As discussed previously on this blog, Pinterest has become the newest social media craze. Pinterest, where users “pin” images, videos or recipes to their personal online pinboard, gives you and your business another way to get personal with your customers. Growing from a few hundred thousand to more than 12 million users in less than a year, it is becoming more and more likely your customers will be using Pinterest. While we know that Pinterest users today are made up of about 80% women, we expect this ratio to gradually level off.
You may be hesitant to jump on every social media bandwagon, but understand Pinterest isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. It’s important to realize that search engines are crawling Pinterest, and Google has indexed over 40 million pinterest.com pages. Every post can be thought of as another opportunity to get traffic to your site. So, how can you make the most of your Pinterest board? Here are some tips:
Like any website or blog, the key to Pinterest is publishing original, unique content. Make it interesting; post large, beautiful images and optimize your image file names. “Image1.jpg” has no SEO value, but naming images to what they are (whether its new-york-skyline.jpg or dog-wearing-sunglasses.gif) will allow them to be indexed properly. Likewise, optimize the name of your board. A board named ‘Best Boston Restaurants’ is much more targeted than the less specific ‘My Favorite Restaurants’. Your board title also appears in the URL, so use keywords in your titles and descriptions. Once you post an image to your board, you can edit the post to include a link. So, add links to your posts whenever possible.
If you are already familiar with social media, then you can easily make use of Pinterest; many of the same rules apply. Be social. Follow other users. Like posts; re-pin posts. Leave comments. Use #hash tags, create trending topics and join in on discussions. Users that like your content will re-pin it to their own pinboard, keeping the original source’s link. Don’t get too wordy. With Pinterest, you don’t want to overdo the text; just use short captions to maintain the flow of your pinboard. If you’re a retailer, you can include dollar amounts for your products. Good deals and competitive prices can certainly get people buzzing and re-pinning your posts.
Familiarize yourself with Pinterest and you can be using it as a tool to increase traffic, sales, and customer loyalty.
-Chris Schepici
If you are interested in more SEO techniques or would like to hire us to manage your reputation online contact us at: sales@getfoundquick.com or call 857.526.0096.
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