Pinterest is the fastest growing social network online right now. It debuted in 2012, and it has the potential to grow to the magnitude of the three giants in social media – Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. If you’re not on Pinterest yet, it should be on your to-do list. Not only does it have over 4 million unique visits a month, a study by Boticca finds that it drives more sales than Facebook, which is the number one social network. There’s no denying that Pinterest is the place for business owners to promote their services and products, but could it have another benefit besides just targeting an audience?

The SEO Benefits of Pinterest
Pinterest has grown by leaps and bounds and the leading search engine has taken note. With Pinterest’s popularity, Google has made them a prime site to gain credibility, and that means great back links.

Pinterest provides search engine optimizers a good way to promote their websites to audiences, but also to search engine crawlers. By inserting your website’s URL and keywords on Pinterest, you could help your site’s ranking greatly.

How to Optimize Your Site on Pinterest
When you sign up for an account with Pinterest, you will have the ability to write in a description of yourself. Use the keywords you are trying to rank for with your site. Always remember though, you are writing for readers not the search engines. Make the descriptions sound natural with the keywords placed in the text where it makes sense. You also want to include your website’s URL hyperlinked. This way, when people look at your Pinterest account, they can follow the link to your site. It’s also how the search engine bots will know which site they should be accrediting the good back link to.

Once you are done with the description, you can move on to creating boards on your account. Boards are categories in which you will pin images on. Each board allows you to write in a description. The board title and description must match the types of pins that will be placed on the board.

To optimize the board descriptions, do the same thing you do for your account description, but this time, focus on the types of pins that will be on the board. Use keywords in the description and hyperlink your website.

Once you have your boards created, you can start to add pins to each of them. You have several options when it comes to pins. You can pin images, images that link to articles and videos. The best way to engage your audience is to have a mixture of pins. It also appeals to Google because if your pins are popular, they will rank you higher.

When you upload a pin to a board, you will be able to include a short description. Again, use keywords when you can and always include your site’s link. This is not only a way to get a back link, but if someone sees your pin, likes it, and wants to know more about your business, he or she can simply click on the link.

Other Ways to Optimize Your Pinterest Account
Besides using keywords and hyperlinking your website’s URL on Pinterest, you can also optimize in other ways. The site allows you to use hashtags on pins that bring attention to it. That way, when people search for the hashtag you’ve used, it will come up for them. Using popular hashtags for your business can yield high traffic numbers over time.

It can also help you between social networks. If someone shares one of your pins on Facebook or Twitter, your pin will also receive attention from the searches people do on those two sites. The more shares you get on your pins the higher visibility you’ll receive.

What Not to Do on Pinterest
Always remember that you are promoting your website on Pinterest. While it’s good to re-pin other people’s pins for networking purposes, be careful how much you do it. If your boards are mostly comprised of pins that belong to other vendors in your industry, you may end up losing business as people start to click on their links. It’s best to limit re-pinning, so you have more pins that are solely yours being viewed by Pinterest users.

Never save other people’s pins to your computer to upload to your board under your name. This is a violation of copyright laws.

Pinterest Is About Fun with Images
Once you have optimized your Pinterest account, you can start to have fun with it. Take photos of your services or products and give them fun, catchy names. Record short videos that are informative and interesting to capture your target audience’s attention. Pinterest is all about having fun visually so get creative and show off your business today.