Why Pinterest is the search engine every small business needs to pay attention to

Lauren Fraser

5th Sep 2023

Pinterest is fast becoming a trendy marketing platform and a place people all over the world are going to, to find ideas and inspiration. Whether they are renovating their home, planning a holiday or looking to spark creativity for their next project or event. People are going to Pinterest over Google and here’s why.

1. While Google may give you the information you need when you hit the search button, Pinterest gives you the visuals they don’t. Displaying a range of pins and boards to get you inspired, Pinterest is more pleasing to the eye, especially if you’re looking for a visual to accompany your search – and for people looking for ideas and inspiration, this is what they’re looking for. Not a heap of text or lengthy article, an image to inspire them.
2. Pinterest is the accidental search engine and is designed to help users discover wonderful content, products and services from pins they have found or have been posted by accounts they enjoy or that friends and family have shared. These accidental finds add to Pinterest’s charm and addictive characteristics by allowing users to experience a sense of wonder when they search for pins.
3. Google loves fresh content, however, if you go back and type the exact same keywords as you did a month ago, most likely the same results and content will populate. With Pinterest however, the content is always new and fresh with new boards and pins posted daily, giving users an inspiring experience on the platform everytime – where ideas are always unlimited.
4. As small-business owners and marketers, we are visual creatures. We love seeing pictures, videos, graphics and anything else that’s nice to look at (it’s the reason why Instagram took off so fast when it launched and why it’s one of the most loved and used social media platforms). People love pictures and Pinterest allows for people to scan for results quickly and easily through the use of images that pop out to them, not because of a keyword they searched, but because an image they liked the look of and intrigued them, popped out at the right time.
5. While Google is great when you need to search content quickly and need to find written responses or articles, it’s not the kind of place you want to spend hours on. However, Pinterest is always a pleasant experience with users spending hours on the platform getting lost in inspiration, ideas and new accounts they’ve found – it’s almost like an online creative haven that you can spend hours on and never notice the time going by.

As a small business, there is so much opportunity on Pinterest, to market your products and services and connect with your audience. Start by using the platform yourself and notice what you search, what you find and what you’re drawn to and from there you can get into the brain of your audience and start to develop content ideas you can share under your business.

Education is key, by telling your customers you are on Pinterest, they will start to look at your content and explore your page, if you don’t let them know, how will they find you?

This story was originally published on Inside Small Business.