How to set up a Business Account on Pinterest- And Why you should!

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Ok so… you’re about to make the leap and set yourself up with a Business Account on Pinterest … Yay! … you know what? This can be daunting. But I’m so here to help you!

I recently decided to make a separate business account on Pinterest for my lifestyle blog. I’m going from a long term Pinterest account for this blog… which started off as a personal account… (which incidentally I had had for a decade, being an early adopter of Pinterest in its infancy!)… to now starting fresh with a new Business Account on Pinterest.

Yikes. Scary stuff.

So, I know what you’re going through! And while I have a good following and decent engagement on my business account for this blog. I started at complete zero just this past week on my new account.

Sigh… Ha ha ha 

But I certainly learned a few things along the way. And when you don’t have to start from scratch things just seem easier… so, when I had to do allll the things it got me to thinking… It must be super hard as a total beginner, newbie to all this social media and Pinterest stuff to know how to do this right!

I mean – I’ve been in Marketing and in tech for a lonnnnggg time now… and all this seems second nature… But … it struck me… that this stuff isn’t simple… it’s not intuitive… and if you don’t know all the things… you’ll probably miss a step or two and not get things jussstttt right… 

So start your blog off with a bang! And get the right set up on your new Pinterest business account… follow these 3 steps and start reaping the rewards of a mega traffic boost to your blog.

3 steps to set up your Business Account on Pinterest

1. Create a new business account on Pinterest

Ok… so you can do this one of two ways.

First, you can create a business account all on its own. No fluff no fuss. OR you can switch your current Personal account to a Business one. Let me show you both.

Option one – Set up a new Business account on Pinterest 

Head on over to Pinterest and click Sign up- the red button at the top right of your screen.

Enter all your basic info in the next few screens…

Now, once your basic profile is set up… click on the little arrow at the top right of your screen

DO NOT click add a free business account!

This will create another account off your parent account which you JUST made… and this can get super confusing… don’t do this… Actually, avoid this at all costs! Trust me on this one! 

Scroll down and click settings instead (under more options) 

You’ll be greeted with an Edit profile page… 

Click Account settings

Then scroll down and you’ll see an option to Convert account. This is where you want to be! 

Click the Convert account button

Voila! You’re in the club. You now have a Pinterest business account.

Option 2 – Switch your Personal Pinterest account to a Business account on Pinterest

Now, you might want to do this if you have had a personal account with Pinterest for some time… and you don’t use it for personal use… But, you might have a good following… or good engagement etc.

Pinterest likes the fact that you’ve been around for ages… so, leverage this goodness and switch your current personal account to a business one to get that benefit.

The process is similar to above… But, instead of creating a new account from scratch simply login to your personal Pinterest account… then follow the same steps…

1. Click the arrow top right of the main Pinterest Page
2. Scroll to Settings
3. Click Account settings
4. Scroll to Convert account
5. Click
6. Voila 

You’ve now converted your old Pinterest Personal Account to a new Pinterest Business Account.

2. Claim your website (Verify your website)

Ok… now you’ve got your selfset up with a fab new business account you can now do all the sneaky wee things that make it worthwhile.

First up… let’s claim your website…

Login to your business account

Click the top right arrow on your main dash

And go to Settings

Head over to the left nav and click Claim

Enter your blog URL

And hit Claim

You’ll be taken to a screen that will ask you to pick an option…

Choose Add HTML tag

This will present you with a code

Copy this code

Then click Next

Head over to your WordPress admin panel

Open your Yoast SEO settings – (if you dont already have this plugin, simple search it in add new plugin and activate).

Click the Social tab

Click on the Facebook tab

Ensure that the Open graph Meta Data tab is set to enabled 

Then…

Click the Pinterest tab and enter your code into the empty box 

Click Save changes

Head back to Pinterest and click Submit

You’ll receive an email when your site is successfully claimed. Usually no more than 24 hours. 

It’s sooooo important to claim your website! 

This will allow you access to analytics concerning your website, will pop a picture of you next to any Pins pinned from your site… so people can follow you! So good right!

And it will give you a wee world symbol with a tick on it next to your site on your Pitneret profile… So legit.

3. Enable rich pins on your blog 

This is a step that many bloggers don’t do. But it’s so worthwhile.

Enabling rich pins on your blog lets you do a few cool things.

First off it’s a big plus when it comes to SEO. 

Rich pins pull metadata from your website and attach this to your Pins. So, for instance when you or anyone pins direct from your site… and doesn’t add their own description… Your meta description will go with the pin! Cool right.

As a blogger you’ll be using article rich pins. This pulls the author, description and title of your pin – all linked from your metadata.

Rich pins also automatically update… so, if something changes in your metadata, the pin will also update… easy.

They also help your Pinterest profile stand out in the Pinterest home feed…  including your website title, bolded Pin title and an accurate Pin description. 

Easy peasy to set up.

Again, I use the Yoast SEO plugin to do this super fast.

Head to your Yoast social tab… And again ensure that you have the Facebook Open Graph meta data tab set to enabled

Now pop over  to the Pinterest Rich Pins validator.

Enter in a valid url for one of your blog post pages. It doesn’t matter which one you enter here.

Click Validate

You’ll get a message to say you’ve been successful.

It can take a while for these to actually become activated on your Pinterest business account – so don’t stress! 

Wrap Up

There you have it. The 3 things you need to do to successfully set up your business account on Pinterest.

Now, you’ll also need to create some relevant boards and set yourself up with a pinning routine to get into the groove! 

I’ve got some great Pinterest tips over here about making sure you’re working with the new Pinterest algorithm to maximise your results. 

There’s also some pretty useful information on my recent post about how many times a day you should pin.

And, my other post on how to increase your pinterest monthly views fast will get you underway super quick.

Hit me up with any questions you might have! It can be daunting at first! … but hang in there! It gets easier… and can be really rewarding.