Many companies are using Pinterest for advertising purposes and succeeding.  It is an extraordinary platform for increasing brand awareness, driving traffic over to your site, and improving sales.  But how can you use Pinterest to find link building opportunities?  This article aims to help you understand how to use Pinterest to improve your search engine position.

Competitive Link Analysis

If you’re using Pinterest to build links, it’s likely that your competitors are too.  By using the source feature on the platform, you can see all the images that have been pinned from your competitor’s sites.  This way you can look at the content that your competitors are sharing, and what they are trying to promote to their network.  You can also see who your competitors are following, who is following them, and what link building tactics are working for them that you may also be able to use.

Find Sites to Host a Giveaway

Finding a site to give away your products comes with a number of benefits.  If you can place your giveaway on a well known website or blog, you are increasing your potential target audience and tapping into a new network.  Many of these sites will not only host your giveaway, but they will also promote it via social media as well.  The best way to find sites that host giveaways is to search for the keyword ‘giveaway’ on Pinterest.  You can then use the Boards or Pinner feature to narrow your search down further.

Blog Commenting

Blog commenting is a great way to participate in discussions, and may also help you to gain links back to your website.  Most blogs that accept comments enable you to fill in your name, email address and website link.  Your name then links directly to your website.  Although not all of these are do-follow links, they can still be useful, as they can help to improve your credibility, and they can help search engines to see a link between your website and the site that you have posted on.  The process of finding blogs to comment on through Pinterest is easy.  Simply use the categories feature to find other websites in your niche.

Find Guest Blogging Opportunities

Okay, so guest blogging may not have had the best press recently, however, if you do it correctly, you won’t be penalised.  This type of link building does take a lot of time, but the links you receive are almost always worth it.  First, we recommend reading up on some guest blogging practices not to follow – the last thing you want is to cause your site harm.  Once you are sure your methods are not going to cause you harm, log onto Pinterest and use the categories feature to find other websites in your niche.  Avoid high end sites, and instead look for small to medium sized websites that accept contributors (they usually mention it on their site if they do).  When you have found a website that looks suitable, take a look at the owners pinboard, and see if they have pinned any other interesting content in your niche.  These may also be ideal guest posting opportunities.

Pinterest is a great website to utilise when looking for link building opportunities.  Can you think of any other ways that it can be utilised?