How to Make Pinterest Boards For Your Business + 50 Ideas!

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!

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 is unique from other social media in this regard.

It offers a great 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 what your business does, where you’re 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.

I’ll share specific ideas, too! But first…

How to Create a Pinterest Board

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

From here on desktop, just click the plus sign on the far right, and choose “Create board.”

On mobile, you’ll also find the plus sign at the top right of the Saved tab. (Sorry, the board cover display is an absolute disaster right now, and we have no control over Pinterest’s messing with them).

Now enter your well-keyworded board name and click “Create.” (See section below).

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.

Pinterest Board Names & Descriptions

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!

How to 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.

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.

What Pinterest Boards Should I Make?

What should you make Pinterest boards about? Your business!

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

But, you’ll need more than one board…

Basic Boards to Add Next

Next, you’ll want to create some basic boards. Depending on whether you have a blog, products, or services, these may be a little different.

A few reliable examples are:

1 | Best of [your niche]: This is where you might Pin only your own content. It acts as a best of your business. Mine is named LouiseM.com Visual Social Media Tips.

2 | Your blog categories: Make a board for each category to start with. You can always make more boards for sub-categories later as your content grows.

3 | Product categories: Same idea here. Start with a few broad categories that encompass the types of products you sell. Add sub-categories later as you create more Pins to fill them.

4 | Services you offer: Whether you have a blog or not, services can be one or several boards, depending on how much your services vary. For instance, a VA may offer Facebook page management, blog post writing, and image creation. Those deserve separate boards.

5 | Competitors that inspire you (but keep that one secret): This is where you keep those ideas and inspiration from competitors – but make sure you keep it secret, so it doesn’t showcase their stuff on your feed!

6 | And, it’s worth considering Pinterest group boards, where you invite a few trusted collaborators to save Pins with you.

Below is a selection of my Pinterest boards to show you what I mean.

And it works!

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!

Seasonal Themed Boards

The next set of Pinterest board ideas is for any business that has a seasonal aspect to their content.

Of course, almost any content can have a seasonal tilt. But if you regularly have seasonal content, then boards based on it would be a must for your account.

Food bloggers

• Boards for each season: summer, winter, fall, spring.
• Boards for different holidays: Christmas, Halloween, Easter.
• Boards for specific types of dishes for different occasions: Christmas starters, Halloween party food, Easter dinner.

Fashion bloggers

• Boards for each season: summer, winter, fall, spring.
• Boards for types of outfits for different holidays: Christmas sweaters, New Year’s party clothes.
• Boards for types of clothes paired with the season: winter jumpers, summer hats, spring dresses.

Crafts and activities bloggers

• Boards for activities for each season: summer, winter, fall, spring.
• Boards for activities for different holidays: Christmas crafts, summer sun activities, things to do during the ‘X’ holiday.
• Boards for specific holiday activities: DIY Christmas cards, homemade Halloween decorations.

Any blogger

• Boards that have a seasonal slant such as New Year goal planning, Spring cleaning.

Expanding your Pinterest Board Ideas

Keep in mind that you want a board to be active – that means regularly pinning to it.

But there’s still loads of Pinterest board ideas you can use to make your account more varied and interesting.

And to keep building your SEO.

Business bloggers

• Motivational or inspirational quotes.
• Productivity topics such as working from home, being your own boss, or time management.
• Home office inspiration (because who doesn’t want to drool over gorgeous home offices!).
• Best tools for your niche (which is also a great way to promote affiliate products and reviews on your blog).

Food bloggers

• Recipes by main ingredient, such as chicken, pasta, or even something more niche like peaches.
• Recipes by meal, such as dinner or appetizers, so people can get a cluster of inspiration for a single meal.
• Cuisines by country, such as Mexican or Italian for themed nights.
• Recipes by tool, such as cast-iron cooking, air fryers, Instant Pots, or grills for summer BBQs.
• Best ingredients or utensils for your niche where you can add your affiliate products or reviews.

Product sellers

• How to use the type of product you sell: ideas for styling, for use, for maintenance, for how to make the most of something.
• How to tips around your products: how to clean silver jewelry, how to hang a picture.
• Inspiration boards connected to what you sell: fashion trends for a jewelry maker, living room decor ideas for an artwork seller.

Craft bloggers

• Favorite craft brand products from brands you use a lot. These could be affiliate products, or just simply things you love to use.
• Craft room inspiration, because like home offices, we all love to see an amazing craft rooms!
• Craft supply storage because most crafters will have too many supplies and are always looking for ways to store them, plus it can be a great affiliate product area

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.

Why Make More Pinterest Boards?

There are three great reasons to add more boards:

Pinterest SEO

If you want to get found on Pinterest, then understanding their SEO, or search engine optimization, is very important.

Boards play a big part in it – including their names and descriptions.

They’re like signposts that explain what your account is about to Pinterest. And more importantly, boards give added context to the Pins on each one, helping your Pins surface in search results.

Plus, boards can show up in searches alongside the actual Pins, to help get your content in front of more people.

Showcase your content

Boards are also a great way to showcase your content and expertise.

By having collections of content organized on boards, your audience will get an idea of what you’re about. This makes it easier for them to know that following you is the right choice.

It can help gain new followers who see your boards, like what they see, and then follow your account.

Get niche followers

And of course, one unique thing about Pinterest is that people can follow specific boards, instead of entire accounts.

On my account, for example, potential followers may avoid Facebook and Twitter marketing, but are avid about Instagram and Pinterest. So they can follow just the boards with content they’re interested in.

This is good for your followers, and great for your account!

When to Make New Boards

There’s no right or wrong answer about when to make new board, but there are a few things to help you decide.

You expect to have at least 5 items you can add to it

You don’t have to have a certain number of pins to start a new board.

Well, you do need one!

But if you’re looking for a good rule of thumb to help plan, many experts recommend five.

If you have 5 pins or 5 pieces of content you could pin to a board, that’s a great time to start it.

Build your account for something new you’re planning

Sometimes you’ll make boards ahead of the content to start building that SEO juice.

By creating boards for upcoming categories, seasons, or topics, you can tell Pinterest what is coming. And if people are searching for the subject, they’ll find your board.

Then when your own content goes onto it, there’s a better chance they’ll see that too.

Bring new life to your account

The final reason is when you feel a bit stuck with your account.

Maybe you’re lacking ideas for consistent pinning – there’s nothing new coming up in the way of fresh content. But you want to add something and give it your account new spark.

A new board adds somewhere else to Pin existing content with a fresh perspective.

How to Edit Pinterest boards

On desktop, you can edit any board from the Saved 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.

If you archive a 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.

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.

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

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:

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

So for SEO, think boards, not sections.

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. Let’s make sure your best keywords are at the top of the page.

1. Put your core business boards with your best keywords at the top.
2. Next, more of your business boards.
3. Next, carefully-chosen group boards you’ve joined.
4. 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.

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.

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.

Where Are My Pinterest Boards?

Your boards aren’t 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.

Ready to Boost YOUR Business with Pinterest?

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

What’s holding you back? Share your concerns in the comments and I’ll do my best to guide you.

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