Why Using SEO Matters on Pinterest

While many use Pinterest as a fun place to pin our ideas to various boards, if you want to use it for your business, then specific steps need to be taken to achieve maximum visibility. Many bloggers spend a lot of time working on their Google SEO, but content creators need to do the same for Pinterest, seeing it's a visual search engine. In addition, Pinterest SEO tends to generate more immediate results than Google SEO, which means you can receive a quick initial traffic boost on Pinterest and then experience a secondary increase in traffic from Google later on.

If you aren't including Pinterest in your social media marketing strategy, you're doing yourself a disservice based on Pinterest's usability, audience, and massive reach alone. If you're looking to leverage SEO strategy to get in front of your niche audience, here are some essential Pinterest SEO tips to get ahead.

Set Your Profile Up For Success

1. You thought only your Instagram bio made a difference, huh? Like IG, your Pinterest profile is any Pinterest followers' first impression of you. You currently have 500 characters to describe what you do and the value you bring, so make it count. Don't be afraid to use key terms you know people would use to search for a page like yours. As someone who frequents Pinterest multiple times a day, it stands out to me when I find a new profile with a call to action. It's a great way to boost conversion rates wherever you plan to lead them.

2. Make sure to set your Pinterest profile up as a business. While this can come off as a simple step, it's helpful for visibility. In addition, it's free and gives you access to analytics, which is a great way to track what's working but, most importantly, what's not.

Your Pinterest Boards

1. What I love about Pinterest is that so many things are searchable within the site; it's not just your profile and bio. Users will also be able to find the boards you create, so it's wise to optimize them with SEO practices. The board name is one of the most important places to use keywords for good Pinterest SEO. While it's easy to use a cute name, trust me when I say this isn't the place. If your board has content about how your office looks, then name it 'OFFICE SPACE, not 'cute office space' or 'wink for pink' because the walls are pink. Funny, I know, but I've seen this. You want to think about what users will be looking for, and to ensure that they get relevant results, you have to be board specific. 

2. Your board description is another place where it's good to be SEO-friendly. This area would be a great place to utilize keyword phrases, but you want to do it smartly. Think about keywords that pertain to your office space like office furniture, wall hangings for office, and office desk options. Again, it's best to use keywords related to the content and your business, niche, or industry.

Create Engagement-Worthy Content

It doesn't matter how good your keywords, profile, or images look if you aren't providing quality content for your potential follower. You cant fill your site with useless information, poorly-written content, and a ton of keywords anymore because the search engine algorithms are intelligent at figuring out what people want to see. It's essential to have unique, helpful, and visually appealing images to have people engage with your pins. Without engagement, there will be no comments, saves, or re-pins, which Pinterest is made for. When speaking about images, I recommend creating 3-6 unique pins for each piece of content.

Engage With Users

1. If you can follow and engage on Instagram, you can most definitely do the same on Pinterest. It's necessary if you want to build engagement on your page. While it's good to follow plenty of different accounts, it does matter who you follow. For example, when I first joined Pinterest, my boards and who I followed was entirely food blogger based. Because of that, it signaled to Pinterest's algorithm the type of people to recommend my boards and account to. So be sure to follow users with similarities to you and your niche.

2. Joining group boards is another way to engage and increase the distribution of your pins. Pinterest Group Boards are shared Pinterest boards that multiple Pinterest users Pin to. Funny enough, group boards were initially intended to be groups where you could collaborate with users you knew and share ideas. Joining and using a scheduling app like Tailwind would be ideal if you wanted to go this route. In my experience, group boards have been a great way to double your traffic.

There are so many ways to utilize SEO for Pinterest, but it's best to start small, see what's working, and build on the ones that aren't. Ultimately your success truly depends on the quality of your content. With over 2 billion searches on Pinterest every month, there are plenty of opportunities for your pins to show up in search and drive traffic to your site of choice. 

I know that this post seems like a lot to take in, but if you take the time to set up a search-optimized profile and create keyword-rich pins, you will start to see the results.

5 End of Workday Rituals and Why You Need Them

Have you ever thought of having a consistent routine to end your workday? While it might sound crazy, it can prevent you from exhaustion and burnout. The ability to unplug and go about your merry way as you exit the building is a beautiful feeling, and I want to share how you can achieve this bliss. Here are five end-of-workday rituals and why you need them.

1. Review your task list from the day: Look at every task you wanted to accomplish throughout the day. If you're unhappy with the amount of work done, add any unfinished tasks to your list for tomorrow or attempt to finish them before leaving. Only try to complete minor items on the list, as the goal is to go for the day, not stay longer.

2. Check the schedule for your next workday: If there were any items left over from that day's task list, this would be the time to fit them on your calendar to accomplish that. After adding those items, it's an excellent time to check and see what meetings/calls you have the next day. Mentally, you will know what you need to accomplish going into the next workday.

3. Check and respond to emails: Ending your day by checking emails is a way to tie up loose ends. It's also going to prevent you from feeling like you forgot to do something before leaving work. Responding to emails isn't a task you should spend a lot of time on; you are simply wrapping things up.

4. Make the next day's task list: Writing down how you want to manage your time the following day will provide a significant sense of relief as you walk out of the office. You can make a preliminary list based on what wasn't done that day and add what you need.

5. Let it go: Take a deep breath, sis. You did it. The day is over, and you need to LET. IT. GO. When you decide to walk out of your office, whether a building or home, you must commit to doing it and allow yourself to unplug.

You can do many rituals to set yourself up for success on the following workday. However, these five have been the most successful in keeping me productive daily and unplugging at days end. I genuinely believe that this list can help you too!

How to Batch Process Emails

There’s nothing worse than returning from the weekend (or vacation!) and seeing the number of emails in your inbox. Unfortunately, sometimes the number is so high that it can become overwhelming, which causes you to avoid handling it altogether. The one process that has worked for me regarding email management is ‘The Five D’s.’

1. Do – The first “D” is for emails you can immediately address. If the email needs a response and you can write it in two minutes or less, just get it done. But, of course, two minutes doesn’t allow you to craft a thoughtful reply, so only take this approach for concise responses.

2. Delete – This should be the default option. Most email is pointless, and keeping those emails is a waste of time and space. Get rid of spam and stop letting it clog up your inbox. Ask yourself if you will ever need to see this email again. If not, drop it in the trash and move on.

3. Deflect – If you’re not the ideal person to handle this email, pass it over. Delegation is not just for managers. Delegating can be challenging, but if someone else can do a task 80% or more than you, give it to them. A helpful phrase is “there’s no need to CC me going forward,” which helps reduce the traffic in your inbox.

4. Deposit – If the email contains valuable information, file it. Create folders for essential projects and topics. Then, stuff it in the Misc folder we made earlier (or archive it in Gmail).

5. Defer – If you need to do some thinking (or some actual work) before replying, or if the email takes more than 3-5 minutes to respond, create a TODO list item. Then, file the email so that you can refer to it later. If an email requires deferral, move it out of your inbox and into a “parking lot” folder.

Everyone wants an empty inbox. Using this method, you can achieve that. You have to live outside your inbox and make deliberate decisions with your time.

It doesn’t matter how many emails you have; you can use the Five D’s to batch your inbox in 30 minutes or less. I highly suggest giving this a try whenever you leave the office for an extended time.