I created my first Pinterest account in the later days of July. To be honest, I didn’t even know pinterest was undergoing any changes. I was just going with the flow and doing what I thought was acceptable. Soon enough, I was having loads of problems, from account suspensions to blockings and low impressions, I knew I had to do more intensive research. Through this research, I came across some really helpful answers which I have compiled into a blog post.
Pinterest has undergone numerous changes throughout the years and it sometimes gets hard to keep up with all the demanding changes! For this reason, I made a simple to read and understand guide on the do’s and don’ts of new pinterest.
Why are your impressions dropping on Pinterest?
Alt-text: how to fix reducing impressions in pinterest
Pinterest impressions are a metric used by Pinterest to calculate how many views your pins are getting. They are also used to determine which groups of people relate to your pins the most and which seasons your pins do well in. Due to recent changes, people are experiencing dropping impressions, so below is the reason for this:
According to an email received from pinterest themselves, the reason most of our impressions are falling is not because we are being penalized! In the letter pinterest suggested that the impressions of pins may differ from time to time depending on the season or importance.
Also read 5 Best Infographics Maker Tools.
Alt-text: email about pinterest reducing impressions
De-indexed Pinterest Accounts:
Other unlikely possibilities may be that your pins have been deindexed! Interesting right? De-indexed pins simply mean that Pinterest has flagged your account as being really spammy and the penalty is more dangerous than it actually seems!
De-indexing behaves as if blocking and suspension had a very subtle pin killing baby! You lose all your impressions very quickly and they remain very low as they are only seen by your followers! If nothing is done quickly, your pins are automatically removed from pinterest!
How to know if you are being de-indexed on Pinterest?
De-indexing, as I said earlier, is very subtle and easy to miss. To find out if you are a victim, intentionally look for your pins in the my pins section in the search bar. Try almost all keywords you have used as well. If you notice any missing pins, contact pinterest and hope they reply!
With the amount of emails they are receiving from frustrated pinners it won’t be surprising if you get a reply next year! Happy Christmas though!!
Pinterest tips to keep your impressions up:
Alt-text: tips to get more traffic on pinterest
One thing I want to tell you about Pinterest is that it has undergone a lot of changes within this year and many people, like me, didn’t get that memo earlier on which has affected us drastically. Luckily, these tips I came across are not too hard to implement. After a lot of reading and watching, here is a more detailed and helpful analysis and overview of the new recommended practices for pinterest success.
1. Think like your readers:
I know the title sounds a bit bland but just read this. With the recent increase in the number of monthly pinterest users and new accounts, pinterest is now shifting their focus on their average pinners who are looking for something to engage with. For bloggers and other content creators who use pinterest as a major source of traffic, the average pinner here is your follower! So the more people (followers) engage with your pin the more your pins get distributed. They want people to be presented with informative, actionable and helpful pins that they actually want to see.
All this is an attempt to increase the average user’s experience and keep them coming back for more. Remember, they have tight competition with other large companies as well (Google, Facebook and YouTube) so if this is what they have to do to earn more and keep users from going to these other sources for what they can also provide, then they will do it. They are not giving much chance to pins that no one actually cares about so don’t waste your time as well.
BEFORE YOU CREATE A POST OR PIN FOR PINTEREST, KINDLY ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS:
~ Who are the readers/customers i am targeting and what do i want to achieve with this pin?
~ Is it attractive, encouraging, informative, actionable or bananas?
~ Will pinterest appreciate this pin? Will my followers and board followers want or need this pin?
If you are able to answer these simply then you are through with the first stage of pinterest pin success.
2. The more relevant it is to your followers the better:
Pinterest came out with some quite disturbing news this year which is really rocking the boats of new and relatively small accounts. This site that used to not place a teaspoon of importance on followers is now placing a full barrel. It was announced that, from whenever they decided, every fresh pin you post would automatically be shown to your followers first. The rate at which your followers engage with that pin would also determine the distribution you can get.
This simply means if your followers don’t like it then they are not going to invest as much impressions into it. This rule is practiced not only by Pinterest. On YouTube for example, the first people that know of the existence of your newly released video are your subscribers and they are used as a pre-test (if that is a word) to see how other people will react to your post.
TO EASILY PUT THIS TIP TO USE, ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS:
~ What has worked for my followers before and what is working now?
~ What are other pinners in my niche doing or trying?
~ How are new pinners in my niche fairing and what can I learn from them?
3. New pinterest is all about new/fresh pins:
Alt-text: fresh pins on Pinterest
Take this into consideration!
As this email emphasizes, pinterest is now placing more importance on what they now call fresh pins! To be honest I was a bit confused at first and really horrified as well. But as I did more research it wasn’t as scary as it seemed any more!
Pinterest is increasingly prioritizing fresh content for distribution as today’s Pinners respond most strongly to fresh content. Pinterest’s algorithm favors content that’s relevant and timely, so creating more fresh Pins means more exposure for you to your followers, in users’ home feeds, and in search results — helping you to maximize your reach and traffic potential on Pinterest.
What are fresh pins in a nutshell?
Fresh pins basically mean a new image or video that leads to a newly published post or url that isn’t already on pinterest. Also, and gratefully, fresh pins can also be new images or videos for old urls that are performing well. New URLs here mean blog posts or products that do not have a pin already linking back to it. Old URLs in this context means blog posts or products that have a pin already linking to it.
YOU MIGHT CONSIDER CREATING FRESH PINS FOR:
~ Old pins that have been performing really well.
~ High quality landing pages and email forms.
How to keep on creating more fresh pins:
Personally, the first thing I do is read through my finished blog post and look for recurring words and sentences. After doing this, I go onto Google and Pinterest and sometimes YouTube and search for those keywords and see what images show up. I look for inspiration from these images and go onto canva.com, my favourite tool, and start my creation process. With every pin, I make sure to elaborate some popular keywords I found in my searches.
Since these pins are being created for pinterest, i make sure and i also recommend that these special keywords are placed in strategic points (middle or upper part of the pin) to ensure that they are viewable by the visual searcher on pinterest. This will ensure that your pins are found in the related section below the pin or visual search results section.
●You can also include quotes, tips or titles from the blog post when creating the pin.
What pinterest considers a fresh pin and what they don’t:
For a pin to be considered as fresh on pinterest, it must check most of these requirements:
1. It must have a good stock image.
2. The templates must be different from other previously published pins leading to that url. You can find easy to customize templates on Canva!
3. Different colour combinations and illustrations that give off a different effect.
4. Different font, text and text positions
Alt-text: 10 things I wish I knew about pinterest earlie
Alt-text: 10 things to know about pinterest before starting
Below are characteristics of so called “fresh pins” that won’t make the cut:
1. Slightly shifting the image to the left or right without any other major changes.
2. Moving texts up, down, left or right and passing it as a new pin.
3. Using the same pin but pinning to a different board with a different title or descriptions.
4. The quality of your pin is much more important than the quantity:
Pinterest has now decided to place more importance on the quality of your pin. What then do they mean by the quality of a pin? This simply means, if you can’t provide pinterest with good and necessarily fresh then don’t pin as much as you used to. It is that simple right. By reducing the number of pins you publish daily to personal, fresh and diverse pins only, you increase the distribution of your pins which leads to more traffic!
For your pins to be considered as quality pins they must be fresh. This however doesn’t mean throw up some horrible mess and call it a pin. This rule also reduces the effectiveness of Duplicate and Stolen Pins.
What are Duplicate and Stolen pins ?
Duplicate pins are pins that have been shared by a pinner to so many boards usually under a very short period of time. Pinterest has been requesting for more fresh pins so if you go around re-pinning the same old pins then you’ll get less distribution.
Stolen pins, however, are pins that are published on pinterest with the same design, lettering, fonts and colour combinations. These pins usually have the text and text layout to be the difference. This mostly results when people purchase or use a template and make no other changes or tweaks to the pin. Similar pins that lead to a similar content on different blogs may also be considered stolen pins. This usually occurs when people download already pinned images and reuse them for their blog posts.
HERE ARE TYPICAL EXAMPLES:
Alt-text: example of a duplicate or stolen pin
Alt-text: example of a duplicate pin on Pinterest
This is real though!!
Pinterest is making more attempts to punish lazy pinterest creators with these new rules and promote more diversity for the average pinner. If you need more help in creating pins in general or on Canva then sign up to my email list.
5. Pinterest favours video pins and story pins:
Pinterest is now investing more in story pins and video pins. Mainly because they are more attractive and fun to watch. You can also see the rise in popularity of tik tok styled videos as a sign that you need to level up.
Tik tok styled videos have been popularised and i believe that soon enough Pinterest is going to release features similar to that just like Instagram has done with the reels. With this in mind, adding video pins to your pinterest strategy is the best move to make. I easily create video pins like the one below by using Canva.
Still struggling with creating attractive and interesting video pins for pinterest? Simply join my Make Canva Easy Email list to get the inside scoop on how to create click-worthy designs that drive traffic. You’ll also be treated to some tips and tricks used by some of the best bloggers around.
What are story pins?
Pinterest Story pins are ways through which pinterest users can share their ideas and pins simply. Although it has different characteristics, story pins can be described as the pinterest versions of status (WhatsApp) and stories or highlights (Instagram). Your pinterest story is whatever you want it to be. Be it book lists, ingredients, supplies or product lists. With a Pinterest Business account, you can use story pins to record videos, create lists, add images and most importantly grow your followers!
To get access to story pins, you must request for early access from pinterest.
Pinterest allows a maximum of 20 pages and a minimum of 2 pages for every story you create and it is advisable to make stories at least 5-8 pages long. This ensures that your story is long enough to convey your message yet short enough to keep people intrigued.
6. Pin and Repin the right way:
Alt-text: right way to pin on Pinterest
PIN ME!!
I have gone on and on about fresh pins in the posts above but to be honest, none of it would matter if you are not pinning the right way! My pinterest journey has been rough since the very beginning, in order to cope and get ahead I had to avoid some tips and remind myself of so many facts.
Below are the best and most recommended practices for pinners you should definitely try from now onwards:
Best pinning practices for a new url:
1. Create at least 3-6 new/fresh pins for a new url you are publishing on pinterest.
2. Do your seo research and select at least one keyword you want each different pin to rank for. Allowing each pin to rank for a different search result will increase your chances of getting more traffic and site visitors.
*I will recommend pinning every pin with a new title and pin descriptions to help it rank for different keywords.
3. Ensure that every pin is different from your other pins to create a more interesting and diverse account.
Best pinning practices for old urls:
1. Do not pin old images with a different title or pin descriptions (that is still not a fresh pin, it is a duplicate.)
2. Create at least 2 fresh pins each month for pins that perform really well.
3. Do not attempt to create a redirect to old posts in the name of making fresh pins as it is considered spammy and your pin will lose impressions.
Right pinning practices concerning boards:
1. Pin each pin to at least 8 – 10 of your most relevant boards first. Pin to the boards with the closest connection to the keyword you want to rank for.
2. When pinning manually, do not pin from one board to another directly on pinterest, you need to re-upload the pin in order to pin to different boards. To simplify this simply, I recommend using an automaton like Tailwind or Ninja Pinner.
3. Do not schedule to re-pin a duplicate pin to a different board on the same day. The recommended space to be given while pinning a duplicate pin is 24 – 48 hours.
4. Pin at least one fresh pin to one board each day.
5. The recommended amount of pins to post each day is 50 pins and the majority of those pins should be from your personal blog or your own content.
6. Always pin to personal boards first before pinning to other relevant group boards.
Using automatons to get the best out of pinterest:
If you have been on pinterest for a while then you have probably heard of automatons like Tailwind, Ninja pinner, Viralwoot, sprout social and hootsuite. What these technological helpers do is to help pinners keep up with their pinning schedule without any struggles. You can use these tools if you have a busy schedule or you just feel really lazy. I use tailwind to stay up to date with my pinterest strategy and it has helped a lot over these few months. It has tons of tools I adore like the smart guide, tailwind tribes and the analytics.
How I use tailwind smart guide to assist me while pinning:
Tailwind SmartGuide is a set of rules that helps tailwind users make the right pinning choices and decisions to gain maximum benefits while on pinterest.
Alt-text: Tailwind SmartGuide about Pinterest
This super tool aids in reminding you to create fresh content, helps you avoid spammy practices and flagging you when you are making risky account decisions. The Tailwind SmartGuide is in response to Pinterest’s new best practices for users. The tailwind SmartGuide will also suggest easy fixes to help you maintain a healthy queue of scheduled Pins. If you’re scheduling a healthy volume of pins and sticking to the latest Pinterest guidelines then you will see the All Clear SmartGuide badge.
Common pinterest questions many people have:
Alt-text: common questions about Pinterest with their answers
PIN ME!!
Below are answers to the most common questions that are being asked by pinners. Hopefully my answer will help out a lot of pinners who are not sure what to do with pinterest anymore.
Q: What is happening with pinterest and will pinterest still be helpful to bloggers and sellers? Should we be worried?
I dare say pinterest will continue to work the same for a long time with or without constant algorithm change. Mostly, I tend to think of all of this as a way through which Pinterest discovers itself and it’s potential for both the users and its owners. What most bloggers and sellers fear the most is that they may not have the capacity to create new blog posts, products or ideas through which they can market their work. Pinterest, like any other, is run like a business. And like a business their main goal is to serve and earn as well, and these two go hand in hand.
What is presently happening is like a test to see how people will react to their changes. If the response is positive then it will remain but if negative then there will be a switch up. There have been many examples of these on pinterest, Like the hashtags.
If the response of the majority is good then you’ll have to do the switch up and do your research or else pinterest won’t work for your blog or your product like you want it to. I believe no matter the circumstances there should be no need to worry at all.
Q: What happens when you are trying to change the content to write about?
With the recent change in emphasis of a person’s following, people trying to change or branch into other niches (like myself) may not appreciate it at all. But just like with every situation there is always light at the end of the, seemingly long, tunnel. With the majority of my followers interested in book reviews and book lists and all my boards focusing on books, it was a bit tricky so I found a new way.
With every new, I made it a point to make it related to my followers and group boards followers. For example, I made a post on Ten things I wish everyone knew about pinterest and in order to attract my followers and have my pin accepted to the group board, i created a pin with the title, Ten things i wish book bloggers knew about pinterest. By finding a link between my new content and my followers I killed three birds with only one stone!
Q: Do group boards and tailwind tribes still matter?
Group boards have played a crucial role in the success of my pins today. It has helped me make friends on pinterest who share and support my work while helping me get my content to a wider audience. Although group boards are sometimes misused, I still believe it should be included in your pinterest strategy. If you follow my rules on pinning to boards, you can make the best out of your group board.
Tailwind tribes on the other hand somehow act like Pinterest group boards. If the person re-pinning your pin follows the correct pinning practices then you both get to benefit from tailwind! Tailwind tribes also help to drive traffic to content even without getting re-shares. This is because tailwind members can visit your content directly from the site!
Q: What happens if you have no or little followers? How do I build my followers quickly?
Pinterest success is generally slow but luckily, followers are not used to measure the success of a user. To simply get followers you can use Media Mister but I recommend using the old methods, that is, pinning, joining group boards and following people you love.
Q: Pinterest wants story pins but what happens if it isn’t available in your country?
Story pins are a work in progress and Pinterest wants to ensure that it can provide maximum benefits to its users before they make it available to everyone. It really doesn’t impact you negatively if you don’t have them but while waiting for pinterest to make it available to everyone, i suggest creating more posts and pins and improving your pinterest marketing strategy.
Q: How should I brand my pins if all of them have to be different?
Remember, branding doesn’t necessarily mean publishing the same pins over and over again with different texts. Just because other bigger sites do this doesn’t make it right. Pinterest is changing fast and in order to stay ahead, it’s better to take their directives. In order to still brand your pins on pinterest, you can include your logo at the top, middle or bottom centre of your pin where the visual search can find it. In this way, other pins with your logo will appear!
You can simply upload your logo and add them to every pin you create using canva! Try out Canva Pro Today!!
Q: How many pins should I create and how many boards should I pin each to and at what intervals?
For every post or content, I recommend creating a maximum of seven pins with different keywords. Pin to your personal board first and make sure the keyword is related to that board and pin each pin to a maximum of ten boards. For every particular pin, a twenty four hour interval should be observed before pinning that same pin to a different board.
Q: Do I have to pin at specific times?
No, you don’t. This advice is very shallow and really not helpful at all. You can pin at any time you want as long as you observe the right pinning practices.
Q: Should I delete under performing pins to increase my monthly viewers?
I don’t think that would be necessary. Some pins take a maximum of a year to obtain its maximum views and deleting them will make it impossible. Instead of deleting such pins, I will advise you to create more visually appealing pins to balance it out. In doing so, you make Pinterest happy!
Q: How do I get my content across to people who don’t follow me?
Tailwind Tribes can help you get your content out to different people who don’t follow you, that is, if your pin is re-shared. Group boards are also great for reaching new audiences.
Q: Why are my old pins performing better than my new ones?
Your old pins are probably performing way better because you followed the right pinning practices during the time it was published and so Pinterest is rewarding you for that. Your new pins are doing much worse because you are still following the old pinning practices you used and that is not going to end well for you.
Another reason may be because your old pin is more informative or beneficial to users and your new ones are not. Or your pins are not as attractive as your old pins and for that reason there are low engagements.
Q: Does pinterest hate me and my content?
Most probably not. They just reward people who follow their rules so you should probably do that.
Q: Why do my pins have 1000 impressions one day and 0 the next day?
Pinterest impressions are constantly refreshed so your pin may have 2000 impressions on some days and the next time you check it is at 0.
Q: I just started blogging and I already feel like giving up because my main source of traffic is tanking. What should I do?
Most new bloggers make the mistake of placing all their eggs in only one basket so when they all get broken, they start to lose hope. There are tons of other apps or networks you can use to promote your content so don’t stick with only one! Sign Up to my newsletter to find out the best sites to promote your work!
Q: I create fresh pins (new url+ new images) . I even rank well in the searches but my impressions are still low. Any reasons why?
You may rank for something but if it isn’t being searched for then you won’t get any traffic. As i said earlier, Fresh pins don’t necessarily mean throwing together a bunch of ugly images and text, pinterest won’t reward you for that. So you may create fresh pins but if it isn’t beautiful and of great quality you still get no points.
Also, if you create tons of fresh pins but don’t pin them correctly, it negatively affects those pins.
Q: I sell products through pinterest so how can i keep my pins fresh without creating new urls or blog posts?
Fresh pins doesn’t necessarily mean a new url. You can create multiple beautiful pins for the same url to keep it fresh.
