Pinterest Algorithm Changes 2016– The Ultimate Guide on How they are Adversely Affecting your Blog Traffic & Sales; PLUS Solutions!
So maybe I wasn’t working smart enough…
Were we posting BORING stuff and thus our new pins aren’t appearing on the Pinterest Smart Feed anymore? Early February, Pinterest had an algorithm change, and our Pinterest traffic literally tanked overnight! I thought either we missed some Pinterest algorithm changes, Smart Feed updates or I was doing something wrong. I don’t like to jump on bandwagons of posting something before I test it out and see whats what. So I have been investigating and checking my Pinterest feed & analytics for just over 45 days.
I initially checked with the gods at Pinterest and didn’t get far apart from; some changes have been put in place you shouldn’t worry about it. Now for me that’s a red flag…I definitely started to dig a lil deeper and inquire from other Pinterest lovers and influencers whether these so called Pinterest algorithm changes were affecting them too?
So in this post I am sharing with you my findings on how the February 2016 Pinterest smartfeed changes are affecting your Pins and ultimately your blog traffic and conversion rates.
If you are on Pinterest for business, the only way to track your success is by opening or changing your existing account into a business account you can learn how to do that here!
By The way Follow Us on Pinterest Below:
[bctt tweet=”10 Pinterest Algorithm Changes Affecting your Blog Traffic #Socialmediahacks”]
10 Pinterest Algorithm Changes Affecting your Blog Traffic:
- Hand on my heart I have been advocating for Group Boards and pinning with influencers. This strategy has helped grow our Blog traffic via Pinterest, followers and most of all, my hunger to learn more about Pinterest. Well today I am sorry to say this strategy is on ICE at the moment. Group boards seem to have been hit the most with the early February Pinterest algorithm changes. We have been heavy group board pinners at the cost of our own boards…In fact you will find most of our boards have less than 500 pins. WHY? Because we were targeting our Pins to where the masses are; Group Boards!
This worked for us until Jan/Feb this year. I was checking our Analytics and noticed a drop in traffic, by loads. I had in fact increased our pinning via an Auto scheduler. So I was surprised by the drop in stats. Like I said I got curious, thus my investigations and I can tell you that I also noted that our new pins on large group boards are completely not picking up any traction, WHY I wondered! Well….
- Chinese whispers were onto Pinterest changing re-pin counts to an aggregate of the re-pins across the board, instead of a count on each individual pin…What? In fact it was happening already, for some beta testers. My question then was; how does one track the success of a particular pin or lack of it? This to me smelt of the Twitter API change that saw people lose their tweets and re-tweet counts overnight! By the way you can re-activate your Twitter counts. We found a tool so use it while it’s still free here!
Watch The Video below for More Details on Effects of The February Pinterest Algorithm Changes to your Blog Traffic!
Grab our Complimentary Pinterest For Business Hacks for Zero cost Here While its Still Available!
So now you know a wee more on what’s going on, below is more:
- Pinterest revealed that timing of pins esp. pinning large numbers at once doesn’t matter? Although it’s agreed by most Pinterest experts that scheduled pins don’t count as re-pins. So hang on to your auto-scheduler account for now, while keeping your ear to the ground!
- As you heard on the video above, your new pins are not pushed to the top of the newsfeed anymore, its taking a lot longer for them to appear if ever. So my advice is try and pin your seasonal content way in advance like you should have pinned your Easter giveaways, offers etc. by now, probably 3-4 weeks ago.
- Pinterest is retiring place boards to focus on putting lots of useful information about places right on the Pins. Before this, every place Pin had a little map on it. This is specific to travel related boards, and since I am a travel lover, I noticed the lil maps had disappeared from my place boards…What, I liked those to be honest!
- I thought something had gone wrong with our account…When I checked our boards and most had no descriptions. Like the Facebook Ghost that deleted groups Info! Like what the heck..! Spoke with another Pinner and she advised that it’s another of the Pinterest algorithm changes…Aaarrg. Many Pinterest boards’ descriptions spaces were empty…Still you can go back in and add a description, we did. Chances are Pinterest may remove them again time will tell…Its happening for some and not others so I don’t have a clue how they are picking whose description goes and whose stays! Watch that space.
[bctt tweet=”Good News from this Pinterest Smart Feed Update? #pinteresttips”]
Any Good News from this Pinterest Algorithm Update?
1- Of course there is. For mobiles you now got a new “Likes” board automatically added to your boards. A collection of your most current likes in one place, how cool is that! If you have never noticed, Login to your account via the Pinterest mobile app and you will notice it. Not yet activated for desktops, but I guess it’s only a matter of time.
2- In fact for mobile users, if they check your pin out, they get a popup asking them to follow you…Cool beans. Lots of people use their cellphones for Pinterest, and so I noticed an increase in new followers.
3- While usually any change gets ragged and is resisted, its human nature, in my view any change that will improve user experience and encourage quality content in my newsfeed is good. Granted at the moment we’re predominantly seeing our own stuff in Picked for you pins. I bet Pinterest is polishing this up…Curated feeds are nothing new to any Social Media business user. Quality content is king, means we gotta focus on delivering value content via the right size, HD images with text overlay & well optimised. Not just memes and cute kitties (we love em 🙂 ). So again connect with your target audience, follow your niche influencers, pin and engage with other people’s content in fact use the 60/40 rule. 60% your pins 40% other people’s pins. watch your following grow. Be part of a Pinterest Community we have a Pinterest Link Party every weekend at The Bloggers Pit Stop.
4- This could be debatable but one of the Pinterest algorithm changes is an addition of “picked for you pins” to your home feed, different and separate from those you follow! The thing is for most people, us inclusive it is showing our own stuff from our personal boards. Stuff we already pinned. It could be a message to re-pin these as they are popular maybe! I noticed that it’s mostly topics we follow. So maybe coz we optimized our boards. Note that Pinterest is now bending towards “Topics” so pick your topics wisely. Go back to your Pinterest account update by choosing the Topics you like and know your target audience likes too!
[bctt tweet=”How to keep on top of the Pinterest Algorithm Changes”]
How to keep on top of the Pinterest Algorithm Changes and Keep getting traffic:
These Pinterest smart feed and Algorithm changes affected lots of people so much so Jill Levenhagen a Pinterest Strategist wrote an Open Letter to Pinterest on behalf of bloggers. And we agree with her indeed as affected small business owners and bloggers. In addition to that we are giving you some housekeeping to ensure your account, blog and business/brand stays on top of things and grows to boot. So…
- Make sure your Pinterest account is optimized for Search Engines by maximizing the 160 letter space. Include your Keywords and Vision its doable!
- Make sure your board titles and descriptions are Search Engine Optimized too. That way your content can still be found on search engines despite the Pinterest algorithm changes. Re-vamp your descriptions to include keywords related to the board topic.
Super tip: Add a Call to Action (CTA) to each board directing your audience to visit your blog include the URL of course on each and every one of your branded boards, see one of our boards description below.
- Get your boards in the order you want them to appear to your target audience, with your brand specific boards at the top. Or place your seasonal related boards at top and the Group boards at the bottom. I would go so far as to advise that you reduce your boards to those that are most visited. Any boards with less content or are older and you don’t pin on them often, turn them from public to secret until you build them up. No need to delete the pins.
[bctt tweet=”Get your boards in the order you want them to appear to your target audience”]
- CANT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH the importance of Your Board Titles. Its how you are found frankly and some people will follow your board but not you! So ensure ten words dont overlap or go beyond the visible title area. Make em Short, Meaning full, and Precise for ease of search! If I want to see Gourmet Recipes, and you have a board with awesome recipes but you names it “Kimere” or “My private eats” or something weird like that who is gonna find that board? It wont appear on the search and you will hardly get followers, if it cannot be found its lost in translation simple!
- Pin your older, most re-pinned pins across YOUR other boards. Pins with lots of engagement are the ones showing up more in the new Pinterest feed. Keep circulating those pins to get blog traffic & leads. Also don’t just Pin from your popular site pages/posts, 40% + of the time find other people’s pins that have a large number of repins and pin them to your personal boards. Be a giving entrepinner.
- Super Tip: Bump up your pins in your own boards. Go to a specific pin, edit then move it to another of your boards. Then immediately move it back to the board it was on. Your pin gets bumped up hopefully. Do this with pins that have high re-pin counts. It also could help to boost the board and pin. DON’T DO THIS on someone else’s collaborative group board. Only boards you own BUT the pins can be anything you pinned, not just from your blog. My rule of thumb is I pin no more than 5-10 pins of one type to a board in one session. DO some other stuff and come back and pin to same board again later. This is for direct pinning though. If you are pinning the content to a secret board, it doesn’t matter, binge pin away.
- For now we’re focusing on our 5-10 blog posts attracting the most Pinterest traffic. Find these under your Pinterest analytics (See images below) only available on Business accounts. What are those posts topics? Optimize them by going to your Google Keyword planner update with long tailed keywords we showed you how to do this in our Email Marketing A/B Testing post read it now. Pin from those Boards and Posts more as they’re attracting for you blog traffic already.
- To rise above the pinterest algorithm changes, keep creating great value content impacting people’s needs and pains. Encourage your audience to share and ENGAGE, yes Ask a Question, Start a conversation…! Pinterest like Google (Remember it’s a Visual Search Engine) is favouring engagement and value content. Ask people to re-pin, like and comment on your pins. Respond to their comments and be sure to use keywords in your replies. Do unto others, so comment on other people’s pins, especially those with lots of engagement. Get people to tag others in your pins…
[bctt tweet=”don’t put much into pinning on large group boards with multitudes of collaborators”]
- Never try to keep on top of the Pinterest algorithm changes by buying followers. Neither are Follow for follow type followers any value. Both are non-engaged, non-interested followers and for the former they are usually fake. Bought followers are useless numbers. They are used as social proof by many bloggers. But, they just make it look like you have a lot of followers. Listen to this Podcast on why you shouldn’t participate in such events and why we wont ever again. It really wont help your brand long term. There are lots of bloggers out there who pay for followers. They think they are doing themselves a favor to get ahead, when all they are doing is setting themselves up for a huge fall in the long term.
- For now, don’t put much into pinning on large group boards with multitudes of collaborators, these are the most affected by the Feb Pinterest algorithm changes. Instead Pin your content on your own boards, then re-pin said pin on several others of your boards, thus showing that its valued content and of course get others to re-pin for you. You can Still pin on to smaller group boards with high engaged active users. And be a giving entre-pinner!
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Mentioned resources in this post:
- For more Blog Traffic, Lead generation and Sales tips, Check our YouTube Channel
- For Weekly Pinterest and other Tips our Facebook Page Like our Facebook Page here and never miss our Monday Off the Grid Pinterest for
- If you are serious about Upping your Blog SEO game check out The Web Design Solutions.
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Want to know a secret? I plan to add more to this util the Pinterest Algorithm Changes settle in. So do bookmark, Pin it and check back for more Tips to be added!
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Thanks for the tips and updates. I am having the worst time keeping up with all of these algorithm changes!
Hi Doran,
Here is my advice for what its worth. Pick 2 specific Social Media Platforms and focus your learning and marketing energies on those. Master tem and learn best practices…one thing doesnt change on all these platforms. Engagement and value content is always appreciated and promoted. do that and you wont worry about changes. The other thing is to get your blog SEOd by a professional. So you are not so dependent on social media traffic.
J&PK~
Julie this post was among the TOP FOUR most clicked on the Blogger’s Pit Stop. Look for a feature on Friday.
Woot. This post was among the TOP FOUR most clicked on the Blogger’s Pit Stop. Look for a feature on Friday
Woot woot, what a pleasure. Thanks for letting us know and hosting that awesome event every week Kathleen.
Cant wait 🙂
J&PK~
social media is always changing and we just hav eto change with it. def keeps us on our toes, just not always fun.
Hi Katrina,
I always purpose to find the fun side and get with the program, that way I receive more form the experience than having negative energy about the changes. Indeed we have to change with things. Change is good 🙂
Julie Syl~
This is such a valuable hub of information. I have been meaning to join pinterest for a long long time and you have gotten me inspired to jump right into it!
Glad to be inspirational and get you starting a whole new journey. Le us know if you need help Shiv. Its better to learn from others than trial and error 🙂
Julie Syl~
Thank you for letting me know! I’m so glad to hear that. Glad you shared this.
My absolute pleasure Nicole 🙂
Julie syl~
This post is a reminder for me to get active on Pinterest.Watching bloggers drive so much traffic to their websites through this platform, I hav to start soon! Thanks for this post!
Hi Shiv,
Glad you got value, You are gonna have to have a much more streamlined strategy for your Pinterest due to the algorithm changes and I am happy to help if you would like to connect and have a chat on Facebook!
Julie Syl~
Thanks for entering the pin to this informative post to the Pinterest Game. All the best.
It is always our pleasure to collaborate and share whats working for us Kathleen and thanks for hosting the Game. 🙂
Julie Syl~
This is amazing, never thought this before. So glad you shared it. Bookmarked!
Hi Nicole,
Glad you got value feel free to share and thanx for your time 🙂
Julie Syl~
so much really interesting info here – I love all the helpful, useful tips. I’m going to have to put a bit more thought into my pinning. thanks #Pit Stop
Hi Leanne
I am glad you got value and loving it. Thanx for dropping in from the Pit stop. Super fun 🙂
Julie syl~
I don’t even know how much traffic I drive to/from Pinterest. I really should look into it.
Hi Rosey,
Do yo use a Pinterest Business account? Simply go into your analytics by clicking the gear cog under your profile name and scroll to analytics and enjoy 🙂 Get back and compare the Jan/Feb March statistics!
Julie syl~
I always have to read your posts twice LOL there is so much information in them and lots to take in. I am not up on pinterest, I know how to use it but that is about it so far so this is helpful. thanks
I bookmarked this so I can come back and take notes! Great information
Hi Erinn,
Absolutely take a deeper dive and apply and please share your results with us on Facebook or on this post later Will be such a buzz to see someone who is actually implementing and getting the desired and expected results!
Julie Syl~
Great tips! Now I’m using Pinterest more often! 🙂
Glad you are Czjai and that you got value 🙂 Thanx for your time!
J&PK~
Thanks for this awesome information about Pinterest. Me, I would love to dig deeper into it to check what will work best for my blog.
Hi Ronnie,
Absolutely Dig In and Apply yourself consistently. Most people dont so they dont get the results they desire 🙂
Julie Syl~
Tons of valuable information on Pinterest Julie. Always appreciate your informative and helpful blog posts. I use this social site but not as much as some of the other ones. I’m amazed at how I’m getting followers, repins, etc. without really doing anything excepting sharing content. I think rule of thumb is keep it simple and add value no matter you go in this online world. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Lynn,
You got it in one. Always share value, share other people’s content and never spam. Things always settle down and the good cream rises to then top! Thanks for your time and glad you got value.
Julie Syl~
While changes can be difficult they also bring good things personally I haven’t been affected by the new algortithm
Hi Adriana,
Most chnages on Social Media are created towards Monetization.
You are the unique one Or you havent checked your last 3 months Pinterest Analytics critically or yo are one of the early adopters who Pinterest makes it a point to promote, OR you have thousands of followers who are tuned in and tapped into you 🙂 which one is it Share your secret!
EVERYONE has been affected including Personal account users. Assuming you have a business account you have been affected period.
Julie syl~
So much valuable information and things I didn’t know about Pinterest. Thanks for sharing. Will be working on my Pinterest account! Tweeted and Pinned this post.
Hi Cathy,
I am glad you got value and apply 🙂 Thanks for the support its not taken for granted!
Julie Syl~
I just started playing with Pinterest more the past month, so this is a great help with all the tips you provided on the change!!
Hi Marie,
Glad yo found value and feel free to reach out for more info if you need it!
Julie Syl~
Wow! I think I need to pick up a course on how to use Pinterest LOL
Well My Bro I am happy to offer you more Training if you would like to Steve!
Julie Syl~
I knew something was going on. I need to read this 10x. I am following you everywhere. I have 5k followers but no real action happening. So I got some work cut out. If you want to check me out @ www://Pinterest.com/earthmoondesign. Julie you sure rock.
Hi Roslyn,
We are here to help enrich your life and business so absolutely feel free to ask any Qn related to Pinterest via our Contact page? And we are checking you out Gal 🙂
Julie syl~
Wow. I have so far not used Pinterest as I have been trying to get my Blog, FB, and now Twitter moving. But, I love this advice. I have now opened a Pinterest account and will start my trial and error on it using your tips. Thank you very much for sharing. Love it…
Well Lori,
Whats your time worth Girl friend? Thats what you want to put to Your Growth on Pinterest. Don’t trial and error. Get the resources you need. We are happy to help! Just holler 🙂
Julie syl~
wow Julie thanks for all the awesome info on Pinterest and their changes in their ALGORITHM CHANGES… YOU ROCK GF amazing blog and so full of value thanks for sharing
Hello LuAnn,
Its my absolute pleasure and I am glad yo got value 🙂 Keep rocking too GF
Julie syl~
This is a lot. I’m getting really annoyed with all of this social media platforms changing their algorithm and making it next to impossible for content to get seen. I mean if it’s not broken why try to fix it?
Exactly Roxy 🙂 Dont get mad, Work Smarter, thats why we are here. To help you do exactly that!
Thanx for stopping by!
Julie Syl~
Thanks Julie for letting us know the latest update with these Pinterest algorithm changes!
You are most welcome Danny 🙂
J&PK~
A great way to keep up with Pinterest is by occasionally liking or pinning from the popular pins. Pinterest notices this and helps boost you in return. Great article full of some great tips!
Exactly Kelly,
Its the best way Glad you like and thanks for your time.
J&PK~
I hardly use pinterest these days, for me it just hasnt been a great source of traffic since I started so kinda took a back sit in my blogging life. Great post.
Well you should try Pinterest Anosa, esp. your product TRAVEL, it sells and yo will notice a flow of traffic to you, Pinterest does that for new accounts to get you hooked i guess 🙂 Although with this new change it may not be bothered anymore.
Julie Syl~
Hi Julie,
I use Ahalogy which is a free pin scheduler. It was so popular, I had to wait in a queue because they’d stop taking new people. However, no one has heard of it. Have you? Does it matter if it’s free as long as I use an automated pin scheduler? I have so many group boards it takes me a long time to schedule my pins to each of them.
My Pinterest traffic has dramatically slowed. However, I get notices that my pins are repinned all the time. I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. Any thoughts?
Janice
Hi,
This question might answer my first one!
You said at 5:44 that group boards don’t help you get your pins seen if no one repins them. But earlier you said you should pin to group boards with a pin scheduler. I spend a lot of time with my pin scheduler. If it won’t work anymore, why did you recommend using a pin scheduler? Thanks,
Janice
In a Monday Cafe broadcast I did say you can and should pin using A scheduler. But I did specifically say in the video herein and in this post that Group boards should be less used at this point because Pinterest I believe is chnaging the whole way they work. It has hit them before and is doing it again. I guess the monster has become too big for them. Finite server space I imagine! Lots of group boards that are crazy huuge! We used that strategy to gain site traffic for months without bothering with Followers. I guess its time to repurpose our popular pins &content from group boards & repin to our own boards. Thats what I am advising Janice! You can use your scheduler to do this as well. Tailwind can. Can Ahalogy?
Julie syl~
We have heard of https://www.ahalogy.com/ Janice but never tried it. So many tools not enough hours in the day. But now you mention it Its gonna get tried and reviewed soonest 🙂
It doesnt matter if its free or not Janice as long as it works for you, keep doing. We use MavSocial for our social posting and not many people have heard of it either and its free 🙂
Keep the group boards on ice for now, In Fact move them to the bottom and move your personal boards to the top. This is following a steady watch over almost 2 months since the change and we noticed our Group Pins are literally not getting nay in-love at all. So unless you have super busy groups with high follower collaborators who are repinning your stuff so it gets shown in he smart feed…you aint getting any either.
You aint doing anything wrong in fact if you keep receiving notices of repins Hallelujah you are doing something right, keep doing it!
Julie syl~
thanks for keeping us in the loop about the changes in pinterest
You are most welcome Sheena, Thanks for stopping by 🙂
J&PK~
Social media sites keep changing the way things are measured, from traffic to followers and everything else. Honestly, sometimes, it’s difficult to keep track and I just stick to what I’m used to. But it’s good to learn more about these algorithms, really.
Hi elizabeth,
Even what you are used to keeps changing, coz it can. Your best bet i.e. to optimize your site for more Search engine traffic. Most bloggers literally depend on Social Media traffic…its finicky and can change at the flick of a button. Facebook does it all the time, Twitter did. Pinterest did, and Instagram did recently…curated feed baby. Value content gets shared more, smaller users get hit hard! Esp. if they are ignorant of whats going on. So its best to keep abreast hun 🙂
J&PK~
Great tips! Thanks for sharing!
Our Pleasure Suchi thanx for swinging by 🙂
J&PK~
Wow, I didn’t even know Pitnerest had a special algorithm LOL. Thanks so much for a very informative post Julie!
Hey Jelena, Goood to hear from you.
Of course they do have an algorithm how else would they manage to control the billions of pins and content people post on there. And sooner or later the free for all was bound to end…They are all monetizing as they should. Its a business 🙂
Julie Syl~
So group pins are no longer as ‘influential’?? 😮 That is quite a thing to discover! I need to take a look and analyze if the algorithm changes affected our inbound Pinterest traffic. Thanks!
Hi Ronnie if you go right back to Jan/Fb vis-a-vis March YOU WILL NOTICE A Drop in Pinterest Traffic, a Drastis one. And Your clients better know why or you will carry the can in their view.
Your Strategy should now focus on YOUR OWN or Your Client Created boards. MOve them to the top and populate them with the more popular pins. Repin to other boards the popular pins and Pin other people’s POPULAR Pins too. Group Boards esp. large ones with lots of collaborators and “Spamming” took the hit on this Algorithm change! Read the Pinterest Best Practice Rules and Above all Focus on your Blog SEO.
That should help
Julie Syl~
I pin to lots of different boards – but that’s pretty much it. I comment on some pins, repin some of the pins, etc… But I am sure I don’t use Pinterest to utmost power that it does have! It’s because I am just so overwhelmed with all this social media! NO MORE!! lol!
As long as you keep the 60/40% ratio of your pins to other people’s pins GiGi you are good. Pinterest is more interested in avid pinners who are also giving and generously share other people’s content. In turn your pins will rise to the Top of The Smart Feed because well others are inning them too right!
Julie Syl~
Great post! I had been out of the loop on the algorithm changes. Then noticed a drop in engagement of 90%. Yeah… It is still at the intolerably low level. Really bummed. So this insight helps a lot!
Glad we brought the news to you Jenn and now you know what to do to keep on top of things 🙂
Julie Syl~
These are some effective tips on Pinterest. .This will help in lead generation and traffic to a huge extent. Thanks for sharing.
They sure should help in not just lead generation but maintaining one’s traffic if its applied 🙂
J&PK~
Another very informative post Julie. I use Pinterest but clearly not as in-depth as you have described. Not sure if and when I will get to this level of involvement with it but will most certainly bookmark this for reference when I do. Thanks. 🙂
Pinterest is a treasure trove of blog traffic when you optimize your account properly Claudette and until the Algorithm change you didnt need many followers at all to attract said traffic. You just needed t have a pinning strategy with Large Collaborator groups. So we await to see further effects
Julie Syl~