Hashtags work on Pinterest?

Okay to use Pinterest hashtags?

If you spent any time on Pinterest recently or in the past, you may be wondering, is it okay to use Pinterest hashtags in your Pinterest marketing strategy.

This question comes up frequently and the answer varies from time to time. As platforms such as Pinterest change over time the ideal question to ask is, are Pinterest hashtags relevant today?

Interested in learning more from me about Pinterest marketing? Grab this free Pinterest mini-course to get started today.

Conflicting thoughts on Pinterest Hashtags

Hashtags in Pinterest is part of a long standing ongoing debate between those who use them, those who don’t and the bystanders in between who aren’t sure which side to take or which Pinterest marketing expert to listen to.

It can get confusing because Pinterest isn’t exactly coming out and stating that hashtags are dead with some type of official statement.

The platform keeps this information close to the vest and that leaves those of us who use Pinterest as a marketing tool, left guessing.

Worse yet, you could get stuck listening to the so called guru’s advice and miss out on the potential benefits and uses of hashtags by eliminating them from your Pinterest strategy.

Trust but verify

When limited information is available, you can still get closer to an answer by testing things out on the platform.

If you plan on increasing your expertise and working knowledge on Pinterest, get cozy with the idea of making test pins.

Use testing as a tool to extract real data about how the platform functions and operates especially when limited information or guidance is available such as in the case of Pinterest hashtags.

I’ll even say it’s okay to trust the Pinterest marketing gurus out there who claim that hashtags are obsolete and irrelevant. EXCEPT, I would ask you to verify through testing that their guidance is accurate.

That’s exactly what I’ve done with a recent case study of a pin I created.

Watch a brief summary video by clicking on the image below.

A recent pin case study

In order to test whether or not hashtags are dead on Pinterest, I ran a test by creating a pin using a keyword hashtag. Within the description of the pin I added one keyword hashtag, #clutterfreegifts. This keyword was selected because it relates to the pin topic of Mother’s Day gift ideas.

Two notable things occurred when I published the pin.

First, the results of the Pinterest hashtag test shows that the pin source code is capturing the hashtag. Below is a screenshot of the pin source code where the hashtag, #clutterfreegifts is being stored. Why would Pinterest capture this information in the description if it isn’t planning on using this information?

The second interesting thing that showed up in testing is that once published, the hashtag became a hyperlink, reducing the friction is takes for a user to search the key term. It’s not a surprise that our attention spans have diminished severely over the past several decades with the introduction of the internet.

Good or bad, our attentions are limited and the bar has been risen on what ultimately grabs our attention.

A hyperlink makes it that much easier for the user to search and find that they are looking for on Pinterest. This feature enhances user experiences on the platform and signals to Pinterest what the viewer has an interest in when the hyperlink is clicked.

Why do Pinterest hashtags matter?

As illustrated in the case study, Pinterest is tracking the hashtags and using it to make it easier for user’s to navigate Pinterest and go further down the rabbit hole of consuming content on the platform.

Remember, it’s in Pinterest’s best interest to keep users on the platform longer.

Longer view times means more opportunities to collect data about the users and their behaviors and interactions or engagement with pin content.

Hashtags affect the user experience because it makes it easier to search for things that the viewer has an interest in.

Conclusion

With all the conflicting information being served up by Pinterest marketing gurus apply a trust but verify approach.

Some time in the past perhaps Pinterest hashtags were irrelevant.

But for social platforms and search engines, features change all the time, and while it’s frustrating to track a moving target, it’s unfortunately part of the cost of doing business in the digital online age.

Therefore, it’s important more now than ever to keep on top of the trends or follow savvy Pinterest marketers and educators that really examine the data and help you make data driven decisions in your business.

Interested in learning more from me about Pinterest marketing? Grab this free Pinterest mini-course to get started today.