Penguin.
Penguin.
Now that I’ve got your attention, I want to make note that Google’s not the only company currently in the battle against spam. Ever since the launch of Pinterest, they’ve had a problem with spammers taking advantage of the site for monetary gain. While this happens in every social network, it seems that Pinterest has taken it upon themselves to combat the spammers in a rather secretive way. Since my last post in March, I have counted nearly six updates to the popularity algorithm in efforts to curb spammers and promote the good content.
There’s only one problem: they’re actually deterring the ability for new content to be seen.
Here are a few examples of how Pinterest has changed in the past few weeks and the problems that it brings:
Repins Now Showing on the Category Pages
In the beginning the only content that showed on the category pages was originally pinned content. This kept new content at the top of the category pages for 1-2 minutes before it dropped below the fold. This was great because it allowed new content to be seen, shared, and repinned in a very systematic and fair fashion. However, within the past week they have updated the category boards to show repins as well. In a site with millions of users this becomes VERY problematic because your content only remains at the top of the boards for 3-4 seconds at a time.
Why are these category boards important? Because it is the only way for new content to be seen by the entire community. So unless you have 1.2 million followers, listen up.
Back in March I suggested posting to only the most trafficked Pinterest categories. The DIY, Food, Fashion, and Home categories were the king of the traffic. However now that these updates have been implemented you will need to take several new steps to ensure that your content is seen because the categories have now become flooded with content. So what are some solutions?
Seed the Pins on the Less Popular Boards
While going after the main boards on Pinterest may seem like the sensible thing to do, I’ve developed a new method that I like to call “Pinterest Seeding”. Just like you plant a seed to watch it grow, the same thing can be done with your content on Pinterest. In this case I like to originally pin content on less popular board such as Education, Kids, Outdoors, and Arts. With these categories the rate of content being pinned is significantly less and in return your content is seen by more users. If they like it they will repin it to the larger boards and your content will see a huge influx in visibility and sharing, similar to how it was in the golden days of Pinterest (also known as Feb-March 2012). After this has been completed, I will usually take the time to go into www.pinterest.com/source/YOUR URL to Repin the content once or twice onto the larger boards. Since it’s showing up, why not!
The screen shot taken below shows the current makeup of the category boards. As you can see by the word “VIA” that the majority of pins showing up are indeed, repins.
Grab the Attention, Own the Boards
As with my last Moz post, I’ve always insisted that size does matter when posting on Pinterest. While that still stays true, now more than ever DESIGN matters. The accelerated velocity of content taking over the Pinterest boards now means that your content has to stand out above all others. If it’s on a popular board you only have 3-4 seconds to grab the user’s attention before it is pushed into oblivion. To grab the attention of the users it’s important that you use BRIGHT colors, creative design, and a large and catchy title. Personally I will design all headers of the image to be around 500×400 pixels, ensuring that it’s both visible and stands out. As demonstrated below, what catches the eye when it’s on the boards:
A good header for the image will be clean, simple, to the point, and stand out above all other pins.
Use Third Party Sites
If you’re looking for a way to gain several hundred repins, look to third party sites that are likely to have a large readership connected to Pinterest. From craft to fashion blogs, reaching out to the site owners is a great way to get your content started on Pinterest. Some telling signs that their readership is heavy on Pinterest is to look on their site for a “Pin It” button, review their Pinterest account for followers and activity, and to use Pinreach to measure their overall reach. Sites such as Craftgawker work especially well for this, however, it is a tedious and time-consuming process so be warned. Just make a simple 300×300 pixel badge for the upload that’s very appealing and to the point:
Don’t Edit ANY Pins or URLS
It seems that one of the ways to deter spammers by Pinterest has been to drop any Pin that has been edited off the category page. Once you pin any content, always check the category page to see if it has made it to the top. In the past if I didn’t like a description or wanted to edit it then I could have done so freely. However, now if the Pin is in any way edited it will be removed from the category page itself. Just don’t do it.
Always plan out your pins, the URLs, and the descriptions beforehand to determine what will work best. If you need to test then do it during nonpeak hours to ensure the best results.
Finally, here’s one update that really changes the game:
The “Popular Board” of Pinterest
Popular is in quotations because honestly, all the content on there is far from being popular. Unlike other social networks such as Reddit, if a piece of content goes absolutely WILD on Pinterest it will take hours, days, even weeks for it to hit the popular page. This update was implemented about a month ago and has changed the nature of traffic since.
Inform Your Clients
Whereas in March when I could easily pull in 30,000 visitors in 48 hours, the new updates have drastically changed that aspect. You must make sure to inform your clients that the traffic coming from Pinterest will now be spread out over a course of two weeks as opposed to two days. My favorite analogy is “would you rather have 30,000 visitors in one day, or 1,000 visitors a day for 30 days”. Most prefer the later as it keeps their brand and content relevant for a longer period of time. Below is a little snippet of how Pinterest now drives traffic:
As you see the first 2-3 days of the content will see huge traffic. Every day after that will see moderate traffic of 2-3K daily if the content is good. Just don’t give out unrealistic expectations. This content was pushed heavily the first two days, however, has been allowed to “coast” ever since. The traffic is great and it will remain very active on Pinterest for at least the next 30 days. While the old content on the Pinterest boards is quite bothersome, if it’s YOUR old content, you won’t complain.
Don’t Give Up on Your Content
The content submitted above was actually submitted to Pinterest on Feb. 27th and did absolutely nothing. I was broken, mad, and didn’t understand why it didn’t go viral. I thought it was a homerun, however, Pinterest thought otherwise. It wasn’t until I was repinning old content a few weeks ago did I realize that it had potential. If the content doesn’t work out the first time make a note of it and come back to it a few months later. In this case it worked out like a charm.
In conclusion, Pinterest is changing and so should your strategies. While their fight with spammers might be killing some good content, I hope these steps will help get it the credit that it deserves. As always, content is king.
