Understanding The New Pinterest Algorithm Changes To Grow Your Small Business
Anyone who regularly uses Pinterest to grow their website traffic, will have noticed a few changes recently. From the look and feel of it on your desktop, to the drop in monthly views; Pinterest has been tweaking and updating resulting in many users being confused. This is primarily due to us all now using outdated methods that are now no longer working. We have spent the last few weeks talking to Pinterest, researching through trial and error, chatting in forums and also going along to the Pinterest Creators Festival to understand better what is new and more importantly how we need to adapt our strategy.
We first noticed a change when more accounts seem to be caught up in their new spam filter. It felt like dormant accounts who had not pinned in ages, who were now scheduling 20-30 pins a day using Tailwind were being marked as spam - which kind of makes sense as they had gone from famine to feast in a short space of time. After a few messages to Pinterest, these accounts were marked as all good. Another reason for potentially being caught up in the spam filters was we were using old methods (we didn’t know they were old at this point) of pinning an image to multiple boards. Pinterest have been clear that this method no longer works.
What we have learnt is we all need to work WITH the algorithm not against it. So to help, here are some methods that you should start, stop or continue.
WHAT TO START DOING ON PINTEREST
SEO vs Social?
We have always said that Pinterest is a SEO platform and not a social media platform - and in some ways it still is (phew!). But from listening to Pinterest they clearly want it to be more of a social media platform and for us to focus on getting followers and engaging on other’s content. This is more obvious when you now can see that users are being shown content created by the accounts that they follow first. Of course you can still search for something to find the best solution so you must still consider key words in your descriptions and titles.
They are also VERY focused on us creating Stories (they mentioned this so many times at their festival) as these are engaging and keep people present on the platform. As we cannot create these in the UK yet, this doesn’t affect us right now but it is something to consider going forward.
OUR ADVICE: Continue to focus on your key word strategy but also encourage other audiences i.e. Instagram to follow you on Pinterest. Create really engaging content and utilise the Carousel function to create Stories.
Video Pins
Without a doubt video pins are getting better views that static pins, plus they are sharing them more in searches. However it can be harder to click through from them to your website which of course affect traffic. Ensure you add the URL onto the video pin and use great key words as usual.
OUR ADVICE: Create simple animated video pins in Canva or add stickers, then download as a MP4 and upload via Pinterest.
Fresh Pins vs Re-Pins
This is the biggest change - Pinterest wants fresh pins over re-pins. They have been saying this for a while but no-one really understood what they meant. We now do.
A fresh pin is a pin that you have created and you upload ONCE. The second you re-pin it to other boards it is a re-pin. Other people’s pins are also re-pins.
This is a game changer as we all pinned images over and over again, including other people’s pins. This is what Tailwind was for - smart loops, tribes, being able to pin the same image to multiple boards. This no longer works and will get you marked as spam.
OUR ADVICE - Spend your time creating new pins in Canva, with different images, text, layouts, fonts, and of course animation. Schedule them directly in Pinterest - you may wish to keep Tailwind (we are for now) but we may all decide to give up on this extra payment.
Review your strategy
You have two choices with every algorithm change on any platform - complain and not change what you are doing, or adapt and change your strategy.
Pinterest has been used for years as a driver of traffic to our blog but we are now trialing a few new things. We are setting a new objective for us and each client and focusing on that through fresh pins; for example increasing an email list - creating new landing pages, and pins that link to it then measuring the growth.
OUR ADVICE - Play around with your objectives and try new things. Spend the same amount of time per week on the platform but with a different focus such as less scheduling but more creating.
WHAT NOT TO DO
Focus less on other’s pins
To be honest we have said this for a while! Pinterest has always suggested pinning 80% other’s pins and 20% yours, but this would not drive the traffic we want to our sites.. But with the new changes there is very little benefit in focusing on other’s pins as these are classed as re-pins. We suggest at least a 50/50 split.
OUR ADVICE - Pin others work much less but do not stop altogether. Add others pins to boards for inspiration and to create a brand magazine feel for your customers. We are now pinning about 80% of our pins but loads less.
Don’t re-pin to multiple boards
Don’t worry if you have been doing this before now - you don’t need to delete them. Just stop going forward.
Ditch Smart Loops
If you have Smart Loops set up on Tailwind - go and turn it off….now!
Ignore group boards and Tailwind Tribes
Asking others to share your pins no longer will benefit you so spend your time creating new pins instead!
Don’t pin more than 30 pins a day
Pinterest used to say 50 pins a day was the maximum you should be pinning, but with the new rules we suggest pinning far less. In fact some users have been seeing renewed growth only pinning 5 fresh pins a day. Again this makes us wonder how Tailwind will react to this as many of these ideas that are now invalid are what made Tailwind unique.
WHAT TO CONTINUE DOING
Once you have agreed on your new strategy, be consistent with it,. Remember it can take 6 months of consistent pinning to see a difference.
Trial new ideas then review them using insights. Some users have reported seeing growth in pin views at the 3 weeks point - as this may be the amount it is taking for those pins to be indexed by Pinterest (similar to Google).
Honestly, patience is key here.
We have had clients not affected at all. We have had clients clearly captured in the spam filter to see their traffic dropping to record lows, then once we have added these new ideas, seen growth from less than 500 a month views to 100K within a couple of weeks.
And finally a few other things to add….
On changing the new look and feel they have experienced some glitches. Report using the Help function and be patient. You know that when you change your website there can be some things that go wrong!
Pinterest is pushing adverts - it is a business after all! Try creating some - we have clients who have advertised and while they are getting a lower ROI than Facebook adverts, they are still seeing results.
Let us know how you get on!
TO SUPPORT YOU WITH THIS WE ARE HOSTING A MULTI MEDIA PIN DESIGN CLASS ON NOVEMBER 12TH AT 1PM WHERE YOU WILL ALSO RECEIVE A TEMPLATE PACK FOR YOUR PIN DESIGN - WITH DESIGNS THAT WE KNOW THAT WORK! YOU CAN BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE.
THIS CLASS IS FREE FOR ANYONE WHO HAS PARTICIPATED ON THE INDIE GUIDE TO PINTEREST OR IS IN THE HUB.
