How to Write the Best Pinterest Pin Titles

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When we talk about Pinterest marketing, there are some things that are always top of the list – stuff like keywords, pin designs, and board titles.  One area that doesn’t always get discussed is Pinterest pin titles and for a good reason – you couldn’t really do much with them.

But all of that has changed!

Now you can not only change your Pinterest title on Pinterest but also on Tailwind.  Let’s take a look at what makes the best Pinterest pin titles and where you put them.

What is a Pin title?

A Pin title is like a blog post title but for a Pinterest pin – it can be up to 100 characters in length and shows in bold when you click a pin.  It sits above the description with the first 30-35 characters sometimes showing under the pin.

Normally, a pin title is pulled from your website and therefore will match your blog post.  But it doesn’t need to be the same – you can change the title to whatever you want but it is always best to ensure it is relevant to your post.  Don’t title your pin ’10 tips to use Instagram’ when your post is about using Amazon affiliate marketing!

Pin titles are also used by Pinterest to understand what a pin is about.  It is a signal alongside the description, the text on the pin, and the board you add it to.  This is why we always say to add pins to relevant boards because it is a strong signal about the pin’s topic.

What makes a good pin title?

Because you have 100 characters but only the first third shows in the feed, it is best to get those most important keywords as near to the start of the pin title as possible.  The aim of the pin title is to grab someone’s attention, to get them to click or save the pin as well as give those signals to Pinterest.

Using keywords in titles

It is important to use keywords and phrases, but these don’t have to be exactly the same as those used in your pin descriptions.  They don’t have to be the same as the title on the pin itself if there is text either. 

So, you might have a pin description that talks about ‘gin cocktails’ but your title might be ’10 Gin Drinks Recipes you will Love to Try This Summer.” As long as you have at least 10 recipes in the post!

Don’t keyword stuff!

Always use natural language and don’t just add a string of keywords (this applies to descriptions too).  Pinterest knows what keyword stuffing is just like Google and will drop you down the Smart Feed for it – plus it is a lousy user experience because it reads so unnaturally.

Use headline case rather than sentence case

Another good tip from Tailwind is to use headline case rather than sentence case in your Pin titles.  What does this mean?  Well in a title, you would normally add capitals to the most important words while in a sentence, there tends to be just one at the beginning. 

It is a bit of a confusing one to know exactly what words to capitalise but one handy tool to try is Title Case Converter which does the job for you.

How do I change the title of a pin on Pinterest?

If you are adding the pin straight to Pinterest, then it is easy to change the title of the Pin.  Whatever you input when adding the pin will override any settings such as Yoast or Rich Pins that normally fill in the title when you don’t add one.

On Pinterest

Click the ‘+’ button on Pinterest to access the new pin section.  Here you can upload your image, and add your description and destination link.  There’s also a big section saying ‘add your title’ where you can put in your title.  Select a board and if you want to publish now or later and you are ready to go.

On Tailwind

You can now also change the title of the pin on Tailwind.  Previously, Tailwind published the pin title pulled from your website, but this could be a little random.  Now, as Pinterest requires a title for every pin, they have a section for this.  Again, it will pull the title from a post when you add the URL – but you can change this.

Upload an image into drafts and there will now be three boxes – board name, title, and description with the usual Tribes, Smart Loop, and URL sections below.  In this example, it defaults to my site name, but you can just highlight this and type or paste your new title in place.  The same applies if you pin it from your website and want to change the default title.

Editing an existing Pinterest title

You can also edit a title on an existing pin although I wouldn’t recommend doing this unless you have made a mistake.  To edit a pin, select it and use the pencil icon in the top left corner.  Change the title as required and click save.

Then the title will change on Pinterest.  But don’t go back through changing a load of titles; it isn’t a good use of your time.  Just use this if you added a pin with the wrong title or a spelling mistake – and even then, don’t stress about it!

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Why have different pin titles?

Having different pin titles might seem like just one more job to do but there are a few reasons for it.  Pinterest will use it to categories content and with the problems with Rich Pins, titles don’t always pull from websites very well, so this is a better way to ensure every pin has a title.

Making multiple pins

As Pinterest marketers, there are a couple of benefits to being able to add a title to a Pinterest pin.  First, if you make more than one pin for a post (which is a good idea) then you can give different titles to each one.  This helps test what works, like an A/B test and also means you can cover more keywords. 

Plus, you might catch different people’s attention with one headline over another.

Seasonal content

The other reason that being able to change a Pinterest pin title is good is if you have seasonal content or content that could be seasonal.  For example, in my food blog cocktail posts, there are recipes that are great for certain times of the year – summer rum cocktails, winter champagne cocktails and so on. 

With editable pin titles, I can make seasonal-themed pins with the right title and catch people’s attention for the seasonal side of the post – even if this wasn’t mentioned in the original title.

Making the most of pin titles

Pin titles are a thing so we might as well find the best ways of making the most of them.  From highlighting seasonal aspects of your content to testing different variations of your keywords, there are lots of ways to use them and a greater chance of catching people’s attention!

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