How to Find Long-Tail Keywords on Pinterest

“Gift” gets you buried under a flood of pins. “Personalized birthday gift for a coworker” gets you found by someone ready to buy. That's the entire case for long-tail keywords: specific phrases that match what a smaller, more ready to act audience is searching for.

What is the difference between short-tail and long-tail keywords?

Short-tail keywords are broad, high-competition phrases, while long-tail keywords are specific phrases that match exactly what a narrower audience is searching for. The difference is detail, not length for its own sake. A quick test: if a phrase could describe almost anyone's product, it is probably still short-tail.

Why do long-tail keywords suit a small account?

They narrow the field to people who already know what they want, so you are not competing for a broad term as a small account. A broad word is hard to rank for because so many Pins use it. A specific phrase has fewer competitors and a clearer match with your Pin.

The tradeoff is that each specific phrase is searched less often, so you cover several of them instead of hunting for one perfect phrase. No keyword guarantees traffic, and the Pinterest SEO timeline is worth reading before you judge results.

Where can you find long-tail keywords on Pinterest?

There are three places to look, and all of them are free:

• Pinterest's search bar suggestions as you type your topic.
• The related searches Pinterest shows after you run a search.
• The specific language your own past customers have used when they described what they wanted.

Write down the phrases exactly as you find them. The third source is often the most useful, because it is how real buyers already talk. Look through past emails, reviews and messages for the occasion they mentioned, the person the item was for and any detail they cared about, since those details are usually the words that make a phrase specific. A wider tour of free options is in our guide to free Pinterest keyword research tools.

How do you turn a broad word into a long-tail phrase?

Add one detail a real buyer would care about at a time, and stop when the phrase describes a single situation. Here is a worked example that starts from the word “gift”:

1. gift
2. birthday gift
3. personalized birthday gift
4. personalized birthday gift for a coworker

Each step adds one detail: the occasion, the personal touch, then who it is for. Type the final phrase into the Pinterest search bar and see whether the suggestions offer something close. A close suggestion is a good sign that the wording is natural.

How do you check that a long-tail phrase fits your page?

Ask whether the page a Pin links to really delivers what the phrase promises. A phrase can be specific and still send people away disappointed if no page on your site matches it. If “personalized birthday gift for a coworker” leads to a page with no personalization option, choose a different phrase or fix the page.

The same rule holds for services. “Pinterest SEO for handmade product businesses” is a good phrase because a guide or a service page can answer it directly. Avoid squeezing several phrases into one title, because one clear phrase reads better than three crowded together.

How many long-tail keywords should each Pin use?

Use one primary long-tail phrase per Pin. That keeps the Pin's title, description and destination page focused on a single promise. The alternative, aiming for a broad term with no long-tail phrase behind it, puts you back among the largest accounts.

Once you have a phrase, the keyword placement map shows where it goes, and the full keyword research process shows how to choose between candidates.

If you would like someone to look at the phrases your account uses now, the Pinterest SEO Audit reviews your keywords, boards and Pin titles and descriptions, then ranks the fixes in a 30 day plan. That way you spend your time on the changes that matter most instead of working through every phrase yourself.