If you haven't heard of Pinterest yet you can be forgiven for not being quite up to date with the times - after all, the social networking site was only released last year, so it is never too late to jump on the bandwagon. You may be surprised to learn that a Pinterest profile for your business or company can really put your business out there, but to do this you will need to make it SEO friendly:
Pinterest Board Titles
When you set up a Pinterest profile, you will create boards to display images that relate to its specific title (such as "dream home"). The search engine spiders actually look through the code of your title for SEO keywords, so it is always beneficial for an SEO strategy to include one relevant keyword in your board title (you might use "ice cream flavours" if you worked for Paddle Pop, for example).
External Links
During the process of building your Pinterest SEO profile, you are given the opportunity to link to your company's website, blog, and other social networking profiles (such as Facebook and Twitter). As we all know, external links are hugely beneficial for SEO, as well as helping Pinners (the users of Pinterest) to find you in other places.
Pinterest User Name
Users will search Pinterest using keywords, names and categories so, to improve your SEO strategy, you should add your company's name (or a variation that users are most likely to search for) as your public user name. As well as benefiting your SEO, this will help you to build continuity in your brand name.
Pin Images
Unfortunately, this is not an SEO tactic that can be used over and over until the end of time, but you should regularly pin images to your Pinterest profile from your main website. Whenever you do this, you will further benefit your SEO by using the bookmarklet or "Add a Pin" tool, which includes a destination link with the image.
Keyword Rich Text
Whenever you pin something to your board, you are given the opportunity to include a description, which will be invaluable for your SEO strategy. You should always write a clear and informative description that includes a few SEO keywords that are relevant to the pin.
Hashtags
Pinterest (and the search engine spiders) are able to recognize hashtags when you use them in your SEO descriptions. This SEO technique will not only make your pins Twitter friendly, it will it easier for users to share them across multiple platforms.
Whilst a lot of businesses and companies may not see the SEO worth of creating a Pinterest profile, those who are determined to be at the forefront of all the social networking advancements will already have one. It is important that you make your profile SEO friendly, however, if you want to receive the best results possible.
