Last Updated on August 20, 2021 by George Pavlopoulos
The story is as old as the Social Media world itself (so, not that old anyway). And it goes like this: create content, be active in a Social Media community, engage, wait for an algorithm change -and then see everything die. I’ve seen it happening plenty of times, and I guess I’ll see it again in the future. For several years, Pinterest dared to be different. It really felt like a true Social Media platform, where users would engage and create content. So, what did it change?
Since the early summer of 2020, people have started talking about a Pinterest algorithm update. Several users claimed that their impressions started going down, and they saw less Pinterest traffic to their websites. A sudden drop in traffic brings insecurity. However, at first, no one was alarmed: the numbers tend to fluctuate, and everybody hoped it was just a glitch. But the situation kept developing, and soon people started realizing that the numbers weren’t coming back. So, was there something wrong with Pinterest?
A drop in Pinterest traffic: can you blame the ads?
Not that long ago, Pinterest introduced ads. For a long time, Pinterest was an ads-free platform. While Pinterest felt like one more Social Media, in reality, it was something more: a search engine. People searched for info, created boards, and saved the user-generated graphics in them. This way, you could return at a later stage to read the things you saved.
For businesses and bloggers, this meant that they could also attract visitors to their websites by creating beautiful pins. The more active you were on Pinterest, the more rewarding it was. Creating fresh pins meant that you could see your blog’s traffic grow.
Then, the ads were introduced. And all of a sudden, every fifth or seventh pin started being an ad. Soon, showing the paid pins on top of the search results became the new norm. Subsequently, the pins that weren’t promoted started receiving fewer impressions/views and, obviously, less traffic. To a certain point, this might sound rational. Companies work for a profit.
Sure: every company has the right to make the profit it wants. But also, this doesn’t mean that the users should stick to a platform when the game changes.
What changed in Pinterest
So, in the summer of 2020, the Pinterest traffic went down for lots of users. I mean, really down. People claim that both the impressions and traffic went down by even 90%. People with 2 or even 3 million impressions per month saw their accounts shrinking: they went down to 200K impressions within six weeks. Yes, impressions might be a vanity metric. But website traffic is not. The traffic of any website is measurable, and when it’s plummeting, it also affects your earnings.
It was then that most people realized that Pinterest is going down the Facebook-Instagram drain. By following the same pattern, the two platforms devaluated a large number of accounts. This affected a) the smaller accounts and b) the less active ones. And this meant apparently one thing: pay to play. If you wanted to be seen on both Facebook and Instagram, you had to pay for ads.
And yet, you might think that this is also fine. Indeed it is. If you can afford the cost, it is an option. Receiving paid traffic is part of the online world. But here’s the thing: not everybody can afford to spend lots of money constantly on ads. Small businesses or bloggers don’t have unlimited budgets. Fine, you might once again think it’s okay for smaller businesses to die. And from a very cynical point of view, it’s indeed fine.
So, you now think that you should have a Social Media budget for running campaigns. For example, let’s say that you believe very much in the potential of your X Instagram photo or your Z Pinterest Pin. And you promote them. You’ll see some traffic definitely. And after seeing that traffic, you think that the next photo or pin would perform great because people love your content. Right? Wrong. The next photo or pin will have almost no impressions or likes if you don’t promote it. Subsequently, you’ll receive no website traffic from them. Sad but true.
Therefore, if you want to see constant traffic from Social Media, you’ll have to spend money constantly. Hard but fair, you might think. Indeed. But hold on a minute: is it still Social Media? Or is it significantly less Social and definitely more Media now?
What happened to my Pinterest account (Stats)
By the end of September 2020, I saw that something was wrong with my Pinterest account. I was never one of the big Social Media players. I have a 30K Instagram account, and my Pinterest received approximately 150K impressions per month. That said, each fresh pin I created received some thousand views, approximately between 3K and 8K. A couple of my pins went viral and received much more views, but these were the exceptions, not the rule.
So, at the end of September, I added a couple of fresh pins on relevant boards. I checked the numbers the next morning, expecting to see something within the 3K-8K range. And what I saw instead? 6. Not 6K. Just 6. Huh?
I knew there was something wrong here. I always played by the book because I hate being a cheater. No games. I created fresh pins, I was active on group boards, I have bought a subscription to the recommended scheduler to optimize my workflow. My boards are clearly marked regarding the content, and I do SEO on my pins. No, I’m not a Pinterest guru, and I don’t want to be one. I know why I use Social Media: to grow my blog and engage with the community. So, what was wrong with it?
Initially, I thought it was just a Pinterest glitch. I thought that everything would come back to normal after a few days. After all, an algorithm change always comes with fluctuations, I foolishly thought. And so, I kept following my strategy for a month.
What happened? Every fresh pin received 1 or 2 impressions. No clicks and no saves—no Pinterest traffic. Within eight weeks, I went down from 150K impressions to 15K. Yes, the number of impressions is a vanity metric. But the same thing happened to both the saves and website clicks. My Pinterest traffic dropped by almost 85%.
It was official: my account was devaluated.
I reached out to Pinterest customer support
Lots of people complained in forums about a sudden drop in Pinterest traffic. They shared their stories and how their accounts were going down to zero. In this thread, there were 47 pages of complaints at the time of writing this post. The thread is marked as Solved, but the truth is that it’s not solved. Ignored should be the right word.
I reached out to Pinterest customer support by filling a ticket. Despite being furious, I didn’t write an unpolite e-mail. Instead, I tried to explain the situation. The support replied within a day.
The first time I contacted
Pinterest support supposedly checked my account. And here’s the initial response I got.
“Please note that the pin stats number keeps fluctuating, and the numbers can go down at times, depending on the engagement your pin has received in the current 30 days time period. Also, the pin stats that we show you on the close-up view of your pin shows the numbers for default 30 days, and this number keeps getting updating once in every 24 hours. Any data which is past 30 days will not be shown on your pin stats.
Oftentimes, fluctuations can result from changes in seasonality, related interests for content, format type, engagement rates, or updates that Pinterest makes to our system to better deliver valuable ideas to Pinners. Just like our users’ interests evolve, we can expect the distribution of content to see natural ups and downs as well. We encourage creators to continue to post high-quality, inspiring ideas to see what resonates with their audience on Pinterest.
In some cases, recent changes may be due to updates we are making to prioritize new Pins over already-Pinned content. Pinterest encourages creators to publish new, original content on a regular basis as the best way to build an audience on Pinterest. We encourage new publishing over Saving others’ or your own already-pinned content. Pinners come to our platform to find new ideas, and as we continue to update our service, we’ll prioritize new original content published by creators over Saves.”
But I needed some more info, and I once again received a quick reply. After all, it was bizarre that my account was okay, but instead of 3,000 impressions per pin, I received 1. So here’s what they said.
“Hi George,
I completely understand your concern. I have checked your account (https://www.pinterest.com/
I encourage you to continue posting your high-quality pins, and I hope as soon as possible your numbers will turn around gradually.”
The second time I contacted Pinterest support
So, I kept working on my Pinterest account. And, apparently, nothing changed. The Pinterest traffic was almost inexistent. At the beginning of November, I filled another ticket. I sounded angrier this time. Here’s what Pinterest support replied.
“Hello George,
I’ve just received the feedback and I’m happy to inform you that your account isn’t artificially affected in any negative way.
Pinterest encourages creators to publish new, original content on a regular basis as the best way to build an audience on Pinterest.
We encourage new publishing over Saving others’ or your own already-pinned content. Pinners come to our platform to find new ideas and as we continue to update our service, we’ll prioritize new original content published by creators over Saves.”
And when I re-wrote to them, I got this.
“Upon further inspection of your Analytics, I can see what you’ve been experiencing are spikes in your impressions. Pins that go viral or that resonate a lot more with your audience. Bear in mind that, in order to create a sustained viewing what you need is a constant creation of fresh content.
Our algorithm will always favor original Pins over Repins. When we talk about fresh content what we mean is Pins that don’t repurpose images and that have lengthy descriptions (50-250 words) rich in keywords and adjectives that are tailored to the main idea portrayed.
In combination with the constant check of features like Analytics and Pin stats, another good way of setting up a strategy is to interact with other accounts. This helps you gain visibility but also allows you to know what’s trending on the platform at the minute in order to be able to post content that helps you stand out from other profiles similar to yours.”
Long story short, everything with both my account and the blog seemed alright. I just had to create more pins, as if I’m a full-time Pinterester (yes, we can say that, we once had Instagrammers), but now I would just have to live with 2 impressions instead of 3K. Moreover, I’d have to live with 80 clicks per month and accept a significant drop in my Pinterest traffic (90%). No big deal, right? Wrong.
What I plan to do next
Well, I said that I’m going to give three months to the platform, and then I’m off. I plan to create fresh pins and engage till the end of 2020. If, by then, nothing changes (I doubt it), I won’t bother. When this happened to Instagram, I decided to give it a year. And it was a mistake. But now, sorry, I don’t have so much time. Three months to see a change, or I’m really off.
I use Tailwind, a magnificent Pinterest scheduler that optimizes my workflow. It’s a wonderful tool, one of the best I used actually. It made my life easier, and according to Pinterest, it’s an officially approved scheduling tool (see the replies of customer support). However, my Tailwind subscription expires at the end of January. Therefore, if nothing changes, I will have to cancel it as well.
Why is this happening with every Social Media?
Every Social Media out there wants you to stay on their platform. Moreover, they want you to create content for the platform. On Instagram, you have to share photos; on Pinterest, you have to share pins. The users’ content is actually the biggest asset of any Social Media. Without user-generated content, there’s no Social Media.
By staying on the platform and creating content, they grow. And they can negotiate ads and make a profit. And this is probably the turning point for each one of them. When the ads invade the game, you are no longer a user; you are just somebody creating filler content between the ads. Two insta-photos, and then you see an ad; five pins, and then you see an ad.
I wrote several times in the past that it would be okay for me to pay a monthly fee to use any Social Media that could be beneficial for the things I do (or the ones I enjoy). If I were about to pay, though, I’d request two things: a) not to see ads anymore and b) to vote on any major future changes. The voting part is not only about democracy. It’s mainly about transparency: I want to know what’s going on.
So, if these two things don’t happen, I have no business interest in Social Media. Will I remove Social Media from my smartphone? No. But I will spend the minimal time: share a quick post on FB, add once-twice per week some Instagram stories, create a Pin for my blog posts but nothing more than that. Ten or twenty minutes per week, and that’s all.
This might sound like “revenge,” but it’s not. It’s simply that I want to spend on them the time they deserve. Ten hours per week for creating pins and the Pinterest traffic I receive is eighty clicks per month doesn’t sound rational, does it?
What could keep me active on Pinterest
I wrote that I’d give three months to Pinterest to see if the situation turns around. In this time, I will stick to the schedule, I’ll implement new Pinterest strategies, and keep playing by the book. Meanwhile, I expect to see a change. If this is a temporary glitch and they plan to fix it, then everything should be fine. However, I think that it’s probably not a glitch. It’s just a new approach.
This thing is going on for 4-5 months, and it should have been fixed by now. The Pinterest traffic drop I experienced is going on for the past two months. That said, a three months timeframe sounds right to me.
My future Social Media plans
If the situation doesn’t change, I plan to reduce my Social Media presence next year. In 2020 I didn’t spend any money on Social Media promotions (I did in 2019), and I plan to keep doing that next year too. An occasional stop on FB, IG, and Pinterest -and then I’m off to more creative things.
Therefore, next year I plan to write more on the blog and be less on Social Media. I will also try to expand my mailing list (hint: it’s so much better for engagement and website traffic). I’m glad that I never depended on Social Media traffic. It’s not some kind of wisdom; it’s just that after seeing what happened on Instagram, I decided to search for other channels of bringing people to my blog. In the long term, it proved to be a good plan.
Meanwhile, I’m sad to see Pinterest going down the Social Media drain. But being part of a community is one thing, and being somebody who works for almost nothing in return (i.e., no website traffic) is another. We are all Social Media nomads: remember how quickly Myspace died. It doesn’t mean that everything will fade away like Myspace. But this doesn’t mean either that I will be part of anything that devaluates hard work overnight.
I’m sorry, Pinterest.
Pinterest Update, late January 2021
It’s almost two months since I posted this article; therefore, I thought it might deserve an update.
Nothing actually changed since I wrote it. The Pinterest traffic drop continues. More and more people complain about it, but the platform doesn’t seem to care. From my side, after losing 90% of Pinterest traffic, I decided not to renew my Tailwind subscription. I was very sad about that because I loved the platform. However, it didn’t make any sense to pay for a service that didn’t contribute to my blog growth anymore.
As for my new Pinterest strategy…well, I don’t have one. I don’t spend time on the platform, and I just save the pin I create for every new blog post. Yes, I still create pins but not as part of a Pinterest strategy. I do it for the readers that want to save my articles on their Pinterest boards.
That said, nowadays, I do pretty much the same thing I do on every other Social Media: I spend a couple of minutes sharing my posts, and then I’m off. Pinterest was the last one that I spent time with, and I thought it deserved the hassle. It didn’t. But as I mentioned above, I’m glad I never depended on Social Media traffic.
What’s next? Well, I will remain focused on growing my blog organically as I did from day one. Writing, optimizing the posts, following the things I described in my two blogging ebooks, and shooting photos and polaroids. All these things worked better throughout the years and helped me grow my blog.
If there’s an update regarding the decrease in my Pinterest traffic, you’ll find it here. Otherwise, the things I wrote above describe exactly what I still do.
Pinterest traffic drop, update August 2021
Since many people are still reading and commenting on this post, I thought of adding a quick update regarding the Pinterest traffic drop in 2021. Unfortunately, it will be a short one. Nothing has changed. Although I’m less and less active on Pinterest, I just wanted to say that I’ve recently seen some spikes in impressions.
I wondered how this was possible. And then, I checked the metrics. What I’ve seen is that I was attributed ownership to some pins of other users (!) that I shared in the past. That said, at some point, I had 30K impressions instead of the usual 10-15K. However, this didn’t affect the clicks on my website at all. I don’t know if the platform gets messier, but I honestly don’t have the time to deal with it anymore.
So, on my side, after almost one year from the day I experienced the traffic has dropped, nothing has changed.
***
What’s new on Letters to Barbara – Blog Recap 26
With the travel restrictions still in place, it becomes more and more challenging to create travel-related content. However, as you probably understood from the article above, I tried to remain productive and upload a post weekly on the blog.
The first article of November was, like always, last month’s recap. During the first week of November, the beloved Berlin-Tegel Airport (TXL) shut down forever. It was a sad moment, especially because this was my favorite airport in Europe. Tegel was easy to use, and it occupies a good part of my Berlin memories. I wrote a long farewell to Tegel airport, and I shared several photos.
After the article about TXL, I shared one post that I really enjoyed writing. In late October, I reached out to my mailing list, and I wanted to know what the most faithful readers of this blog had in mind. Moreover, I encouraged them to send me the first question that crossed their minds when they thought of the Letters to Barbara. I received almost 20 questions, and I replied to each one of them. See the readers’ questions and my replies here.
One of the things that I never shared so far was my travel guide to Bucharest. I know that traveling is not a thing in 2020, but this doesn’t mean that we can’t daydream of our future journeys. Bucharest is a city in transition, and there are plenty of things to do. So, if you think of visiting Bucharest after the restrictions are lifted, and this horrible thing comes to an end, you can read my travel guide to the capital of Romania here.
Last but certainly not least, the last article of November was a rather odd one. It’s part of my “Postscripts” series, and it deals with the in-between places. That’s a term that I invented for all these places that we tend to ignore when traveling. Believe it or not, a windmill somewhere in Belarus made me write it. Read here how you can find and appreciate the in-between places.
And, that’s it with this month’s recap. Feel free to share your Social Media experiences in the comments below and let me know if you also experienced a drop in your blog traffic.
You can read my previous recaps by clicking here.
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That sucks, George. I think this a trend in every type of channel. Ads are bad, but making money from Ads is hard to resist if you have the traffic. Most travel blogs would do the same thing if they could join a premium Ad network like Mediavine. I think there is more to it as well. When content overload occurs, the social media channels and even Google are unable to handle it. For instance, remember how I told you I was on page 2 of Google for a particular post. Now it doesn’t even register on any of the first 15 pages of Google. It’s gone because of some algorithm change. I’m not sure what happened to this post as some of my other posts are still high up in Google. This post is way better than what Google is choosing at the moment. Some major websites can show up with a few headlines and a few brief descriptions, with no photos. The thing is, only 150 websites can occupy the first 15 pages of Google, so Google thinks that the ones with the most backlinks are the best sites, but they aren’t. I think Social Media ends up doing the same thing. It thinks something else must be better (maybe based on a pin trend on or the total number of pins from that brand), and therefore shows that over other often better content. I think you should stop using Tailwind and use that money instead to buy some Ads. Test them to see if you get value for money. Have a strategy in place, such as if you spend $150, you want to see a certain number of email subscribers or ebook sales. Use the minimum Ad spends on a few different social media platforms to see where the best bang for your buck comes from. Apart from that, there’s always TikTok to try. I don’t know how good your dancing skills are, but you may want to give it a try.
Hey John!
Ah, I’m not much of a dancer. Therefore, I think I’ll skip TikTok. In general, after seeing the same thing happening to Pinterest, I’m not motivated to use Social Media to grow the blog. I’ll sure keep my accounts to share occasionally some stuff, but otherwise, not that much into the SM scene lately. As I wrote, I’ll focus on more creative projects instead. The ever-changing algorithms of Social Media can be fun to unlock -but it ain’t fun when everything goes down the drain overnight. Hard work should be rewarded, not devaluated.
Tailwind is excellent software, but when Pinterest is so messy, I don’t think it offers something to the blog. From day one, I’m glad that I didn’t depend on Social Media traffic (and, subsequently, on Pinterest traffic). I would be desperate right now. I chose to use other channels -Social Media traffic is approximately 7-8% of my blog’s traffic. I’d love to keep on using Tailwind, but I’ll have to see something in return, i.e., blog traffic. Without it, I find no reason to keep investing money. Pinterest is hard work (creating fresh Pins constantly, sharing them, sharing pins of others), and if I’m about to spend 10-12 hours per week to get 100 clicks per month, it doesn’t deserve it. All that said, if nothing changes till the end of January, when my subscription expires, there’s no reason to renew it.
Regarding the ad campaigns, it’s something for the future. Right now, with the travel industry in such historic lows, it doesn’t sound tempting to me either. I already have planned some side projects for 2021, so I’ll save the money for them. There are so many interesting things out there, and I prefer to explore each one of them instead of focusing on things that proved to be (more or less) unreliable. When I invest X amount of money, I want to get Z back. If I’m about to get 0 zero back no matter how much I invest, it doesn’t make fun. I’d rather save the cash and drink cocktails (I promise not to TikTok them).
George, I have some questions regarding Pinterest. I know how people buy followers on Instagram and cheat, but how do they cheat on Pinterest? Also, can you explain the workings of Pinterest impressions a bit more so I can understand how it works? Things such as how long they stay in your feed, how many different pins show up in your feed, etc. Is this the main way for people to find your Pinterest pins, or is a general search the more common way? Does Pinterest give this breakdown in the analytics? How many Pinterest pins were you roughly doing in the last few months, and how many different posts were you pinning every month on average (approx)? How much time do you think Tailwind saved you in a month compared to if you did the same thing manually?
Hey again, John. Interesting questions. I’ll do my best to reply to them. I’m not a Pinterest guru, but I used the platform a lot. So:
1) How do they cheat on Pinterest?
I didn’t come across some cheating process. I’m sure it exists, but I have no clue how people might do it. One thing that happens for sure is the mass follow – mass unfollow. It has dubious results because you can’t really make a profit out of it, I think.
2) Can you explain the workings of Pinterest impressions a bit more so I can understand how it works?
Let’s say that you search for something on Pinterest, random example, “best SEO practices”. The search results will give you a number of pins. And then you start scrolling. Every pin you go through scrolling is an impression, even if you don’t stop at it. Practically, if you just scroll endlessly down out of boredom, all these are impressions. That said, impressions don’t have a “quality” side. A Pinterest impression can be somebody stopping for ten minutes and admiring your pin, but it can also be someone who never “really” saw the Pin because he/she just scrolled. That’s why I call it a vanity metric. It might give some credibility (“Wow, this guy has 10 M impressions!”), but other than that, it doesn’t mean anything. It’s not measurable. You can have 10M impressions, 30K followers, and receive just 500 website visits per month. On the other hand, you can have 500 followers, 20K impressions, and receive 1,000 clicks. (These numbers are totally random; I just add them for the example).
3) Is this the main way for people to find your Pinterest pins, or is a general search the more common way?
I think that general search is the most common way to be discovered. I think that people don’t spend so much time on their feed -they prefer searching for pins and creating boards.
4) Does Pinterest give this breakdown in the analytics?
I’m afraid it doesn’t. You get some rather good analytics regarding the traffic each pin generates, you see the number of saves and the website clicks. But super-advanced analytics in the style of Google Analytics, you won’t get. I find Pinterest analytics quite okay, though.
5) How much time do you think Tailwind saved you in a month compared to if you did the same thing manually?
I’ll reply first to this question, and then I’ll move to your previous one. Tailwind saved me a lot of time. With Tailwind, I tried to pre-schedule one month of content in advance. I usually worked on it on Sundays. I’d say that with 3-4 hours of work every Sunday, I could pin to relevant boards lots of content. At some point, I had even two months of content scheduled. This gives you tremendous help because on Pinterest is better to be active every day -and actually several times. So, with Tailwind, I could schedule (let’s say) one pin every hour for the next one month. It would have been impossible for me to log in every hour or two and do manual pinning. Before Tailwind, I used to log in on Pinterest once per day and pin a couple of pins. Tailwind saved me lots of hours -but it, of course, requests some hours of work.
6) How many Pinterest pins were you roughly doing in the last few months, and how many different posts were you pinning every month on average (approx)?
It is advised not to pin more than 20 pins per day. So my schedule was: to schedule 20 pins per day with Tailwind. Tailwind also analyzed the optimal sharing times. I used different tactics in terms of ratio (how many of my own pins : how many from others). I used to create approximately 15-20 pins per week. Then I would also reschedule older ones. And add here the pins from others. Roughly 140 pins per week were my sharing schedule. I tried everything regarding the ratio (40:60, 50:50, 70:30) and didn’t see that much difference.
It’s a long reply, John, but I hope you got some info about the way Pinterest works. In general, it’s a great tool and Tailwind superb software. However, if what I currently observe is Pinterest’s future, people using it should be prepared to see a -80% organic traffic. If you want the old Pinterest traffic back, then you’ll probably have to pay for ads.
Awesome reply, George. Thanks! These answers have really opened my eyes to Pinterest. From your response, it looks as if Tailwind is a must-have tool if you plan on using Pinterest to its maximum potential. I’m not sure what I would do if I were in your position.
You are welcome, John. Yes, for me, Tailwind is a must-use software if you want to make the most out of Pinterest. It will save you time, and it’ll help you connect with like-minded bloggers via Tailwind Communities (formerly known as Tribes).
It’s hard for me not to renew my Tailwind subscription; however, the way things go right now with Pinterest doesn’t give me many choices. I’ll stick for a while to that old Social Media trick: stay away for a while to see if things return to normal. If yes (doubt it), I’ll buy a new subscription; if not, goodbye, Pinterest.
Awesome article. Very informative. I too am also a blogger and my traffic from Pinterest has TANKED as well.
I have, however, been using Idea Pins and that is generating me a bit more traffic to my site.
Pinterest is also pushing Idea pins — as like you said, they want to keep people on their platform.
Idea Pins is a great way to get more impressions and get people to click back to your websites home page.
Thanks for the valuable info, Xavier! I’m not really active on Pinterest anymore, but it’s good to know that there are still people working with it. Once again, thanks for your comment, and I hope it helps the readers/users of Pinterest find success in the platform.
This article was very thought provoking and helped me make sense of what’s been going on with my blog. Had great traffic in the earlier part of the year then a sudden and drastic drop. It was good while it lasted I guess.
Hello Lisa,
Your statement, “it was good while it lasted,” describes exactly my feelings. As I mentioned in the post, I was never a Pinterest guru. However, I was able to understand how Pinterest works, and after almost two years, I managed to grow my account and receive some traffic from it. I used Tailwind, scheduled my pins, created fresh ones, interacted -and followed a couple of strategies that seemed to work. But not anymore. During the last couple of months, nothing seems to work. I don’t know if it’s a glitch (I don’t think so) or if we got into some bizarre Pinterest shadowban. As you read, Pinterest’s customer support claimed that my account is fine.
I think that Pinterest is heading towards pay-to-play. Fair enough, but I’m not really willing to go down this path because I never saw an insane amount of traffic that would justify the cost. To be honest, I’m already less and less active.
However, if you haven’t tried contacting customer support, I suggest you do so. You never know, maybe you’ll have better luck. No matter, keep blogging, and don’t let the ups and downs of traffic take the fun away. Blogging is fun, especially in times like this.
Take care and all the best for the new year,
George
Thanks for putting together and sharing this information. I experienced the same huge drop in traffic from Pinterest followed by unexplained fluctuations. I created a FB group specifically on this topic to share tips and strategies specifically and help each other solve the problem, please go ahead and join https://www.facebook.com/groups/pinteresttrafficforbloggers
Thanks for sharing, Litta. Not much into FB groups, but I approved your comment in case some people reading the blog would like to give it a try. Best of luck with your efforts.
George
Thank you for that…still no change on my side as far as traffic from pinterest…the drop is still there
Hey Litta. Same here. No change for me either. I stopped dealing with Pinterest. If the situation changes, I might consider being more active, but I guess it won’t happen anyway. Best of luck!
Hi George,
Have you had any positive changes since this article was posted? I am still new to blogging so my numbers were fairly small but I am now down to less than 400 impressions each day as opposed to 2000. I am not sure what happened or how to change it. I am going to continue to keep trying but hoping things will improve.
Hello, dear Ashley,
Thanks for your comment. I’m afraid I don’t have good news to share. Nothing has changed so far. 90% of my Pinterest traffic is gone. I reached out one last time to Pinterest Customer Support, but I once again heard the same things: nothing wrong with the account, keep on pinning, etc. I lost hope in Pinterest. It’s been almost five months that this thing started, and it never went back. If it’s a glitch or an algorithm change (subsequently, a change of their marketing strategy), I can’t tell; however, I suspect the latter. As I wrote in the blog post, I’m glad that I didn’t depend that much on Social Media traffic because otherwise, it would have been really a disaster. In a couple of days, my Tailwind subscription expires, and I won’t renew it. It doesn’t make any sense to invest time and money when you don’t get anything in return.
Apart from the impressions, did you also see a drop in traffic? The number of Pinterest impressions is more or less a vanity metric, but traffic is not.
All the best,
George
Sudden Drop without reason here on January within days. Before that I could reach 100 visitors from pinterest. Hard work over 3 years. Now sudden drop to 15-20. A huge impact for no reason. My pins are all selfmade. Again a platform, not trustful, writing their standard mails and answers.
Our last choice is always to accept and resign. I (of course) would never do now “more”, in no way. I will spend the exactly same amount of time. There are no garanties anymore and that’s not a good promise.
All these plattforms have reached a point to frustrate every user (active user). They are all using their power against the creators.
Amen.
Michael
Hello Michael,
I can only agree: sooner or later, all these platforms turn against their creators. It’s their right to target bigger profit, but it’s not okay to go against the users that made them what they are. I’ve seen this happening on other platforms too, and the Pinterest traffic drop didn’t come as a big surprise. But I must admit that I was disappointed: you always feel somehow cheated when such things happen.
The traffic drop you describe is pretty much the same I experienced in terms of percentage. All of a sudden, 80-90% of my Pinterest traffic disappeared as well. It happened almost overnight: in my case, it started in late September 2020, and nothing has changed since then. I also create the pins myself, and I never wrote misleading titles (see, for example, the pin on this post).
I’m frustrated beyond words, and that’s why I don’t want to spend more time or create new strategies. That’s not because I want some kind of revenge: the platform doesn’t owe me anything -and, of course, I don’t owe anything to the platform either. But I’m sure that even if I “unlock” a secret Pinterest strategy or something, soon, the same thing will happen again. Honestly, I don’t want to run behind a platform. I’m okay sharing my pins quickly and then occupy myself with more creative things instead of spending time and money when I get nothing in return.
Thanks for your comment, and best of luck with your art.
George
Same here. About 60-70% drop in last few days and getting worse. If something seems too good to be truth, it probably is. Enjoyed the party while it lasted.
Indeed, it was too good to be true. Nothing changed at all during the last couple of months. Pinterest traffic is gone, so I’m already looking elsewhere. Same old story.
Wishing you the best of luck.
Hi John,
Great article that answered my question “Why does my Pinterest traffic drop suddenly”? Mine recently went down from 90k to 8k, without any changes in behavior on my part.
Oh well, I’ll continue creating Pinterest pics for my blog posts, just like you, but I am bummed about the fact that Pinterest is turning into an ad machine.
Hey Barbara,
Yes, unfortunately, that’s pretty much what happened to my Pinterest account. I’m now convinced that it’s all about the ads. Business as usual for Social Media platforms. I think that’s the best approach right now: keep creating pins for your blog posts, and let’s see if anything changes in the future. I doubt it, but you never know.
Best of luck with your blog!
George
P.S. Sorry for calling you John, George!
Haha, no worries!
I’m sitting here almost in tears as my impressions dropped from 500,000 per month to 12,000 in about 2 weeks! The thing is I was selling my photography because of my engagement with Pinterest. Now I don’t know. I am happy I found your post because I thought I was doing something terribly wrong. I did write to support and they said my account had been caught in some “spam bug” in their system. However, my numbers are still going down. I am thinking I will probably have to give it up as well. and concentrate on blogging. Thanks for you post. I feel a bit better that I am not alone! Best wishes to you! Cassi
Hello dear Cassi.
Glad that my post could help you a bit. Unfortunately, that’s how the situation is right now. I know it’s not comforting at all, but it’s better to focus on blogging and/or photography. That’s honestly the only thing you own. I’ve seen the same thing happening to me some years ago on Instagram. I depended a lot on IG: back in the day, half of my job opportunities came from it. An algorithm change plus a “new” approach (as old as money is) changed everything overnight. I insisted for a long time but then one day I gave up. Nowadays, I’m rarely on IG, and the “likes-safari” doesn’t mean anything to me.
I had some hopes for Pinterest, but I knew that the day would come. It was fun for the years it lasted. I experienced a similar drop in Pinterest traffic (I didn’t care about impressions, it’s a vanity metric and a faux-credibility one). I gave it a couple of months in case it was a bug/glitch/whatever, and then I quickly gave up. I still create pins, mainly for people enjoying my content, not for a Pinterest strategy.
On the bright side, at least it sounds good that they indeed talked about a spam bug. On my side, everything was -supposedly- fine. Oh well.
Take care, stay strong, and don’t give up.
George
Hi George.
Well, for me it was even weirder. I had the sudden traffic drop in November, exchanged dozens of emails with Pinterest (ebbs and flows, make better pins, etc), until they finally said there was an issue and they fixed it. Fast forward to exactly 2 months later, I got my account back. Well, not exactly, the numbers were the same as before but my new pins still weren’t showing great numbers. For a month, to the day. Then it all came back down… I tested it out and I know the issue is with the websites, meaning if I create pins linking to another website, the numbers are great, it’s when I link the to my website that the numbers are low.
So yeah, I thought I had figured it out, but apparently I didn’t… let’s see what happens in two months…
Hello Sandy,
Thanks for sharing your experience. I must admit that the whole thing surprised me: so, practically, the creators/bloggers/etc are not allowed anymore to promote their content but focus on others’ content, even from their competitors? That said, if I create a pin for you and you create a pin for me, we’ll see traffic, BUT if I create a pin for my post and you create a pin for your post then we end up -somehow- shadowbanned? I have no idea how Pinterest plans to attract new creators with such a strategy. More or less, I guess that we can create pins, have them on our websites, but we let others pin them?
Fingers crossed that you get back your account, and you’ll see traffic. From my side, Pinterest claimed that there was no issue with my website or pins. I just heard multiple times the same thing: fresh pins and wait.
Thanks once again for your input, and if you figure out a solution, please share it here; it’ll be definitely helpful for the people following this post.
All the best,
George
Hello George,
I experienced the same as you!
And, like you, I’ve given up on the platform.
Now I just pin images and link them to my blog post, then I move.
This started soon after they (Pinterest) went public and had to start generating revenue for their investors.
People like to say that pinterest is a “visual search engine”… Well, it isn’t.
Search engines don’t prevent users from leaving (see Google, Bing, Duckgo, etc.)
Social media sites use webview so users are forced to navigate back to the platform. And that’s what Pinterest (app) uses.
It’s all a charade.
If you have time, please read this link
https://medium.com/digital-diplomacy/the-pinterest-paradox-cupcakes-and-toxicity-57ed6bd76960
Hello dear Paul,
I do exactly the same. I share my pins, and then I move. No more time on strategies. Pinterest was (some sort of) a search engine in former times, but not anymore. Thanks for linking to the article; I read it several months ago while trying to figure out what was going on.
All the best,
George
This is the best content that I have read regarding the drastic drop in Pinterest traffic. I am experiencing exactly the same situation. Pay to Play once again. It is sad that they chose to be so dramatic and actually down right mean about it. This does not encourage me to spend $$ on a platform that clearly cares nothing about my jewelry business thriving. Best, Jane Bartel
Thank you, dear Jane. It doesn’t make me happy that Pinterest decided to take this road. But what makes me sadder is that this is affecting the creators out there. As you can see from the comments above, creative people from every walk of life are affected by this major drop in Pinterest traffic. If it still offers any value (I doubt it), the situation is still the same on my side. And it will -apparently- remain.
Best of luck with your business, and keep being creative.
George
What a great article, I hate to say it but I’m glad I’m not the only one suffering…
I’ve gone from 1,000 clicks per month to 40.
My impressions consistently 80k-90k everyday and in Feb-21 dropped down to 15k overnight. Downward trend is continuing and can hit 3k on a good day.
I don’t know why support can’t just be honest in their responses, it seems everyone is experiencing the same issues yet support seems to just be giving the same old scripted response.
Hello dear Neb,
More or less, these were also my numbers (impressions and monthly clicks) before this thing started. I have no clue either why they’re not honest in their responses. Every day I hear more and more people experiencing the same drop in Pinterest traffic. To be honest, I don’t think that traffic will resume anytime soon. I think it’s safer for each one of us facing this issue to look elsewhere for website traffic. I guess creating great content is the safest way to go. It was fun while it lasted, but we got to move forward.
All the best,
George
This is happening the same for me. We can not understand the pinterest monopoly. No strategy is working.
Hey Darian. Sorry to hear that. Well, in my opinion, and as long as there is no other kind of update from Pinterest, I think it’s the obvious: pay to play. In other words, exposure via paid ads.
George! Thank you for writing this article. My photography blog (Scott Ryan Photography) on Pinterest was averaging 110K viewers a month until September 2020. Then, one day, I went from my average 10K per post impressions over 24 hours to 2! Not 2K, but 2. I, too, said “huh?”. My account was marked as spam for a short time due to duplicate pins (I uploaded two different ways the same pin to see which method drove more traffic). Once Pinterest fixed it (only two weeks), I have had literally no traffic the first three weeks on any pin. My account now averages 24K a month. I have contacted Pinterest several times, but they pretty much told me what they told you (copy/paste probably). It is such a “relief” to know this isn’t just happening to me. I, too, am not wasting money on ads and I am definitely not wasting my time anymore (maybe 10 minutes a week). Once again, thank you for the article. Godspeed and continued success in your future!
Hey Scott!
Thank you so much for sharing your story. While it doesn’t make me happy that you and lots of other people are experiencing the same issue, it’s such a relief to know that I’m not the only one observing this thing. I’m sorry for your Pinterest traffic drop: I know it’s hard to grow a blog, and it’s ridiculous to see your traffic disappearing overnight. More or less, these were also my numbers before this thing started to affect my Pinterest account. And then, one day, everything is gone. I still share my pins (such a “pleasure” to see 12 or 15 views in each one of them…), but as you mentioned, I don’t spend time on Pinterest anymore. Nowadays, I only create pins for the readers that want to save them on their boards and not as part of any Pinterest strategy.
Wishing you all the best with your wonderful photography!
George
Thanks for the post. I was searching for the answers of the sudden drop. Guess I am not the only one.
Thanks for sharing it in detail. No won’t bother about pin traffic.
Hey Jenifer,
Thanks for your comment. No, you are definitely not the only one experiencing the Pinterest traffic drop. Stay strong and keep creating great content. It’s the only way to go.
George
Perfect article. I agree 100%. I made 1200 click a day from Pinterest on my blog (luckly I don’t depend on social media) and since 3 months they dropped 50-60% after that they made a change in the algorithm and put in evidence in every single page the sponsored post. I’m italian and in Italy with have Pin Stories without a backlink. I spoke with them personally and they said they prefer traffic to stay in Pinterest with fresh, beautiful and personal Pinterest content (I Pin only my fresh pins however). I can’t understand why I should create great content only for Pinterest without having nothing in return. I will spend my time working on my blog…. adieu social media….
Hello Ada,
Thank you so much for your comment. That’s a remarkable drop in Pinterest traffic; I’m sorry to hear that. I also don’t depend on Social media traffic -for me, it was a nice extra. But as I already pointed out, it isn’t very nice to see months of work on strategies, etc., go out of the window overnight.
Interesting that you have Pin stories without backlinks in Italy. Apart from that, I know that Social Media prefer to keep traffic within the platform. However, it’s lame from their side to say that we have to create fresh pins because actually, that’s what we ALWAYS did. I don’t know any creator not making the fresh pin creation part of their routine. And the “reward” was somehow traffic. But now they want fresh pins without sending traffic? Who’s gonna buy that?
Your last two sentences summarize exactly my thoughts, Ada. Wishing you all the best for your blog -I just checked it out, and it seems delicious. Oh, and after the pandemic, the first journey I’m gonna take is a long road trip around Sicily.
Take care,
George
Hi George, and thank you for this interesting article!
I was wondering, if there are now like 20% ads and so many people that have had their traffic tanking like 90%, how does this add up? Is there some user type who has had more traffic or does this all mean that almost everybody has stopped using Pinterest or reduced it drastically?
Hey Jenni,
I can just talk about a bunch of people; unfortunately, I don’t have an overview of how the majority of people use Pinterest these days. As you can see from the comments in this post (and from the thread I shared within the text), this affects loads of people. It doesn’t seem to be a glitch but a change of strategy from Pinterest’s side. I see that more and more people read my article every day, and some of them share their experiences.
If you ask me, lots of creators have now stopped using Pinterest or significantly reduced the time they spend on the platform. Maybe everybody still logs in every day on Pinterest, but not everyone is as active as he/she used to be. I mean, it’s one thing to check Pinterest for validating that your traffic disappeared, and it’s another thing creating a strategy, sharing others’ content, paying for Tailwind to schedule your pins, be active in group boards, etc.
As I can see from the comments above, people from different niches are experiencing the same issue. It’s not, for example, only travel bloggers that see their Pinterest traffic disappear and everybody else is thriving. If it was just for travel bloggers, I could understand it somehow: the search intent has changed due to the pandemic (who’s traveling right now?), and therefore their content is assumed irrelevant. But to see this happening to people running gardening blogs or pet blogs, eh, that’s weird. These are things trending worldwide right now, and it doesn’t make any sense to reduce exposure. On the contrary, Pinterest should be really giving them a boost. That said, since relevance is not a key factor, to me, it’s clear that the platform moves to a pay-to-play strategy. Pay for ads and be seen -or don’t pay for ads and forget the traffic.
Regarding the 20% ads you mentioned, I can only tell you what I see on my feed. Maybe others could share more on that too. My feed has lots of ads lately, more than it used to have anyway. But I can only see my feed, so maybe I’m wrong.
No matter what, enjoy blogging, Jenni. It’s what matters the most. We will always own our blogs, and we will never own our Social Media handles. No one can shut down your blog -but any Social Media can delete your account overnight. After seeing what happened with my Instagram account (it was once at ~40K, organic growth, with insane engagement), I decided to never depend on Social Media traffic and use it just for brand awareness. It doesn’t make me happy, but at least I’m not seeing my blog traffic going back to zero.
Take care,
George
I have the same issue. I was at almost 1m a month and went down to under 100k. It was very discouraging. On an upside though, I canceled my Tailwind in February. I actually stopped using it all together around Nov-Dec, stopped pinning altogether for a while. When I started pinning, I came in with a whole new strategy. A once and done pinning. Make new pin for new blog post, post it and be done with it. I only repin a pin if it gets more than 100 impressions. I’m also leaving a majority of my group boards because I have plenty of personal boards I can fill up only pinning once or twice per pin. I’ve been doing that since February and I’ve gotten my impressions back to 400k. I think the strategy that so many have followed for so long is so engrained in them it is hard to change it up. What used to work doesn’t work anymore. I’ve never paid a dime to pinterest, but have felt the hurt of the changing algorithm.
Hey Jeniffer,
Thanks for sharing your strategy. Our timeline seems somewhat similar: a significant drop in Pinterest traffic around the end of September stopped pinning in late December, canceled my Tailwind subscription in early February. I also create a new pin for every blog post and just save it on Pinterest when I publish the new post. A once and done pinning for me too.
On the other hand, my impressions never went up again. As I said, I don’t pay too much attention to Pinterest impressions; it’s more or less a vanity matric. But I definitely pay attention to traffic coming from Pinterest, which is extremely low (to put it nicely) right now. Nowadays, I only pin my new pins on one board (not a group one) and wait until the metrics show. If I see anything between 1-10 impressions, I just pin it on every group board because nothing will really change. On the rare occasion, a pin makes something like a few hundred impressions, I only pin it to one more board -and that’s it.
Nothing seems to change, and I don’t really pay any attention to Pinterest. I only make new pins if the people reading my blog want to save a pin on their boards. I’m down to like 15K, and the traffic is approximately 100 clicks per month. I can live without 100 or even 1,000 clicks; therefore, I’m done with it.
Wishing you all the best with your blog!
George
Hi George,
Could you send me the contact email support address of Pinterest? Cause I sent some requests here: https://help.pinterest.com/en/contact but I didn’t receive any reply from Pinterest.
Thank you!
Hello Anastasia,
I just sent you the Pinterest contact email support address on the e-mail you used in this comment. Just check your inbox 🙂
George
What a relief to find this article! I thought it was just me, and there’s not many bloggers writing about this. My Pinterest traffic went from 70k monthly impressions last fall (newer site) down to 3k at this point. I also quit Tailwind when my subscription was up. I feel like all those Pinterest moms that sell Pinterest e-books must be kicking themselves now. I bought one last year and it basically tells you to buy Tailwind. Constant re-pinning and Tailwind are gonna be obsolete soon.
Hey Holly.
I think the Pinterest traffic drop starts to affect loads of people. It’s a mess right now: I don’t pin at all nowadays, yet my impressions are going up. The reason is even more bizarre: there’s a pin attributed to me that’s not mine that gets half of my impressions. I lost hope, and I quit. I still create pins only for the readers that want to save my articles on their boards.
Wishing you the best of luck, Holly! And enjoy blogging -that’s all that matters.
George
I started my blog a year ago and I have been using Pinterest for about 4 months now to try and drive traffic to my blog.
I publish content every week so I am always posting new content to Pinterest, I only post fresh pins related to my blog, and only Repin other people’s pins.
I created boards rich in keywords, claimed my blog, joined niche specific group boards, put up long descriptions and post consistently, you name it and after plus minus 4 months I’ve had a whopping 60 total outbound clicks to my blog.
I was not alarmed at first because I have heard that it could take on average 3 months for your account to pick up, also my impressions were growing slowly and the clicks were following the same pattern, however lately even the dismal 13k impressions I was at dropped to 7k and counting.
Also now I see that I am not the only one with this problem and I might have wasted my time focusing on Pinterest all these months.
I am looking to start SEO but I know that it can be extremely challenging and competitive, so I was wondering if there is any point to blogging in 2021? how are people getting traffic to their blogs and is anyone honestly making any money from it because I am starting to be doubtful.
Hey Casi,
Thanks for your comment and for sharing your story. As I wrote, I never had high hopes for social media when it comes to traffic. I used Pinterest for more or less two years, and all the known strategies (fresh pins, sharing others’ content, Tailwind, etc.) seemed to be working. Then, last September, the whole thing changed. It wasn’t the first time I had to deal with something like that: I have a -strong?- Instagram account of 30K+ followers that once was bigger and enjoyed significant engagement. Then, the engagement went down overnight, and it’s still at these levels. So I stopped counting on it. Therefore, when the Pinterest traffic vanished, I wasn’t surprised; I quickly skipped the efforts and saved time and energy.
As for the last part of your message, if it makes any sense to blog in 2021, I think this mainly has to do with your goals. If your goal is to have a creative outlet or if you just enjoy blogging, then yes, blogging makes sense in 2021 (and it will also make sense in the years to come). However, in my opinion, if you blog with money just in mind, then you’ll have to be really patient. Don’t believe the fairy tales of people blogging for 5-6 months and making a fortune. 99% of the time, that’s just nonsense. It takes time to start earning money from blogging, and it won’t happen after just a couple of weeks/months. It will most likely take years, especially if you are in more saturated niches (travel, fashion, etc.).
From my side, I believe much more in SEO. Even though it’s challenging -and yes, search engines change their algorithms often- you’ll see more constant traffic that won’t probably vanish overnight. More than 80% of my traffic is organic, and this didn’t change throughout the years -I run this travel blog for almost three years. SEO is far more complex, but it’s also more rewarding. And in the long term, organic traffic is the kind of traffic that will bring you job opportunities and, eventually, money.
All that said, blogging needs patience, continuous writing, proper SEO, and, of course, some luck. Feel free to check my blogging resources for more info and SEO tools.
Best,
George
All that said, I find it a bad idea to depend on just one platform for blog traffic. Algorithms change all the time, and sooner or later, you will be affected. It’s much more efficient -and safe- to have different blog traffic sources.
Hi! George, thank you very much for this article with details explaining the reasons why Pinterest traffic dropped. I have been wondering for many months. Being a small business, using social media like Pinterest helps a lot to boost the traffic, especially for picture-oriented businesses.
My mentor was so right that all these social media don’t last long. I should focus most of my energy and effort in creating contents.
Thanks again,
Janny
Hello dear Janny,
Thank you for your comment and for sharing your thoughts. I guess I share your mentor’s opinion: the free exposure and traffic you get from social media will never last long. Sooner or later, an algorithm change will affect you -and it will happen overnight. Indeed, the way to go is creating content. I don’t see any other way to succeed in the long term. However, promoting the same content through social media doesn’t seem like a good idea. Therefore, it’s much better to remain productive and creative.
Best of luck, and enjoy blogging, Janny!
George
Yep, a year later and this is still pretty much the case. It’s a shame Pinterest doesn’t care that they nuked their own website.
I had a short hope that maybe things had changed, but after witnessing my impressions go down 3 million hits overnight (along with a certain keyword I was using continually get “held” from the general pin feed) it does seem like it’s time to call it quits.
As you mentioned above, I only show up on certain social media websites to dump content and run. Seems to be much of the same in 2022 now, as well.
So sorry to hear that. That’s also the case on my side: nothing changed in 2021, and I guess this will continue throughout 2022. Pinterest decided to take a different approach, and while I’m sad they did that, I decided to quit early. Nowadays, I only create pins for my readers’ ease and not as part of some Pinterest strategy; these days are long gone.
I think that Social Media is dead for content creators. Pinterest traffic has been down since forever, but the same happens with most Social Media anyway. Carry on, enjoy blogging and have a happy new year!
George
Thanks for the experience, I’ll tell you a little, On 5 Dec, 2021, I have monthly 1,7m and daily 58k impressions, but on very next morning 6 Dec, it moves to 21k and moves again to 13k on 7 Dec. I continue upload new and unique content on daily also I try to make idea pin, but my traffic (outbond click) is consistently down. My daily impression stuck at 13-19k for this month , nothing increason.
what should i do to get it back to normal? any solution, should i stop using pinterest?
I am afraid that all my hard work is going to waste.
Plese give me solution to fix my issue.
Hey Tilly,
Unfortunately, as you can see from most of the comments here, there’s probably not much to do. I guess that it’s on Pinterest’s side to decide if they want to go back to the approach that made the platform an excellent option for bloggers. It’s almost one and a half years since my Pinterest traffic disappeared, and there’s no change since then. So, I don’t think they’ll go back to the good old days. I wouldn’t expect something that disappeared to return. If you ask me, I think these days are gone. I hope I’m wrong.
I can’t advise you to stop or continue using Pinterest; that’s something you should decide for yourself. I decided to stop making Pinterest strategies because I wasn’t getting any Pinterest traffic any more. The number of impressions is a vanity metric, and I never bothered with it. All I cared about was traffic: when I stopped getting Pinterest traffic, I also stopped caring about the platform.
That said, it didn’t make any sense to keep on working on something that gives zero back. But that’s just me. During the last eighteen months, I have only created pins quickly for my reader’s convenience. If they want to save an article on Pinterest, I want to provide them with a relevant image. But I don’t create fresh pins or participate in group boards, etc. For me, it’s lost time, and I prefer to use it for other things.
Wishing you luck,
George
Yep, same here… I lost 95% of my impressions and clicks to my site over a period of a few days in March. Pinterest support acts like we’re all gullible, saying “nothing is wrong (your pins just suck)” and tell us just keep pinning. Haha! Nope, my time is better spent elsewhere.
It’s hard to understand what their goals are. Seems like Pinterest wants to turn into Instagram? To me, Pinterest was never much fun and it’s even less fun now that I see mostly ads in my feed. Oh well-easy come, easy go. The world of the interwebs is never predictable.
Hey Tabitha,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I think Pinterest wants to turn into (or already is like) Instagram. I don’t mind that much about seeing ads, but demolishing creators’ accounts is unfair; the people who made them what they are are assumed useless.
I wish you the best of luck.
George
HI, George thanks for this great article
I am also having the same issue earlier I use to get around 1k impressions on my fresh pins though 1 k seems to be less If I see other accounts but I was really happy because I was getting lots of outbound click though having low impression and sadly I closed my blog due to some reason.
Then I started another one after few months and made account on pinterest, used the same strategies that I used on my old blog but nothing seems to work It has been around 5 months And I am stuck at 11 k monthly views. I don’t know what things I am wrong, I read so many blog post and they all say the same things like fresh pins, consistency. I am being consistent from the last 5 months and fresh pins everyday, spending so time on pinterest pining manually. Uff I am so tired of using pinterest.
Hello Ritu,
Thanks for sharing your story. Pinterest has become very tiring indeed. Nothing seemed to work for me back then: I literally tried everything, but soon I decided to skip it. I had a similar experience with Instagram, and I must say that I insisted more because I used to work with brands and make an income. With Pinterest, I lost patience quickly; it was apparent what was going on.
Nowadays, I use Social Media only for awareness, and I don’t count on traffic. I don’t know if it’s a Pinterest shadowban, but I stopped caring. Since you are not new in the blogosphere, you already know that organic traffic is the way to go. Social Media change their algorithms severely, and you can lose your blog traffic overnight if you depend on them. I would suggest the same to every blogger: optimize your blog posts for SEO and keep your Social Media for brand awareness.
I wish you lots of success!
George