Your Boards Matter
When switching to a Pinterest business account, or creating a new business account, it is important to consider what boards are on your profile. You want to make sure they are boards that your ideal client is interested in. This will attract the right people to you, and it also helps Pinterest understand what your account is about, so it is shown to the right people.
How to Clean up Your Pinterest Boards in 4 Steps:
Step 1: Use Secret Boards
Scan your boards to make sure they are conveying the appropriate message to your audience. Do they relate to your business? If you have personal boards that are not related to your business, switch them to Secret.
A secret board will no longer show your pins to your followers, but you can still use your secret board for personal use. For example, if your business has nothing to do with recipes, you can still store your favorite recipes on a secret board.
You secret boards will show at the bottom of your board list, right above any archived boards. They will be marked with a little padlock icon, as seen in the image below.
Do NOT Delete boards. If you delete a board, you will lose followers, but if you turn them to secret, you will keep followers. Deleting a board also deletes the pins that are on that board. So if you happened to have a popular pin on that board, you would no longer benefit from it. Deleting a board can not be undone.
Another option is to Archive a board. This is a better option than Deleting a board. If you don’t use the board anymore, and it has nothing to do with your business, you can Archive it. When you Archive a board, it will move to an archived section of your profile. No one else will be able to see the board, and you won’t be able to save pins to it, but you can unarchive the board if you need to. When you Archive a board, you also won’t see pin suggestions in your Home Feed based on that board.
Remember, you want to keep boards that will attract your ideal audience. I blog about Pinterest and online business tips, but I want to attract bloggers and business owners that write about other topics. So I have kept boards that my ideal clients are more likely to see. I make sure they are boards that receive high engagement.
Step 2: Check your Board Titles and Descriptions
What you name your boards matters! Pinterest is a search engine, and it is looking for keywords. For this reason, you want to be pretty straight forward with your board names and avoid cutesy names.
For example, instead of “Get in my belly!” use the board title “Recipes”. Even better, be specific like “Keto Dessert Recipes.” Not only does this help in Pinterest search, but Pinterest boards can show up in Google search results as well.
You will also want to make sure all of your boards have descriptions using keywords. Use 2-3 sentences to describe your board with several keywords. Avoid “keyword stuffing” or just listing a bunch of keywords.
Step 3: Arrange your boards
Pinterest has a drop-down box with several ways to organize your boards. I prefer Drag and drop because I can put the boards in the order I want them. List your most popular boards first, as these are the boards someone will see first if they click on your profile.
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Step 4: Evaluate Group Boards
If you are in any group boards, make sure they are still relevant and active. Archive any group boards you want to leave, then you can add them again if you change your mind in the future. You can check your Group Boards in Tailwind under Insights>Board Insights to see how they are performing.
Board Sections
While you are in there editing your boards, you may notice you have the ability to create Board Sections. These are basically subcategories within your boards. The average Pinterest user may use them to organize their boards, but Pinterest has stated they do not affect keyword search for marketers. So you don’t need to spend time organizing your boards into sections.
You’re done! If you have completed these steps, your boards should be ready for more pins! If you haven’t optimized the other parts of your profile, make sure you do that as well. You can check out my guide to make sure you have your keywords in all of the right places.
Need Help?
If these are steps you don’t want to tackle yourself, let me help you. I offer a comprehensive Pinterest audit where I will provide specific recommendations for your account, making it easy to complete the clean up. I also offer a “Done For You” Pinterest Management package.
Hi, I'm Lisa! I help bloggers and creative entrepreneurs harness the power of Pinterest to gain more traffic, leads, and sales. I love Pinterest, and believe it is an amazing marketing tool when the right strategy is used.
How do I stop getting updates and how do I erase the ones that are there.
Do you mean the notifications within Pinterest? You can turn off some of the notifications under “Edit Settings” > “Notifications”. I don’t believe there is a way to remove the notifications that are already there.
I try to pin a recipe and a message pops up and says sorry you’repin was not saved
Hmm…that’s strange. Is it just the one recipe, or anything you try to repin? Is it from your own website, or someone else’s? Sounds like a Pinterest glitch, but if it is your own website, it might be something to look into more. If it is your own website, I’d be happy to test and make sure I can pin it.
Curious…do you have sub categories under a main category? If so, you need to specifically save to a chosen sub category otherwise pinterest doesn’t know where exactly to pin it. Hope that works for you!!
It appears I am blocked from adding any recipes to my Pinterest account.. Is there a maximum they will allow?
Thank you…
I don’t believe there is a limit to the number of pins per board, but they do limit total pins on an account to 200,000 pins. How are you trying to save them?
If I want to delete a board what are the steps ?
Hi Rose, I don’t recommend deleting boards. If you delete a board, you delete the pins that are on it. So if one were to take off down the line, you would miss out on that traffic. You could also lose followers if any of them are just following that board. Instead of deleting I would make it a secret board. Click the edit pencil on the board, and select the toggle button to “Keep this board secret”. No one will see it except for you. You can also Archive the board instead of Deleting. If you REALLY want to delete the board, the steps are the same above, except select Delete at the bottom of the board.
Great Pinterest tips, Lisa! Thanks for the recommendations.
Glad you found it helpful! Thanks for stopping by!
Whe5ebcan I save some boards ?I have an I pad and it’s getting too full there are some be a I can just totally delete but others I can archive please you are working wth a woman who is computer illiterate !!,
somehow, I have created 2 accounts. Sometimes when I want to pin something, 1 account comes up, then sometimes, another one comes up, I have trouble finding my boards ..sometimes. Is there a way I can merge 2 accounts? Some of my boards are duplicated in the 2 accounts.
Hello! Is one a personal account and one a business account? There isn’t really a way to merge two accounts together. If you only want one, I would deactivate the other and just work from the one account.
Hi, I’m good with organizing my boards, but find the challenge ‘finding’ a recipe if i don’t know the exact title as it is posted, even searching within my own boards. Any tips (other than moving favs to a separate copy in a hidden board!) on how to favorite and include comments for tweaks when next using recipe?
Hi Dana! Yes, there are a couple things you can do to organize favorite recipes. Pins have a section to add personal notes now, so that is where you can keep your personal tweaks to recipes. There is also a little star you can click to save a recipe to your favorites. Then on the right side of the screen you can filter by your favorite recipes or recipes with notes. Another option is to use board sections, and you could save your favorite recipes into a “Favorite” section within the same board. Hope that helps!