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Social media and microblogging platforms are rapidly growing every year. There’s so much content out there that it’s getting harder and harder to find the stuff you’re looking for.

However, we can say that this problem has already been handled by big tech companies like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest.

How?

They introduced something called a hashtag and we’re going to talk about it in this post.

The platform we’ll focus on today is Pinterest because I believe not a lot of people know how Hashtags actually work on Pinterest.

They have questions about when should they use them and how to search for them.

So, it looks like we’ve got lots of topics to cover.

Let’s not waste more time and dive into it straight away!

What are Hashtags?

Before we get to some complicated stuff let’s answer some basic questions first!

What are hashtags? What are they good for?

So, hashtags are metadata tags used on social media platforms and microblogs to help users find specific content.

It’s basically a word or a phrase with a hash symbol (#) in front of it. It can contain both letters and digits. Searching for a particular hashtag will result in showing all the messages that were tagged with it.

The person who invented hashtags is Chris Messina. In 2007 he asked Twitter to use them but they refused.

Sometime later not only Twitter introduced them. Lots of other tech companies did so as well.

So, now we know what hashtags are, right?

Let’s check whether they can be used on Pinterest.

Can You Use Hashtags on Pinterest?

The platforms people associate hashtags with the most are probably Twitter and Instagram. Even though there are many more places where they’re quite popular as well.

One of them is Pinterest.

Yes, hashtags work there, too!

Where can you find them?

Three places: the profile, board description and inside a pin.

Well, they only work as a proper hashtag (you can actually click on them) inside a pin but some folks use inside their profiles and boards because they believe it helps them when dealing with the Pinterest algorithm.

As I mentioned above lots of folks use these tags both inside their profiles and board description. Does it help? Does it give the Pinterest algorithm that little bit more data?

I’m not so sure.

So, you definitely can use them on Pinterest. They’ve pretty much the same function as on different platforms.

We’ll get into more details in the next part of the post.

Make sure to continue reading!

How do Pinterest Hashtags Work?

Fine, we know hashtags are there, let’s try to show how they work, what is the best way to use them, which hashtags you should choose and many other things that should improve both your Pinterest knowledge and overall social media and search engines know-how.

Let’s go!

How to Find Pins Using Hashtags?

There two main places where you can find pins by using hashtags on Pinterest.

The search bar results and inside a pin.

Let’s take a look at both these options now.

Log into your Pinterest account and type your keyword with a ‘#’ before it and press the search icon.

If there are some results from the search it means that these pins were tagged with this particular keyword which almost certainly means that they’re about the topic you’re searching for.

If nothing appears in the search results then it means that there are no pins about it.

Pinterest used to suggest some hashtags some time ago – perhaps they’ll go back to this solution – but right now it doesn’t do that anymore.

The way to find more related hashtags that won’t pop up in your head straight away is to click through some pins in the results and check what other tags pinners are using.

To do that just follow my steps below.

Click on one of the pins from the results.

Then look for the pin description and check whether it contains some hashtags related to the main keyword you put into the search bar. Some times you’ll have to click the ‘more’ button to see all of it.

As you can see there five more hashtags that this person has used. We can get some inspiration from them but if we’d like to use different ones we may have to continue our search.

This is also the other way to find pins by choosing hashtags.

Simply click on the one you’re interested in and you’ll see a feed of pins with this very tag incorporated in their descriptions.

How to Add Pinterest Hashtags to Your Pins?

Hashtags can obviously be used by both people who only scroll through Pinterest to find some ideas but also by those who use it to create and upload pins.

So what we will do now is we’re going to look at the subject from pinners perspective.

Hashtags are obviously just a part of the Pinterest SEO strategy. We’re adding them when we’re creating a description for our new pin that we want to pin directly from our website.

When we’ve got our blog post ready, we start writing a description for the pin and at the end of it, we make sure we include the hashtags we chose.

Check how does a complete description with hashtags look like below.

That’s it, that’s exactly where you put them.

How Many Hashtags Should I Use in a Pin

This very question comes up a lot as well.

No wonder – it’s quite important.

Personally, I always aim for at least 4 hashtags and I also make sure I don’t put more than 10 because I believe it’s too much. Pinterest themselves suggest to not add more than 20 hashtags.

What we’re trying to do is to not only allow people to find our pins using the hashtags but also send a clear signal to Pinterest and its algorithm.

Having too many tags in the description could do more harm than good.

Always keep that in mind.

How to Check How Competitive a Hashtag Is

We don’t really want to swim into the deep waters with our pin, don’t we?

Even though the competition is a good thing too much of it probably isn’t.

That’s why we want to make sure we’re going to get seen inside the Pinterest feed.

The best chance for that is to choose hashtags that are less competitive.

How to check competitiveness?

When saving the pin from your website with the Pinterest Save Button type your hashtag and the app will show you how many pins with this particular hashtags are there.

Check the picture below.

Should I Add Hashtags To Old Pins?

Another question people ask very often is if they should go back and add hashtags to their older pins.

Well, according to the Pinterest team you could do that but your content won’t show up at the top of the search feed as the newer pins with the same tag will appear first.

So, always make sure to add hashtags whenever saving the pin for the first time!

How to Check If My Hashtags Are Working?

Well, you’re probably aware that Pinterest analytics aren’t too advanced and that’s why we’re lacking clear data on how pins with particular hashtags work.

However, we can still check how each pin performs using two different ways.

The first one is obviously Pinterest analytics. Just go to Analytics and choose Overview.

The next step would be to set a date you’d like to see data for. You’ll find this filter in the top left corner.

Now scroll down and look for the pin impressions stats. Simply check the best and worst-performing and analyze what tags did you use in the description. You’ll be able to tell which hashtags work and which don’t.

The next method needs another tool to check how our pins perform.

Since we’ll be checking it using Tailwind’s Pin Inspector you got to make sure you have Tailwind in the first place. Tailwind is a great tool to automatically schedule pins and help each other grow their Pinterest accounts.

You can easily create your account here. It’s FREE since it’s a trial and it’s enough to test all the features.

Once you got your Tailwind account simply choose Insights from the menu on the left and click on Pin Inspector.

You can see your best-performing pins there. You can also sort them by category or board to get into more details.

To sum it up, every pin you create should be a test. You have to make sure you constantly check what works and what doesn’t.

Whether you use Pinterest analytics or Tailwind always remember that it is better to analyze the results and adjust the strategy rather than guess.

Benefits of Using Hashtags on Pinterest

Fine, we’ve shown lots of stuff about hashtags.

We talked about how they work, how to add them to your pins, how to check if they work and a few other things.

Now it’s time to bring it all together and what I mean by that is to look at the benefits of using them.

Because – let’s be honest – if there were none we wouldn’t even talk about it.

So, without any further ado let’s take a look at the advantages of using hashtags on Pinterest.

Hashtags can help you get quick results on your pins.

Usually, it takes some time before a pin starts getting traction. Using hashtags can really speed it up if the person who’s searching is using hashtags to find new ideas.

Hashtags provide another way for your pins to be found.

There are at least a few ways to find pins on Pinterest. Using hashtags to find particular pins is one of them.

Hashtags are the future of Pinterest.

Pinterest introduced hashtags about 2 years ago. They still haven’t taken a step back. This is a clear indication of the direction where Pinterest is going.

Don’t want to be left behind? Make sure you use and improve your knowledge about hashtags.

Let’s try to sum up the whole post in the conclusion.

Do Pinterest Hashtags Work? Should We Use Them?

Sometimes the tech giants of social media platforms and search engines introduce something new.

Whether it’s an algorithm update, a new feature or some other function we’re usually skeptical.

How do we respond to it? We either like it or we don’t. It either works or it doesn’t.

When it comes to Pinterest hashtags I have to say that it works and it’s a great idea.

It’s not only about those benefits that I listed above but there’s one more very important problem that hashtags solve.

A good idea doesn’t need to wait for a ridiculous amount of time to get ranked (look at Google, time decides whether something is good or not) and discovered by searchers.

Thanks to hashtags it’s out there, ready to be found which is great both for pinners and those who love to discover new things.

Thanks for reading!

The post Everything About Pinterest Hashtags. Do They Actually Work? appeared first on Grow Yourself Online.