Panicking that Pinterest has marked you as “spam” and de-indexed your pins?
Keep reading for what to do when Pinterest de-indexed your pin.
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How To Know If You’ve Been De-Indexed?
There are a few things to be on the lookout for if you feel like you’ve been marked as spam or de-indexed?
A dramatic drop in views, traffic, repins, and engagement. I’m not talking about the drops and spikes that you see month to month and can predict with Pinterest Trends. I’m talking about a huge drop. Like going from 60K views to dropping to 1000K each day. It’s scary (I know from experience)
Why You Might Have Been Marked As Spam And De-Indexed?
Psst… Save this for later!
Spammy
Typically the first reason is for, well, being spammy. This constitutes as pinning and repinning the same link over and over again. Only pining your pins (the same 5-10 URLs). Going on a following spree, or pin deleting spree.
Slow Website
Second, your website is extremely slow. This happened to me in Fall 2021. I didn’t realize it, but everything started to drop in Pinterest and I had assumed it was because of the holidays. Well, no matter how many fresh pins, idea pins, or how often I got on… nothing worked. Then, I checked out my website. I was loading at “F” with GTMetrix, and my load speed was well over 15 seconds. If a pinner clicks on a pin, and it takes more than 3-5 seconds to load, then they head back to Pinterest to find another pin. When this happens to a lot of your pins, Pinterest starts seeing your site as a “spammy” site. And sometimes pin users will even mark your pin as “spam” or “link broken”… when really it’s not. Your website speed is slow. I am 100% greateful for EklhoundTech for fixing my site, and teaching me how to keep it “in the green”. Be sure to check them out if you’re struggling with site speed.
Re-Pinning Spam
The final, most common reason for being marked as spam is by constantly re-pinning spammy pins. These pins consist of websites that have pop up after pop up and you cant’ consume the content. Too many ads that you can’t find the content. Or, a slow website (like we discussed above).
What To Do When Pinterest De-Indexed Your Pin
First off, don’t panic, but realize, it will take some work to get back to where you were.
1.Contact Pinterest
Yes, it will be a pain. Yes, they will most likely give you generic emails such as “pin quality content”, don’t be spammy, and Pinterest has a “glitch” as it when through updates. But I always recommend trying, because sometimes, they will help you. If you’re willing to wait, like 2 weeks to 4 months to get a response.
2. Brush up on your SEO
Spend some time with the Pinterest Trends too, and search Pinterest to check your SEO keywords. Make sure they are still relevant. Take note of which ones are old, and see if you can find some new ones. You may not realize this, but SEO keywords can change over the years.
For example, the biggest one is “masks”. Prior to 2020, when you looked up “masks” or “DIY Masks” you found all kinds of paper mache and homemade costume masks. Now, you find DIY surgical masks.
Check your keywords, and update those with your Pinterest profile, boards, pin titles, content titles, website blog posts… update them everywhere.
3. Update old content
To help distract you from waiting for your Pinterest to go back up, and also to re-boost your website… update your old content. Go through your old blog posts, update them with new images, keywords, and anything else. Then click “republish”. This will boost you in Bing and Google as well.
4. Promote your updated *old* content
Create new pins leading to your content, share them on other social media sites, promote them in your email. Get as many views as you can on that old/new content to get it boosted in the algorithm again.
5. Create an idea pin
Idea pins are a key element on Pinterest right now. If you haven’t incorporated them into your pinning strategy, you need to. But, when you create an idea pin around that new content, AND put the link to your update post in the description, it will help you take off in Pinterest again… with the exact same content that got de-indexed.
In conclusion
Don’t panic! There are plenty of things to get you back in Pinterest’s good graces, even if it does take time. And, look on the bright side, Pinterest and google work together, so even if you see traffic dropping in Pinterest, you’ll still be able to get some leverage with Google.
Pinterest Action Tip:
- Follow Pinterest’s best practices to avoid being marked as spam.
- If you aren’t sure what to do still, come ask your questions in my free Pinterest Facebook Group.
- Get more strategic support here.
