The 10 Most Popular Pinterest Categories

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.
You can also see a list of the categories on this page on Pinterest.

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.

Animals and pets – cute critter photos and memes
Architecture – Some attainable inspirations and some total eye candy
Art – Wall art, drawings, how tos
Cars and motorcycles – Hotrods, antiques, and car shows
Celebrities – Mainly shots from movies and tabloids
DIY and crafts – Painting, sewing, crafts of all kinds!
Design – Home style ideas, drawings, design inspiration, graphics
Education – Resources and ideas for kids, parents, and teachers
Entertainment – Party planning, movies, books, tv
Food and drink – Recipes, recipes, and more recipes!
Gardening – How to grow anything
Geek – A place to share all those things that are so uncool they’re cool – superheroes, nerd humor, etc. 🙂
Hair and beauty – Hair and makeup
Health and fitness – Exercise and weight loss
History – Funny, artistic, and curious photos of old landmarks and cultural history
Holidays and events – Holidays, decorations, celebrations
Home decor – DIY Home decor, home decor inspiration
Humor – From clever to cheesy and a little PG-13, gifs and memes aplenty
Illustrations and posters – Paintings, posters, designs, drawings – total eye candy
Kids and parenting – Projects, learning tools, activities, crafts, parenting tips
Men’s fashion – Tips and products for the well-dressed man. Learn to tie a tie, match your socks, roll up your sleeves 🙂
Outdoors – Outdoor design, landscaping, and gardenscapes
Photography – Amateur and artistic photos plus helpful how tos
Products – Mainly product photos
Quotes – Inspirational quotes and poetry
Science and nature – Science experiments, learning resources, and astounding (and sometimes odd) nature photography
Sports – Sports memes and workouts
Tattoos – Inspiration for your next tattoo – in the form of tattoos, designs, and photos
Technology – Privacy protection, shortcuts and productivity hacks, coding tips, and cool products
Travel – Travel tips, destinations, and gorgeous photography
Weddings – Wedding dresses, etiquette, planning tips, invitations, jewelry
Women’s Fashion – Current trends, fashion to buy, how-tos
Other/Everything – Quotes, recipes, crafts, humor – EVERYTHING

The 10 Most Popular Categories on 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