Read the sixth part of Pinterest impact on Google

June

As the strategy on which I based the campaign in June really worked and Lingerose.com reached the first page of Google search results, I decided to stick to it. According to the rule: „if something works well, do not change it”.

According to the stats from July, there were total of:

• 1333 pins added from Lingerose.com
• 2883 pins from Lingerose.com were repinned
• 1.250.633 impressions of pins from Lingerose.com
• 2139 visits to Lingerose.com

5th of July 2013
On the 5th of July, I noticed another increase of Lingerose’s position in Google around the world:
United States – the 4th position
United Arab Emirates – the 4th position
Singapore – the 4th position
Jamaica – the 5th position
India – the 5th position
Hong Kong – the 5th position
Canada – the 4th position
Belgium – the 4th position

12th of July 2013
I decided to check the results for all the countries available in the Google Monitor. I checked 72 different countries for the “lingerie wholesale” query. Lingerose.com reached the following positions in Google:
the 2nd position – 21 countries
the 3rd position – 30 countries
the 4th position – 10 countries
the 5th position – 3 countries
the 6th position – 3 countries
the 8th position – 1 country
the 12th position – 1 country
the 16th position – 1 country
the 18th position – 1 country
Only 10 countries were out of the top 4 results!
It gives an average of 3,65 position in Google!

31st of July 2013
The last day of July brought the following results:
United States – the 3rd position
United Arab Emirates – the 2nd position
Spain – the 2nd position
Netherlands – the 3rd position
Israel – the 4th position
Ireland – the 3rd position
Germany – the 3rd position
Canada – the 3rd position

I think that July was a really great month for Lingerose. I’d even say the best one, because it reached the top 3 of Google search results. So, my strategy succeeded and I hoped it wouldn’t stop in August.

August

In my summary, August was the last month of those 6 of my Pinterest’s campaign for Lingerose.com. That’s the month when I carried on the strategy of pinning from June and July. That was also the month when Lingerose.com finally conquered the Google search results, reaching also the first position in some countries.
According to the stats from August there were total of:

• 1209 pins added from Lingerose.com
• 2821 pins from Lingerose.com were repinned
• 794.747 impressions of pins from Lingerose.com
• 1736 visits to Lingerose.com

2nd of August 2013
That day, I started my work from checking Google results from the United States and how surprised I was when I saw that Lingerose was ranked at the second position! So I decided to check the results in all the countries available in Google Monitor – just like I did on the 12th of July 2013.
I checked 68 countries and noticed the following positions of Lingerose:
the 1st position – Greece – that was the first time when Lingerose has ever reached the highest position of the Google search results

the 2nd position – 51 countries
the 3rd position – 12 countries
Only 4 countries were out of the top 3 results
the 7th position – 1 country
the 11th position – 1 country
the 13th position – 1 country
the 18th position – 1 country
It gave an average of 2,76 position in Google!

7th of August 2013
I discovered that in another 2 countries Lingerose was indexed at the 1st position of the Google search results.
So, in total, there were already 3 countries where Lingerose was indexed on the top 1 of Google.
These countries were:
Ireland

Poland

26th of August 2013
This is my last time when I check the results in August and also last time during this 6 months campaign. Since the beginning of March I’ve checked the results almost on a daily basis.
I was able to to keep 2 of 3 positions number 1 in Google (Greece and Poland). Unfortunately, in Ireland Lingerose dropped by 2 positions and was indexed as the third one.
The 26th of August brought the following results:
United States – the 3rd position
United Arab Emirates – the 2nd position
Spain – the 2nd position
Russia – the 2nd position
Poland – the 1st position
Netherlands – the 2nd position
Italy – the 2nd position
Israel – the 2nd position
India – the 2nd position
Greece – the 1st position
Germany – the 2nd position
France – the 2nd position
Canada – the 3rd position

I can definitely say that in August Lingerose.com has reached and defended the top of Google.
Before I started the proper campaign in March, my initial assumptions were to reach high positions in Google for the “lingerie wholesale” query – maybe the top 10.
I achieved even more than I expected.

Read the next part of Pinterest impact on Google

Read the fourth part of Pinterest impact on Google

May

May was the third month of my campaign and comparing to April I decided to slow down a little bit. I mean – in terms of number of the pins added. As you may see from the stats below, I added almost five times less pins than in the previous month. However, it didn’t change as much when we consider the other stats numbers such as: repins, impressions or visits to Lingerose.com.

According to the stats in May there were total of:

• 620 pins added from Lingerose.com
• 11532 pins from Lingerose.com were repinned
• 4.025.257 impressions of pins from Lingerose.com
• 3565 visits to Lingerose.com

As you may see later, in May, as Lingerose.com gets higher in SERP, the positions of Lingerose’s boards get lower. Also my analysis is focused on the site itself rather than the boards. It is obvious that from the campaign’s point of view this was the main aim and it was much more important.

6th of May 2013
Another day of glory – Lingerose.com jumped onto the third page of Google results for the „lingerie wholesale” query. In the United States it was classified at the 26th position. Recently, I didn’t change the strategy, so it was the matter of time and/or my Pinterest’s account verification. To Google it might have seemed to be more reliable.
This was a very positive signal for me, which made me sure that the direction I followed was the right one.

19th of May 2013
That day, I noticed that the position of Lingerose in Google dropped down. In my browser, it was classified on the 34th position (the last time – the 25th position). In the US it was not so bad. Lingerose.com dropped to the 30th position. The same position was in the UK’s search results.

Ok, so it’s time for a small summary to see what could have happened. I’m going back to the beginning of May. I didn’t add a lot of pins but on the 6th of May I discovered the Lingerose’s highest result ever (the 25th position) for “lingerie wholesale” in Google.
In the meantime, the first week of May I was invited to many group boards to contribute. On the 7th of May I started adding a lot of pins there. From the 10th to the 13th of May I was really active and added lots of photos. Lingerose’s account received a lot of signals (new followers, repins and likes) and our position in Google should have been higher. But it wasn’t like that. It was the opposite and Lingerose.com position dropped.
I think it was too much for Google. I mean – too many pins added and signals received in a short period of time. I described the similar situation of one of the group boards that I belonged to in March’s analysis. So once again – do not “overpin” and be careful with a number of pins added.
To see if that theory was true, I decided to slow down the next days, adding similar pins’ number as I did at the end of April and at the beginning of May. I wanted to see if I could get back that lost position.

24-30 of May 2013
And I did. Lingerose.com got even higher than before.

On the 24th of May I noticed that the site reached the 15th position in the The US Google.
2 days later, on the 26th of May, it was even higher. In the United States, Lingerose was indexed at the 9th position and in Ireland – the position number 4!

I still didn’t take those results seriously, as the fluctuation of the Lingerose.com position in those days was really huge. I checked our SERP every day and noticed the following results:
The USA
27th of May – 9
28th of May – 21
29th of May – 20
30th of May – 22
The UK
27th of May – 17
28th of May – out of 40
29th of May – out of 40
30th of May – 30
On the 30th of May I made a decision that was truly difficult for me – I stopped adding pins and repinning my photos to see how the results would change. I wasn’t happy about that decision because, since the beginning of March, I was pinning and repining every day. On the other hand, I knew, I had to do this for the purpose of this research.

Read the next part of Pinterest impact on Google

Read the second part of Pinterest impact on Google

March

As mentioned above, March was the first month of proper Pinterest campaign for Lingerose.com. This was the month of creating the strategy and many tests. I tried many different ways to gather followers and make Lingerose’s pins viral.
Below, I present the stats of Pinterest activity in March.

According to them there were total of:

• 1178 pins added from Lingerose.com
• 9207 pins from Lingerose.com were repinned
• 2.467.042 impressions of pins from Lingerose.com
• 2139 visits to Lingerose.com

14th of March 2013
Because of a high competition, it was too early to prove that Pinterest’s campaign has an impact on SERP of Lingerose for the „lingerie wholesale” query. So, I started my research from more precise and related searched term – „lingerie wholesale Pinterest”.
On the top of search results, I found 4 Pinterest’s boards and accounts. On the second position, Google indexed “Lingerie” board of “Pinsbook” user. This was a group board where I was a contributor, adding many of my pins. This board contained 9,191 followers and 6,837 pins.
What’s the most interesting fact, Google displayed in the meta description my pin:
“… and fantastic pins. Pinsbook is using Pinterest, an online pinboard to collect and share what inspires you. … Gracya 151 bra – Lingerose – Gracya Wholesale …”
This pin was added about 16 hours earlier and received one like. I don’t think that this pin was particularly so important for Google. As you can see below there were at least 5 other of my pins around. Google had noticed a lot of keywords (“lingerie wholesale”) used in the one place and picked up the first pin to display in the meta description.

To sum up all the 4 results mention above (what they had in common and what were their features – so that Google indexed them on the top) I would say:
1. The keywords used in the boards or accounts’ names. All the 4 accounts used „lingerie” or „wholesale”.
2. The keywords used in the indexed accounts or boards’ descriptions. All of them contained descriptions included one or both of the keywords: „lingerie” or „wholesale”.
3. The keywords used in pins’ descriptions. The group board where I belonged to.
4. Strength of an account. Number of pins, boards and positive ratio of followers to following (more followers than following).
5. One web address of those 4 accounts was verified.
Then, I typed in „lingerie wholesale” to see if there were any Pinterest’s results. In the first 500 results there weren’t any yet, but the position of Lingerose.com increased a lot. After two weeks time it was classified at the 112th position.

17.03.2013
Three days later I started again checking Google results from the “Lingerie Wholesale Pinterest” query.

That time, the group board where I added my pins dropped by 2 positions, but as previously – Google displayed the pin in the meta description.
As I checked, during the last few days this board was the most active one from all the 4 Pinterest’s boards displayed on the very top of Google. I compared keywords density and the number of pins added, nevertheless – it dropped down.
So, there is one possible scenario or I’d rather call it my thesis:
Google doesn’t like so many pins added with the same keywords and treats it as a kind of overstuffing. That’s why the board was lower than before. There must be some limit that we shouldn’t pass. What is the limit – it is difficult to say exactly, but it might be related to a number of pins or frequency they are added. After we pass this limit, Google stops to ”appreciate” our work and might even remove our board or account from its index. So, it is a kind of „rolling on the river”, so – be careful and do not over-pin!

It is also worth reminding again that two other Pinterest’s accounts indexed in Google: “Intimate Wholesalers” (the 1st position) and “Lingerie Outlet” (the 3rd position) used the keywords in their account’s descriptions. And in the “Lingerie Love” board (the 2nd position) – the main role is played by a very strong account: “Wholesale Apparel & Accessories (H.K.)” with the keyword used in the account’s name itself.

To see the results of the main query of my research – „lingerie wholesale” let’s move forward till the 20th of March 2013.
I noticed that Lingerose.com jumped onto the 86th position, so I see that my activities bring the desired results.

27th of March 2013
As usually, in March I started from the broader search query „lingerie wholesale Pinterest” and surprisingly, I found our board – „Miran Lingerie Wholesale” indexed on the second position of Google search results.

What was interesting, in my personal opinion – this was the least attractive of the boards in Lingerose’s account – but it seems that Google doesn’t care about my sense of taste. What was more important from the SEO point of view: this board name included the query „lingerie wholesale” but on the other hand it was the newest one, with the lowest number of pins added amongst all the Lingerose’s Pinterest boards.
Checking my most important search term – “Lingerie Wholesale”, I found the same board – “Miran Lingerie Wholesale” indexed at the position number 28.
That fact made me think about it more deeply. I decided to check Pinterest search results for the main query “lingerie wholesale” and got the following results:

As you can see at the print screen which presents the top 12 search results in Pinterest – there were 4 pins from Miran’s board. So, in general, I can say that this was the most popular brand among all the other Lingerose’s brands which pins were displayed on the very top of search results for the “Lingerie Wholesale” query in Pinterest. Of course, this might be just a coincidence. If it is not, this could mean that there is some correlation between Pinterest search results and Google search results – they might use similar factors in their algorithms. Anyway, I leave this question unanswered.

31th of March 2013
What was the last day of the first month of my proper Pinterest’s campaign?
As Lingerose’s Pinterest boards and Lingerose.com itself were getting higher in Google SERP, I decided to leave analysis of more precise query „Lingerie Wholesale Pinterest” and to be focused on „Lingerie Wholesale” only.
A great surprise – our boards were classified at the positions: 23 – 25:
the 23th position – „Miran Lingerie Wholesale” board
the 24th position – „Kostar Lingerie Wholesale” board
the 25th position – „Ava Lingerie Wholesale” board

I also checked the further results and found the other boards as follows:
the 41th position – „Tessoro Lingerie Wholesale” board
the 51th position – “Mat Lingerie Wholesale” board
the 52th position – Lingerose.com
the 61th position – „Gorsenia Lingerie Wholesale” board
the 91th position – „Pin Up Lingerie Wholesale” board
the 92th position – „Gaia Lingerie Wholesale” board
So, Google indexed all the 8 boards which included the searched keywords in their titles.
Before I go further, just a quick reminder – 3 days before Google had indexed Miran’s board at the highest position from all of my boards, so I checked Pinterest’s search results and I found 4 Miran’s pins in the first 12 results at following positions: 1, 3, 7, 10.
This was interesting correlation between Pinterest and Google search results. I decided to investigate this trace deeper. I wanted to see how many pins of each brand were classified in Pinterest for the “lingerie wholesale” query. I started from the very top to check the first 120 search results. And this is what I found:
Miran – 15 pins
Anais – 18 pins
Kostar – 24 pins
Nipplex – 20 pins
Gorteks – 2 pins
Nessa – 1 pin
Ava – 13 pins
Gaia – 6 pins
Kinga – 1 pin
Mat – 2 pins
From the above results, I selected only the boards with “lingerie wholesale” in their titles (because only these boards were indexed by Google). So, I have the following boards:
Miran Lingerie Wholesale – 15 pins
Kostar Lingerie Wholesale – 24 pins
Ava Lingerie Wholesale – 13 pins
Mat Lingerie Wholesale – 2 pins
Gaia Lingerie Wholesale – 6 pins
The first 3 boards (with the highest number of pins added) are exactly the same as the boards indexed at the positions from the 23th – to the 25th in Google’s search results.
We can clearly see that the pins from those boards were displayed very high in Pinterest as well.

Ok, so what are the factors that Google could have used to index these boards?
First of all – the keywords used in the boards’ titles. Google displayed all of my 8 boards where I used the searched keywords in the titles.
Then, Google needs to set how important for its search engine are those boards. Maybe it uses very similar factors as Pinterest does to display pins in its search results list.
Or maybe, there is some correlation between Pinterest and Google search results that I mentioned before. Google could rate a board depending on positions of pins added to this board displayed in Pinterest search results. The higher pins’ positions are in Pinterest, the more important the board is in Google. However, this seems to be very complicated, because if it is true Googlebots would have to make search queries in Pinterest.
Of course, there are some other – very important – factors as well. Why are my boards displayed, not the boards of other users? I definitely use a lot of keywords in pins’ descriptions. What is more important – Google considers my account as a strong one, not SPAMmy account, the account that doesn’t use any schedule pins tools, with all the pins added manually. The account that receives a lot of signals (my pins are very often repined and liked) with a great relation of followers to following.

Read the next part of Pinterest impact on Google

We’ve decided to publish our research to shed some light on possible impact that Pinterest as a social media channel may have on Google and also – how Pinterest search engine works itself. The results and final conclusions are based on a case study of one of my campaigns for a lingerie wholesale site.
This research is definitely for more experienced and advanced Pinterest’s users. As it contains a lot of examples, proofs of my research and results that my campaign has brought, it might seem to be difficult for the readers interested not enough in the Pinterest SEO field. My purpose was not to write an easily readable book but to share a very important (from my point of view) information. I am an entrepreneur and a researcher rather, not a book writer.

There are many tips on the Internet concerning strategies of Pinterest’s campaigns. I must say, that personally I don’t agree with many of them (for me, they are not effective enough and don’t lead to a real success). The main goal of my campaign was to create an account strong enough to conquer both: Pinterest and Google search engines. And I did so. That is why this publication is the essence of an effective and successful campaign only. No wasting time for unproven or time-consuming methods, just a simple recipe to succeed.

The History of my Pinterest’s Campaign

At the beginning of March, while many Pinterest users started repining my photos and following my account, I thought to myself that this might be a great method to promote Lingerose.com. Not only directly from Pinterest. I checked Google and typed in “Lingerose” query. In the 10 first results all of them were for Lingerose’s account of most important social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Linkedin and Pinterest). At that moment I realized that Pinterest may have huge impact on SERP in Google and might be a great tool from SEO’s point of view.
To be honest, I don’t even remember when exactly I have started and created Lingerose’s Pinterest account. It was about October/November of 2012. According to Pinterest stats the first day was the 1st of November 2012 – so I think they are right.
Hold on – I’ve just checked my emails from Pinterest. From the 1st of November there are stats available. I created Lingerose’s Pinterest account even two months earlier – it was the 8th of September 2012.
It doesn’t change anything because those first months weren’t very exciting and there didn’t happen a lot. I didn’t add many pins as you may see from the site’s metrics (Nov 01, 2012 – Mar 02, 2013) in total – 133 pins. Including September and October – maybe about 200. The most “pinning” day was the 30th of January 2013 when I added 19 pins.
As you may see there weren’t a lot of impressions of our pins and visits from Pinterest to Lingerose.com. The busiest day was the Valentine’s Day.
Pins and Repins – Lingerose account

Impressions and clicks – Lingerose account

So, the period from the beginning of the 8th of September 2012 to the 2nd of March 2013 was quite boring. I created about 5-6 boards and tried to add pins once a week. This way I reached about 20 followers in … the 6 months time.
In general, Pinterest seemed to be interesting to me because it was all about photos and you should know Lingerose’s products have great, high quality photos. But with no possibility to show them to many users, my Pinterest’s adventure wasn’t successful at first. Just another social media account for Lingerose Network.
The 3rd of March 2013 – the day of glory.
Yes, this was a very special day – I opened email from Pinterest and saw a Group Board Invitation.

At the beginning, I wasn’t sure what it was. After two minutes of investigation I thought to myself – this is it! By the way, thank you “Olga Zavare” – whoever you are (her account’s gone – probably another fake account).

First days in a group board weren’t too crazy. I wanted to check and see what it is all about and how it works. Average of 14 pins daily were added and I noticed that people liked my pins and they’re willing to repin them. At that time the stats were not available yet, so I counted all the signals (likes and repins) by myself. I was thinking about the best strategy and I knew, I had to organize and order my account, creating new boards with proper names and with many relevant photos.

Pins and Repins – Lingerose account

Impressions and clicks – Lingerose account

So, it was a good chance to improve results and do some research on Pinterest itself and its impact on Google.
On Monday, the 11th of March 2013, I decided to focus on Pinterest and started documenting all the actions and results to publish them at Lingerose’s blog … and that’s how it started.

Methods that I used to do this research

Ceteris Paribus – “with other things the same”
This was the most important and common term of all the scientific theories and researches at the University of Economics where I studied. When we want to verify any thesis or check if something simply works, we need to remember that all the other things should be equal or held constant.
So, to see if and what impact Pinterest has on Google, I knew, I had to create a kind of isolation from other sources that might affect Lingerose’s SERP in Google and to be focused on Pinterest actions only.
Fortunately, for the purpose of this research, there weren’t so far any SEO actions done for Lingerose.com domain. Except for friendly URLs and the fact that domain was registered in 2009. No link building or other SEO methods that could have an impact on SERP. All the social media activities done before March of 2013 didn’t affect Google. For the most important search query – “lingerie wholesale”, Lingerose.com were out of the first 20 pages of results (200 results).
As you may notice above, there was a huge chance that information and results I was going to gather might have reflected a real correlation between Pinterest and Google.

All the photos have been added and repined manually. No automatic tools, no cheating. Just me, Lingerose.com, Pinterest and hard work. Because it’s all about pinning.

Read the next part of Pinterest impact on Google