If you’ve been using Pinterest since its creation, you probably have hundreds of pins and boards without optimization. If you want to get serious about using Pinterest for business, you need to take steps to optimize your content for the search bar to drive traffic to your site. In this post, I’m sharing how to clean up your Pinterest account.

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How to clean up your Pinterest account

Since its introduction in 2010, Pinterest has been a great resource for planners looking for inspirational ideas. But as the platform evolved, it became clear that content creators could use Pinterest to promote their content to users on the platform. If you’ve been using the platform for a while and are ready to promote your content and get your Pinterest account optimized, here are some top tips to clean up your Pinterest account.

Tip 1: Convert to a business account

If you are using Pinterest in any business capacity, you need to convert to a business account. It’s super easy and gives you access to features like analytics, rich pins, and claiming your website. Just hover over your profile image in the top right and click on ‘settings’ to convert.

Tip 2: Optimize your profile

I talk about this in more detail in this post on crafting a Pinterest profile, but the key things to remember are to use keywords in your profile name and in your profile description. By using those keywords, your profile name is searchable AND you are giving good context and data to Pinterest about the type of content you pin. This will enable a better search experience for others with your content.

Be sure to link back to your website, and if you have a lead generator or opt-in, include a link to it within the description of your profile.

Also, make sure you claim your website with Pinterest in the settings!

Tip 3: Clean up your Pinterest boards

Go through your boards and decide which do and don’t fit within your niche’s interests. Love cinnamon rolls but blog about technology? Make those irrelevant boards ‘secret’ by clicking on the edit board icon. You’ll still be able to access and pin to them without clogging your public feed.

Also, make sure those boards are optimized for search. Be sure to visit this post where I detail why you need to do that!

Lastly, but importantly, make sure you have at least one board dedicated only to your content. For example, I put all of my personal pins on my blog board. I also put this board and a Pinterest content board as my featured boards so they are front and center.

Tip 4: Create new pins for your top content

If you’ve been pinning your content, you can probably identify, using Pinterest analytics or Google analytics, what your top content is. Take some time to review the current Pinterest practices for pin sizes (hint: it’s 2:3 ratio, or 1000x1500px) and create some fresh pins that lead back to existing top content. Choose keyword-rich descriptions and hashtags for your new pins to refresh and improve their SEO in the feed. You can find some helpful guides here on best practices for Pinterest.

These four tips will get your Pinterest profile optimized in no time!

Are you new to Pinterest and want more tips to get started? See my introductory post Getting Started on Pinterest and don’t forget to sign up for my email newsletter below. You’ll receive my FREE Pinterest Start-up Guide for your creative small business where I give easy actionable steps to getting started on Pinterest!

If you enjoyed that, I’d love for you to follow me on Pinterest and don’t forget to pin it!