How to Create Your Pinterest Business Account in 3 Easy Steps – You have decided to start marketing your business on Pinterest, but you are wondering where to get started? In this blog post (updated version of a previous article), I will give you some practical advice how to set up your account. Setting up a Pinterest business account is pretty simple. Let’s go!
A NEW VERSION OF THIS BLOG ARTICLE WITH UPDATED GUIDELINES IS AVAILABLE HERE.
Step 1 – Create a Pinterest account (or convert it)
If you already have a personal account, you can convert it to a business account here if you wish.
2. Fill in the form
[see below]
To help you get started on Pinterest, you will be led through a few screens asking you to:
Follow 5 Interests to start building a custom home feed
Find friends or followers on Facebook and Twitter (optional)
Install the Pinterest browser button for easy pinning from any website (optional)
Step 2 – Edit your profile & confirm your website URL
On your Pinterest Home Page, click on the Edit Profile button:
The form is only available in English, even when logging in via the French Pinterest Business site. It is relatively self-explanatory, even for non-English speakers. If you are a French speaker and need some help, feel free to comment below. I will be happy to help you!
Fill in all the fields of the Edit Profile form:
Follow these guidelines to set up your Pinterest profile:
Business Name
This is the title that will appear in bold at the top of your profile box. The maximum number of characters allowed is 100, but only 39 will be visible. Enter your business name and include any keywords to increase Pinterest SEO. Align the information in this field with the search terms people may use to find you.
Picture
Add your logo or personal picture here. To display a professional image of your business, any photo portraits should be taken by a professional photographer. The recommended picture size is 165 x 165 pixels.
Username
Think carefully what you will put here. This is the name that will appear in your Pinterest URL. You could just add your company name here. However, it may be worth including a keyword that describes your business.
When doing a search on Pinterest or any other search engine, most people will search for a keyword rather than a business name. For example, if you are a garden designer named Jean Dupont, then you may want to consider JDupont_Jardins rather than JeanDupont as user name. Note that you are limited to 15 characters and many names are already taken, but it is worth giving this some creative thought.
About You
This is the description in the profile box that appears at the top of your Pinterest page. You have up to 160 characters at your disposal to describe your business and entice people to follow you on Pinterest. Again, use keywords in your description for SEO optimisation.
Location
Enter your geographical location.
Website
It is very important to confirm your website URL:
Once your website has been confirmed, you will see your logo or profile picture on pins that people saved from your site.
It activates Pinterest Analytics.
The latter helps you understand how Pinners are engaging with the content on your website, such as statistics on average number of pins, repins, clicks and visitors to your website from Pinterest.
The verification process consists of generating some code which you need to install on your website. Enter your website URL, click on Confirm and follow the instructions.
As soon as your website has been verified, a tick mark will appear next to your URL and you will be able to access Pinterest analytics. Data for Pinterest analytics will be generated from the moment your account has been verified. By definition, this does not include any data prior to validation.
Step 3 – Add the Pin It button to your site
To enable pinning directly from your website, you should install a Pin It button on your website. Get people to pin content directly from your website: free and effortless advertising of your business through sharing of your content on Pinterest! Make sure you have great visual content on your website to encourage pinning. Think about including vertical images on your website, these type of images have a much higher sharing rate. You can get the Pin It button from Pinterest:
You do not need this step to get started as a business on Pinterest. However, they are a great marketing tool and if you are running a business, you should definitely enable rich pins. You should install this feature sooner rather than later.
Installation is not quite so simple as the steps above and requires some technical knowledge. You may want to ask for help from your webmaster or a techie friend for this one. To activate Rich Pins you need to add some meta tags your website and apply to Pinterest to get them activated. They will usually respond within 2-5 days to your request.
About Rich Pins
Rich pins allow you to add more information to your pin than the standard format. Rich pins can automatically include information like prices, availability, ingredients and reviews. They pull meta-data from your website that is then displayed on Pinterest. They get a better search rank and are more visible in Pinterest users’ feeds resulting in a higher click-through rate. Rich pins are also likely to improve your search results on Google, because rich snippets generated by other search engines use the same mark-up as Pinterest. Currently, there are five types of Rich Pins: movie, recipe, article, product, and place.
I would like to make a special mention of the product pin. The key to product pins is the real-time pricing feature. When someone pins a product from a website which uses product pins, and the price drops, the pinner will get an email from Pinterest (not the retailer) notifying him of the price change. This means that even if someone is not on a retailer’s email list, through rich pins, there is still a way for retailers to communicate with potential customers and drive pinners back to their sites. How cool is that?!
This is where the fun starts! I recommend creating at least 5 boards to fill up the first row when your Pinterest page is viewed on a PC. When viewed on the Pinterest mobile app, your boards will show up in single or double columns, depending on the screen size. Having 5 boards ensures the screen is showing a reasonable amount of content on first view, whatever the screen size.
Are you ready for business on Pinterest? If you need any help or feedback, let me know in a comment below. Don’t forget to include your Pinterest URL 🙂
Mary Lumley | BornToBeSocial | Pinterest Marketing, Consulting & Training | Conseil PinterestHow to Create Your Pinterest Business Account in 3 Easy Steps | Pin to Win Business!
thank you . It was as if you read my mind. I had the idea but no clue where to start.
I would also like to ask a question.
I am a new business and have not set up a webpage yet?
will this hamper my progress in trying to set up on Pinterest? https://za.pinterest.com/sharonmoodley92/
Hi Sharon, it looks like you launched your website since you left your comment 🙂 Make sure you set up your Pinterest account as a business account to get access to Pinterest Analytics. It’s also a good idea to add a “Pin It” (now “Save”) button to your website, so that anyone can pin directly from your site. Check that the pins of your creations include a URL, so that they link back to each creation on your website. Happy Pinning!
Hello! Thanks for all the great info! I’m in the process of setting up my business account, it’s all up and running, however, I’m having some trouble verifying my site! Any ideas?
Hi Eliza! This article is somewhat out-of-date. You’ll find a link to a more up-to-date version at the top of this blog post. Can you describe the issue in a little more detail? Are you getting an error message?
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