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Want to make the best Pinterest boards to boost your business?

You should – Pinterest is a powerhouse to increase blog traffic – and sales!

That's because Pinners are actively searching for ideas, information, and products.

Pinterest users are consumers and buyers!

If your business isn't using Pinterest – or you haven't optimized your Pinterest account for marketing your business – you're missing out.

Set up the right boards now with this Ultimate Guide to Pinterest Boards!

We'll cover:

Which boards you need for your Pinterest business account.
How to name and write descriptions for your boards.
Step-by-step to add a Pinterest board.
How to edit, hide, archive, or delete a board.
How and why (or why not) to make board sections.
Personal boards on your business account – yay or nay?
How to organize your boards.

At the end of this article, you can sign up for my FREE e-course. It'll take you from setting up your account correctly to making easy, pinnable images!

What Are Pinterest Boards?

Pinterest allows you to upload, save, sort, and manage images, photos, graphics, and videos (known as Pins) into collections known as boards.

As a user, you can browse other users' "boards" for content that takes your interest – and "Pin it."

Users can choose to follow individual boards that interest them, instead of an entire account. Pinterest stands out from Facebook and Instagram in this regard.

As a Pinterest user, it's easy to be carried away by just how casual everything looks. If you do get carried away, you lose the opportunity to create boards that drive traffic and sales for your business.

Each board on your profile should have a specific theme or purpose.

Making boards that give information on your business, what you do, where you are located, what people should know about you, and how to choose the right products or services of the type you offer, will help interested Pinterest users find you easily.

Let's dive into some specific ideas, once we learn how to find your Pinterest boards.

Where Are My Pinterest Boards?

Pinterest recently changed the layout of your profile. Your boards are no longer visible when you (or anyone) first clicks to your account.

Instead, your profile page now displays the "Create" tab, which shows your recently created Pins.

To see your Pinterest boards, you'll need to click to the "Saved" tab.

The first spot is taken by "All Pins" with the rest being your boards.

The URL to go directly to this tab is https://pinterest.com/[username]/_saved/ For example: https://www.pinterest.com/louisemyers/_saved/

The Pinterest board "Showcase," a carousel of your 5 favorite boards, has been retired.

What Pinterest Boards Should I Make?

What should you make Pinterest boards about? Your business!

Your business category

Set up one main board with your overarching topic. This one is NOT niched: it should encompass as much of your business topic as possible.

Mine is "Social Media Marketing Tips." Virtually everything I write about can be filed under that topic – i.e. Pinned to that board.

Likewise, almost everything I Pin from others could go on this board. It encompasses the needs of the audience I wish to reach.

You can also create one board that isonly for your own content. Mine is named LouiseM.com Visual Social Media Tips.

Some Pinners use this as a starting point for all their "Pins" – a feeder board. They then Repin or schedule Pins from this board.

I don't recommend this however, due to the latest Pinterest best practices. Pinterest now says a Pin should be pinned to the most relevant board first. This gives the Pinterest algorithm context to help surface Pins in the most appropriate searches.

So, you will need more than one or two boards…

Your blog and/or product categories

Your goal should be to have a Pinterest board for each category that you'll create Pins for. Start with:

Your primary areas of expertise.
Topics you're currently blogging about.
Products you sell.
Services you offer.

When you're ready to add more, check out these Pinterest board ideas for inspiration.

Below are my Pinterest boards for inspiration. I've had two of my boards featured by Hubspot in their "Top Ten Pinterest Boards for Marketing." Social media guru Rebekah Radice has also recommended my account. Woohoo!

How many Pinterest boards should you have?

You can have a crazy amount of boards – the limit is 2,000, which includes secret boards as well as group boards you didn't create.

This is probably way, way too many for any business!

Start with the topics you'll be creating a lot of content or product for in the near future. The reason for this is twofold:

1 | You do want to have boards that you can keep active. It's best if you'll have a new Pin for each board weekly.

2 | You don't want to come out of the gate with dozens of empty boards, or be in a rush to add a lot of content at once. This will avoid rate limit blocks, where Pinterest sees you as a possible spammer.

So take it easy – start with the most important boards first. Shoot for 6–10 to start.

You can always add more later:

For current content that doesn't quite fit on these first boards.
For new content you'll make based on what resonates most with Pinners.

Pinterest board names

What should you name your Pinterest boards? What people are searching for!

Don't get clever with your board names

Use your best keyword phrases! That way, interested people can find your boards via search engines (on Pinterest, Google, and others).

Yes, your Pinterest boards can rank on search engines outside Pinterest! That's because Pinterest has a high domain authority.

Here you can see that my "social media marketing tips" board is 4th on the 2nd page of Google results.

How long should a Pinterest board name be?

The maximum allowed characters is 50, but they might not all show on your profile.

While it's nice to have neat, tidy names that fit in the display area, it's not required. Go with what best describes the board.

For example, "Social Media Scheduling Tools & Tips" doesn't all fit on the profile view of the board. But that "tips" keyword is still there for SEO purposes!

If someone should search "Social Media Scheduling Tips" this board would be more likely to surface due to that.

The Best Pinterest Board Name Generator is the Pinterest Search Bar

Don't concoct a name that's cute and unique. Use phrases Pinners are actually searching for!

Start typing a relevant keyword and Pinterest will suggest real search phrases.

From the top right bar, click the magnifying glass icon.

A search panel will pop up. Start typing! Take note of the phrases that appear.

Click on one of the phrases to check out Pins, boards, and accounts that use that keyword phrase. Plus, you'll find lots more ideas in the colored tiles to niche down your board names, or include in your board description!

Write a good board description

Keywords matter here too! Include phrases your target audience is searching for.

Learn more about Pinterest search engine optimization here.

How long should a Pinterest board description be?

You can enter up to 500 characters. Pinterest recommends that you be conversational: use several sentences instead of a bunch of keywords.

But do incorporate your keywords into those sentences! In my Google SERPs example above, you can see how the keyword phrases are picked up and highlighted.

I would shoot for at least 200 characters of description.

pinterest board description example — Pinterest board description example.

Should I use hashtags in my board description?

Hashtags aren't helpful in your board description. Hashtags on Pinterest are only intended for Pin descriptions.

Include a Pin with each page you publish on your website or store

And "Pin it" immediately after publishing! Here are some quick tips for pinnable images:

At least 1 1/2 times as tall as wide.
Bright, warm colors draw more attention.
Simple design reads well on mobile.

For blog posts: You can pull a tip or valuable snippet of text from your blog post, and create a simple graphic. These can be text on a solid background, because simple graphics stand out even more against all the photos on Pinterest.

For products, recipes, etc: Use one image, or create a simple collage of 2 to 4 images with a few words of text to explain.

Making Pins doesn't have to be difficult. Read some of my favorite ways to easily make Pinterest Pins.

How to Create a Pinterest Board

Got some boards names and descriptions ready? Let's make boards!

You can create your boards from a desktop browser or on mobile. Either way, start by going to your "Boards" tab.

From here on desktop, just click the red plus sign on the far left, where it says "Create board."

On mobile, you'll find the plus sign at the top left, and it says "Manage boards."

Now enter your well-keyworded board name and click "Create."

Next you'll edit the board to add the description. I recommend doing this right away to increase your chances of being found in search.

How to Edit Pinterest boards

On desktop, you can edit any board from the Boards tab by hovering the individual board and clicking the edit pencil that appears in the lower right.

Alternately, if you already have the board open, click the 3 dots at far left just above the Pins, and then click "Edit."

On mobile, you need to open the board and then tap the 3 dots, which appear at top right. Then tap "Edit."

Once you're on the Edit pane, add your description and choose a category.

Some people like to make the board "Secret" until they get a number of Pins on it, but I don't believe this is necessary. If you choose to do that, be aware that all Pins on the board will go out to your followers at the time you switch from Secret.

You can also Delete, Archive, or Merge the board, which we'll discuss in a minute.

How to make Pinterest boards private

Want to Pin personal stuff on your business account? You can keep those Pins private by setting the boards you Pin them to as "secret."

Open the Edit pane as noted above.

Under Settings > Keep this board secret, turn the toggle ON.

When you save Pins to a secret board, the person you saved the Pin from won't get a notification, and the Pin's repin count won't increase.

When you save Pins from a secret board, Pinterest won't show the name of the person you saved it from on your new Pin.

So using secret boards is not helpful if you're trying to help a friend build their account by giving them repins and exposure – because it won't.

If you want to share a secret board, you can invite friends to collaborate, or make the board public. To make a board public, toggle off "Secret" in the board settings. source

How to archive Pinterest boards

Got some boards you don't use any more? Or group boards that you're not quite ready to leave, but don't want on your profile?

Archive 'em!

Once again from the Edit pane, at the bottom click Archive.

Then you'll need to verify by clicking Archive again.

verify by clicking Archive again

If you archivea board, you won't be able to save Pins to it. Pinterest will hide it from your profile and stop using it for recommendations.

However, Pins on the board are still in circulation on Pinterest and can surface in search.

Don't worry: You can unarchive your board to undo this. Not so with deleting…

How to delete Pinterest boards

If you're sure you never want to see a board again, you can delete it.

At the bottom of the Edit pane, click Delete.

Confirm by clicking "Delete forever" if you're really sure.

Confirm by clicking delete forever

Pinterest can't restore deleted Pins or boards. When you delete a board, all the Pins on the board are deleted, too.

Be sure that you're sure!

How to add sections to Pinterest boards

To add sections to your boards, click the plus sign "+" at the far right of your board, just above the Pins.

how to add sections to Pinterest boards

Name your section and click Add. That's it! Repeat for more sections if desired.

name your pinterest board section

Pinterest sections vs. boards

Note that sections will not help your Pinterest SEO. Their organization is intended solely for the ease of the board admin (that's you!).

If you have too many subtopics on one Pinterest board, I recommend adding more boards that are more niched, rather than creating sections.

Separate boards offer 3 huge advantages for Search Engine Optimization:

Keywords in board title and URL.
More keywords in the board description.
Plus the influence of the keywords in the Pins on the board.

So for SEO, think boards, not sections.

Should You Have Personal Boards on your Business Account?

There's some controversy about this. Some people say yes. They even recommend going into your Pinterest analytics and making boards on other interests of your audience – even if they're not your interests.

Please, don't do that. Do you really want to keep pinning to a board of things you're not interested in?

Feel free to use Audience Insights to create more boards that are relevant to your business though – particularly if you have your own content to save there. Even Pinterest now tells us to "focus on saving your own content."

I think people who recommend personal boards so your audience can "get to know you" are confusing Pinterest with a social site. Pinterest tells us they're a search engine. It's really not a place people go to connect and get to know you.

There is a slight chance you'll attract some members of your target market this way – but much more likely, if you attract anyone, they'll be people who aren't.

As a Pinner who's had a somewhat-business-related Pin go viral (favorite colors), I can tell you it caused me a huge waste of time and money.

Even though that Pin was vaguely related to my business (I do talk about colors for branding), I probably got fewer than 5 people on my business email list from that viral Pin.

I spent a ton of time making a content upgrade for that blog post, set up an email list for it, tried to figure out a way to monetize…

I did get thousands of people to sign up to that list (I think 7K). So that cost me plenty.

I eventually closed that list because I was wasting too much time on it, and making no money.

Now imagine if I'd made a board about "knitting"? Which was recommended to me.

May I respectfully disagree? I've even made other non-business boards "secret."

If you really want to have public boards about things you love, that's up to you. Just know that SEO experts say it lessens your account's likelihood of being found in search results.

Remember, Pinterest is a search engine. Best practice is to keep your public boards as on-point as your blog posts, or product line.

If you make baby clothes, and you suddenly came out with a line of adult hair care products, that's diluting your brand.

Same with your Pinterest account!

Keep your boards on point. Make personal boards secret. If you delete them, your follower count may go down.

How to Organize your Pinterest Boards

To organize the Pins on a board, you can use sections, as described above. But you can also organize the order boards appear on your profile.

On mobile, you can choose to "Auto-sort boards."

To set this, go to your profile on mobile and tap the gear icon at top right.

Tap Edit profile at the top, then scroll down to Organize and tap Auto-sort boards.

Now you can pick:

Last saved to.
A to Z order.
Drag and drop.
Oldest or…
Newest.

Did you choose "Drag and drop"? Go back and choose "Reorder boards" to reorder your boards on mobile with a handy list view.

Or, you can drag and drop on desktop and that order will be carried over to mobile as well.

To move a board on desktop, simply click on it and drag it to where you'd like it to appear.

What order should you put your Pinterest boards in?

When Google crawls a web page, it helps them to see the most relevant keywords at the beginning of your article.

I think we can apply this principle to your Pinterest profile. Late's make sure your best keywords are at the top of the page.

Put your core business boards with your best keywords at the top.
Next, more of your business boards.
Next, carefully-chosen group boards you've joined.
Last, any personal boards you might have that aren't secret.

Some people like to move seasonal boards to the top of the page when they're in season, and down when they're not. You can do this too if you like.

Ready to Boost YOUR Business with Pinterest?

We've covered a lot! Scroll back and review if needed.

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Please share if this helped you make the best Pinterest boards for business!