What’s a Pinterest category and why do categories matter? Categories used to be manually applied to Pinterest Boards to provide more context on the content therein, but this option has been removed. So, why do we care about categories? Knowing what’s popular can help you present your content in ways that reaches all new audiences and appears in new searches. Cool, right?
So, which are Pinterest’s most popular categories? Let’s start with a look at all the options.
What Pinterest Categories Are Available?
There are 33 categories to choose from – from Animals and pets to Women’s Fashion and nearly everything in between.
How to Find a List of Pinterest Categories
On mobile, edit a Board and look for “Topics.”
On desktop, click on a Board and hit the edit pencil. Look at the Categories dropdown list.
Check out the list of Pinterest categories and the kinds of content you would find in each one. Might your content fit into more categories than you initially thought?
It may also help you determine whether Pinterest is a natural fit for your business, though there are an awful lot of people finding success from within the “Other” category! Just because your content doesn’t fit neatly into one of the categories doesn’t mean you can’t also generate traffic from Pinterest.
Technically, there’s no true way to see a list of the most popular Pinterest Board categories. BUT, Statista did a study in 2017 which provided some insight; and experience and observation can fill in the rest.
While Statista looked at general categories or topics of interest, we will map our most popular categories to actual Pinterest categories listed above.
Our mostly-unscientific list of the most popular categories on Pinterest, and not necessarily in exact order features:
Food and Drink – Showing up in the #1 and #2 spots in the Statista study (for food, drinks, and hobbies) – there’s no doubt that Pinterest is a go-to resource for all things recipes. In fact, some people report using Pinterest SOLELY for finding recipe ideas!
Home Decor – The first place people go for home interior ideas? PINTEREST!!
Travel – Is there any better way to plan a trip? I think NOT! Group Boards make it easy to collaborate with fellow travelers.
Health and Fitness – Whether we follow through or not, Pinterest is a great place to find workout ideas and health information.
Women’s Fashion – “What to wear to a spring wedding….” There’s no better place for style inspiration!
Hair and Beauty – How many of you have saved Pins to show to your stylist? 🙋♀️
DIY & Crafts – Part of art, art supplies, and hobbies, DIY is HUGE on Pinterest.
Entertainment – Quotes, books, movies, music etc. Inspirational quotes, in particular, are incredibly popular.
Weddings – There’s a reason for the stereotype. There’s nothing you CAN’T find for planning the wedding of your dreams on Pinterest.
Holidays & Events – Pinners are planners and doers. Seasonal content is incredibly popular on Pinterest.
How to Choose Which Pinterest Categories to Target
While we might be inclined to try to wedge our content into Pinterest’s popular categories, the most important factor is going to be where your Pin really belongs. If you have a Pin for your article on “Food Photography,” you could present it in a way that would appeal to people interested in “Food and Drink.” But you wouldn’t try to make it (by changing text on image, title, and description), fit in the “home decor” category just because it’s a popular one!
That same Pin for “Food Photography” could be presented in such a way that it appeals to those interested in the “Design” category by changing the photo you use, the text on image, the title, and description. Remember to always save it to the most relevant Board first (generally you’ll look to the Board name to decide relevancy) and not to save it to more than 10 boards. Quality is more important than quantity when it comes to where you save your Pins. Quickly saving Pins at the best times for engagement and to more than one Board at a sensible intervals is where a Pinterest marketing tool like Tailwind can make you more effective AND efficient.
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Alisa Meredith is Pinterest Product Specialist at Tailwind — — your new Marketing team, helping you create social media designs, schedule posts, and optimize across Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest with one easy-to-use social media management tool. She is a sought-after speaker and teacher on Pinterest and Promoted Pins in particular, having spoken at Social Media Marketing World, Agents of Change and appearing on The Art of Paid Traffic and Social Pros podcasts. Alisa has invested heavily in becoming an expert in her craft - realizing (and loving) the fact that the learning never ends! She lives in coastal North Carolina with her pampered pets Pepe the couch potato Cavapoo, and more cats than she'd like to admit to.
Thanks for this! The problem I have with categories is not that I don't know which category my pins should fit into (I sell dollhouse needlepoint kits, so DIY and Crafts is obviously a good fit), but that I set up my boards to be in the DIY and Crafts category, and the next time I look, Pinterest has undone it, so that it has gone back to having no category set! This has happened several times. If this is so 'flaky', what happens to the ranking of my pins if Pinterest 'thinks' I haven't allocated a category for my boards?
You're welcome. I'm so glad this was helpful. You know, I have seen this myself if I click on the edit Board option from the main Boards page, but if I click in to the Board itself and edit from there, the category IS set. Can you try that and let me know if it's the same for you?
Thank you for sharing this with us Alissa! I appreciate your knowledge and ability to share this with us. I was wondering if you could write a post about organizing your Pinterest boards, what is the right amount of Pinterest boards etc.? I would be very interested in learning more about diving into a category and fully optimize my boards. :-)
You're welcome, Simone! Organizing your Pinterest Boards is probably not something I would spend time on - as people are more likely to find your content via search or the home feed than from browsing your account. The right number of Boards is a pretty individual matter. It depends on the content you create and how many logical ways you can break it out. So, if you write about vegan recipes, you could have a ton of Boards for each kind of vegan recipe (desserts, drinks, easy, for kids, dinner, lunch, snacks, etc.) and your Pins might belong in several. Does that help? Thanks for stopping by! ~ Alisa
Hi
What is the right board for online marketing tips? Best regards Christine
Hi Christine, I usually go with Other - there just isn't a great option!
Dear Alisa,
Thanks for this new blog - very very helpful, like all your previous blogs too!
Warm regards
Annie
You're welcome! I'm glad you found it useful, Anne. ~ Alisa
I have work from home boards, so which category I can choose?
I would go with Other. Business niches don't have very specific options!
Thanks for this, Alisa. I am a travel blogger and I have a board called Food + World Cuisines. These are not recipes but round-ups of the best food in countries around the world. I have the category set to Travel at the moment. But sometimes I pin recipes of dishes from other countries. Now, I am not quite sure if the board belongs to Food or Travel. Could you please clarify? Thanks!
Hi, Soumya! You would set some Boards to travel and some to food! Share the Pins to any relevant Boards. Hope that helps!
Really detailed and helpful post, thanks a lot Meredith. I haveOne quick questions tho, where would you put finance/business/marketing related post? Do you put in the others section? Like it's crazy how Pinterest has yet to make a category for those kind of niches.
Hi, Alisa here. Yeah, it is a little surprising that there are no categories for those common industries! I would go with Other....
Hi Alissa, thank you for sharing this! I keep looking at these categories and was wondering where can I fit my boards which are about mindfulness and meditation? None of the categories seem to be a good fit.
Hi Gabriela! You're welcome. I think I would go with health and fitness! You could try "Other," but I think that seems relevant. ~ Alisa
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Thanks for this! The problem I have with categories is not that I don't know which category my pins should fit into (I sell dollhouse needlepoint kits, so DIY and Crafts is obviously a good fit), but that I set up my boards to be in the DIY and Crafts category, and the next time I look, Pinterest has undone it, so that it has gone back to having no category set! This has happened several times. If this is so 'flaky', what happens to the ranking of my pins if Pinterest 'thinks' I haven't allocated a category for my boards?
You're welcome. I'm so glad this was helpful. You know, I have seen this myself if I click on the edit Board option from the main Boards page, but if I click in to the Board itself and edit from there, the category IS set. Can you try that and let me know if it's the same for you?
Thank you for sharing this with us Alissa! I appreciate your knowledge and ability to share this with us. I was wondering if you could write a post about organizing your Pinterest boards, what is the right amount of Pinterest boards etc.? I would be very interested in learning more about diving into a category and fully optimize my boards. :-)
You're welcome, Simone! Organizing your Pinterest Boards is probably not something I would spend time on - as people are more likely to find your content via search or the home feed than from browsing your account. The right number of Boards is a pretty individual matter. It depends on the content you create and how many logical ways you can break it out. So, if you write about vegan recipes, you could have a ton of Boards for each kind of vegan recipe (desserts, drinks, easy, for kids, dinner, lunch, snacks, etc.) and your Pins might belong in several. Does that help? Thanks for stopping by! ~ Alisa
Hi
What is the right board for online marketing tips? Best regards Christine
Hi Christine, I usually go with Other - there just isn't a great option!
Dear Alisa,
Thanks for this new blog - very very helpful, like all your previous blogs too!
Warm regards
Annie
You're welcome! I'm glad you found it useful, Anne. ~ Alisa
I have work from home boards, so which category I can choose?
I would go with Other. Business niches don't have very specific options!
Thanks for this, Alisa. I am a travel blogger and I have a board called Food + World Cuisines. These are not recipes but round-ups of the best food in countries around the world. I have the category set to Travel at the moment. But sometimes I pin recipes of dishes from other countries. Now, I am not quite sure if the board belongs to Food or Travel. Could you please clarify? Thanks!
Hi, Soumya! You would set some Boards to travel and some to food! Share the Pins to any relevant Boards. Hope that helps!
Really detailed and helpful post, thanks a lot Meredith. I haveOne quick questions tho, where would you put finance/business/marketing related post? Do you put in the others section? Like it's crazy how Pinterest has yet to make a category for those kind of niches.
Hi, Alisa here. Yeah, it is a little surprising that there are no categories for those common industries! I would go with Other....
Hi Alissa, thank you for sharing this! I keep looking at these categories and was wondering where can I fit my boards which are about mindfulness and meditation? None of the categories seem to be a good fit.
Hi Gabriela! You're welcome. I think I would go with health and fitness! You could try "Other," but I think that seems relevant. ~ Alisa