Everyone Slept on Pinterest

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Google has let us down -SEOs- over and over. I mean, look at the most recent creators summit where Google told one creator that it is not Google's responsibility to send creators traffic, while another creator came out with the sentiment that "Google is trying to cover up for the fact that it plans to replace publishers' role in the web ecosystem with AI"

Just wow, where does that leave us as SEOs and content creators?

I can list study after the other, showing the impact of AI Overviews and the overall new search direction on organic traffic, but let's just not do that for today! Because today is about the revelations from a recent Adobe study on Pinterest and what does that mean for SEO!

TL;DR

• Google let us down over and over.
• Pinterest is emerging as a go-to search engine; 39% of consumers use Pinterest as a search engine.
• We're looking at the wrong metrics, we should look at platform engagement rate and impact vs. effort.
• 80% of businesses using Pinterest found MORE engagement on the platform than with Google search.
• Being on Pinterest is like being on YouTube.
• Pinterest is useful for many business types like fashion, travel, education, events and more.
• Pinterest is useful for Traffic, Brand awareness, Audience research, Improved search visibility (DO NOT SPAM) and just pure sales!
• I'll be testing things out there! Wish me luck

Pinterest is a search engine

We keep talking - or complaining - about Reddit, but how did we collectively sleep on the power of Pinterest and what it can do for SEO?

A recent study by Adobe revealed some very cool stats!

• 39% of consumers use Pinterest as a search engine.
• 36% of consumers start their searches on Pinterest instead of Google, with Gen Z being the most likely (39%).
• 24% of business owners use Pinterest.

I mean let's look at the numbers! Pinterest gets 752.9M visits every month as per data from Ahrefs. There has to be something there for SEO, right?

Pinterest works like a search engine, not just a scrolling feed. Unlike TikTok or Instagram where people scroll for fun, Pinterest users go there to look for something specific. That means they pay more attention to what they find.

We're looking at the wrong metrics

Instead of obsessing over rankings, maybe we should shift our focus to:

• Platform engagement rate. Pinterest is one of the top platforms in terms of engagement! In the Adobe study, 80% of businesses that use Pinterest say it outperforms other platforms in keeping consumers interested and interacting with their content. Specifically, businesses found it more effective than Facebook (49%), Instagram (35%), and Google Search (29%) for driving actions like saves, clicks, and shares... just wow!

• Impact vs effort or in simple words ROI vs. the investment. Unlike other platforms you don't need a lot of resources to create content [aka pins] for Pinterest. If you're creating content anyways, why are you not pinning it!

Pins last a long time. One Pin can keep getting views and clicks for months or even years, which is exactly the type of content we are looking to create!

Brands that get Pinterest

I checked the Ahrefs organic keywords report for Pinterest keywords on the first page, and found that the top keywords by search volume is for brands! I then looked at how these brands are performing on Pinterest. Target is getting 10M monthly views on their Pinterest account!

Being on Pinterest is technically similar to being on Youtube. You rank in Pinterest AND you rank in Google search. You get the best of both words, more engagement, you own your audience on another platform, and all for less $$$ content cost!

Rand Fishkin posted on LinkedIn recently saying that "I don't think marketers pay nearly enough attention to Pinterest's potential"... my question is WHY? how did we collectively as SEOs sleep on Pinterest?

But... what type of businesses would benefit from Pinterest?

Good questions! it's always worth doing a quick search and look at account engagement metrics (like the one above).

Pinterest is generally useful for the following type of businesses:

And for the following use cases:

Are you reading what I'm reading? can you see how much value this platform can drive to your website?

• Traffic
• Brand awareness
• Audience research
• Improved search visibility (DO NOT SPAM)
• and just pure sales!

Ok Sara, give us the tea 🍵 already!

I hope at this you can see the value Pinterest can bring to your SEO strategy! Here's what I will be doing myself moving forward:

• I've just created an SEO Riddler Pinterest account [it's still empty]
• I'll test and monitor things there and the traffic potential it can bring to my website!
• I'll be using Pinterest to promote my courses.
• I'll be using Pinterest for audience research and understanding the users better.

Let's start there....

That's that for today folks! See you next week 😸

*Disclaimer: AI has been used to phrase some parts of this blog