How to track your Pinterest rankings (and what a rank really is)

“Where do my pins rank?” sounds like a simple question. On Pinterest it is slippery, because there is no single list of results. What you see depends on your language, your location, your history and the day. That does not make tracking useless. It means you need to track it in a way that still tells the truth.

What a rank on Pinterest really is

A rank is your pin’s position in the search results for one keyword at one moment. Two checks an hour apart can differ. Treat any single number as a snapshot, not a verdict, and look for direction over weeks.

Track a short list on purpose

1. Choose the keywords that matter. One main keyword for each post you care about, plus a handful of the biggest phrases in your niche. Fifty is plenty to start.
2. Check on a fixed rhythm. Daily or weekly, but always the same. Changing the rhythm hides the trend.
3. Save the whole results page, not just your position. Seeing who is around you explains why you moved.
4. Look at the first 50 or so results. Many pins sit past the first screen, and that is still useful information.

What to do with the numbers

• A pin entering the top 10: leave it alone, and see what it has that others do not.
• A slow slide: the pin may be tired. A fresh image on the same post often helps, see our pin refresh idea.
• A sudden drop on many keywords at once: check the site first. A broken link or a changed URL is more likely than an algorithm change.
• Several of your own pins in the same results: that can be fine, or a sign your posts overlap. We looked at that in a data post.

A tracking habit that takes ten minutes a week

Open your rank list once a week. Note what moved up, what moved down and what is new. Pick one thing to act on. That is the whole habit. The goal is not to chase every wiggle but to catch the changes worth acting on early.

PinSleuth’s rank tracker does the checking and the history for you and tells you about big moves. You can also do a rough version by hand: search each keyword, note where your pins appear and write it in a sheet. It is slow, but it shows you how the results behave.

Quick questions

Why does my rank change from check to check?

Pinterest personalises results, and new pins enter the results all the time. Small swings are normal. Look at the direction over a few weeks.

How many keywords should I track?

Start with fifty or fewer: one for each post you care about plus the biggest phrases in your niche. More than you can act on only adds noise.

Is tracking pins different from tracking keywords?

You track a keyword, and the tool finds your pins in its results. That tells you which pin is working for which search.