Best practice guidelines for the Pinterest algorithm changes

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It’s no secret that many bloggers are getting a little frustrated by the Pinterest Algorithm changes. Bloggers are seeing their stats nosedive and are wondering what they can do to increase Pinterest views and engagement again.

Yes, Pinterest has changed their algorithm. But, it’s for the greater good! And, there are a number of things you can do to continue to stay relevant in the eyes of Pinterest. 

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Pinterest home feed changes

So, Pinterest aims to do two things. 

1 Maintain relevance

Firstly, they aim to make sure that the content they are serving up to their audience is relevant!

Remember that word!

Serving up relevant content to users is one of their main goals. They want to make sure people are getting the results they are searching for and not going off on a tangent! Users won’t come back to the platform if they are continually getting served up irrelevant content for their specific needs. 

2 Maintain platform standing

The second is that they are looking to maintain the platform’s overall standing. Making sure they stay current and competitive.

They need to make sure that the platform remains not only relevant, but also dynamic. They might, for instance, be serving up highly relevant content to many users, but you certainly don’t want to be shown the same content over and over again, no matter how well it fits your search intention.

Pinterest therefore aims to make the platform fit for purpose … and in addition, highly dynamic. Serving up fresh, relevant content to its many millions of users daily.

Pinterest found that their traditional feed control systems were great at generating user engagement. Plenty of users clicking the same things over and over again! But they were not doing two other things.

1. Keeping the content fresh. And 2. Maintaining relevance for the user. 

Hence the change to the algorithm. They have now added a new layer of control over their traditional model, called controllable distribution. This allows for the boosting and demotion of the ranking scores of certain types of content.

Pinterests Controllable Distribution allows for a dedicated percentage of content to be a specific type and will scale this up or down depending on content creator behaviour. 

For those of us who are math nerds… 🤓 Here is the equation… their article above goes into a lot of detail around this, if you’re interested in learning (much, much) more! (it is very interesting!).

How can I increase my views and engagement on Pinterest?

1. Video content
2. Spend time on Pinterest
3. Create new boards
4. Think about how you Pin
5. Diverse content
6. Fresh content

The reason your views or impressions might be dropping is possibly because now that Pinterest is utilising Controllable Distribution you might need to revamp your Pinterest strategy.

Looking at not only the content you post but its delivery and the vehicle/s through which it’s delivered. 

Tweaking your Pinterest strategy to better reflect the new algorithm changes is a super smart move and will no doubt get you back on the right track, fast! 

Video content

Video content traditionally generates far more engagement from users on any platform, including Facebook and Instagram. And, Pinterest looks to be hoping to encourage creators to post more of this type of content. 

Posting video content directly to Pinterest also enables you to add specific tags to your Pin. Making your Pins more easily found by the right audience. Such a great feature! 

An added benefit is that Video pins (for now anyway)… seem to be getting far greater immediate (first few hours) impressions in general. 

As more users start creating more video content this might change, as the algorithm suggests, they are looking for a certain percentage of video content. So, keep this in mind when creating your Pinterest strategy.

You can easily make video content on Canva by using the animate function 

Spend time on Pinterest

Pinterest wants people to spend more time ON their platform IMHO. So, in order to get in their good books, show them you are using the platform as intended. 

Spend time each day – I do morning and nighttime – following new boards in your niche, following new users relevant to your niche. Clicking through to content that’s interesting. And, commenting on great content in your niche! You’ll be delighted to see so much useful content in your niche and connect to other bloggers who have similar interests. 

Pinterest likes to see you using their platform the way they intended. Search for great new content. And engage with new Pinner and their Pins. 

Don’t just use a third party app to post content and never show face on Pinterest itself. I definitely use Tailwind to schedule pins. However, I also use Pinterest as it was intended. 

Create new boards

Be a curator! Add fresh boards to your profile every month. Create your own little corner of Pinterest by curating awesome new collections of fresh, inspiring and relevant content. Help others find new content by ensuring your boards are all optimised for search and you are Pinning highly relevant content to them. 

The more highly relevant and niche your boards, the better users can find exactly what they are hoping to find! So make life easy for them and up your Pin SEO game! 

Tip: I make all my board covers in Canva… so, so easy! Make sure you are creating these as 600 x 600 pixels (the Pinterest board covers are SQUARE) – that way they’ll be optimally sized and display correctly.

Think about HOW you Pin

Rethink how you’re Pinning. Are you only using a third party app like Tailwind to Pin all the time? Are you only repinning from the platform itself? Think about the way Pinterest works and what sort of user cues they are looking for. 

• Are you pinning direct to Pinterest using the create button?
• Are you Pinning directly from your blog using the Pin it function?
• Are you utilising any new tools and features like Story Pins? 

Story Pins

Story Pins are an amazing new feature (only available in some countries so far) … they stay on your boards once published and offer you a unique new way to share content to your audience. They also offer you the ability to add tags directly to your pins. 

For best results:

• make your Story Pins 5 pages or longer
• make your Story Pins 2-20 seconds in length

Story Pins are great for creating how-to videos, highlighting brand stories and offering a series approach to topics. Perrrrrfect for Etsy sellers! 

Check out this article from Pinterest to walk you through how to create a story pin. 

Diverse content

Pinterest cares deeply about diversity and ensuring their platform represents people from all backgrounds and cultures. We can look forward to seeing more diverse offerings on the platform as a result of Pinterest actively seeking to surface more content from diverse creators. Think about this when you are creating content. Is it inclusive?

Fresh content 

And, last but certainly not least! In line with their business goals, of both maintaining relevance and also observing systems and methodologies to keep the platform from becoming stale, Pinterest favours new, fresh content.

Pinterest wants to keep the platform dynamic ,while maintaining relevance for searchers. So, they have been very vocal about making sure that creators are offering up new, fresh content daily to their platform. 

Fresh content needn’t be a new blog post. It can simply be a fresh, unique Pin for the same piece of content on your blog. I literally have a folder in Canva with my Pins and I can easily grab, copy and redesign the same template over and over again.

I Pin 2-6 new Pins daily to Pinterest. Check out my blog post promotion strategy here including how I pin.

Wrap up 

There are a lot of changes afoot concerning Pinterest lately. But, don’t be overwhelmed!

Your stats dropping can be a very frustrating time, but there are good reasons for the changes and ultimately these tweaks will create a far better user experience for content consumers and a better platform for content creators. This in turn will translate into a growing Pinterest audience, and more eyes for your amazing content!

There are a few things that you need to think about when Pinning for business. But the main ones are; staying relevant by pinning fresh content, being mindful of how you’re pinning, thinking about your delivery options and the tools you use and; getting creative – adopting a multi media approach to your content. 

Good luck! Feel free to ask me any questions in the comments and let me know how your new strategy is working for you!