How to Create a Pinterest Board Tutorial

Setting up your first Pinterest board is the start of curating ideas, organizing inspiration, and building a visual representation of your brand or interests. It’s a simple process, but a thoughtful approach can transform your boards from simple collections into powerful tools for discovery and growth. This guide will walk you through creating a board step-by-step and show you how to optimize it to attract the right audience.

What Exactly Is a Pinterest Board?

Think of a Pinterest board as a digital corkboard or mood board. It’s a collection of individual posts (called “Pins”) that are all related to a specific theme, topic, or idea. You might create a board for “Living Room Decor Ideas,” “Vegan Dinner Recipes,” or “Fall Fashion 2024.” These boards serve several purposes:

• For Personal Use: They are a fantastic way to save articles, plan projects, collect style inspiration, and organize ideas for pretty much anything you can imagine. Planning a wedding? Make a board. Remodeling your kitchen? Make a board.
• For Businesses and Creators: They are a strategic tool for content marketing. You can use boards to categorize your products, showcase customer testimonials, share blog posts, or create visual guides related to your niche. An interior designer might have boards for "Minimalist Bedrooms" and "Bohemian Kitchens," while a food blogger could have "30-Minute Meals" and "Holiday Baking."

Ultimately, boards are how you organize your content and interests on Pinterest, making them easy for both you and your followers to navigate.

How to Create a Pinterest Board: The Step-by-Step Tutorial

You can create a Pinterest board from either your computer or your mobile device. The process is straightforward on both platforms.

Creating a Board on Desktop

1. Log in to your Pinterest account. Go to your profile page by clicking your profile picture in the top-right corner.
2. Navigate to the 'Saved' Tab. Directly below your profile information, you'll see a navigation bar. Click on the 'Saved' tab to view all of your current boards.
3. Click the '+' Icon. Look to the far right of the screen, just above your existing boards. You’ll see a small plus (+) icon. Click on it. A dropdown menu will appear.
4. Select 'Board'. From the dropdown menu, choose the 'Board' option. This will open a "Create board" pop-up window.
5. Name Your Board. This is the most important step. Choose a clear, descriptive, and keyword-rich name. For example, instead of "Food," use "Healthy Weeknight Dinner Recipes."
6. Decide if the Board is a Secret. You'll see a checkbox labeled "Keep this board secret." If you check this box, only you (and anyone you invite) can see the board. This is great for private planning or for curating content before making it public.
7. Click 'Create'. That's it! Your board is now live (or secretly created). Pinterest will immediately prompt you to save some Pins to your new board to get started.

Creating a Board on the Mobile App

1. Open the Pinterest app and go to your profile. Tap your profile picture in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
2. Tap the '+' Icon. In the top-right corner of your profile screen, you'll see a plus (+) icon. Tap it.
3. Select 'Board'. A menu will pop up from the bottom of the screen. Tap 'Board'.
4. Name Your Board. Just like on desktop, give your board a specific and searchable name.
5. Manage Collaboration and Visibility. On mobile, you can invite collaborators or make the board a secret from this initial setup screen. Toggle the "Make board secret" switch if you want it to be private.
6. Tap 'Next' and Add Pins. After naming your board, tap 'Next' in the top-right corner. Pinterest will offer suggestions for Pins to add. You can either add a few to kickstart your collection or tap 'Done' to finish.

Best Practices for Creating Awesome Pinterest Boards

Creating a board is easy, but creating a successful board - one that attracts followers and drives traffic - requires a bit of strategy. Here’s how to make your boards stand out.

1. Master Pinterest SEO for Your Boards

Pinterest is a visual search engine. To get discovered, you need to think like someone searching for your content. This starts with optimizing your boards.

• Board Title: Use clear, keyword-focused titles. If you’re a travel blogger, instead of a cute name like “Wanderlust,” use a searchable one like “Europe Travel Tips” or “Italy Vacation Ideas.” Think about what your target audience would type into the search bar.
• Board Description: Don’t skip this! The board description is prime real estate for SEO. Write a few sentences that clearly explain what the board is about, and naturally include several related keywords. For a "Spring Outfit Ideas" board, your description could mention "lightweight jackets," "floral dresses," "casual spring looks," and "workwear for spring."

2. Curate a Strong Board Cover

Your profile page is a grid of your boards, making the cover images a huge part of your brand's aesthetic. An inconsistent or messy-looking profile can turn potential followers away.

• How to Set a Board Cover: Go to the board, click the three dots (...) icon, and select "Edit board." From there, you can click on the "Board cover" and select any Pin from that board to represent it.
• Choosing the Right Cover: Pick a Pin that is high-quality, vertically oriented, and accurately represents the board's theme. For a consistent look, many brands create branded cover images with a text overlay of the board's name, using their brand fonts and colors.

3. Use Sections to Organize Your Content

If your board covers a broad topic, it can get crowded. A board called “Home Decor,” for example, could have thousands of Pins. Board sections act like sub-folders, allowing you to organize Pins inside a single board.

• To create a section, go to your board and click the “Add Section” button.
• For the "Home Decor" board, you could create sections like "Living Room Styles," "Bedroom Inspiration," "Kitchen Organization," and "DIY Projects." This makes it much easier for users to find exactly what they’re looking for.

4. Keep Your Boards Active and Focused

An active board is a healthy board. The Pinterest algorithm favors fresh content, so you should be consistently adding new Pins to your boards.

• Stay Niche: Keep your boards tightly themed. Don’t add a recipe Pin to your “Modern Home Office” board. Keeping content relevant helps followers know exactly what to expect from each board, and it helps Pinterest understand your content better.
• Aim for a Good Number of Pins: A board with only three Pins looks empty. Try to aim for at least 20-30 Pins per board to make it look substantial and valuable to a visitor. This gives them more content to browse and engage with.

5. Know When to Use Secret Boards

Not every board needs to be public from the start. Secret boards are visible only to you and anyone you invite, and they have plenty of strategic uses:

• Planning a Campaign: Curate Pins for an upcoming product launch or a seasonal marketing campaign without tipping off your audience.
• Building a New Board: Create a board as a secret one first. Pin 30+ high-quality Pins to it. Once it feels complete and valuable, make it public. This avoids having a skeletal, "under construction" board on your profile.
• Personal Gifting or Projects: Use secret boards for things you don't want the world to see, like a surprise party plan or gift ideas for a friend.

Board Ideas to Get You Started

Stuck on what kind of boards to create? Here are a few ideas tailored to different types of Pinterest users.

For Content Creators & Bloggers:

• [Your Blog Name] Blog Posts: A board dedicated exclusively to Pins that link back to your own articles. This should be your first board!
• Your Niche Topic 1: For example, "Social Media Marketing Tips"
• Your Niche Topic 2: For example, "Content Creation Workflow"
• Industry Inspiration: A board for saving ideas and trends that inspire you.
• Behind the Scenes: Showcases the process, 'the-making-of', or the 'human aspect' of you or your brand.

For E-commerce & Small Businesses:

• Our [Product Category]: For example, "Handmade Ceramic Mugs." Pin all your product shots here.
• Shop [Your Brand] Looks: Share user-generated content and lifestyle photos of your products in action.
• [Industry] Tips & Tricks: If you sell coffee, create a board for "Coffee Brewing Guides." If you sell skincare, "Daily Skincare Routines." This provides value beyond just selling.
• Gift Ideas For [Audience / Holiday]: Curate your products into gift guides for different occasions or people (e.g., "Gifts for Mom").

For Personal Use:

• Future Home Goals
• Favorite Recipes
• Travel Bucket List
• Books to Read
• Style and Outfit Inspiration
• At Home Workouts

Final Thoughts

Creating a Pinterest board is a straightforward task, but applying a little strategy can turn your profile into a massive source of discovery and traffic. By using clear, SEO-friendly titles, organizing with sections, and pinning high-quality content consistently, you can build a presence that inspires your audience and supports your goals.

To keep all those newly organized Pin boards filled with fresh content, a content calendar becomes essential for consistency. It's a pain to jump between apps and manage multiple schedules, which is why we built our platform with a visual planner. With Postbase, we can see our entire social strategy, including Pinterest, in one streamlined view. Scheduling content ahead of time lets us focus our energy on planning bigger campaigns, not just trying to keep up.