Time to Ramp Up Your Pinterest SEO: Bing Now Includes Pins in Image Searches

Bing is in a really sweet place right now. It's one of the only search engines that still provides keyword search data -- which is huge news in and of itself. As a marketer, Bing gets a gold star just for that in my book. But that's not all it's done well recently.

Today, the company released another piece of news that may seem kinda blah to some, but it actually has really big implications for marketers: Bing image search now includes results from Pinterest boards.

Take a second to let that sink in. So. Freaking. Cool.

Now, whenever you do an image search on Bing, you'll see Pinterest boards appear in the top-right corner:

Note: this search feature is only available to U.S. members at the moment, but if you'd like to see it in action, you can click the gear icon in the top right corner of Bing and manually change your location to the U.S.

If you're one of those savvy marketers, I bet you're jumping for joy right now. You lucky marketer, you -- all the blood, sweat, and tears you spent building your Pinterest presence can pay even more dividends, and all without you having to lift a finger.

Why This Feature Is So Darn Cool

Thanks to this latest update, you can drive even more traffic and leads to your website through two of Bing's sexiest features: the unencrypted keyword search data and the Pinterest integration.

Here's how using these two tools together can play out:

1) Let's say you're a unicorn products manufacturer. You check out your keyword data in your analytics software. You see that lots of people are coming to your site with the search term "fluffy unicorn beds." (Just go with me here -- a point will emerge.)

2) You then create a whole board with search-engine optimized pins about fluffy unicorn beds on Pinterest.

3) Bing's integration pulls in your Pinterest board to that search. 

4) People who are searching for fluffy unicorn beds in the image search are enthralled with your board and decide to click. 

5) They land back at your site because you feature some of your products on your board.

6) They become valuable customers and you profit big time.

All because of a little keyword data, search engine optimization, and Pinterest strategy, now you have lots of leads and customers -- I'd say that's pretty cool. 

One caveat here: The links from pins are considered "no-follow" links -- which means that people can't link to content and hope to have that content gain authority because of it. So the way you're going to profit here isn't by gaming search engine rankings through links, but rather through providing quality, clickable content on Pinterest that also happens to have search-friendly names and descriptions. 

Resources to Help

If you're one of those aforementioned wise marketers who has search-engine optimized your pins already, take a second to celebrate (or even forward this blog post to your boss and say, "I told you Pinterest was a wise investment!")

If you're not on Pinterest yet or just haven't made your pins that easy to find via search, it's time you whipped your Pinterest strategy and tactics into place. Here are two resources to help:

• Want to get set up on the platform for the first time? Here's an introduction to Pinterest.
• Already got your account up and running? Here are tips for making your Pinterest content easy to find in search.

So download those resources and get your Pinterest on! You'll appear in Bing image search in no time.