How to add keywords to Pinterest: every place they go, step by step

Updated October 21, 2026 · 5 min read

Before you start: pick the phrases

This guide is about placement. If you have not chosen your keywords yet, read Pinterest keywords: how to find the ones worth using first. You need, for your account, one broad topic, and for each pin, one main phrase plus two or three related phrases.

The ten places below are ordered the way Pinterest weights them, roughly. If you only have an hour, do the first five.

1. Pin title (100 characters)

The title shows in the feed and in search results, and it is the strongest text signal on the pin. Put the main keyword as close to the start as reads naturally, then add the promise that makes someone click.

Titles cut off in the feed after roughly the first 40 characters on a phone, so the keyword goes in that window.

2. Pin description (800 characters)

Pinterest's own help pages say the description does not show in the home feed or search feed. People see it when they open the pin. Pinterest reads all of it. So write the first sentence for search and the rest for the person who opened the pin.

Pattern: main keyword in sentence one, two or three related phrases in sentences two to four, and one line that says what they get by clicking. Written as sentences, never as a comma list.

Before: "chicken, sheet pan, dinner, easy recipes, weeknight, healthy, meal prep"

After: "These sheet pan chicken thighs with vegetables are an easy weeknight dinner that takes 40 minutes and one pan. The recipe doubles for meal prep chicken and swaps for any roasting vegetables you have. Get the full recipe, timing chart and five flavor variations on the blog."

3. Board name (50 characters)

Every pin inherits the name of the board it sits on. Name boards the way people search, not the way you label things.

One topic per board. If a board covers three topics, split it. See Pinterest board names and descriptions for naming formulas and examples.

4. Board description

Boards have a description field most people leave empty. Two or three sentences that use the board keyword and its variants, in plain words, give every pin on the board extra context.

Example for "Easy Dinner Recipes": "Easy dinner recipes for busy weeknights: sheet pan meals, one pot pasta, 30 minute chicken dinners and slow cooker favorites. Most recipes use pantry staples and take under 45 minutes."

5. The first board you save to

This is placement, not text, but it matters. When you publish a pin, the first board it is saved to carries the most weight for what the pin is about. Save a chicken dinner pin to "Easy Dinner Recipes" first, and only later to "Meal Prep Ideas". Never save it first to a catch-all board.

6. Alt text (500 characters)

Alt text describes the image for people who cannot see it, and Pinterest reads it as one more statement of the topic. Write what is literally in the picture and let the keyword fall in naturally.

Before: "pin image"

After: "Sheet pan of roasted chicken thighs, potatoes, carrots and broccoli, photographed from above on a wooden table."

Do not reuse the description here. Describe the image.

7. Text on the image

Pinterest detects text inside images. A short overlay with the main phrase does two jobs: it confirms the topic to Pinterest and it tells a person scrolling what the pin is in under a second. Keep it to five or six words, large enough to read on a phone, inside the middle of a 2:3 image so nothing is cropped.

Before: no text, or a tiny script font with the blog name

After: "Sheet Pan Chicken Thighs" in a bold sans-serif across the top third

8. Tagged topics (up to 10)

When you create or edit a pin, Pinterest lets you add up to ten topics from its own list of interests. Nobody viewing the pin sees them, but they tell Pinterest exactly which interest categories the pin belongs to. Pick the ones that match the pin, not the ones that sound biggest. For the chicken pin: "sheet pan dinners", "chicken recipes", "easy dinner recipes", "weeknight meals".

9. Profile name and bio

Your display name can include words, so use it to state the topic: "Jess Lee | Easy Vegan Dinners". The bio gets 160 characters. Put the main topic in the first sentence and one line about who it is for.

Before: "Mom. Coffee. Living my best life."

After: "Easy vegan dinners for busy weeknights. Recipes with 10 ingredients or fewer, plus weekly meal prep plans for families."

10. The page behind the pin

Pinterest looks at the page a pin links to. If the page title and first heading match the pin, the match is confirmed. If the pin says "sheet pan chicken thighs" and the page is a homepage with twenty recipes, the signal is weak and the visitor bounces, which costs rank. Link every pin to the exact page it describes.

If you publish recipes, articles or products, add the Open Graph or schema.org tags for rich pins so Pinterest pulls the title, ingredients or price from the page itself.

A worked example, start to finish

A food blogger publishes a sheet pan chicken recipe. Main keyword: "sheet pan chicken thighs with vegetables". Related: "easy weeknight dinner", "one pan dinner", "meal prep chicken".

1. Image: 1000 by 1500 pixels, overlay "Sheet Pan Chicken Thighs, 40 Minutes".
2. Title: "Sheet Pan Chicken Thighs with Vegetables: 40 Minute Dinner".
3. Description: four sentences, keyword in the first, related phrases after, blog promise last.
4. Alt text: what is in the photo.
5. Topics: sheet pan dinners, chicken recipes, easy dinner recipes, weeknight meals.
6. Link: the recipe page, with recipe schema so it becomes a rich pin.
7. First board: "Easy Dinner Recipes", which has a two-sentence description.
8. A week later, a second fresh pin with a different image and the title "One Pan Chicken Dinner for Busy Weeknights", saved first to "Weeknight Meals".

Two pins, two searches, one post.

What not to do

• Comma lists of keywords anywhere. They read as spam to Pinterest and to people.
• The same description on many pins. Pinterest's community guidelines treat repetitive, near-duplicate content as spam.
• Hashtags. They are no longer clickable and count as plain text. Use tagged topics instead.
• Keywords that do not match the page. Clicks that bounce cost more than no clicks.

Where to go next

• Pinterest pin titles and descriptions: limits and examples
• Pinterest profile SEO
• Pinterest SEO: the complete guide