How to Organize Your Pinterest Boards Without Losing Traffic

I want to talk about an important and often overlooked element of Pinterest account optimization: how to organize your Pinterest boards! In this post, I’m going to talk about how to organize your Pins on each of your existing Pinterest boards, how to utilize Pinterest board sections, how to merge Pinterest boards with similar topics, and what to do with those old boards you don’t want anymore (hint: do NOT delete them). By following just a few simple steps, your Pinterest board organization can work for your Pinterest marketing and increase your visibility on the platform. Let me show you what I mean! 

Pinterest Board Basics 

Before we get to proper organizing techniques for your boards, let’s make sure you have a good handle on the basics. After all, organizing boards is not the first step for a successful Pinterest strategy. The first thing you want to do is make sure your account itself is optimized for success. This means making sure your profile is in good shape, you’ve got visual brand continuity throughout (choose your board cover image carefully), and doing keyword research to make sure you’re utilizing keyword-rich titles and descriptions for Pins and boards alike. I already wrote a post about everything you need to know about board titles and SEO optimization. 

Aim to have a solid number of Pins on each of your boards – users want to see that you have plenty of inspiration for them. Think of it as curating a beautiful visual collection. Although there is no perfect number, I would begin with a range of 10-15 Pins per board. You need enough content that Pinterest can understand what each board is about and index it correctly. (Not sure if you have enough content yet to make 10-15 Pins per board a reasonable goal? Stick around. I’m going to offer some board organization ideas to deal with that problem.) 

Make sure you vary the type of Pins too! You just cannot ignore Video Pins at this point in Pinterest history, but all types of rich Pins are your best bet when trying to entice a wider audience. 

How do I organize my boards on Pinterest?

Now that you are confident that your boards are the best they can be in terms of content and keywords, it’s time to make sure they are properly organized! 

(Before I get into the details, I would like to take a moment to talk about the whole desktop vs. mobile thing. Some features are only available on one or the other, so always try on another device if you aren’t seeing what I’m seeing.)

Think of your Pinterest account as a visual destination for your users. You can organize it in a way that shows your users exactly what they are looking for, easily and painlessly. We want to give the boards that are most relevant to our audiences the top spots! To do this:

• Log into your account (on a desktop computer)
• From the home screen, go to the sorting/filtering tool at the left-hand side 
• You will see three options:
  • A to Z (alphabetical order)
  • Custom
  • Last Pin Added
• Choose “Custom”
• First row: Your product Pins and other Pins that show who you are and what you are about as a creator/seller/crafter
• Second row: Seasonally relevant Pins for services/products/content
• Next row: Most popular boards
  • Go to your Pinterest Analytics, where you can sort by different metrics
    • Impressions
    • Engagements
    • Pin clicks
    • Outbound clicks
    • Saves 

The sorting or filter tool in the Analytics feature defaults to impressions, which is just fine. But you can make different selections based on your business goals at different times. 

The top two rows are valuable real estate, and you want to fill those with your most valuable and saveable content. Then, the rest you can adjust as you create more content or change your focus. The average user starts to gloss over the lower down you go, so be very intentional with what you show them first.

When you are finished, test out how your account looks by looking at it incognito! Grab the URL, go incognito in your browser, and see what your own Pinterest account looks like to a stranger. Check mobile vs. desktop too.

How many boards should I have on Pinterest?

This is a balancing act! Too few boards can make your account seem empty or inactive. Too many might mean you have a large number of almost empty boards, or boards that are too niche, off-brand, or irrelevant to your audience. In other words, Pinterest clutter. To avoid either of these scenarios, I suggest a minimum of 10 boards, and a maximum of 30.

If you don’t have 10 boards? Don’t worry. Try researching Pinterest trends or check out my general ideas for fresh content to get inspired for your new boards.

If you have 60 boards? You don’t have to worry either! Next, we are going to talk about some organizational strategies to streamline your content without deleting any of it. 

How do I move items from one Pinterest board to another? Merge them!

So, now that you’ve heard the magic maximum number of boards is 30, your brain is going a mile a minute. How do you reduce the number of boards without losing all that work you did? Let me be clear: do NOT get ahead of me and delete anything. OK? 

The best way to reduce the number of boards in your Pinterest business account is to combine the ones you can in a way that makes sense in terms of topics and SEO. Then, you can reorganize the new, larger volume of content on your new board so it is not overwhelming to your audience. The first step? Merging your boards:

• Drag the board and drop it directly over another one 
• Pinterest will ask you, “Move Pins and delete board”? Click “Yes”
• Then when you open that board, you will see a new separate section entitled whatever your deleted board was called 
• Tweak your board descriptions and board names to reflect the new content and make sure everything fits

How do Pinterest sections work?

Did you read that last bullet point and start wondering what sections are? Or, maybe you know what sections are, but you can’t figure out if they are useful or necessary. It is my professional opinion that you should be using sections. At some point, Pinterest realized that certain types of Pinterest users (high-content or long-time creators, sellers with large catalogues, etc.) can easily have boards spiral out of control without a method to control the madness. Pinterest audiences typically love organization, which is why sections help to control large boards with a tonne of content. They divide this content further into sub-categories for easy navigation.

Think of each section as a “shoe box” that you can throw like items into. For example, my own “food” board. I’m no food blogger, but my board has 2,000+ pins! That is far too many for any user to navigate comfortably and would just be a giant, cluttered mess if I left it that way. But I can make different sections: Ramen, soup, breakfast, curry, etc. These sub-categories are still “food” and belong on the same broadly-named umbrella board, but they also organize Pins into smaller topics that allow the user to find what they want easily without risk of decision paralysis. Sections allow for a better user experience.

There is also a technical reason to use sections. Their presence on your boards gives your content more “SEO juice”. That is, they send a signal to Google and to the Pinterest algorithm that you strategically organize your boards. This makes it more likely that Pinterest will show your content to users interested in your topics. 

Like with many new-ish features on Pinterest, the advice on sections has flip-flopped. So, many people think they are still to be avoided. It’s true that Pinterest did once tell us that sections don’t matter. But in the last 3–5 years, Pinterest has confirmed that sections help with ranking and allow it to better understand and index your content.  

But sections need to be used correctly! Only create sections when you have an overarching topic that can be broken down into sub-categories. For example: “Family Travel” can be broken down into Mexico, cruises, Europe, Disney, etc. But topics like “Quotes by Our Founder” or “Black and White Logo Templates” are too focused to be divided further in a natural way. When possible, a board with related sections is much better for both the Pinterest technology and your user experience than a bunch of smaller separate boards would be.

How to split Pinterest boards into sections?

The actual process of creating sections is easy:

• Click your board to open it
• Click the “+” icon at the bottom of your screen
• Select “Section”
• Type in your (keyword-rich and optimized) name for your section, then click “Add”
• Click “Organize” at the top of your board
• Then select the Pins you want to move to your new section
• Click “Move” at the top of the page
• Click “Save” next to the section you want to move your Pins to

If you decide two sections should actually be one, you can reverse the split by dragging and dropping one section onto another. Just like merging boards!

Moving Pins to another board

Maybe as you merge boards and shuffle Pins into sections, you will probably notice that some of your Pins belong somewhere else! Moving them could not be simpler. To move one Pin: 

• Click the board it’s on to open it
• Click the edit icon in the left- hand corner of the Pin you want to move
• Click the down-arrow icon next to “Board” or “Section“ to choose the location you want to move the Pin to
• Click “Save” 

To move multiple Pins at one time: 

• Click your board where the Pins currently exist to open it
• Click “Organize” at the top of your board
• Then select the Pins you want to move
• Click “Move” at the top of your Pins
• Click “Save” next to the name of the board you want to move the Pins to

How do I reorder Pins and sections? 

If you want to keep certain Pins and sections on the same board but move them around, all you need to do is drag and drop them into whatever order you wish. Super easy! 

How do I delete a Pinterest board?

Trick question! I do NOT recommend deleting any of your Pinterest content, including boards. It is true that as you go through your account and re-optimize and organize your Pinterest boards, you might discover some content that you are no longer populating or that have nothing to do with your current business. It is tempting to just delete them and be done with it. But when you delete content:

• You run the risk of users who followed you for that particular board unfollowing you
• You lose some SEO “real estate” 
• Pins might be old, but they can still have a fair number of saves! This helps Pinterest identify your content as high-quality

So, I do not recommend undoing the work you’ve done. Instead, do one of two things: archive your boards or make them secret.

Archive A PINTEREST BOARD

This option is ideal for boards that are no longer relevant to your business or that you are no longer posting on. Archived boards’ content is still indexed and still visible to the public. These Pins can still generate traffic. You can un-archive boards if they become relevant again (like a seasonal campaign). But they will be considered inactive by the algorithm and you will not be able to pin to them. To archive boards: 

• Open the board 
• Go to the three dots by the board name 
• Select “Archive board”

Secret A PINTEREST BOARD

This option is ideal for personal boards you are currently using but that have nothing to do with your business. For example, maybe you’re getting a puppy or planning a surprise wedding shower for a friend! These boards are not visible to anyone but you. They are not indexed and not searchable. To make a board secret: 

• Click the edit icon on the main screen before you go into the board 
• Select “Keep this board secret”

In Summary

Giving your Pinterest boards a good “spring cleaning” is so satisfying! Once you’re done cleaning up and organizing, I recommend going incognito and testing your boards. For example, click a Pin and see what it shows you under the “More like this” suggestions. If the suggestions match up, perfect! If not, consider renaming your board and playing with the keywords in the description. You can change your board’s settings, like name and description, using the three dots icon. 

And that’s it! To organize your Pinterest boards so that average users can easily find and navigate your content: 

• Optimize your account, including board names and descriptions
• Merge smaller, like boards 
• Use sections to further organize and direct your users 
• Archive inactive boards 
• Use secret boards for content you don’t need for your business
• Never delete content 

Use these board organization and optimization strategies to make your content visually appealing to both Pinterest search engine users and to the Pinterest indexing algorithm. Let me know what changes you see in your numbers! You won’t be disappointed.

If you are a business owner who feels a bit confused and lost about your Pinterest account set up, I would suggest checking out my brand new Pinterest for Beginners Course. It is an easy “yes” as the price point and gives you a step by step guide to setting up your Pinterest account as a business owner including naming boards, creating them and more. It will help you begin growing with a solid foundation in Pinterest basics so you can begin to reap the benefits of this visual search engine for your business.

SAVE THIS FOR LATER!