I think that everyone knows that Pinterest is a blogger’s best friend. Pinterest is a visual search engine, But is it superior to Google’s search engine? For new bloggers (and heck, even established bloggers for that matter) I would say yes. This blog post will review why Pinterest is the superior search engine (and why you should be using it!).
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. Please see my full disclosures page for more information.
Use Pinterest, the Superior Search Engine
Domain Authority
First of all, Google requires a good domain authority for your website to rank anywhere near the first page of search results. When you first start out as a blogger, your website domain authority is low. It takes time and a lot of work, to build up your domain authority. Even then, you won’t be able to compete with brand websites for 1st place (unless you take Mike Futia’s course-Stupid Simple SEO, found here).
Pinterest, however, does not require domain authority to rank on its search results. You can rank on a subject as a brand new blogger on Pinterest, as long as you have unique, quality content.
Search vs. Discovery
On Google, your content is found if someone searches for that topic of your website. Searchers often already know what they are looking for on Google, and this is what they plug into the search bar. The searcher has to already be looking for your blog topic for your blog post to be found.
On Pinterest, your pin that links to your website, is discovered. People on Pinterest may not be sure what they are even looking for, until BOOM! Pinterest shows them your pin. It’s the information they never knew they always wanted.
So that leads us to pin design.
Pin Design
You want to make sure your pin is eye-catching, so it is easily discovered amongst all the other pins. How do you make an attention-grabbing pin? Check out this FREE ebook, The Perfected Pin, for what exact elements you need to include in your next pin design to make it a fan favorite.
The Perfected Pin Ebook
Scroll Length
On Google, searchers typically only look at page 1 of the search results, before they move on to something else. This means if your domain authority and ranking aren’t high enough to make it to the first page, searchers are not going to find your content.
On Pinterest, people are there to scroll, making your pin discoverable, even if it is not at the top. In fact, 80% of weekly Pinners have discovered a new brand or product on Pinterest.
Pinterest, 2023
Other Pinterest Statistics
>>> 97% of Pinterest searches are unbranded, meaning they are open-minded and undecided and could pick you! (Pinterest, 2023).
>>> Over 400 million people use Pinterest each month, all over the world. (Pinterest, 2023).
>>> People on Pinterest spend 40% more than on other platforms (Pinterest, 2023).
>>> 2 out of 3 users say Pinterest is where they go to find an idea, product or service they can trust (Pinterest, 2023.)
Rankings
The traffic that your website gets from Pinterest, can help you rank higher on Google. When Google sees so much traffic coming to your website from another source, it boosts your credibility with Google.
On the flip side, do you think Google helps you out on Pinterest. NO.
Format
Pinterest is a visual search engine, making Pinterest searches and scrolling, visually-led. There is more opportunity to rank higher with visual content, rather than typed content on Google.
Typed content is overrun by big-name websites with a super high domain authority anyway, making them impossible to rank for that topic.
Google Sandbox
There is no official documentation on the internet from Google, that a Google Sandbox exists, but there is enough belief about it online (like even Ahrefs wrote about it), that I think it is worth mentioning. You can decide what you do with the information.
The “Google Sandbox” phenomenon refers to the possibility that Google restricts new websites from ranking highly on search engine results. It is unknown how long this period of purgatory lasts, but it can last from weeks to MONTHS.
Ain’t nobody got time for that. No such restriction exists on Pinterest. You are able to rank on Pinterest as a new blogger from DAY 1!
Shopping
If you have an online store on your website, trying to get your products to rank on Google through SEO can take what feels like forever. As result, Google users commonly use (and pay for!) shopping ads on Google, to increase visibility of the products on Google.
Pinterest has a similar paid ads feature, but also has product tagging on pins. This feature allows you tag the products in an image, from your connected catalogue. This gives shoppers the option to shop from images (allowing them to visualize how they would use the products in their own life). The best part of this nifty feature on Pinterest, it is completely FREE.
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- Visual Search Engine
- No Domain Authority
- Discovery
- Improves Google Ranking
- No restrictions on new websites
- Free product tagging on pins
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- Not visual search engine
- Requires high domain authority
- Search
- No benefit to Pinterest ranking
- Google Sandbox
- Paid advertisements
If you aren’t using Pinterest as one of your primary search engines, you are missing out on free traffic! Also, you don’t want to leave my free ebook behind about how to design the perfect Pinterest pin. Sign up below to have The Perfected Pin sent directly to your email inbox.
The Perfected Pin Ebook
Thank you for hanging out with me and reading this blog post. I hope that you find my Pinterest tips and tricks to be helpful.
Do you have other topics or products that you wish to see on my website? Let me know here.
This is a great article, Sarah Grace, and it is very helpful. I would really appreciate reading more of your content on your opinions about Google and Pinterest. Personally, I don’t use any social media platform to get traffic and I solely rely on SEO and my traffic is really good.
There are some things I’d like to point out if that’s alright with you!
First, Google does not restrict websites with low Domain Authority from ranking. My clients’ blog posts together with mine are a living testament to this. When they started applying the appropriate SEO strategies, it only took them less than 24 hours to get their content indexed and rank top 10 for their keywords.
Second, SEO isn’t all about a website’s DA. It also includes other factors such as the depth of the content, how effectively the content matches search intent, the keywords being used, how well-written the articles are, and how good an article’s on-page SEO is, just to name a few.
Third, the Sandbox point doesn’t sound entirely believable to me since again I am a living testament to this. Just recently, I’ve written several articles on completely new websites, implemented the appropriate SEO strategies, and ranked in no less than 10 hours. I can’t exactly agree with you on this point since I have seen pages from new websites rank on Google all because they optimize their website properly.
Your article is a bit biased on Pinterest as a means to look for traffic. I’d suggest balancing out the pros and cons of both items you are comparing i.e. Google and Pinterest.
I personally don’t rely on Pinterest because of the need to constantly pin to get traffic. Once a blogger stops pinning, their traffic dies. Also, Pinterest values content that is new and fresh. Any content that is older than necessary doesn’t get the traffic that it deserves irrespective of whether or not it is evergreen.
Finally, your blog article’s topic reads “Pinterest Marketing Tips for Bloggers”, but you write a comparison post about Google and Pinterest. I think you should check on this too!
Thank you so much for reading my blog post and for you comment. I appreciate your views and hope to hear more from you!