How to write Pinterest board titles and descriptions

Boards are one of the clearest signals of what a pin is about. They also decide how your profile feels: a handful of clear, focused boards looks like a place worth following, while fifty vague ones look like a pile of leftovers. Here is how to name them, describe them and keep them tidy.

What a board does

When you save a pin to a board, Pinterest learns something about the pin from where it lives. A pin on a board called “Lisbon food” is more clearly about Lisbon food than the same pin on a board called “Yum”. The board is context, and context helps your pin reach the right people.

Name it

• Use the words a person would type, in a few words.
• Make it specific enough to be useful: “Lisbon day trips” beats “Travel”.
• Skip emoji if you can. They are harmless, but they take space from the words that matter.
• Keep one board per topic. If two boards say the same thing, merge them.

Describe it

The description is a short note on what the board holds and who it is for. Two or three plain sentences are enough. Say what the board is about once, name a few of the things in it, and stop.

Keep the set tidy

1. List your boardsWrite down each one with its number of pins and the date of the newest pin.
2. Spot the tired onesFew pins, nothing new for a year, or a name nobody could guess.
3. Merge or retireMove the best pins into a clearer board, then archive the leftover one. Do not delete pins you are proud of.
4. Order what is leftPut your best boards first, so a visitor sees them straight away.

A worked example: from 22 boards to 9

Imagine a travel blog that has grown a board for every idea: “Lisbon”, “Lisboa”, “Portugal travel”, “Trip ideas”, “Yum”, and seventeen more. Here is how a tidy-up might go.

Before	What was wrong	After
Lisbon, Lisboa, Lisbon trip	Three boards, one topic	Lisbon travel guides
Yum, Food, Eat	Vague names, a few pins each	Lisbon food and where to eat
Sintra, Cascais, Belém, Day out	Four boards with five pins each	Day trips from Lisbon
Winter, Christmas, Rain	Small boards about the same idea	Lisbon in winter

Twenty-two boards became nine. Nothing was deleted: the best pins moved into the clearer boards, the leftovers were archived, and every remaining board can be described in a sentence.

A quick board review

• Can you say in one sentence what each board is about?
• Is the name something a person would type?
• Is there a short, plain description?
• Does it have at least a handful of pins?
• Did you add something to it in the last few months?

If you connect your account to PinSleuth, Pin Performance shows your boards with their size and results, so the tired ones stand out. A spreadsheet works too: board, number of pins, last pin date, keep, merge or retire.

Quick questions