Pin Descriptions – Do They HAVE To Be Unique Each Time You Pin on Pinterest?

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Ok, let’s talk pin descriptions on Pinterest. Yep, a little Pinterest SEO fun! (my favorite!)

In the recent Facebook Live events with Pinterest and Tailwind, there was a LOT of great information shared.

And, if you know me at ALL, you know that naturally, there were plenty of things shared that *I* do not agree with – but that’s a story for another day.

Today I want to talk about our pin descriptions.

The question asked was, “Should I change pin descriptions every time?”

To which the official answer was:

“Ideally, yes.”

Let’s talk about that one piece of Pinterest SEO advice that was shared with us…

and I’ll tell you what that means to ME – and whether *I* agree… or do NOT agree.

Pinterest SEO tips for more blog traffic - Pinterest Tips for Bloggers from @potpiegirl


Let me start off with this – I LOVE all the info that was shared by Pinterest and Tailwind – truly, I LOVE it!

Like you, and many, MANY bloggers out there, Pinterest is a very important traffic resource for me that can send a ton of traffic to our blog posts.

However, UNlike those sharing the information (Pinterest employee and Tailwind employee), Pinterest is not my “business” – it’s not my “make or break” livelihood.

I do NOT mean that in a negative way AT ALL, ok?

Yes, I DO sell Pinterest Training courses for both Pinterest Beginners and for Advanced Pinterest Marketers – but I do that to teach and share the things I’ve learned about one individual resource for bloggers.

If Pinterest closes tomorrow, so be it. I’ve been there before with other blogging resources I’ve taught (yes, I’m talking about YOU, Squidoo!)

YES, I’ll be sad! I adore all the traffic I get from Pinterest to my various blogs.

But it’s not the end of my over-all business model. (does all that make sense?)

I say all that, not to be mean or anything negative, but to instill in YOU the importance of keeping perspective on where information comes from.

Always gather information from multiple sources AND do your own testing to find what works for YOU.

Nothing anyone says about Pinterest is “gospel” – not even what I say {grin}

Let’s get back on topic…

Pin Descriptions – do they HAVE to be new unique pin descriptions every single time you pin it?

I believe Tailwind said, “Ideally, yes.”

And Pinterest said, “Helps, but doesn’t hurt”

So what should YOU do?

WHY do pin descriptions even matter?

And WHY are pin descriptions such an important topic to Pinterest NOW?

THOSE are the questions you need to be asking =)

After ALL the information Pinterest shared (the whole First 5 pins stuff, never RE-pin your own pins ugh! , “Fresh Pins”, which board to save to first, and on and on and on….), the one thing Pinterest did NOT talk about is…

The problems Pinterest is having with GOOGLE.

Yes, Pinterest was “slapped” by Google in a BIG way which led to Google DE-indexing TONS of Pinterest pages that used to rank REALLY well in Google search results.

But that was never mentioned.

Odd, huh?

I’ve read that others think my post about Google slapping Pinterest is “no big deal” or that it really doesn’t matter to Pinterest Marketers… heck, even that I’m an “alarmist” (or my post had an “alarmist” point of view”) –

and that’s ALL good with me.

At least other Pinterest Marketers were aware, talking about it, and forming their own conclusions.

That’s a Win in my book, whether anyone agrees with me or not.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you can read my post about it here (should open in a new tab/window).

So what does ALL THAT have to do with Pin Descriptions?

1. Pinterest is changing things up and showing pin descriptions in the Smart Feed, boards, etc as opposed to showing Rich Pin titles as they have been doing.

(I’ve noticed this change rolled out in one of my Pinterest accounts, but not in other accounts YET)

2. Pinterest wants… NEEDS… Google to love them again.

(yes, I said it)

Those Pinterest /explore pages are history in Google – gone. In fact, Pinterest has actually turned many of those previously well-ranking /explore pages into 404 pages (gasp!)

I’ve found some instances of Pinterest testing a NEW layout for their /explore pages – but let me tell ya, we bloggers are NOT going to like them (IF Google ever decides to rank them).

What DOES still rank well in Google are: Pinterest Boards and individual Pinterest Pins.

(well, they still rank well for NOW, at least)

That’s where pin descriptions come in – and why unique pin descriptions might matter a whole lot more to Pinterest than to YOU.

Let’s take a pin of mine as a visual.

I have this pin that’s almost a year old that has been repinned like crazy:

(please note the number my red arrows are pointing to)

Pinterest SEO Tips for Bloggers - does EVERY pin need a unique pin description? From @potpiegirl

You see that number in the “Saves” area?

30,720 saves.

Odds are VERY good that the pin description on that pin has NEVER been changed.

Now, if every pin and RE-pin creates a new url (new web page) on the Pinterest site…

and 30,720 NEW pages/urls on Pinterest were created from that ONE pin alone with the same pin description each time

Do you know what that means?

DUPLICATE CONTENT

On just the .com extension of Pinterest, over 30 THOUSAND web pages have the exact same content.

That’s Duplicate Content – having the exact same content on multiple pages of the SAME DOMAIN.

Google reports over 19 THOUSAND different Pinterest.com urls in their index with that same content for that ONE PIN:

Pinterest SEO for Pinterest Marketers and Bloggers from @potpiegirl

Let me just cut to the chase on what THAT means:

Google does NOT like that!

That is BAD SEO – and bad for ranking in Google.

If that was on any of our “normal bloggers” sites, Google would kick us to the curb!

Can you imagine having THOUSANDS of pages on YOUR site all with the EXACT SAME CONTENT?

Of course not!

So now, let me ask you this….

Who do you think REALLY cares about unique pin descriptions for every pin and re-pin?

Pinterest.

And they SHOULD.

I’d be willing to bet that one of the strongest sources of NEW Pinterest users for Pinterest is Google.

If Pinterest completely loses Google traffic, I’m sure it will hurt.

Now, the BIG question…

Should YOU Care About Unique Pin Descriptions?

In some cases, my opinion is: Yes, You Should.

Let me share my why.

Let’s imagine that every Pinterest board is a blog post.

(a board is one url with lots of content within it, right?)

Now, let’s imagine that every pin description ON that board is a paragraph within that blog post.

Would YOU ever repeat the exact same paragraph over and over and over within the SAME blog post?

NO! Of course not!!

Now, unique pin descriptions each time aren’t really the “key” to ranking better in Pinterest search….

and yes, Followers and Smart Feed users will still see and interact with your pins whether they have a unique pin description or not.

BUT, if YOU care how YOUR boards rank in Google…

and if YOU care how PINTEREST does in Google…

Edit those descriptions.

Totally up to you, though – just keep in mind WHY you would do it, ok?

My general rule of thumb for pin descriptions is:

1 – I change pin description when pinning to the same board (yes, I re-pin…lol!)

2 – I change pin descriptions AFTER I KNOW that pin is ranking well in Pinterest search for my targeted keywords of the original pin description.

Does that mean I ALWAYS change pin descriptions in those situations?

Uh, NO!

I’m only human and who has TIME to do that over and over and over? lol!

What I HAVE been doing is this:

During the week (ie, the slower times for my Pinterest accounts AND when *I* have more time), I will work some pins with new pin descriptions.

THEN, I schedule those ‘new pin description’ pins with my pin scheduler to automatically go out and get pinned to a few boards over the next few days.

Ideally, the new pin descriptions are done during the week, and the scheduled pins are going out over the end of the week/weekends when I get the most traffic from Pinterest AND *I* am trying to work LESS.

Make sense?

That’s been working really well for me… give it a try and see how it does for YOU.

I have to say, with ALL these Pinterest changes lately, I am loving the automation and analytics from Tailwind more and more and MORE each day.

Yes, Tailwind pins a “Fresh Pin” each time – but that seems to be ok right now when mixed with my other strategies.

(FYI – when they say “Fresh Pin”, that does NOT always mean a NEW pin – it simply means no board is credited with the repin. That’s also a story for another day – I’ve probably gotten myself into enough trouble today haha!)

Fun New Pinterest Feature

Just a quick note on something new I saw in one of my Pinterest accounts today.

Now, nothing in THIS post had anything to do with Rich Pins, right?

Your post Rich Pin title and description are always the same.

Or ARE they?

Today, in one of my accounts, I went to upload a pin to Pinterest using the red + sign inside that Pinterest account and I saw a new option inside:

(note: my other Pinterest accounts do not have this feature YET)

How To edit Rich Pin Titles and descriptions for your new Pinterest pins - Pinterest SEO tips from @potpiegirl

Do you see where my red arrows are pointing?

To a new TITLE option!

That allows you to create a NEW and UNIQUE Rich Pin Title for that pin!

VERY cool!

And totally is in-line with what I’ve been saying about Pinterest and their Google SEO issues… and attempts to fix them.

So what about YOU?

Are YOU creating unique pin descriptions each time you pin?

Why? or Why Not?

Do you use Tailwind to automate your pinning?

Or do you do a manual pinning strategy like this?

 

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Pinterest Tips for Bloggers!  Let's talk Pin Descriptions - what's the right way to do pin descriptions on Pinterest?  Do pin descriptions HAVE to be new and UNIQUE every time you pin or repin?  Answers from @potpiegirl
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