Are you optimizing your profile on Pinterest and wondering what boards to choose?
Should you create one board for each topic, or several for each category?
How many boards do you need to have?
As a Pinterest manager, I have seen clients make this mistake time after time: having boards that do not match their website content, naming them incorrectly or not having enough boards to save their content to.
In this article, I will share my insights and best practice guidelines to help you set up your boards correctly from the start.
PS: Don’t worry, if you already have all the boards set up, you can use this guide to audit any existing boards.
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Why are Pinterest Boards Important?
Pinterest boards are an important part of your SEO optimization efforts and one of the best tools for increasing the visibility of your content.
How do they work?
Pinterest boards are like virtual pinboards that hold ideas (pins) you collect from the platform or from the web.
The content you save to your existing boards will then be shown to the followers of your account, or just the followers of that specific board.
So you can have people that follow your account (all your boards) or just a specific board without following your whole account.
Pinterest boards can also be SEO optimized, and rank both in Pinterest platform but also in organic search results, giving you a chance to find new audience for your content really quickly.
The audience on Pinterest has also the option to search for specific boards using the filters:

Pinterest algorithm also uses boards in their ranking signal, they look at the following:
- the name and the description of the board
- the relationship between the pin and the board to which it has been saved
- content within that specific boards
As you can see having the correct selection of boards, with the right names, has a huge impact on the performance of your account as a whole.
What Type of Pinterest Boards Can You Create?
There are three types of boards you can create on Pinterest:
- Standard boards
- Secret boards – these are only visible to you and not your followers
- Group boards – you can invite others to contribute to your board
IMPORTANT: If you’re setting a new account, do not create dozens of new boards within a short period of time. Pinterest might flag it as suspicious activity and temporarily disable access to your account.
I will cover the details on how to correctly create new boards on Pinterest further down in the article.
How to Choose the Right Pinterest Boards
Now that we know why Pinterest boards are so important let’s cover the most important question: how to choose the right Pinterest boards for your account.
Here is a step by step process you can follow.
1. Check Your Main Categories or Topic Clusters
Your Pinterest account should mirror the content categories you have on your main website.
So, in the first step, you should identify all the main broad categories you cover on your website or blog and match them with Pinterest keywords.
You should check each topic or category by searching for them in Pinterest, to make sure that the audience is searching for them using exactly the same term (which is not always the case).
Here is a simple case study with an example from a food blog:

2. Analyze the Content Within Topic Cluster / Category
For each topic category, you should check the number of articles you have already published.
This is important because you want to make sure that each main category has lots of content you can continue sharing in the future.
How many articles are enough?
I recommend having at least 20 – 30 articles if you want to create a board around that specific topic.
In our example, let’s assume we have 50 articles for each topic, so we’re happy to include all of these are our main boards.

3. Choose Candidates for Your Additional Boards
For each main board, or main content category, we want to find additional boards that will allow us to save the content to at least 5 – 7 boards at a time.
The more boards you choose to share your pin into, the faster and easier it will be for the algorithm to understand your content.
So it’s perfectly fine to share less pins, but share them to more boards to boost the SEO optimization.
The best way to find related keywords that we can use as boards is by adding our main keyword into the search bar, and check for suggestions.
You can also type in just the first word, and see what suggestions come up.
Here are some keyword ideas I came up based on checking Pinterest search bar:

You obviously need to select only those keywords that fit well with your content.
There is no point adding a board for Salad Dressing, if you do not have dedicate recipe posts with salad dressings.
When selecting the keywords for your boards, try to use those that have a maximum of two to three words, as they perform the best.
4. Check Search Volumes for Interests
This is an extra step I only started using a few weeks ago, since Pinterest introduced search volume data on Interest pages.
To analyze your potential boards for each category, you want to check which ones are the most popular ones on Pinterest.
On the corresponding interest pages, you can check the search volume for each, and choose those with the highest search volumes.

You can find the interest pages by opening a pin in an incognito window, which will show you the annotated interest in grey bubbles – and then browse from there (see screenshot).

If you want a much faster way to do this, I use a tool called Pin Clicks, which has a whole database of interests where you can find them in seconds.

In our example, I would go through all the keyword options for my additional boards, and check and record their search volumes.
Here is an example:
- Easy pasta recipes: search volume 287,000
- Vegetarian pasta recipes: search volume 30,000
As you can see that is quite a huge difference. In this case, I would probably skip the vegetarian board and use the one with a higher search volume.

There is nothing wrong with including boards with lower search volumes either, they tend to be less competitive.
If you’re in a highly competitive niche like food, I highly recommend spending quite a bit of time going over all the potential interests and selecting them carefully, to make sure you have a lot of boards with high search volumes on your account, which will ensure you are targeting broad enough audience.
I do this for my clients on a monthly basis, making sure our board strategy is aligned with the search volumes and their content.
5. Select Your Boards & Track Their Status
Now that you have mapped out your main boards (to cover your content categories) and have recorded a list of potential additional boards with their respective search volumes, you want to go through the list and decide which ones to create.
I like to record everything in a Google sheet, and for each board I add a board status.
You should make a note about every board and record the following:
- is this board fully optimized? (with proper keyword & description)
- do you want to create this board later?
- is this existing board that should be merged?
- should you archive the board?
- is it a group board?
- is this top performing board? (check analytics)
How Many Pinterest Boards Do You Need?
You might end up with quite a long list of potential board candidates, so how do you know how many to create?
I recommend having at least 5 – 7 boards for each topic you cover on your website.
If you have 10 main content categories, the minimum number of boards you should have is 50.
That is because each piece of content you create, can be then save to at least 5 different boards each time, boosting the ranking signals and your SEO optimization.
TIP: Pinterest allows to create a maximum of 500 boards currently.
How Many Group Boards Should You Have?
Group boards are one of the worst mistakes I see clients make.
A lot of them have a collection of 20 group boards, which artificially inflate their impressions, but lower their engagement rate dramatically.
This has a significant negative impact on the account as a whole, as it signals to Pinterest that your content is not engaging and quality.
For that reason, I recommend limiting the number of group boards to only those that fit the following criteria:
- the board fits within your niche (no travel boards for an account about food)
- the board has high engagement and outbound clicks (review your Pinterest analytics)
- you are committed to continue adding content there
How to Create Pinterest Boards the Right Way
The best way to create a new Pinterest board is to create it as a secret board, optimize it with the correct board description, add top-ranking content to the board, and then publish it.
If you do it this way, you give your board the best chance to rank for the specific keyword, and by having top ranking content already included that you’re helping the algorithm to understand the content faster.
As I mentioned earlier, do not create many new boards in bulk, you will hit the activity limits on Pinterest and they will temporarily block the account.
Use your board planner in Google sheet to spread out the board creation over a number of days.
Key Takeaways
- Boards Boost SEO & Visibility: Pinterest boards are crucial for increasing your content’s reach and visibility both on Pinterest and in search engine results.
- Align Boards with Website Content: Your boards should reflect your website’s content categories. Start by identifying your main categories and match them with popular Pinterest keywords.
- Optimize Board Names & Descriptions: Use short, keyword-rich names (2-3 words) and descriptions to ensure your boards are SEO-friendly and align with Pinterest’s algorithm.
- Prioritize Search Volumes: Leverage Pinterest’s search volume data to select high-traffic keywords for your boards, especially in competitive niches.
- Limit Group Boards: Focus on a few high-quality, niche-relevant group boards with strong engagement to avoid diluting your account’s performance.
- Strategic Board Creation: Create boards gradually to avoid Pinterest flags. Start as secret boards, optimize them, then publish with top-ranking content to kickstart their performance.
- Track & Update Regularly: Maintain a Google Sheet to track board status, ensuring each board is optimized, and adjust strategies as needed.
Action Steps
- Audit your existing boards: Review and optimize board names, descriptions, and related pins.
- Create a board strategy plan: Use Google Sheets to plan new boards and schedule their creation.
- Focus on quality over quantity: Limit group boards and prioritize those that drive real engagement.
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.
Read More
- Pinterest SEO Tips: How to Rank on Pinterest in One Month [With Proof]
- Pinterest Keyword Search: How To Find Low Competition Keywords Faster
- Pinterest Marketing Hacks: 3 Ways to Use Pin Inspector for Explosive Growth
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