Are you a little confused about Pinterest keyword search? Should you be using the Pinterest search bar or some other tool?
Is it better to use longer or shorter keywords for your content?
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. The changes in Pinterest algorithm are pretty frequent at this point, and keeping up with it all is a full time job (my job!).
In this article, I wanted to show you a simple method for doing a Pinterest keyword search, using both a free method and also a very affordable tool that will make the whole process much simpler for you.
No Time to Read? Save it for Later.


The content in this article is written exclusively by me (a human, not AI). It may contain affiliate links, which help support the cost of running this blog and my business. If you make a purchase through these links, I will earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.
Pinterest Keyword Search: How To Do it Right
Let’s first define what we mean by Pinterest keywords.
Pinterest SEO keywords are phrases or words people put into the search bar to find topics they’re interested in.
These are usually at least two words, but can be as long as 5 – 6 words, which we call long tail keywords.
Let me also tell you what they are NOT: a Google search keyword does not automatically become a Pinterest keyword.
Just because people use that keyword in organic search results doesn’t mean the same keyword exists on Pinterest.
And yes, that means you should not be optimizing your Pinterest account with your organic search content keywords.
So now we know what we’re looking for, you might ask: what sort of keywords should I find and where should I use them?
Here is a simple cheat sheet for Pinterest keywords:
- shorter (2-3 words) keywords are best for your boards
- long tail keywords (3 or more words) are great for pin titles and pin descriptions
- you should also research interests, not just keywords (more on that in separate article)
- research keywords for each of your content clusters (categories) on your website
You need to think of Pinterest as a visual replication of your website – if you have 5 content categories on your website, those should be represented by a selection of boards for each category on Pinterest.
For each category, you then want to research specific keywords you can use to optimize your boards and content you will be adding to those boards.
Here is a visual representation:

Before we dive further into looking for low competition keywords for your content, I wanted to cover the best tools to use as those will save you a ton of time.
Pinterest Keyword Search: Best Tool To Use in 2024
There are two ways you can find keywords on Pinterest: doing it manually via the search bar, or using a tool like Pin Inspector, which will save you a ton of time!
I have included a link below with a discount code, so you can test it out and feel free to read my review here.
It’s very affordable and has only one-off fee, no monthly subscription, and comes with 30 days money-back guarantee.
In Pin Inspector, you can simply type in your main keyword, and it will populate a long list of all the possible keyword variations and related keywords.
You can then use the list to filter the keywords by their rank, number of words, or other metrics available. I can’t tell you how much time this alone saves!
But you might ask: what am I supposed to do with all of them?
Good question!
We don’t want to start creating articles for just any topic, but for just for those where we can rank fast, and get traffic fast!
Let’s have a look at how to do that.
How To Rank Fast with Low Competition Pinterest SEO Keywords
This is something a lot of marketers do not use, and I think it’s a huge mistake – Pin Inspector is a goldmine for identifying easy-to-rank topics on Pinterest.
Let me show you how!
First, you want to add your main keyword to the keyword search bar, and filter the results by the number of words.
I like to use three or more words – see below. If you’re in a very competitive niche, like food or recipes, you might want to look for keywords with 4 or more words.
Next, you want to click on the rank tab to sort the results by the rank, giving us keywords with more search volume.

Now, it is a matter of going through the list of keywords to identify some easy-to-rank opportunities, which you can do by looking at the results for each keyword.
You can right click on each keyword in the list, and choose the option ‘send to pin search tool’.

This will open up the keyword in the pin search tab and show you top ranking pins for that keyword.
The list shows pins in the same order in which they rank organically in Pinterest search results.

So how do you know what is a low competition keyword?
You want to check for these red flags:
- outdated content – at least 1 – 2 years old
- outdated graphics – can you design something better?
- not optimized for our specific keyword – does not contain the keyword in overlay text, headline or description
- not a lot of saves for top ranking pins
Just the fact that only outdated old content ranks for your keyword is a really good indication that you can rank for it fast, because Pinterest prefers fresh new content.
Here are a few examples of what I think would be low competition keywords based on the list above:
Example 1: London in 3 Days Travel Guide
This is a great keyword because you can see that the top ranking pins were posted in 2020 to 2023, with only 3 – 4 being shared this year.
The graphics are a little outdated too, so you can easily outrank them by having a pin design with brighter colors and targeting the exact format of the keyword.

Example 2: How to Travel in London
This keyword has a rank 4, so it means its further down in the list of recommendations, which translates to lower search volume, but if we can rank for it at number 1, it’s well worth doing.
As you can see from the list, the top 3 pins for this keyword between 2023 and 2022, and none of the graphics contain the main keyword, so it would be pretty easy to outrank them!

Example 3: Food Niche: Chicken Recipes 5 Ingredients or Less
I also wanted to include an example from a food niche as that tends to be a lot more competitive, here is a little golden nugget I found by searching for chicken recipes.
You probably can’t see too well from the screenshot, but the top-ranking pin does not even mention the word ingredients in the overlay text, and the other mentions it very vaguely.
Best of all – all of the top 5 pins are very old, created between 2020 and 2023, with very low engagement levels, so I would have no trouble outranking them with a new post targeting this keyword.

Disclaimer: It’s Not That Easy
I wanted to add this note here just to be completely transparent – while you can identify low competition keywords pretty easily, it doesn’t mean that your specific account will rank for them fast.
Keywords are just part of the Pinterest algorithm, which looks at lots of other factors like historical engagement, your board selection and optimization, interests associated with your account, and other things.
To use this method effectively, you need to make sure you nail all the other aspects of your Pinterest marketing strategy.
If you need help with that, check out my Pinterest management service here.
How I Ranked My Own Content in Top 5 Positions Under 1 Month
I used the same method as described above!
Keep in mind my account is fairly new, less than 6 months old, so I’m beyond impressed with how quickly it worked.
I knew that a lot of the keywords in my niche (Pinterest Marketing) were underutilized by my competitors, so I narrowed down my focus to finding long tail, badly optimized keyword opportunities and created multiple pin versions to rank for those fast.
And it works!
Here is the proof!
This is an article I wrote around a month ago and currently ranks no 3 for keyword: Pinterest traffic tips for bloggers.

And here is another, even faster result, ranking in top 3 positions in only 2 weeks, for the keyword Pinterest SEO Hacks.
Keep in mind my search results are slightly different as Im not based in US, but you can double check the ranking positions by reviewing the same keyword in Pin Inspector.

In Pin Inspector the same article ranks at number 5, which I’m perfectly happy with!
If you’re not sure where you rank, you can see the results fastest in Pin Inspector.

And from Pin Inspector you can also see that the content was added less than two weeks ago (pin created 12 September 2024, and the screenshots from the search results were taken on 26th September 2024).

So there you have it, the fastest and best way to find low competition keywords on Pinterest! I wish someone had told me about this earlier!
What About Search Volumes?
If you’re worried you will be spending a lot of time creating content for low search volume keywords, you need to shift your mindset a little bit.
Yes, the keywords might have low volumes, but on Pinterest, the content lives forever.
You don’t have to worry about being constantly outranked by your competitor, drastic algorithm changes or any of the other annoying things like link building that come with ranking in organic search.
Investing your time to create this content, even for low-volume keywords, will strengthen the overall topical authority of your account on Pinterest and help all of your other content to rank better, too!
Final Words
So what are you waiting for!
You have the blueprint, so get to work.
Here is again the sign up link for Pin Inspector with a discount code. Let me know how you’re getting on with it in comments, I would love hear your success stories!
Read More
- This Overlay Color Gives You 37% More Clicks on Pinterest [Case Study]
- What Are Ranking Colors on Pinterest and How To Use Them?
- Manual Pinning or Tailwind: Which One is Better?
- What Are Impressions on Pinterest and How to Increase Them?
Want to Learn More?
Sign up for my newsletter to get access to my free Pinterest Mini Course.
This PDF guide will give you a crash course in Pinterest Marketing – plus I included access to my free AI tool for creating SEO optimized titles & descriptions.
LOVE it? SAVE it for Later!
No time to execute? Save this article to your Pinterest profile so you can find it later. While you’re there, don’t forget to follow my profile here for more insider tips for Pinterest marketing.

