fine.

Pinterest isn’t going to penalize you for that. Like certain other social platforms. Yeah. Wait, no. Thou shalt not be named. I, I think that makes it, you know, I took the summer off of Instagram. We were talking about this earlier, but I’m taking the summer off of Instagram. I decided I was not going to pressure myself to post and that I was just going to let it be because the stress of ideation and content creation.

So I’m just going to go for it. So my platforms have been Threads, Pinterest, and I’ve been focusing on my blog. And it’s so kind of relaxing. I don’t feel pressured. I’ve already created the content. You gave me the tools I needed to make Pinterest easy. And while it’s on my list to outsource, when I do want to start showing up on Instagram a little bit more and doing all the other things that I’m going to have to have a lot of energy for, and I’m afraid of like Pinterest dropping off, that’s when I’ll think about it again.

But I do think it’s such a great option. For like business owners who are, are kind of, you know, I’m going to lean into the stuff that’s going to give me long term visibility that, you know, when I’m in a season of life and I can’t put a lot of energy into something it’s there. And I always say that blogging and Pinterest are the, are the two, two partners to go for, because you have your SEO on both platforms.

But I think we covered a lot of good stuff and this was like a nice little bite sized piece and insight into Pinterest. What is like an actionable tip? That you would suggest to anybody listening that they could pretty much like head out after this episode and kind of implement it or think about it or make some kind of change thanks to it.

Right, so obviously if you’re here, you know about keywords. And if you don’t I actually have a free keyword guide Which I will give the link for but I want you to go up to Pinterest Open like the Pinterest search make sure you’re under all pins Not just your pins and go ahead and search what you do.

So if you are a blogging educator or blog writer or copywriter, whatever you are, type that into Pinterest and then see what is popping up in that search bar because that search bar is actually a smart search bar. And Pinterest loads what people are currently searching for in that search bar, which I love.

And those are some keywords. Pick one that’s most relevant to you, and make sure it is actually in your display name on Pinterest. So, edit your name, put your first name, your business name, whatever it is, and then put a little slash, little line, whatever, dash, and put Blog writing education or whatever you come up with because your display name is searchable on Pinterest.

So the next time someone types that in, you will pop up. So that would be my first, like, go do that now if you do not have that already. And that’s such a quick thing to do. It’s not, that’s not super time consuming. You could probably tackle that in five minutes. So I love it. Absolutely. Now, if someone wanted to work with you or get anything from you, like if you have any digital resources, how can they do that?

Yeah. So if you are like, okay, this sounds awesome. I can do this myself, which you totally can. I have a resource, it’s called Pinterest Made Simple, and it’s basically a 25 day quick start guide, and in like 5 to 10 minutes a day, it’ll give you actionable tips on how to get started on Pinterest. If you’re like, okay, this all sounds great, but I need a little bit of help, I have a VIP week, which we did one of those.

Definitely recommend. Right. It basically, I will do all of that like hard stuff, the keyword research, optimizing your profile, getting your strategy together based on your content, all that good stuff and hand it all over to you and then kind of hold your hand, walk you through it and give you support afterwards for 30 days and then come back and audit it to make sure you’re doing good.

So I have that option. And if you’re like, okay, Pinterest sounds really great. I know I need this for my business, but I don’t have time. You can always outsource. And I will. Take it off your to do list completely. So those are kind of the three ways that you can get started with Pinterest. And I definitely think if you are any type of busy entrepreneur, whether you’re a mom, um, wife, single person wanting to go out and stay up all night and party, all the power to you, you probably should be on Pinterest.

Yeah, go ahead and let it do, let Pinterest do the work while you get to do what you want. Right. But I think that’s it for today. Thank you so much for being here. I think this was a very fun episode to do. And I will talk to everybody later. As always, I hope you were able to learn at least one new thing today and how you can apply it to your own business or blog.