The perfect structure for a Pin on Pinterest

Pinterest has much to offer, and we’re going to show you how to make the most of its potential through what is the most important on this social media: the content – namely, the Pins. How to build them, what you should take into account, the tools which are available and that you can use for free. In short, how to make the perfect Pin in order to get the best results, that is to say a qualified audience, engagement, brand awareness and visibility.

First of all, do you know what is a Pin in the Pinterest language? It’s a visual marker that you can add on an idea you are interested in. When you click on the Pin, you can browse the website where you can buy the product – or learn how to do it yourself.

Here are some tips to create the right type of Pin, according to your objective. For each example, we will take some time to highlight the main elements that will have on impact on its performances, in order that you can make a full use of the potential of Pinterest.

Don’t forget that 80% of the Pins on Pinterest are actually “Re-Pins”: people who have appropriated a Pin and have kept it in their personal space. To make the most of Pinterest, whether it be about reputation or audience, you have to keep this goal in mind when creating the Pin: people must want to save this Pin and make it their own one.

How to create a Pin – the basics you need to know to get a qualified audience

We are going to talk about the most common Pin on Pinterest. The performance of such a Pin is this: slow distribution (that is to say no immediate renown) but a good SEO, producing audience engagement over time, and most importantly, driving traffic according to the users’ searches.

To create one, there nothing easier. Once you are logged in you Pinterest account, click at the top left on “Create”, and on “Create a Pin”. Then, you can upload your picture.

Here are our pieces of advice to create an efficient Pin :

The size: 600x900 pixels

The official instructions from Pinterest are as follows: “Pins are organized in columns, so vertical Pins will take up more space and will be spotlighted.

Don’t create Pins that are too long, because they will be cut. The perfect proportion for a Pin is 2:3”. Therefore, a 600x900 picture works and will give you the highest picture quality.

The picture: new and most importantly, original

The first rule you need to keep in mind is: don’t post photos from “stock websites” without a different framing or without any extra branding/template. The Pinterest algorithm might spot that this picture is already displayed on the platform, and as a consequence, this content will be less distributed.

With a tool like Canva, you can use stock pictures (downloaded from Unsplash for instance), but also use the Pins templates they provide to customise them in order that they fit in with you branding, and you can also add a text. What’s the aim? That the stock picture represents less than 90% of the Pin and that the Pin is representative of your branding!

As far as colours are concerned, we can give you two main tips:

• A pastel/bright colours combo: one for the background (pastel), and another one, brighter, to highlight some elements.
• Black & white - why? Because it’s a great way to stand out from the crowd on Pinterest, if it’s a quality picture!

Don’t forget the text: Pinterest is also a search engine

Insert a title and a description which 1/ give more details about what you want to talk about 2/ match the researches made by the users on Pinterest. You have a limited number of characters, so you need to be efficient: attractive in terms of content, but also quite precise when choosing your words.

To find the most interesting words for you and your business, just enter the search query you target in Pinterest search bar. Just below, Pinterest will display several phrases related to the word you have just entered. These are the words you need to use in the title and the description of your Pin.
It’s of the utmost importance for each Pin you create that Pinterest can give you great results, and therefore, you have to be attentive to you Pinterest SEO. We can help you to reach your goals.  

There is something else you should know: Pinterest also takes into account the text on your picture, whether it be directly included in the picture or added thanks to Pinterest tools. Speaking of this, the time has come to tell you more about how to use these tools.

Edit your Pin with Pinterest tools  

Many options open up to you when it comes to perfect you Pin before posting it. Of course, it’s very important: if Pinterest offers these tools, you can easily understand that they will have an impact on the distribution and the quality assessment of your content by Pinterest.

Don’t overdo these tools, but learn how to use them properly!

Indeed, there are many things you can do thanks to these tools:

• Add some text and place it with a coloured background on your Pin,
• Crop the picture in order that it perfectly matches the recommended size on Pinterest,
• Add your logo to make you Pin and you brand easily identifiable.

How to create a video Pin – The basics to increase your visibility and brand awareness

Videos pins have a different distribution pattern from picture Pins: the distribution is fast (you will quickly get a high level with several thousands views) and enables you to quickly increase your visibility. However, don’t expect these Pins to drive a lot of traffic. It’s quite unusual: on Pinterest, the video content tends to stay on the social platform (you directly show on the video how to make something else) rather than making people go out of the platform. And it will be even more relevant for the upcoming Pin Stories!

Here are a few rules to follow:

• Show, don’t tell: show how interesting is your content directly in the video
• A one-minute video is a very good average
• When posting the video, don’t forget to use tags, by searching the most relevant and widely used expressions by Pinterest users thanks to the research tool
• Just as you would do with static Pins, make sure you optimise your title and your description!

How to create rich Pins – your products, your recipes & your articles

Rich Pins, what is it? They are specific Pins, since you are able to give more information to Pinterest about the content which is related to the picture. On Pinterest, the platform can display 3 kinds of different contents: products (with prices, availability and description), recipes (titles, ingredients, number of slices, etc.) and articles (titles, authors, date of publication, etc.).

If you want to use these rich Pins on Pinterest, you first need to make a request, to be sure that your professional account on Pinterest will be properly synchronised. 
First of all, add all the necessary metadata (you will get more details later on) and confirm a Pin at this address. Then, within (usually) 24h, the confirmation will be automatically effective for the whole website.

Adding rich products Pins via Shopify

Go straight to this address to have your rich Pins confirmed by Pinterest. Take the URL of a product from your store (usually, it ends with /products/name-of-your-product) and insert in the tool the same address adding .oembed at the end (that is to say /products/name-of-your-product.oembed).
Confirm, then click on “Apply” – within 24h, all your products Pins will become rich Pins!

Adding rich products Pins for other e-shops

You use another online store than Shopify, such as WooCommerce, Magento, Prestashop, BigCommerce or another e-shop platform? Don’t worry!
You just need to go to the settings of your template and add the following tags, while always making sure that you update the data, in order that they match your products. If you don’t know how to do that, send us an e-mail and we will send you the process to follow!

<head>
    <meta property="og:type" content="product" />
    <meta property="og:title" content="Technology Will Save Us Gamer DIY Kit" />
    <meta property="og:description" content="One of the permanent installations in the collection of Humble Masterpieces at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, this DIY gamer kit from London-based company Technology Will Save Us is equal parts gadget and design classic. " />
    <meta property="og:url" content="http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=37075900"/>
    <meta property="og:site_name" content="Urban Outfitters" />
    <meta property="product:price:amount" content="98.00" />
    <meta property="product:price:currency" content="USD" />
    <meta property="og:availability" content="instock" />
</head>

Once it’s online, go back to Pinterest validator and apply changes!

Adding rich products Pins for articles

The process is the same as the previous one – whatever your CMS, you have to add these metadata tags on your website, and confirm through the tool you have at your disposal on Pinterest.

Here are the tags to insert:

<head>
<meta property="og:type" content="article" />
<meta property="og:title" content="Exploring Kyoto's Sagano Bamboo Forest - CNN.com" />
<meta property="og:description" content="A constant inclusion on lists of "forests to see before you die," here's how to see the real thing." />
<meta property="og:url" content="http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/11/travel/sagano-bamboo-forest/" />
<meta property="og:site_name" content="CNN.com" /><meta property="article:published_time" content="2014-08-12T00:01:56+00:00" />
<meta property="article:author" content="CNN Karla Cripps" />
</head>

What’s coming next?

Soon, and it’s just starting in the USA, you will be able to create Story Pins, that will be native content on Pinterest, probably to replace video. It’s unlikely that there will be an outbound link to your website, but Pinterest will allow you to substantially increase your visibility thanks to distribution.

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