Is Pinterest a Social Media Platform or a Search Engine?

Pinterest is the world’s 14th-largest social network that fosters over 5 billion searches every month. So which one is it, a social network or a search engine? Let’s discuss.
The main reason we go on Pinterest is to discover ideas through visual content and share that content with others. Considering this rare combination of social and search features, Pinterest is perhaps best defined as a social engine or search engine with social aspects.
What are social media platforms?
Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have two things in common. One, they facilitate the creation and exchange of content. And two, social networks allow people to interact with each other with likes, comments, direct messages, and other similar features.
Main features of Pinterest
With around 482 million active monthly users, Pinterest is an “image sharing and social media service” like no other. Essentially, it’s an endless board of visuals with a search bar that lets you explore ideas (by typing in a keyword) and create your own private and public boards.
Save for captions, all content on Pinterest is visual. You can pin, share, or download Pinterest content and let the images take you off-site, which is fantastic news for marketers. The encouragement of off-site traffic is one of the more unique features about Pinterest which inches it more toward the search engine functionality.
True social media platforms want to keep you on their platform and use their algorithms to discourage link sharing. Pinterest is built around sharing visuals and linking out to other websites. This makes it perfect for generating traffic to your blog, e-commerce store, website, or even directly to affiliate links.
You can follow other people and their boards on Pinterest and chat with them in Messages. Your followers can see all your public posts, and you can also invite individual followers to join your private boards. You can always comment on, like, and repost other users’ posts.
Looking to use Pinterest with your website or blog? Check out our Pinterest Guide.
Search engine aspects of Pinterest
One of the main features of Pinterest is the search bar with guided and advanced search options. You can explore ideas on Pinterest by typing in a keyword, like in Google or Bing. You can also access recent searches and search keywords by recommended and popular categories.
There are other ways to filter your search results, too. You can fine-tune your search by accounts and boards, as well as browse your own pins. Pinterest has an excellent visual search tool that allows you to discover images with the same or similar visual content and aesthetic.

How is Pinterest different from social media?
Obviously, Pinterest is a lot like your typical social network, but with one key difference – it is entirely driven by visuals. But what about Instagram, you might wonder. Unlike Instagram, which is about sharing pics and videos, Pinterest’s primary purpose is to help you discover content.
As we mentioned, Pinterest is built around saving, or pinning, your or other’s content from around the web. In practice, Pinterest lets you build a collection of visual bookmarks that you want to revisit later. There is no content that is housed only on Pinterest, unlike other social media platforms, all Pinterest content is linked out to another web address.
Why is Pinterest better than Google?
Being so heavily focused on visual ideas, Pinterest is better than Google for feeding your creative (and shopping) impulses. Over 80% of “pinners” report using Pinterest to discover a new brand or start a new project, such as home DIYs, weddings, or vacations.
With the ever-changing Google algorithm updates, and the heavy damage done to small niche publishing sites and blogs over recent months, Pinterest offers a great opportunity for bloggers to put their SEO knowledge and skillset to use on another platform that can become a main traffic driver for their websites.
Typically with Pinterest, you can start seeing more traffic to your site more quickly that using just good SEO practices alone and relying on organic search engine traffic. This is especially true for new website or blogs.

How blogs/websites can utilize Pinterest
Although 97% of its top searches are unbranded, Pinterest still drives 10x higher off-site brand searches than other platforms! Discovery and visualization help people figure out what they want, solve a creative dilemma, or shape an idea they already have. The next stop is shopping.
It’s a potential goldmine for brands looking for more traffic. As a search engine, Pinterest allows you to leverage keywords and traditional SEO in combination with engaging visuals. Plus, like a blog, it favors evergreen content: pin something good, and it will keep you relevant for a long time.
Conclusion
Pinterest was designed for discovery and inspiration, so the platform makes it easy for users to find what they need or want – even when we don’t know precisely what that is. That makes it not only a search engine but a unique one at that, too – one with endless marketing potential.