Guest post: Pintrest and SEO by Rob Moore

Rob Moore is a writer for Page One Power , an SEO  company based in Boise, Idaho. He enjoys all things technology, reading and fine wine.

While it was once thought to be the savior of everything SEO, as of March, 2013 Pintrest links are officially nofollow. Many SEO organizations have decided to jump ship on the website, especially those who focus solely on links to their client’s website. However, there are other avenues that creative individuals can take if they want to increase their standing with search engines by using the website.

1. Optimize for Pintrest

This is, by far, one of the best things that an SEO firm can do that involves Pintrest. There are many ways to improve your rankings on the site itself. Most of these are very straightforward, like having an actual human face attached to the account. There is nothing more unappealing, especially if you are looking to build or interact in a community, than having a blank profile picture. I know I’ve been guilty of skipping over content that lacked a profile picture. Haven’t you?

Besides having a picture, it’s important to provide quality content on your page. Let’s use the Youtube for example. The comments section specifically. There seems to be a never-ending stream of comments that say something unbelievably vague regarding a popular video then try to plug themselves, even if they have no content on their channel. The same thing goes for Pintrest. There is no magic method that you can use and instantly gain a huge following that everyone can do. If your content is good, people will follow.

2. Use your keywords

Keywords are another big thing for boosting your ranking on searches. However, they are a double-edged sword. You never want to completely overload something you pin with keywords, especially if they don’t pertain at all to the content of your post. Keep your keywords short, relevant and to the point.

If you have quality content on your webpage then using effective keywords will give you a big boost in terms of traffic. Keywords are another great way to connect with users that are relevant to your industry. Making these connections by actually discussing content will also help people not view you as some kind of spam bot that is only there for the purpose of optimization.

3. Make your profile public

There is a privacy policy that is on by default that will completely shut down any efforts you make to get your Pintrest page on a search engine. Under your profile settings find one that is listed as “Hide your Pinterest profile from search engines” make sure that this is set to OFF! Having this option disabled will allow people that search for your brand, company, etc to find your Pintrest page in the search results.

Yes, the fact that Pintrest no longer has dofollow links on their webpage can make people instantly dismiss in terms of SEO purposes. But, I can’t help but think this is a good thing for the community as a whole. It will encourage more quality content as well as community interaction in the industry for at least one website.

Rob Moore

@P1PRobMoore