Quick Answer
Pinterest SEO is the practice of optimising your Pinterest profile, boards, and pins with the keywords your target audience uses on Pinterest, so the algorithm distributes your content to users making relevant searches. The five fields that matter for keyword placement are: profile name and bio, board titles and descriptions, pin titles (which Tailwind estimates account for ~40% of ranking power), pin descriptions, and alt text (which Tailwind’s 2025 research found increases impressions by 25% and outbound clicks by 123%). Pinterest SEO differs from Google SEO because Pinterest relies almost entirely on signals you provide directly, rather than crawling the full text of your website.
Pinterest keyword research is the single highest-leverage activity in Pinterest SEO, and it is consistently where business accounts leave the most performance on the table. Not because it is difficult, but because most accounts skip it entirely, apply Google SEO logic where Pinterest logic is different, or optimise only one or two of the five fields that actually influence distribution.
Pinterest processes 80 billion searches per month. Those searches represent users actively planning and researching, usually in the window before a purchase decision. Getting your content to appear in those results is a function of how clearly and consistently you have told Pinterest what your content covers.
What is Pinterest SEO?
Pinterest SEO is the practice of optimising your Pinterest account’s profile, boards, and individual pins with the keywords and phrases your target audience uses when searching on Pinterest, so that the platform’s algorithm correctly matches your content to relevant search queries and distributes it to the right users.
Pinterest SEO differs from Google SEO in two key ways. First, Google’s crawler can read the full text of a web page — Pinterest relies almost entirely on the signals you provide directly. Second, Pinterest searches reflect planning-oriented intent rather than transactional intent, meaning your keyword strategy should target the language of research and inspiration, not just purchase queries.
How to find Pinterest keywords: three primary sources
Source 1: The Pinterest search bar. Type any term relevant to your content and the autocomplete suggestions show you what real users are searching for. After entering a search, Pinterest surfaces a row of coloured keyword tiles below the results — these are the modifying terms users most commonly combine with your initial query.
Source 2: The Pinterest Trends tool. Available through the Analytics section of any Pinterest Business account, the Trends tool shows search volume over time for any term, with approximately two years of historical data and predictive forecasting up to 90 days ahead. We cover this in detail in our guide on how to use the Pinterest Trends tool.
Source 3: The Pinterest Ads keyword planner. Accessible through the ads manager, this tool provides monthly search volume data with more precision than organic tools. Even for businesses not running paid campaigns, the keyword planner validates whether a term has genuine search volume.
Where to place Pinterest keywords: the five fields
1. Profile name and bio — carry significant weight because they appear in Pinterest search results directly. Including your primary category keyword alongside your brand name in your profile, and writing a bio using natural language around your content topics, helps Pinterest classify your entire account correctly from the outset.
2. Board titles — should be direct, keyword-forward descriptions of the topic each board covers. “Recipes” is weaker than “Healthy weeknight dinner recipes.” Pinterest uses board titles and descriptions as category signals for all content within them.
3. Pin titles — carry the highest individual weighting of any text field on a single pin. Research by Tailwind estimates the pin title accounts for approximately 40 percent of an individual pin’s ranking power in Pinterest search. Lead with the primary keyword naturally.
4. Pin descriptions — give you 500 characters to expand using secondary and related keywords. Write these as natural prose, not a keyword list. Pinterest’s algorithm reads descriptions as language, not tags.
5. Alt text — the newest and most underutilised field. Research published by Tailwind in 2025 found that pins with alt text earn 25% more impressions, 123% more outbound clicks, and 56% more profile visits. Most accounts still leave alt text blank. Write it as a natural-language sentence: “A flat lay of five neutral wardrobe staples for a minimalist capsule wardrobe” outperforms “capsule wardrobe fashion neutral basics” because the algorithm reads language, not tags.
What changed with AI-powered visual search
Pinterest’s AI visual search capabilities have expanded significantly through 2025 and 2026. The platform can now identify objects, textures, colours, and aesthetic styles within images directly — without depending solely on text signals you provide. This means that keyword strategy and visual strategy are no longer fully separable. A pin about “linen bedding styling” performs better in visual search when the image actually looks like intentionally styled linen bedding.
If you want a keyword strategy built for your specific niche and content library — not a generic template — our Pinterest Power Month includes a full keyword audit and placement guide as one of its core deliverables.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Pinterest SEO?
Pinterest SEO is the practice of optimising your Pinterest profile, boards, and pins with the keywords your target audience uses when searching on Pinterest, so the platform’s algorithm correctly matches and distributes your content to relevant users.
How do I do keyword research for Pinterest?
Use three primary sources: the Pinterest search bar autocomplete, the Pinterest Trends tool (which shows search volume over time and 90-day forecasts), and the Pinterest Ads keyword planner (which provides monthly search volume data). Build your content around terms with confirmed search volume in your niche.
Does alt text matter on Pinterest?
Yes. Research published by Tailwind in 2025 found that pins with alt text earn 25 percent more impressions, 123 percent more outbound clicks, and 56 percent more profile visits compared to identical pins without alt text. The majority of pins on Pinterest still have no alt text, making it a straightforward competitive advantage.
How does Pinterest SEO differ from Google SEO?
Pinterest SEO differs from Google SEO in two key ways: Pinterest cannot crawl the full text of your website, so it depends almost entirely on the signals you provide in your profile, boards, and pin fields; and Pinterest searches reflect planning-oriented intent rather than transactional intent, meaning your keyword strategy should target the language of research and inspiration.
Sources: Pinterest internal data, 80 billion monthly searches, business.pinterest.com; Tailwind alt text performance research, 2025; Tailwind pin title ranking weight analysis; Pinterest Trends tool, analytics.pinterest.com.