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Marketing Academy · Field Work●Social Media Marketing
All projects·From: Pinterest Playbook
CoreAudit· 45 minutes

The SEO Audit: Fixing a Pinterest Board's Missing Keyword Fields

Drunk Elephant

Objective: Given a real 20-pin export from a Pinterest account with keyword fields filled in inconsistently, apply the lesson's five-keyword-field framework and Common Mistakes checklist to score every pin, flag missing board descriptions, and rewrite the three worst offenders.

You're a freelance Pinterest strategist brought in to audit Drunk Elephant's account ahead of a Q4 push. The brand has been pinning inconsistently for a year and impressions have plateaued.

Score all 20 pins against the five-keyword-field framework, flag every board missing a description, and rewrite the three lowest-scoring pins.

Before you start

What you'll need

Free path (everything below is enough to finish)

Google Sheets
FreeImport the pin export, score every pin, and track the rewrite backlog

Free, sortable, and easy to share the scored audit with a content team

The process

2 steps

Step 01 of 02

Five keyword fields per pin

The lesson's Pin Creation section names five keyword fields on every pin: title, description, alt text, board name, and board description. All five need deliberate keyword placement, not just the title.

Of 20 exported pins, how many have all five fields filled with a real, relevant keyword rather than left blank or generic ('Pin #14', no alt text)?

Google Sheets— Import the 20-pin export, add a 'score' column (0-5, one point per keyword field present and relevant).

Procedure

  1. Import the export with columns: pin title, description, alt text, board name, board description, destination URL.
  2. Score each pin 0-5, one point per field that is both present and carries a real, relevant keyword.
  3. Sort ascending by score to surface the worst offenders first.
  4. Flag any pin scoring 2 or below for a full rewrite.
Sample output
Pin Audit (excerpt, sorted worst-first)

Pin: 'Pin #14' | Board: 'Faves' | Alt text: none | Score: 1/5
Pin: 'Vitamin C Serum' | Board: 'Skincare' | Alt text: 'product photo' | Score: 2/5
Pin: 'How to Layer Vitamin C and Retinol Without Irritation' | Board: 'Anti-Aging Skincare Tips' | Alt text: 'Vitamin C serum bottle next to retinol cream on a bathroom shelf' | Score: 5/5

...17 more rows.

Healthy

Most pins score 4-5/5, with clear worst-scorers flagged for rewrite.

Unhealthy

A batch of pins named 'Pin #' with generic board names and no alt text.

What this means

A low average score means the account is invisible to Pinterest search regardless of image quality, since ranking runs on the metadata fields, not the pixels.

So what do I do about it?

SymptomActionEffort
Multiple pins titled 'Pin #' with no keywordRewrite titles to front-load the primary keyword for that pin's topic30 min
Alt text is generic ('product photo') on every low-scoring pinRewrite alt text to describe the image and carry a secondary keyword30 min
YouYou can do this yourself, no engineering access required.

Step 02 of 02

Board descriptions as indexed keyword real estate

Common Mistake #2 in the lesson: board descriptions are indexed by Pinterest's search algorithm, so a board with no description throws away keyword real estate the account already owns.

Of the account's boards represented in this export, how many have a written description at all?

Google Sheets— The same sheet, filtered to unique board names and their description column.

Procedure

  1. List each unique board name once alongside its current description (or blank).
  2. Mark every board with a blank or one-word description as a priority fix.
  3. Draft a 2-3 sentence, keyword-carrying description for each flagged board.
Sample output
Board Description Audit

Board: 'Anti-Aging Skincare Tips' | Description: present, 3 sentences | OK
Board: 'Faves' | Description: blank | FLAG
Board: 'Skincare' | Description: 'our products' | FLAG

2 of 6 boards need a rewritten description.

Healthy

Every board has a written, keyword-relevant description.

Unhealthy

Boards with blank descriptions or a single generic phrase.

What this means

Every blank board description is a missed ranking opportunity the account already has traffic potential for, since the board itself is already indexed.

So what do I do about it?

SymptomActionEffort
Two of six boards have no descriptionWrite a 2-3 sentence description with 2-3 relevant keywords for each5 min
YouYou can do this yourself, no engineering access required.

Final deliverable

A scored 20-pin audit sheet, a flagged list of boards missing descriptions, and full rewrites for the three lowest-scoring pins.

See a reference example
Sample output
Framebridge Pin Audit (excerpt)

Pin: 'IMG_2041' | Board: 'Stuff' | Alt text: none | Score: 1/5
Rewrite -> Title: 'Custom Frame Sizes for Diploma and Certificate Display' | Board: 'Diploma and Certificate Framing Ideas' | Alt text: 'Black custom frame displaying a university diploma with gold mat border'

...2 more rewrites follow.

Success criteria

You're done when you can:

  • All 20 pins scored 0-5 against the five-field framework
  • Every board in the export checked for a written description
  • Three lowest-scoring pins fully rewritten across all five fields