Pinterest slapped BIGTIME by latest Google algorithm update from @potpiegirl

33 Comments

  1. ‘Holy WOW’ Indeed!! Thank you so much for this extensive insight, Jennifer, what an eye opener. Your content continues to blow me away and has helped me REALLY understand (not as well as you) how Pinterest works for Pinterest Marketers. I am so so so glad I took your P.I.M.P Course because this post would not have made sense to me otherwise!! Truly Thankful!!!

  2. Wow Jennifer! This makes so much sense! You are amazing at all these techy stuff. Have you noticed how google search looks more similar to Pinterest in the last update? I really hope Pinterest sorts themselves out as quickly as possible!

  3. I truly hope other sites are paying attention!! I get so annoyed when they try to force me to sign up.

  4. Amazing post and holy wow! is right. It would seem to me that Pinterest would know better than to use Walls or nags. Wondering how this will continue to unfold as more “updates” roll out. That fickle Google is always up to something. On the bright side though it might be nice to finally be able to rank with my blog and not just my pinterest boards.

  5. This is super interesting Jennifer! The nag cracked me up! But I’m really curious to see how this all plays out! Thanks for the great info!

  6. This is literally GOLD! My traffic took a slight dip last week but I really did not think much of it. This is awesome reading and makes alot of sense! Thatnks for sharing!

  7. Awesome! Thanks for sharing the scoop!!

  8. Wow what a fantastic post! I saw a drop in my Pinterest traffic mid/early March. This was despite working harder than ever to produce content and on my pinning strategy (I bought your course and implemented alot of it, thanks it was awesome!). Traffic has recovered a bit now though but that is just because I am running the new 7×7 strategy, I think.

  9. Thank goodness someone has finally explained this!!! I have been asking in various forums for weeks what is going on with Pinterest traffic. Everybody kept saying “Oh, you newby, it’s just seasonal ebb and flow in Pinterest traffic…” or “Pinterest must have changed their algorithm again…” I knew something else was going on, but I’m NOT a techie, and I don’t know how to see this kind of stuff enough to know what’s happening. I knew something was happening, and I was right! I’m not crazy.

    Thank you for this!
    From: I’m Not Crazy Lady

  10. Oh my goodness, now I understand what happened. Thank you for sharing Jennifer!

  11. I don’t use Pinterest but this was still very useful. A lot of newspaper sites do the same trick.

  12. Thanks for explaining this, I sure hope Pinterest clean their act up. NOBODY messes with Google!!

  13. Hey Jennifer,

    I’ve been reading your blog for Pinterest tips since I bought the PIMP course. I can definitely say that I’ve learned a lot from you about Pinterest.

    While I haven’t noticed a huge increase in traffic from Pinterest, but then I really wasn’t getting a lot of my traffic from them.

    For the past month, I’ve finally started noticing more traffic from Pinterest. I hope that it continues because it’s taken me a while to finally figure things out.

    I’ve also been working on optimizing my pins for both Pinterest and Google. After all, why would you want to work so hard and not focus on both of the platforms?

    Thanks for sharing these tips and I’ll be sure to keep an eye on my Pinterest traffic.

    Have a great day 🙂

    Susan

  14. LOVED this post! I’ve noticed a dip in traffic but everyone advised that it was normal for this time of the year. I started to up my SEO game just in case there was some huge change and now I’m glad I did!

  15. so it’s the end of pinterest marketer?

  16. As always, a super enlightening read. Thank you for going into this in such detail. REALLY helpful!

  17. Thank you Jennifer for sharing this…it all makes perfect sense now. BTW- your 10 Steps rocks (and the 1644 tracking strategy too!) I’m a huge fan and owe a lot of my success to you!

  18. Awesome post! My traffic has dipped more than 50%. What’s even funnier, is one of the terms you used as an example in the screenshot, was an exact term I was getting Pinterest traffic from.

  19. Jennifer, thanks for the heads up! In spite of applying your P.I.M.P. strategies for the past few weeks I noticed my Pinterest traffic has definitely been dropping. I’m so glad this is a Google slap and not something I did. Just goes to show how we shouldn’t have all our eggs in one basket. 😉

  20. This same thing happened to eBay a few years ago. It didn’t kill eBay but it really did sting! Thanks for sharing, we can always depend on you Jennifer for our online businesses! Thanks a million for all you do! I just bought 1644 and I use the same thing, just didn’t know how to get infor from it. YES! Next I’m getting your SEO training, even though I said I wasn’t buying ANYTHING this year. Oh well!!

    You’ve got me excited about blogging again and making more money with them. 🙂

  21. Ah ha! No wonder I saw an explore page for a topic I was getting ready to write about one day and the next day it was gone. Makes perfect sense now. Thanks because I have been puzzled. I loved your Advanced Pinterest Training and can’t wait to take more of your trainings.

  22. Like you, my first thought when I noticed the forced sign up was, “how long can Google let this go on?” But then I thought, perhaps they are Pinterest and don’t really need Google. Some genius in Pinterest should get fired. Even mediocre SEOs like myself know that big G hates this kind of stuff.

  23. Great rundown of what happened – I always dislike running into those gated Pinterest pages, so a lot of times I would go immediately back to the search results and find something that wasn’t gated. I could see how that might happen on a mass scale and get Google’s attention. Great research!

  24. My blog is about 1.5 yrs old and I noticed a big jump in Google traffic and a dip in my Pinterest traffic. Thanks for explaining it. I hope I can regain my Pinterest traffic and retain the Google traffic. I was very happy to get a lot more organic traffic!

  25. This is the perfect example why you should ALWAYS diversify and never focus on one source of traffic.

    My top 4 passive traffic sources for my businesses are:
    1. Google
    2. YouTube
    3. YouTube Ads
    4. Facebook Groups (groups I personally own)

    Several years ago, thousands were using Squidoo and Ezine Articles as their traffic sources. Google slapped both of these portals and they disappeared off the face of the earth.

    Not sure about the future of Pinterest. Thank goodness I did not jump on this bandwagon!!

  26. What a great read! As someone who specializes in SEO but also gets a good chunk of traffic from Pinterest I’m on both sides here…for smaller websites who just can’t compete with big authority sites, having Pinterest land in the first spot of Google for them and direct users to their site is huge.

    At the same time, it reaaaally lowers UX to have to sign up to view something.

    I can say that my Pinterest account hasn’t slowed down, it’s been growing steadily but I also don’t think I’ve been one of those people who have been getting any traffic through Google on Pinterest. I don’t think my pins have gotten that type of authority yet..

    It will be interesting to see where this goes!

  27. Awesome. Thanks for sharing. I was beginning to learn how pinterest works and trying to drive traffic from it. I was browsing some Facebook groups when i saw a link to this blog. This should give me a head ups.

  28. I am one of those people who refuse to sign up on a site just to read their material. I am already a Pinterest user, but I chose to sign up on my own. They would have lost me with their wall.

  29. I kept on wondering why my traffic from Pinterest would not pick up in March. Thank you for explaining Jennifer this really explains a lot. I expect things will change and will change fast. Pinterest benefits from traffic as much as all of people using Pinterest for sharing their content and the traffic it creates.

  30. Once again you are on top of it! I’m so glad Carly sent me a link to this post today. I was starting to 2nd guess my pinterest strategy. Thanks again Jennifer

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