When I first started blogging I learned a valuable Pinterest Strategy. Hiding extra Pinterest Pins and adding a description that would show up was a bit tricky. My posts were feeling crowded with all of my additional pins and the description seemed to disappear when I included it in the actual description box. I started adding the description to the Alt-text box until I learned this practice was detrimental to my SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

My next step was to pick up on some simple, but time-consuming, code to try to hide a Pinterest pin, add a description (appeasing Pinterest) while adding my Alt Text to make the Google SEO crawlers happy. It became quite the balancing act to try to optimize for Pinterest and Google with the creation of each new pin.

Why Alt Text Matters

Why bother, right? Isn’t it okay to just go ahead and use the Alt Text to add a description?

Here’s why. Alt-text descriptions optimize information to search engines about your images. If your only focus is to optimize for Pinterest, Google gets cut out of the picture; and bloggers want to have ALL the search engines working in their favor.

Alt Text was designed to describe an image. It is helpful for screen readers who help the visually impaired. When search engines crawl your site, one of the things they look for is the alt-text description to learn about the images you post on a page. This is why it is essential to have relevant images included in each post.

Confusing Pinterest Descriptions with Alt Text

Alt-text should not be confused with the actual Pinterest description. Creating a pin description helps Pinterest understand what your pin is about. If you use the Alt Text to describe the content of your post, you might win with your Pinterest optimization, but you’ll miss out on your image ranking with Google.

Web accessibility is part of Google’s ranking algorithm. As a result, websites using Alt Text correctly will have better SEO.

Never Fear! The Manually Fix is Here

To describe this image for search engines, we might type something like “sun shining through clouds above mountain tops.” It doesn’t make a good Pinterest description though. You can manually adjust the image code, so it works for both Pinterest and search engines:

Click on text tab within your post and locate the code for your image.

<img class=”alignleft size-medium wp-image-1436″ src=”https://www.choosingwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Featured-Image.jpg” alt=”sun shining through clouds above mountain tops” width=”300″ height=”203″ />

Now to manually add a “data-pin-description” field within the image code it will look like this:

<img class=”alignleft size-medium wp-image-1436″ src=”https://www.choosingwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Featured-Image.jpg” alt=” sun shining through clouds above mountain tops” data-pin-description=”The Way You Think Can Cloud Your Perspective” width=”300″ height=”203″ />

Did you want to hide a Pinterest pin? You can always add this additional code:

<div style=”display:none;”><img class=”alignleft size-medium wp-image-1436″ src=”https://www.choosingwisdom.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Featured-Image.jpg” alt=”sun shining through clouds above mountain tops” data-pin-description=”The Way You Think Can Cloud Your Perspective” width=”300″ height=”203″ /></div>

Fun right?

It became a bit time consuming, and I started to feel like manually coding pin descriptions was not a productive use of my time. As my Pinterest traffic continued to grow, I began creating additional pins for each post which meant more coded descriptions and additional code to hide the extra pins. Yep, it was a boatload of fun!

Read more about where I learned my Pinterest Strategy here.

Another Option: WP Tasty

I was intrigued when I first read about a solution to my latest time hog. WP Tasty is a team of bloggers who wanted a tool that really worked. Their first project was to create a recipe plugin that was lightweight, powerful, easy to use, and rock-solid when it came to SEO for bloggers. Soon after the launch of WP Tasty Recipes, the team addressed the Pinterest description dilemma so many bloggers face.

They were able to create a WordPress Plugin – WP Tasty Pins – to add a section specifically for Pinterest descriptions. They left the Alt Text description untouched, bringing your SEO to a new level. The plugin also allows an unlimited number of “hidden pins” each with their own Pinterest specific description.

They recently released a third tool – WP Tasty Links – creating a catalog of products and affiliates you use the most with an associated keyword to a specific link. Once a post is written Tasty Links scans the content, finds any keywords you set, and links those keywords to the preset URL.

Each of these tools come as an individual plugin created by the same blogging team. As they have grown, they’ve listened to what bloggers need and delivered.

Three Primary WP Tasty Features

In addition, it is a lightweight plugin built with speed in mind. It won’t bog down your page load speed or infringe on other plugins. It also allows you to continue using your alt text field in the way it was intended to improved SEO.

Tasty Pins is simple to use, easy to understand, and really does what it was created to do – optimize your images for SEO AND Pinterest! Here is a quick video so you can see Tasty Pin’s magic in action.

If you feel like your time is being gobbled up coding Pinterest images, give Tasty Pins a try. This plugin is only $29 a year with a 15-day money-back guarantee to make sure it is the right fit for you. If you decide not to renew, the plugin will still work, but you won’t get any updates.

Get your copy of Tasty Pins here!

If you’re interested in learning about some of my other blogging favorites you can see them here.