Businesses are jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon left and right but before you get caught up in the laid-back style of the site, take a moment to optimize your account for search engines to find! With a few simple tips you can increase your following, your exposure and your referral traffic in no time.

#1. Don’t confuse your audience about who you are.

Your user name can only be 15 characters long and can’t already be in use by another account. If your business name is too long make sure to shorten it to something that is still highly recognizable as your brand. For example, The New York Times was able to snag “NYTIMES” and still remains true to their business name.

#2. Use Your 200 Character “About” Section Wisely.

Here again, space is limited so you will have to strike a delicate balance between conversational description and keyword usage. Being concise will pay off here and luckily there is a separate line for your URL so that it doesn’t account against your character limit.

#3. Don’t forget to add your link to every pin.

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Not long ago, Pinterest and other social media accounts switched to “nofollow” links so posting your link all over doesn’t necessarily give you any Google-juice but it does link your content back to your brand and make it easier for customers to find you.

#4. Create rich pin descriptions.

Here is the creative space you’ve been waiting for! Finally, 500 characters of prime Real Estate to make a case for your company. Include good short and long-tailed keywords and make sure to include that URL. A study done by a Hubspot researcher showed that pins with 200+ characters in their description were more likely to get re-pinned.

#5. Use hashtags to make your content more searchable.

Hashtag against a solid white background.

Hashtags are pretty much taking over every social media platform and Pinterest is no exception. Here you can leverage your key words to make your content on Pinterest more searchable.