Should You Use Hashtags on Pinterest?

April 7, 2021 Pinterest Tips

With all the recent changes to the Pinterest algorithm, it’s so hard to know what the Pinterest best practices should be. One thing that comes up time and again in blogging groups over on Facebook is the confusion about whether you should use hashtags on Pinterest. So, should you use hashtags on Pinterest?

 

This post was updated on 1 February 2024.

 

Let’s start by looking at where to use hashtags on Pinterest. Typically, this would be in your pin description. When uploading your pin (either directly in Pinterest’s own scheduler using the Create Pin option or via Tailwind) you would usually type in your lovely keyword-filled description and then add in some hashtags relevant to your pin.

 

Up until late 2020 hashtags on Pinterest worked like hashtags on other platforms. They were searchable, highlighted in blue and creators added them into pins to enable those pins to be more discoverable. Pinterest changed this, meaning the hashtags were no longer clickable or searchable. Pinterest also changed the way the pin feed looks, so the pin descriptions no longer show. You now just see the pin image. Even when you click a pin for a closer look, only the first three lines of text show (approx 160 characters), meaning those hashtags you stuffed on the end of your pin description won’t show.

 

Hashtags now are just searchable in the same way as normal keywords. If you search for “#hashtagsonpinterest” you get results of pins relating to #hashtagsonpinterest. Searching for “hashtags on Pinterest” brings up totally different results. One major thing to note is how the Pinterest user acts with hashtags. Literally nobody searches on Pinterest by hashtags. People might search for “decluttering tips” but not “#declutteringtips”. The whole point of Pinterest marketing is to make your content discoverable, so why add in hashtags that nobody is searching for?

 

 

Going forward, it seems clear that the best practice would be to use keywords, added into the Pin Description and Pin Title in a natural way, rather than hashtags. If used in small amounts hashtags can work as extra keywords, but too many can end up looking spammy and with Pinterest’s overactive spam filter in charge at the moment, it’s always wise to err on the side of caution when it comes to looking like a spammer! Also, if you are only using one or two hashtags, you have to wonder what the point of them is.

 

If you already have pins with hashtags on that are out there in the Pinterest universe, don’t worry about them. There’s absolutely no point in going back and changing old pins as you only edit the first version of it. When your pin is pinned by someone else they essentially make a copy of it, so changing your version won’t change theirs.

 

So should you use hashtags on Pinterest? Personally I wouldn’t use them in 2024 or at all going forward. It looks spammy and the more you can do to avoid the spam filter, the better!

 

If you need any more help or advice about Pinterest, get in touch!