How to Use Pinterest Keyword Research Without Sounding Robotic

If your Pinterest pin titles either ignore keywords completely or read like a search bar threw up on the screen, this episode is for you.

Pinterest keyword research isn't about gaming the algorithm. It's about clarity with matching the exact language your reader is already typing into the search bar. When you get that right, your pins stop feeling forced and start sounding like something a real person would click on.

In this episode, I'm walking through the three tools I lean on for client work and inside the Styled Pin Collection — Pinterest Trends, AnswerThePublic, and PinClicks. You'll learn what each one is actually for, how they work together, and why long-tail keywords almost always outperform broad ones when it comes to qualified traffic.

This is the Visibility piece of the VEIL Method in action. Without keyword alignment, your evergreen content sits invisible, your strategy doesn't get seen, and your leads never find you.

You'll learn:

• Why Pinterest is a visual search engine, not a social platform — and what that changes
• How to use Pinterest Trends to spot rising searches before everyone else catches on
• Why question-style searches from AnswerThePublic make better pin titles
• How PinClicks validates which long-tail keywords are actually converting
• The trade-off between broad keywords (more searches) and long-tail keywords (more qualified clicks)

If running three tools every week sounds like one more thing you don't have time for, the Styled Pin Collection does this research for you every month. Done-for-you pins with keyword-optimized titles, written descriptions, and designs ready to upload. Link below.

Key Takeaways

• Pinterest is a visual search engine, not social media — keywords are how the platform knows who to show your pin to.
• Keyword stuffing kills clicks. Clarity earns them.
• Pinterest Trends shows what's rising. AnswerThePublic shows how people actually phrase their searches. PinClicks shows what's already performing.
• Long-tail keywords get fewer searches but dramatically higher click-through and save rates — that's the difference between traffic and qualified traffic.
• The goal isn't more keywords. It's the right ones, placed where they create clarity.

Resources Mentioned

• Pinterest Trends — trends.pinterest.com
• AnswerThePublic — answerthepublic.com
• PinClicks — pinclicks.com
• Styled Pin Collection (Dana's monthly done-for-you pin membership) — ddvirtualmanagement.com/styled-pin-collection 

If you're listening to this thinking this makes sense, but I do not have time to run three tools every week, that's exactly who I built the Styled Pin Collection for. Monthly done-for-you pins with the research already done. Keyword-optimized titles, descriptions written, designs ready to upload.

👉 Join here: ddvirtualmanagement.com/styled-pin-collection

Transcript

0:04

Welcome to the Unapologetic Pinner. I'm your host, Dana, here to help wedding professionals and creative business owners like you elevate your organic marketing strategy with Pinterest. Each week we'll dive into practical tips and fresh insights to keep your pins engaging and your business growing. So grab your coffee, tea, or any other beverage of choice, and let's get started. Or you went the other direction and stuffed your pen titles so full of keywords that they read like a search bar threw up on your screen. Both of these are obviously losing strategies, and both come from the same misunderstanding that keyword research is about gaming the algorithm. And it's not. On Pinterest, keyword research is about clarity. It's about matching the language your reader is already using when they search. And when you get that right, your pens stop feeling forced and they start sounding like something a real human person would actually click on. So today I'm walking you through exactly how I do keyword research for my clients and inside the style pen collection. The three tools I lean on, what each one is actually for, and how to use them together without ever sounding robotic. Before we get into tools, I need you to remember one thing about Pinterest. And that distinction is going to change everything. On Instagram, you're writing captions for people who are already following you. On Pinterest, you're writing for someone who's typing a phrase into a search bar and your pen either matches what they're looking for or it doesn't. So the job of your keywords are not to impress anyone, it's to tell Pinterest in plain language what your pen is about so Pinterest can show it to the right person at the right moment that they're searching. This is the visibility piece of the veil method. Visibility, evergreen, intentional leads. And without a keyword alignment, the rest of the framework can't do its job. Your evergreen content sits invisible, and that is the worst place that it needs to be. Your intentional strategy doesn't get seen, and your leads never find you. The mistake most people make is treating keywords like a checklist, packing them in, hit a quota, hoping for the best. Stuffing is going to kill your clicks. Clarity is what earns them. So let's get into the three tools that help you find the clearest keywords without sacrificing your voice. The first tool is the one a lot of people overlook, and it's free. So obviously it's my favorite. It's literally built by Pinterest, and it's called Pinterest Trends. And you can find it at trends.pinterest.com. Pinterest Trends shows you what people are actively searching for directly on the platform. Not what they're searching for two years ago, not what some third party tool guesses, what's happening right now, and often what's about to happen. Because Pinterest searches tend to spike months before a topic peaks elsewhere. So here's exactly how I use it. I take three core topics from my client's offer or blog content, and I run each one through trends every month. I'm looking for two things. One is search volume rising or falling. And two, what related terms are climbing alongside the main topic? Let me give you a real example. Say you write about summer outfits. Instead of guessing what to title your pen, you go to trends and search summer outfits. You might see that linen capsule wardrobe is climbing fast, or that coastal grandma outfits had a moment last year and is starting to rise again. That's not random. That's demand showing up before everyone else catches on. So your action step here is simple. Pick three core topics from your business and run them through Pinterest trends this week. Write down the rising terms because that's your starting list. Once you have your rising terms from Pinterest trends, the next question is how do real people actually phrase what they're searching for? Because here's where most pen titles go sideways. They use the keyword, but they use it in a way no human would ever type. This is where platforms like answer the public comes into play. The URL is answer thepublic.com. And what it does is surface the actual questions people are typing into search bars. So how does this work? Why does this happen? Best ways to do that, this versus that. These question style searches are gold for Pinterest because Pinterest users are usually mid-researched. They're not ready to buy yet. They're typically trying to understand, compare, or solve. Question phrases match that energy perfectly. So here's how I use it. Let's say one of my rising terms from Pinterest trends was Pinterest marketing. I plug that into Answer the Public and I get a wheel of questions. How does Pinterest marketing work for small business? Why is Pinterest Marketing better than Instagram? Best Pinterest marketing tools for beginners. Each one of those is a pen title, not a stuffed string of keywords, but a real sentence, the way your reader or follower would actually say it out loud. You write the pen title that way, you write the blog heading that way, and your pen description becomes a natural conversation instead of a search engine pitch. So your action step here is to take your rising terms from Pinterest trends, run each one through Answer the Public, and pull the questions that match the content you already create or want to create. Now you've got two layers. You know what's rising on Pinterest, and you know how people actually phrase their searches. The third tool is one that pressure tests both of those, and it's called PinClicks. You can find it at PinClicks.com. Pinclicks, which I am new to using in this year alone, is shows you what's actually performing on Pinterest right now. Real pens, real keywords, real performance data. It's especially useful for finding long tail keywords, which are the more specific phrases that don't get a million searches a month, but the searches they do get are way more likely to convert. So here's the trade-off. And I want you to name, and I want to name it clearly because no one else does. Long tail keywords get fewer searches than broader ones. That's the truth. But people searching them are further along in the decision process. They know what they want, they're not browsing, they're looking, searching intently. So a broad keyword like recipes might get massive search volume, but barely any clicks because the field is too wide. A long tail keyword like 30-minute high protein dinners for busy moms may get fewer searches, but the click-through rate and the save rate are dramatically higher. And that's the difference between traffic and qualified traffic. Here's how I use pen clicks. I take the keywords I pulled from trends and answer the public, and I check whether they show up in the high performance pins on penclicks. If real pens are using a variation of my keyword and getting saves, I know I'm onto something. If nothing is showing up, I refine it and try again. So your action step here is once you've got your short list of keywords, validate them in pen clicks before you build any pen content around them. It saves you weeks of guessing. So let me bring this all together. Three tools, three jobs. Pinterest trends shows you what's rising, what your audience is searching for right now, before everyone else catches on. Answer the public shows you how people actually speak, the real questions and phrases that your reader is typing into the search bar. Pin clicks shows you what's working, which long tail keywords are pulling real traffic and qualified clicks. Use those three together, and your keywords stop sounding like SEO and they start sounding like your reader's inner monologue, which is the whole point. The takeaway I want you to leave with is this the goal isn't more keywords, it's the right ones placed where they create clarity. Pinterest doesn't reward stuffing, it rewards alignment between what your reader is searching for and what your PIN is offering. Now, if you're listening to this thinking, okay, this makes sense, but I do not have time to run three tools every week. That's exactly who I built the style pen collection for. It's my monthly membership where you get done-for-you pins built around those exact research processes. Keyword optimized titles, descriptions already written, designs ready to go. You show up, you grab your pins, you upload, and you're back to running your business. The link is in the show notes below. So come and join us if you want Pinterest to actually work without becoming another full-time job. Last thing before I let you go, keyword research isn't a chore. It's a listening practice. The more you tune in to how your reader is actually searching, the more your content shifts. And the more your traffic, your saves, and your leads start to compound. That's what Pinterest is built for. That's what we're going to keep building together. I'll see you guys in the next episode. If you enjoyed today's discussion, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. Your feedback helps shape future episodes for future listeners. For more tips, follow me on Instagram at the Unapologetic Pinner and check out my weekly newsletter for trending Pinterest searches. And as always, you can pin that.