10 Most Popular Pinterest Categories and Which Ones to Choose
Written by Laura Roeder
On January 26, 2021
With Pinterest, the “visual discovery engine,” you can build dream boards, share branded content for your business, and tap into the platform’s massive traffic potential and one of the best ways to do that is by using Pinterest categories.
As a business owner or blogger, you can share Pins to educate your followers, lead people in your target market to explore your ideas, and even persuade them to make a purchase.Pinterest continues growing in popularity for both businesses and consumers. In 2016, it had 128 million monthly active users. By 2020, that number nearly tripled, rising to 367 million. It’s quickly growing in popularity among many different demographics, too: women (of course), Millennials, Gen Z, men, dads, and anyone with a green thumb or DIY mentality.
So how can your business best take advantage of Pinterest’s massive consumer base and drive more traffic to your website? An essential part of the equation is understanding how to take correctly use Pinterest categories.It’s time to use Pinterest to its fullest potential, viewing it as a search engine with the ability to drive qualified, targeted traffic straight to your business. Sharing valuable content in all the right places—where your target audience is spending time searching for brands like yours—can turn Pinterest into a goldmine for your company.
Let’s walk through everything you need to know about Pinterest categories so you can organize your Pins and Boards the best way possible for maximum results.What are Pinterest Categories? And Why Does They Matter?
Main Pinterest Categories List
Here are the major categories you can choose from when building new Pinboards and searching for the best topics to cover on Pinterest.
- Holidays: Events, decorations, celebrations
- Christmas: Festive décor, recipes, DIY ideas, party planning
- Art: Tips, how-to guides, inspiration, techniques
- Animals: Pets, memes, baby animals
- Architecture: Modern homes, urban spaces, classic buildings
- Design: Packaging, book design, lettering, typography
- DIY and crafts: Projects, instructions, patterns
- Beauty: Hair, skin, nails, makeup
- Event planning: Menus, party favors, table settings
- Food and drink: Recipes, snacks, meals, prep
- Men’s fashion: Casual looks, formal outfits, accessories, sneakers
- Home décor: Popular styles, furniture, decorating
- Lawn and garden: Landscaping, planting, flowers
- Quotes: Humor, mindfulness, love
- Travel: Cities, beaches, traveler tips, bucket lists
- Weddings: Venues, outfits, invitations
- Women’s fashion: Casual looks, formal outfits, capsule wardrobes, cozy footwear
What’s a Pinterest Interest?
What a great question! As we already mentioned, Pinterest has its preliminary list of categories to strategically group Pins for users. But as you may have noticed, there aren’t that many categories when you consider the billions of Pins floating around the platform.
To break down their categories into more specific subcategories, Pinterest created “interests.” For example, the home décor category breaks down into various interests that users can search to find what they’re seeking. The top subcategories of home décor include room décor, flooring, and kitchen.Suppose you want ideas for hanging wall art in your office or creating home floral arrangements. You can search for those specific interests rather than treading through enormous categories in hopes of stumbling across the right content.The 10 Most Popular Pinterest Categories
This list changes regularly. For a current list of the most popular categories on Pinterest, click the “Analytics” dropdown menu from your business account, and choose “Audience Insights.” Next, click on “All Pinterest users” from the menu. You’ll find the most popular categories and related interests on the search engine, along with other useful demographic information.If your niche doesn’t fit neatly into any of these categories, don’t worry. There are plenty of unlisted categories to choose from that still get plenty of traffic to make a difference for your business.Right now, the top 10 Pinterest categories are:
- Home décor
- DIY and crafts
- Entertainment
- Education
- Art
- Women’s fashion
- Food and drinks
- Beauty
- Event planning
- Gardening
1. Home Décor
- Room décor
- Home accessories
- Wall
- Home accents
- Exterior
- Kitchen
- Bedroom
- Living room
- Flooring
- Bathroom
2. DIY and Crafts
DIY and crafts is the second most popular category on Pinterest, which is no surprise. The pandemic has led to a surge in DIY home improvement projects. With so many of us confined to our homes for long periods, we’ve had more time and energy to spend on fixing things up and making changes to improve our lifestyles.
The same goes for crafts and creative hobbies. More people have recently picked up or reconnected with hands-on activities like crocheting, scrapbooking, knitting, and flower pressing.If you sell craft kits, knitting patterns, or handmade goods, or if you’re a contractor or interior designer, you should concentrate your efforts on the DIY and crafts category. Share all your tricks for converting junk to functional home pieces and how to make macramé plant hangers. We’re all ears—or in this case, eyes.Top Subcategories for DIY and Crafts- DIY projects
- Fabric crafts
- Upcycled crafts
- Knitting and crochet
- Kids’ crafts
- Cloths
- DIY home and decorations
- DIY event
- DIY stationery
- Sewing
3. Entertainment
Men and women use Pinterest to find quotes from favorite actors, band lyrics, ideas for movie nights, and TV show recommendations. Entertainment brands can use Pinterest to advertise new releases, run targeted campaigns, and share top recommendations.Top Subcategories for Entertainment- Movies
- Movies by genre
- Humor
- Music
- Celebrities
- BooksBook genres
- Memes
- Gaming
- Bands
4. Education
Teachers and parents of homeschoolers love searching Pinterest for innovative activities and lessons for the kiddos. You’ll find field trip ideas, how to conduct fun experiments at home, and engaging arts and crafts. From the looks of the top interests, science teachers love using Pinterest!Top Subcategories for Education- Subjects
- Science
- Art education
- Physical science
- Education level
- History
- Life science
- Applied science
- Language arts
- Teacher resources
5. Art
- Drawing
- Photography
- Painting
- Body art
- Painting media
- Photography subjects
- Tattoo
- People photography
- Digital art
- Fonts and calligraphy
6. Women’s Fashion
- Women’s jewelry and accessories
- Dresses
- Women’s style
- Women’s bottoms
- Women’s outfits by occasions
- Dresses by style
- Women’s tops
- Dresses by occasion
- Women’s shoes
- Skirts
7. Food and Drink
- Desserts
- Special diet
- World cuisine
- Fruit
- Drinks
- Cake
- Dairy
- Vegetables
- Meat
- Healthy recipes
8. Beauty
- Hair
- Hairstyles
- Makeup
- Nails
- Haircut ideas
- Skincare
- Nail art
- Haircare
- Eye makeup
- Hair color
9. Event Planning
- Holiday
- Personal celebration
- Christmas
- Birthday
- Gifts
- Halloween
- School celebration
- Baby shower
- Halloween costume
- Christmas décor
10. Lawn and Garden
- Planting
- Garden design
- Plants
- Garden types
- Landscaping
- Backyard
- Yard
- Flowers
- Planting ideas
- Desert plants
How to Choose the Right Pinterest Categories for Your Business
If your Pinterest content doesn’t seem to naturally fit into any of the popular categories we just covered, we have some tips for you. Run through this list of questions each time you need to categorize a Pin or board on Pinterest.- Who’s your target audience?
- What do they do for a living?
- Why are they on Pinterest?
- Did they search a specific category to find your content?
- What category seems to fit your content best? You may need to look outside the “top 10.”
- Do the Pins inside the most logical category seem to fit your content or complement it?
How to Fully Optimize Your Pinterest Boards for Best Results
A Pinterest board is where you save a collection of Pins. You can categorize your Pins by saving them to specific boards on your profile. Pinterest allows users to save up to 2,000 boards and 200,000 Pins. Your boards can be public or secret (visible only to you—the account owner).Optimizing your boards for search helps users find what they’re looking for fast. When your boards are neat and organized, labeled accurately, and attractive, you’ll get more clicks, views, and conversions.As you add new, optimized Pins to your boards, they can appear in users’ feeds—if you share similar interests or if they’re looking for what you have to offer.Here are some quick tips to help you optimize your Pinterest boards:- Use keyword research to name your boards.
- Optimize your board titles for search.
- Add a relevant cover photo to each board.
- Add accurate, engaging descriptions that contain relevant keywords naturally. Make sure you tell people what your boards are all about!
- Choose the most relevant Pinterest category for each of your boards.
- Organize your boards logically.
- Fill your boards with Pins that have similar content.
- Keep your content fresh by adding new Pins regularly.
- Consider adding subsections to large boards to help users find what they’re looking for faster.
- Try to keep all your boards and content within your niche.
- Keep up with changing trends, seasons, and holidays. Designate separate boards for showcasing seasonal Pins.
Make Your Brand Pinterest-Ready in 5 Days Flat
MeetEdgar is proud to be a Pinterest Marketing Partner. You can now use Edgar for creating, scheduling, and publishing Pins to Pinterest! Our new handy-dandy title means we have the expertise to take your Pinterest marketing to the next level. We’d love to share all our best practices and proven tactics with you so you can grow your business and hit your wildest goals.
If you’re ready to supercharge your Pinterest strategy, you can start by taking our 5-day Perfect Pin Plan. It’s an easy-to-follow email course designed to make your brand Pinterest-ready in five days flat. We’ll help you map out your Pinterest plan from beginning to end with step-by-step instructions and worksheets.
Get Actionable Social Media Advice (And Not Too Much of It!)Get The Dash, your weekly social media to-do list, delivered straight to your inbox.
← Prev: Do Social Media Tools Impact Reach?Next: Why You’re Missing Out If You’re Not Resharing on Social Media →
You May Also Like…
15 Pinterest SEO Tips That Will Drive Quality Traffic to Your Website
Apr 8, 2021Pinterest makes for a powerful marketing tool, and optimizing your Pinterest for SEO will help attract the right audience—visitors ready to buy whatever it is you're selling. What is Pinterest SEO? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Pinterest is all about setting up...
8 Ways to Get More Shopify Sales with Pinterest
Mar 25, 2021What if I told you the perfect marketing channel for your Shopify store isn’t necessarily the one with the largest number of users? After all, marketing is about reaching the right niche audience—those who will actively consume your content, thoughtfully engage your...
How to Get More Pinterest Followers: 22 Strategies That Actually Work in 2021
Mar 12, 20211. Optimize Your Pinterest Profile The first step towards getting followers on Pinterest is profile optimization. You want to attract Pinterest users that will engage with your Pins via clicks, saves, and comments. To ensure that your Pinterest audience will love your...
