What Happened to my Pinterest Account?

What Happened to my Pinterest Account? Pinterest Traffic Update

Let’s talk about Pinterest changes, updates, and have a Pinterest troubleshooting session, shall we?

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I too, am an Entrepreneur and I too need a Pinterest Strategy! Like seriously what happened to my Pinterest account? I bet you are asking yourself that question too! 

Unless you are one of the Pinterest royalty influencers with bazillion followers and who say their traffic is going from glory to glory! Even when everyone else is genuinely stumped for what to do on Pinterest.

Understand that this isn’t a rant. It is a serious investigation of the latest trend in Pinterest traffic! And when I say “the latest” I am being very conservative as it’s been going on for us since July and for many since last year! 

Remember around this time last year When I posted an Episode about A massive drop in Pinterest Impressions? Do check it out, it has some powerful steps that could help. 

Well, my friend, this year has got nothing on last year! Here is why you may feel kinda like in a maze on Pinterest…

Before we go any further, like in most Kalungi Group Episodes, we like to share with you at Zero Cost, something you can take away and implement Right away for your business success. 

What I like about this resource is you can download your Pinterest Domination Blueprint now and show up on Pinterest in a way only Pro’s do. You will get better faster results. Download it here now. 

In the meantime…

#1. What happened to Your Pinterest Account – What has Changed? 

I cannot find how to create a board:

The Option to Create a Board is not as clear anymore: well, for some you can find “Boards” Under the Saved tab or Click on “Create Pin” start to create one and Don’t save it on an existing board. Instead, Scroll down and click on “Create a board” and You can create a new one and update it with descriptions, etc. 

Can I or Can’t I Use Hashtags? 

The Thing is hashtags seem to have been sent back to “NFL” when it comes to Pinterest i.e. the No Friends List. In other words, if you use hashtags in your Pin image description your pin may be sent where no eyes can find it. 

Understand that hashtags are still searchable on Pinterest though…cheeky that isn’t it? You will get a mix of direct hashtagged pins or just words related to the hashtag.

Don’t let that fool you into using them on your pin images, for now. It may kind of confuse people especially in our earlier episode about Hashtags on Social Media. In this is the new info on Hashtags, it overtakes the above. 

And now I am about to share some faux pas we made or did we?

I am doing this because I know it may help you too. And for you to understand that It Is a Pinterest Problem, Not you. Unless of course, you haven’t set up your account right. 

I am talking “full disclosure.” I like to think I am awesome at Pinterest marketing. But when you outsource content promotion, you sometimes don’t know what you are getting.

I take this on the chin and I take full responsibility for what you are about to discover.

Despite the challenges the platform is facing behind the scenes, in this episode, you’ll see me share some very recent mistakes made in our Pinterest strategy.

With that said there is clearly a major problem with Pinterest. The July Algorithm update seems to have majorly f*@#d up the traffic from Pinterest.

Or they want more pinners to pull out their wallet and Pay for advertising ala Facebook Algorithm changes.

Whatever is going on, the challenge has hit Pinners’ website traffic in a major way.  I did a full Facebook live on this. You can check it out below.

Pinterest Traffic Tanking Bigtime

DOWNLOAD YOUR PINTEREST DOMINATION BLUEPRINT NOW

You see, I am a member of an amazing Pinterest community and I found out in August that we weren’t the only ones seeing a huge drop in Pinterest Impressions and traffic.

That said I had lifted the finger off the ball on Pin image creation and so the quality of our pins and descriptions had dropped way down.

Now understand that I am not about impressions as my target metric. That said, the more Pinterest impressions you get, the higher the chances of some of that coming through as link clicks to your website, blog, Etsy store, or even Amazon FBA inventory.

Here is some of the feedback shared with me, based on the image and stats below from content pinned last week.
Back story, before July, we’d get over 10-20,000 impressions and 500+ link clicks per Pin image.

What you see below is apparently fixable.

How do we fix this problem, I asked in the community?

Below are some of their most impactful feedback and suggestions: 

#1.  The above image confuses me. I couldn’t tell what I was looking at, the text is hard to read and it did not attract my attention at all. That’s just me though. I’d suggest changing the image to better attract your ideal viewer. ?

I’d also work on better keywording of your title and description.

Now, the above comment at first hit me hard.

Then I thought, I asked for feedback, I must be open to the views of others who hopefully know what they are talking about.

I totally realize that the Pin image had no clear “Target Audience. And so, it attracts no real clickthrough’s as nobody “self-selects” for the content attached. The text is legible enough though. 

#2. I am not sure what I’m looking at. The image is kind of confusing and the description isn’t super helpful in clarifying. Whose target clients? Again I agree with the comment on the “Description not being target specific. Esp, as I am always going on about targeting. That said, the image is super clear, don’t you think? 

#3. If you are targeting the business market and service providers, you’ll see low stats. I’ve noticed that’s cross the board for that market. (I definitely agree, I noticed too, that’s why I asked for feedback. So if that is your niche too, be aware) 

I know there are Pinterest issues but the pin image still does need work. The description doesn’t give me any clarification. 

#4. I still don’t understand what that pin does. Who are the target customers? I’m a blogger/ is it helping me? What about an Etsy shop, does it help them? Pinterest is super wacky, I agree… but your pin design is also not helping – you need to be more specific and explain what your post does and for who.

Also, it’s been hypothesized that Pinterest is taking much longer to evaluate pins. About 20 weeks. ? So, your pins can still drive traffic but it’s a lot less “instant.” The more reason to use a content calendar and space out your content marketing early. 

Now I genuinely didn’t get the gist of the comment below with regards to the Text being unclear, but to each their own:

The pin is unclear what it’s about, the text is difficult to read, and the title/name is confusing. If people can’t understand it under 1 second, they’re moving on … It’s a good idea to invest in a program to learn to make optimized pins.

What happened to my Pinterest account? I absolutely loved the feedback below.

Why?

It’s always good to be kind, specific, give a clear idea of what Solution to do to maybe improve the situation, and attract more Link clicks.

#5. I would try to indicate who – as in who is your target client. I think when you’re more specific on Pinterest it’s better. Especially if you’re running ads. For instance, you could have a pin saying “interior designers find out where you can find your ideal client”. You can run a few ads like this each time targeting a different service provider and see which ones are more responsive.

I would add a benefit like: 

“stop the guesswork and find out where and how to attract your ideal client”

#6. It’s kind of unreadable and doesn’t hit any emotions that would make someone want to click.

My rule of thumb is colored text always goes on white backgrounds, and colourful backgrounds only get the white or black text. (By this point I had to accept that either we have a lot of “Sheeple” in the community or the text us truly “Unleadable” Is it? What is your opinion?)

#7. Seriously, sometimes an image with simple text boxes work best. I also suggest you give video pins a go, Canva now has an option to animate them with just a click ?

#8. I recommend watching some graphic design for beginners videos on YouTube so you can learn the most essential tips when creating a graphic piece. Then use canva.com as suggested.

#9. Agreed, the design needs some work, but I’d work on the wording too. I think what you’re referring to would be most commonly called “ideal clients”.

So you could say for example:

“How to find your ideal clients as a web designer/makeup artist/etc.

Or “How to identify your target market as a *web designer*”

In any case, make sure to be explicit about who you’re talking to.

Also, emphasis on the pin (read: biggest, clearest, boldest text) should be placed on the important keywords (the pins you posted highlight “WHERE & HOW TO” instead of the important parts).

I took the above suggestions to heart and we created new pin images, video pins, new targeted keyword packed descriptions, targeted headlines and we are keeping an eye on the Stats. The Jury is out. 

Moral of this:

Be on the ball with your Pin Image design.

Always Do your Keyword research and don’t just post any old title. Your description will also attract link clicks and saves if you optimize that Pinterest real estate.

Be open to Ask for help when stumped. Frankly, I didn’t expect the feedback I got, yet it was so welcomed, and yes…eat humble pie too when necessary. 

Above all; Be clear on Whom you serve. As you could easily get a ton load more impressions and even fewer clicks, that would be painful.

Live. Learn. Love.

Julie Syl Kalungi

I am a Business Transformational Strategist. The International Best Selling Author of three books, including The Art of Pinterest Profits and The Winning Planner. Each week, I send out a free newsletter with my best tips on Social media and Digital Marketing, Personal Branding, and a Winning or Leadership mindset to help your business or enterprise succeed.

Email: Julie[@]Juleskalpauli.com

Facebook: facebook.com/RisewithJulie.Paul.Kalungi/

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