How to Add Keywords to Pinterest (Pins, Boards and Profile)

Pinterest is a search engine with pictures. The words you type into four small fields decide which searches a Pin can ever appear in.

Updated October 2026

Where do you put keywords on Pinterest?

In every field you can type into. In order of how much each one carries:

• The Pin title. The first thing a searcher reads under the image. Put the main phrase near the start. Pinterest's public API specification caps a title at 100 characters.
• The Pin description. The longer context: what the Pin shows, who it's for, and the two or three related phrases a searcher might use. The API caps it at 800 characters; the app's Pin builder may show a shorter limit.
• The alt text. A plain description of what's in the image, written for people using screen readers. The API caps it at 500 characters.
• The board name and description. A board called by the topic people search groups every Pin in it under that topic.
• Your profile. The display name and the About text tell Pinterest, and visitors, what the account covers.

How do you add keywords to Pins you already posted?

Edit them. Pinterest's Help Center says that, depending on the Pin, you can edit its title, description, link, board and comment settings after publishing: open the Pin from your profile, tap the three dots, choose Edit Pin, change the text and save. You can't edit the image or video itself.

How do you find Pinterest keywords?

Start where searchers start: the Pinterest search bar.

1. Type the broad topic of your Pin into search and look at the suggestions that drop down. Those are phrases people actually search.

2. Run the search and look at any refinement words Pinterest shows above the results, which split the topic into narrower terms it associates with it.

3. For seasonal topics, use Pinterest Trends. Pinterest's Help Center describes it as a historic view, up to the last two years, of top search, save and shopping trends by region, which shows when people start searching for a term. It's under Analyze performance in a business account, on a desktop or mobile browser rather than the app.

4. Read the titles of the Pins that rank for your phrase. You'll see which words they share, and which angle is missing.

Pick one main phrase per Pin and two or three related ones. A Pin that tries to match every search ends up matching none of them well.

Do board names affect Pinterest search?

Yes, because a board name is text attached to every Pin saved to it. A board called Things I Like tells Pinterest nothing; a board called Small Balcony Garden Ideas tells it what all the Pins inside are about.

Pinterest's Help Center lists what you can change on a board at any time: the name, the description, the cover and, in the app, a header image. Edit board from the three dots next to the board name opens all of them.

The description is the place for the related phrases that don't fit the name. Two or three sentences in plain language are enough. How to post on Pinterest covers choosing boards when you publish, which is where a well-named board starts paying off.

How many keywords should a pin have?

One main phrase and a few related ones, written into sentences. Pinterest publishes no ideal count, and repeating a word doesn't make a Pin more relevant to the person searching. A description that reads like a list also fails the human half of the job: persuading someone to tap.

A useful test: read the title and description out loud. If it sounds like a sentence a person wrote to describe the Pin, the keywords are in the right proportion. If it sounds like a search log, cut it back.

A workable pattern for most Pins:

• Title: the main phrase plus what makes this Pin different, such as the number of ideas, the style or the audience.
• Description: one sentence on what the Pin shows, one on who it helps, and the related phrases in natural wording.
• Alt text: what's visible in the image, in a sentence, which often repeats the main phrase without trying to.

Does alt text help on Pinterest?

It helps people first, and it's one more field of text describing the image. Alt text exists for people using screen readers, who hear it instead of seeing the Pin, and Pinterest's API treats it as its own field next to the title and description.

Pinterest doesn't publish how much weight search gives alt text, so treat it as a description, not a second keyword box. Say what's in the image in plain words. If the image is a kitchen with open shelving, writing exactly that will usually include the phrase you're after anyway.

Do Pinterest hashtags still work?

Not as a feature you can rely on. Pinterest's current help pages for editing a Pin list the title, description, link and board as the fields you control, and they don't describe hashtags as a search tool. You can still type a hashtag into a description, where it's read as the word it contains.

The practical upshot is the same as for any word: a hashtag that names your topic does no harm, and a string of them does the job a clear sentence would do better. If you're coming from Instagram or TikTok, put the effort you'd spend on hashtags into the title instead.

What does a keyword-ready profile look like?

A display name that says what you do, an About text that uses the words your audience searches, and boards named for those same topics. A visitor who arrives from a Pin reads the name, the boards and the follower count in a few seconds, then decides whether to follow.

Keywords bring that visitor in. The profile has to make the follow obvious, and the count shown on it is part of the first impression, which is why some accounts add Pinterest followers: it changes the number on the profile, not where Pins rank. How to get followers on Pinterest covers the organic side, Pinterest website traffic covers turning Pin clicks into visits, and every Pinterest service is on the Pinterest page.

Questions people ask about Pinterest keywords