Should You Delete Pins on Pinterest That Aren’t Doing Well?
To Delete, or NOT To Delete – That Is the Question…
If you’re in my Private Pinterest Success Strategies Group, you know I’ve been super busy testing and trying new things on Pinterest.
I’m about 5 Lessons in on a new Pinterest Case Study where I am starting a Brand new Pinterest account for a brand new Blog.
It’s not only been fun, it’s has been VERY enlightening and a great learning experience – I’ve learned a lot of new things about Pinterest.
One specific thing I’ve learned has given me much better insight into an on-going debate in the Pinterest Marketing community…
Does it help to delete non-performing pins?
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Ok, let’s jump in!
Should You DELETE Non-Performing Pins?
Many Pinterest Marketers follow the strategy of deleting pins on their account that aren’t doing well – or have never done anything at all.
Why DO They Delete Pins?
Because they believe it helps the “engagement rate” for their Pinterest boards and for their Pinterest account as a whole.
Now, the other half of this “should you delete pins” debate says to NEVER delete pins.
Why DON’T They Delete Pins?
Because of two reasons:
1. Deleting pins really doesn’t do anything for your account to help, and
2. You never know WHEN a pin will take off.
Me? What do *I* Think?
Well, this is not really what I THINK as much as it what I’ve LEARNED by trying both techniques.
(my motto is: when in doubt, TEST IT for YOURSELF)
Yes, deleting non-performing pins helps your board stats look better in Tailwind and in BoardBooster.
But to be honest with you, those numbers don’t matter much to me.
There are only TWO things I really care about when it comes to Pinterest:
1. Traffic FROM Pinterest TO my site(s).
2. Repins of MY pins to help increase the chance of traffic to my site(s).
&
Best of all, my traffic FROM Pinterest keeps going up, Up, UP =)
I had about 30 THOUSAND visitors to just ONE of my sites from Pinterest!
And this current month is going to be even better.
To me, that’s pretty amazing – I LOVE free traffic!
So, back on topic…
Do *I* Delete Pins on my Pinterest Account?
I delete pins all the time – but NEVER a pin that leads to MY site(s).
Just the other day, I was scrolling my Pinterest home feed and saw a pin to my site that another Pinterest account of mine pinned.
Funny thing is, I didn’t REMEMBER my PotPieGirl Pinterest account re-pinning that image.
So, I dug in to take a closer look using one of my Pinterest research tricks.
Turns out, my PotPieGirl Pinterest account repinned that pin over 43 WEEKS ago…
Yes, almost a YEAR ago!
And I was just NOW seeing it in my Pinterest home feed.
I teach how to see that info for any pin in my Pinterest CheatSheet
For a mixture of reasons, the Pinterest “Smart Feed” has decided to show that pin to me NOW – almost a year AFTER it was repinned.
Why?
Well, first off, it’s a “seasonal” topic that is popular on Pinterest NOW – also, the two accounts follow each other – and thirdly, it’s a pin topic I was looking around in Pinterest for.
So, based on all that, it kinda makes sense why the Pinterest Smart Feed algorithm would choose to show my that repin from almost a year ago, don’t you agree?
Now, what IF “PotPieGirl” had gone through her pins almost a year ago, saw that pin wasn’t doing ANYTHING, so “she” decided to delete it?
I’d be VERY sad NOW if that pin HAD been deleted because that one pin, from almost a YEAR ago, is now bringing GREAT traffic to one of my “niche” sites!
What Pins DO I Delete?
I run 20 Pinterest Group Boards for my Pinterest Success Strategies members – and those boards see a lot of action.
However, it also means that irrelevant pins get pinned to the wrong board quite often.
I absolutely delete pins that are NOT relevant to the topic of our Group Board.
Examples:
– I would delete a DIY Furniture Pin from our Cooking and Recipes Group Board.
– I would delete a Christmas tree pin from our Summer Fun Group Board.
– I would delete a High-calorie Chocolate Cake Pin from our Health and Fitness Group Board.
– I would delete a Hair Style Pin from our Home Decor Group Board.
Make sense?
And, as the Group Board owner, I (with BIG help from my right-hand gal, my daughter) take good care of those boards to keep them on topic because that helps EVERYONE that pins to those boards.
And yes, we remove constant repeat off-topic pinners from our Group Boards – we only have so many hours in a day and simply cannot spend all day deleting pins…lol!
(side-note: if you’re using an auto-pinning tool to pin to Group Boards, be sure to literally CHECK on those Group Boards from time to time to make sure YOU are not accidentally pinning off-topic. Group Boards are only as powerful as those that pin TO them… and REpin FROM them.)
I also delete non-performing pins I have made to my own personal boards that do NOT lead to my site(s).
Actually, let me clarify that more:
I MOVE non-performing pins from my important boards to ANOTHER “catch-all” board so I can check them out and then decide if I want to delete them or not.
(this is SUPER easy to do with BoardBooster’s Pin Mover option)
In all reality, the only pins I truly DELETE are off-topic pins that simply do NOT belong on a board (and sometimes, I’ll take the extra step for the pinner to repin their pin to another board that IS relevant before deleting it – but that comes down to my time availability at that moment.
Bottom Line on Deleting my Pins:
I can’t see ANY reason to DELETE any pin that helps me/my site(s)…
or could eventually help my site(s).
I just saw, with my own eyes, how ANY pin can suddenly get exposure, traction, and traffic at ANY given time thanks to the Pinterest Smart Feed algorithm.
I also know, if I continue to do Pinterest my way, and let the Pinterest algorithm do it’s thing, it all works beautifully together =)
How About YOU? Do YOU Delete Pins?
Are you in the “yes, I DELETE pins” camp – or are you more in the “NEVER delete pins” camp?
Mentioned in this blog post:
More Cool Stuff:
Need pre-written articles for your blog so you have content to pin on Pinterest?
– Tiffany has a time-limited pre-written blog post pack here that you can use.
– She also has these pre-written blog posts which (oddly to ME) do GREAT on Pinterest.
Also to mention regarding great Pinterest topics…
The other night, we were out with friends, and 2 of the women were in deep discussion and excitedly talking about this niche topic.
Naturally, I was intrigued…and when I looked into it (because, you know, I’m a marketer..lol!), turns out this is a SUPER popular topic on Pinterest.
There are pre-written blog posts on that topic here.
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She makes over $50,000 a MONTH with her blog – so YES, she knows what she’s doing… and YES, she can teach YOU how to it, too.
&
Ready to start a blog?
Read my Blogging 101 Post Here
More Pinterest Help:
– How Often Should You Pin on Pinterest?
– How To Tell How Many Pins and REpins Your Blog Post Has
– How To Make Your Pins Go Viral on Pinterest
– The Ultimate Guide To Pin Images for Bloggers
I haven’t deleted my owns pins just ones that don’t lead to my site. I was afraid of taking a chance with my own. You just confirmed what I was thinking. Thx
Hiya Stacy =) Like you, I don’t see any reason to delete a pin that could even maybe someday help my site(s). It doesn’t hurt anything by being there, but it COULD help me in the future.
Pinterest is an interesting site – I truly enjoy learning AND keeping up with all their changes. But it sure can be confusing!
Hope you’re doing well with Pinterest!
I would delete my own pins that weren’t performing. But now I’m not going to. THANK YOU!! You also saved me a TON of time because sitting there deleting my pins gets tiring. 🙂
Do you create a new pinterest account for every website or just one account with a board for each website.