How to Make a Pinterest Board People Save

Creating a Pinterest board takes seconds: tap the plus button, choose Board, give it a name and save. Building one that other people discover, follow and save from takes a little more thought about the name, the order and what goes on it. Both halves are covered here.

Create the board

In the app

1. Go to your profile and tap the + button.
2. Choose Board.
3. Type a name. Switch on the secret option if you want it private while you build it.
4. Tap Create. Pinterest may suggest pins to add straight away; skipping that is fine.

On a computer

Open your profile, click the + near your boards and pick Board. You can also make one on the fly while saving a pin: open the board menu next to the Save button and choose the option to create a new board.

Name it the way people search

Pinterest behaves more like a visual search engine than a social feed. People type what they want to cook, make, buy or plan, so a board name that matches those words is easier to find. "Small balcony garden ideas" tells both people and Pinterest what to expect; "Green dreams" tells them nothing. Keep names short enough to read on a phone, roughly two to five words.

Add a description

Open the board, use the three-dot menu or pencil icon and choose to edit. In the description, explain in one or two natural sentences what the board collects and who it suits. Use the words a searcher would use, but write for a person; a pile of keywords looks spammy and reads badly.

Split big topics into sections

Large boards get hard to browse. Sections divide a board into sub-groups without creating separate boards. A "Weeknight dinners" board might have sections for pasta, traybakes and soups. Add them from the board page with the plus button, then move existing pins into place.

Choose a cover that sums it up

The cover image represents the board on your profile grid. Pick a pin that explains the board at a glance. If you run several boards, giving the covers a similar look makes the whole profile feel considered rather than random.

Fill it with pins worth saving

A board with five pins looks unfinished. Add a solid first batch before sharing it, then keep adding a few at a time instead of everything in one go. Mix your own pins with good finds from others.

For pins you design yourself, Pinterest recommends a vertical 2:3 shape, for example 1000 by 1500 pixels, because tall images take up more of the feed on a phone. Several design rules carry over from video: one clear subject, strong contrast and only a handful of words on the image. Our guide to making a YouTube thumbnail people click goes deeper into those choices.

Board types compared

Board type	Who sees it	Works well for
Public board	Anyone on Pinterest	Sharing ideas, building an audience, pointing to your own content
Secret board	You and anyone you invite	Gift lists, surprise plans, drafts before going public
Group board	Public or secret, with several collaborators	Planning a trip, a wedding or a shared home project
Board with sections	Same as the parent board	Broad topics that need sub-groups

To turn any board into a group board, open it and use the invite or collaborator option to add people. You can decide how much each collaborator is allowed to change.

Habits that keep boards invisible

• Clever names nobody would ever type into a search box.
• One enormous board for everything instead of several focused ones.
• Pins with broken or unrelated links, which frustrate anyone who clicks through.
• Pinning fifty things in one evening, then vanishing for months.

Using Pinterest for a project or small business

A free business account adds analytics that show which pins get saved and clicked, which makes it easier to decide what to create next. Pinterest also works well alongside other channels. Put a board link in your Instagram bio, and if you publish videos, pin each new upload next to the steps it explains; our guide to starting a YouTube channel from zero covers setting that side up.

Quick questions

Can a secret board go public later?

Yes. Edit the board and switch the secret setting off. Its pins then become visible to everyone.

Can I combine two boards?

Pinterest offers a merge option in a board's settings. It moves the pins and sections into the board you choose and removes the empty one, so double-check which board you are keeping first.

How many boards should I have?

As many as you have distinct topics, and no more. A dozen well-filled boards beat fifty half-empty ones.