Pinterest Keyword Research

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Keywords also inform the Pinterest algorithm so it understands how to categorize your content and serve it up to Pinterest users who are searching for your content – even if they are not following you – but are interested in your topics.
You’ll hear terms tossed around like “Pinterest keywording” or “Pinterest SEO” or “Pinterest trends.” Mostly these terms are about the same thing when it comes to Pinterest, but there are a few nuances which we’ll talk about in a bit.
Since Pinterest is a search engine (a visual one) it’s logical that everything you publish to Pinterest is searchable. And searchable means people enter words (keywords to us marketers) or word strings into the search bar to find what they’re looking for. This is similar to how you would search on Google.
Pinterest Trends Tool
Pinterest keyword research is very different than keyword research you would do to rank on Google, however. There is currently not a Pinterest keyword research tool that provides supply, demand and other metrics for keywords searched for on Pinterest. Some folks speculate that the new Pinterest Trends Tool may evolve into one.
Pinterest users also scroll through their home feeds to find things they’re interested in but… scrollers are typically in “discover” mode or “passing the time” mode. They’re not searching by using keywords.
You want your pins to be found by “searchers” and “discoverers.” For this article though, we’ll only focus on the searchers who use keywords to find things and how to do the actual keyword research which you’ll use in many areas of your Pinterest marketing.
The Search Bar
Enter a keyword into the search bar.

Pinterest serves up pins that are “SEO’d” for the keyword you entered. SEO, in this case, means the owner of each pin included this keyword and related keywords in the pin text overlay, description, and possibly other places like the board title and board description the pin was originally pinned to.
Beneath the Search Bar, you’ll see a row of colored tiles with words on them. These are keywords that are frequently used with the keyword you entered.



Pinterest Keyword Research For Your Niche
Now that you understand how the Pinterest Search Bar works, let’s do some keyword research for your niche. Remember, your goal for doing this keyword research is to help Pinterest users find what they are searching for. When they enter a keyword related to your business, your pins and boards will come up, if you’ve keyworded them well.
Create a Simple Spreadsheet

Pull all the keywords on the tiles that are relevant to your niche / target market that make sense to use with your primary keyword.
Add them to column B on your spreadsheet.

Return to the Pinterest Search Bar and enter your primary keyword again. Pinterest makes suggestions in the drop-down based on search volume, much like Google does. It just doesn’t tell us what that search volume is (yet). We only know the suggestions are based on the most popular searches and this is what we have to work with (for now).
Add these to column C on your spreadsheet.

Pinterest Keyword Research Using The ABC Method
If you want to take your Pinterest keyword research a step further, try the ABC research method. This method is super simple but can be a bit tedious. However, doing this research at the start will save you loads of time later so it will pay off.
Enter your primary keyword in the Pinterest Search Bar once again. This time enter a space and add the letter “a.”

Return to your spreadsheet and record any keywords + words that start with “a” that were suggested by Pinterest.


Choose a handful of secondary keywords (or as many as you have time to research) and repeat the ABC research process.
Soon you’ll have a large list of keywords to refer to and can use for the following…
- writing blog posts
- creating pin text overlays
- writing pin descriptions
- creating board titles
- drafting board descriptions
- and more
Ready for the next step?
Learn how to use your Pinterest keyword research to get more traffic to your blog or site by taking the Pinterest Traffic Avalanche course.
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