Hashtags on Pinterest have never been a thing. In fact, Pinterest even used to say that using hashtags on the platform could limit your reach. In other words: they didn’t like it.
It was okay to use them for a branded giveaway or something like that, but using them systematically on all your Pins was was a big no-no. But then Pinterest announced that hashtags on the platform were now a thing. So, what does this mean and should we use hashtags on Pinterest?
FREE WORKBOOKS, CHEAT SHEETS, AND RESOURCES TO HELP YOU START, GROW AND PROFIT FROM YOUR HANDMADE SHOP.
Ok, let’s go back to the start and look at what Pinterest themselves have announced:
Not super helpful. Moving on.
NOW we’re talking. Ok, there are a few keywords here to help us understand what hashtags are all about on the platform. The most important thing to notice is that “the freshest Pins will always appear right up top”.BOOOOM! This is key because it means that searching for a keyword and searching for a hashtag on the platform are two very different things. For example, if you search for a #motherday on Pinterest, you’re going to get very different results than when searching for a keyword “Mother Day”. With the keyword, you’re going to see more evergreen content – Pinterest doesn’t even bother showing you when the Pin was first pinned. With a hashtag, you’re going to see the freshest Pins first.
The beauty of Pinterest is that even if you pin something today, it will still be discoverable in 5 months or 2 years from now when people search for a few keywords because Pinterest works more as a search engine than as a social media platform. Now, it seems that we can also decide to search for relevant, timely, chronological pins by searching for #hashtags instead of simple keywords.
Now, what does this mean for you? Should you start putting hashtags on all your new pins? And how many?
Pinterest lets you use up to 20 pins for each new pin. TWENTY. That’s a lot. But it doesn’t mean you have to use all of them. Here’s the thing: there are two types of pins you need to consider. The first one is seasonal pins. As with the previous example, we can see that hashtags are useful mostly for seasonal pins. If you’re pinning a very seasonal product or blog post, or something specifically for, let’s say, Father’s day or Halloween, then yes, add 2 or 3 hashtags like e.g. #fathersdaygift on those pins and maybe a few more general hashtags too.
The second type of pins are evergreen pins. These are the ones that are always going to be relevant, like an image of your best seller. You can still use hashtags to try and benefit from the immediate engagement that hashtags offer. My advice is to try to add 4 to 5 hashtags to your pins. Think about what your ideal customer would look for when they browse the platform. What are they typing in the search bar? This is a type of hashtag that you want to use on your evergreen pins.
That’s it for today! I hope it was helpful. Let’s take the conversation below: are you using hashtags on Pinterest already? If so, did you find they help the engagement a little bit? If you’re not using them yet, I’d love to know if and how you plan on doing that. Let me know in the comments below!
you might also like…
If you want to be found in search results on Etsy, you need to optimize your product listing for SEO. And if you want to
There has been a lot of talk in the Etsy community — and I mean A LOT of talk — about Etsy’s payment account reserve
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a HUGE advocate for using email marketing to grow and scale your handmade business. But you may
Get Instant Access to
The FULL Resource library
