Pinterest not getting views
Is your Pinterest not getting views?
It’s not uncommon for people to feel like their content is great and it’s just not getting any views.
We’ve compiled a list of some reasons why this could be happening and also provided solutions that may help make your pins more visible.
So let’s get started!
What is Pinterest and how does it work?
Pinterest is an image-sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, and hobbies.
Users can pin (upload) images from websites, and other Pinterest users they follow, creating a collection of pins.
When someone visits your profile, they can see all your created pins as well as your boards.
Pinterest is widely used by bloggers and small business owners to market their content and promote their products. For many website owners, it is a great way to get noticed and to get free traffic.
How to check views on Pinterest
You can check how many views an individual pin is getting by clicking the “See more stats” button on the bottom left of your pin if you are using a desktop computer.
On mobile, you will need to click on your pin to see “Pin stats” at the top, which you can also expand by clicking “See more”.
If you want to know how many people have seen your pins overall, go to the ‘Analytics’ tab.
How to read Pinterest analytics
On the Pinterest Analytics tab, you will see data for Impressions, Engagements, Total audience, and Engaged audience.
These are important metrics to track when you are using Pinterest to promote your blog or online business.
Here’s what they all mean:
- Impressions – views, or how many times your pins have been displayed to platform users.
- Engagements – the number of times the audience engaged with your pins. This includes saving, clicking on the pin, swiping through Idea pins, outbound clicks, etc.
- Total audience – the number of users that saw OR engaged with your pins.
- Engaged audience – number of users who engaged with your content by clicking the links or saving the pins.
So, when people complain about their pins not getting views, they are usually talking about Impressions.
Note: You CANNOT rely solely on the Impressions number to judge how well your pins are performing, because it doesn’t take into consideration engagement with your content.
And engagement is really what you want – for users to click through to your website.
However, for this article, we are going to assume that both your Pinterest views AND engagement are low.
Why am I not getting views on Pinterest?
There could be several reasons why you aren’t getting views on Pinterest:
- You don’t have enough followers
- You are not adhering to Pinterest SEO best practices
- You are experiencing a seasonal dip
- You are not adapting to a Pinterest algorithm change
- Your account is caught in the spam filter
- You don’t have a good pinning strategy
- You’re experiencing an Analytics glitch
Let’s look at these reasons more in-depth.
Not enough followers
The biggest mistake people make with Pinterest is that they think just because they set up a profile, their pins will automatically start getting views.
It used to be the case that the followers didn’t matter on this platform.
Unfortunately, it’s not the case anymore.
Pinterest now rewards content that gets engagement (likes, comments, clicks), and gives priority to accounts with more engagement.
Someone with 10k followers is likely to have better engagement on their pins than someone who is followed by 5 people.
More engagement = Pinterest will prioritize your content because it will see it as user-favorite.
Therefore followers can make a difference.
You can see how many followers you currently have by clicking on your Pinterest profile.
Not adhering to Pinterest SEO best practices
This is a HUGE mistake.
Pinterest rewards webmasters who spend time researching and developing a strategy for their account, and also implementing best SEO practices when creating pins.
If your pins (or profile) are not Pinterest SEO-friendly, it’s unlikely you’ll be getting many views on your content.
Seasonal dip in Pinterest views
Some experts report that Pinterest views dip during July and August.
So if you notice Pinterest views dropping during these months, it could be because your audience is on holiday.
Don’t get discouraged and keep creating new content.
This will keep your profile active, even if you get few views on your pins during the holiday season.
If that is the reason behind your pins not getting any views then you will notice that your views will pick up again when the holiday season is over.
Pinterest algorithm change
Pinterest has been known to make changes to its algorithm, putting some pins lower on the feed, and some higher.
This can result in more views for some users and fewer views for others.
If you want to continue seeing a good performance on the platform, you need to adapt.
This means embracing the new features of Pinterest and adjusting your strategy.
Don’t just rely on old methods when new features or changes are being introduced.
Read about the new updates and try to figure out how they affect you and what you need to start doing differently.
If you are scared of changing your strategy, use a/b testing to gather data and decide for yourself what works best.
Your Pinterest account is caught in the spam filter
Pinterest has a spam filter, just like Google does with its search engine results.
The purpose of the spam filter is to weed out low-quality content and accounts.
Sometimes, even if you are using Pinterest SEO best practices, your account can get caught in the spam filter for no apparent reason (because there’s nothing wrong with it).
The problem is that Pinterest doesn’t tell users when this happens.
If your Pinterest profile is flagged by the spam filter, you won’t be able to get views on your pins.
How to find out if your Pinterest account is marked as spam?
Contact Pinterest.
Pinterest will tell you if your account is not spam.
If it is, they will also tell you why so that you can fix the problem.
However, there have been many instances where bloggers were flagged as spammy even though they didn’t violate Pinterest’s terms of service.
Sometimes, the only way to find out is to ask.
It may take some time until Pinterest support resolves this issue for you, so be patient.
Your pinning strategy
A drop in Pinterest views can happen because you don’t have the right pinning strategy.
The latest Pinterest best practices dictate, that fresh content is king.
Forget about repinning the same content 50 times per day.
This doesn’t work anymore.
Instead, you need to pin less often, and mostly FRESH content.
Another mistake in your pinning strategy that is costing you views is that your pins are not attractive to the user.
Pinterest is a visual search engine.
Like it or not, looks matter here. If you are pinning dark, unclear images with hard-to-read fonts, you will get fewer views on your pins.
Analytics glitch – use Google Analytics
Finally, if you see a sudden drop in Pinterest views, it could be an Analytics glitch on Pinterest.
To be sure, use Google Analytics to check if you are getting traffic from Pinterest.
If your traffic is dropping on Pinterest Analytics but seems to be stable on Google Analytics, there is likely a problem with Pinterest Analytics.
Occasionally software bugs can cause this type of inaccuracy.
If this is indeed the case, you need to contact Pinterest support and let them know that your accounts are experiencing this issue.
So, what can you do if your Pinterest views drop to zero?
If you have gone through the above list you should now have some ideas about what is causing low Pinterest impressions on your account.
There are quite straightforward solutions to all of these problems.
They may not work for every situation, but they are worth trying to get your Pinterest views back up.
How to get more Pinterest views
Go through these 8 steps to get more Pinterest views:
Pinterest SEO
Pinterest is a search engine more than a social platform. Â Therefore, you need to use SEO best practices on Pinterest.
In other words, make sure your profile and pins are optimized for discovery.
How to optimize your Pinterest profile
First, you need to define your niche. Write a list of 5-10 main keywords related to your niche that you will be targeting.
Make sure to include the most relevant of these keywords in your bio and even your account name.
How to optimize your boards for Pinterest SEO
You need a separate board for every relevant keyword, and you should add board descriptions with some keywords, too.
The next step is to add some pins to these boards – make sure they are closely related to your targeted keyword. This is another way to “teach” Pinterest what your boards are about and make them easier to discover for users who are looking for this content.
How to optimize your pins for Pinterest
Write a description with a few relevant keywords for each of your pins.
Also, add the most relevant keyword on the actual pin graphic.
Pinterest SEO can be a game-changer if you need to improve Pinterest impressions, so make sure your profile is optimized for the search.
Get more followers
To increase followers, try creating boards that are related to trending topics in your niche.
Another way to get more followers on Pinterest is to use the “follow me on Pinterest” button on your blog.
You can place it in several places: on your sidebar, inside blog posts, or email footers.
You might also want to ask your audience to follow you on Pinterest via other social media accounts.
But most importantly – create an appealing Pinterest profile. Â It is the first thing people see when they land on your boards and it is a reflection of you and your brand.
This means making sure your profile is professional, error-free, and attractive in every way.
Making this small investment is time well spent, as it will pay off many times over when you start getting more Pinterest followers, which will improve your Pinterest views.
Publish good quality, relevant content
Pin things that people would want to know about or see – don’t just pin random stuff because you think it’s cool.
Think about what questions your readers have and try to answer them.
Create helpful content that solves problems.
Great content will eventually be noticed and shared.
It’s also important to avoid having any boards that aren’t relevant to your target audience.
This will help establish you as an expert on your particular topic in Pinterest’s eyes, which will get you more Pinterest views over time.
Pin fresh pins
Pinterest has made it clear that it favors fresh content. Â If you want more Pinterest views, try pinning new pins as often as possible.
A fresh pin is a pin that was just added to Pinterest which means it has a chance to get discovered and recognized by other users.
Don’t worry if you do not produce new blog content every single day – you can create new pins for your existing content, and they will also be considered “fresh”.
However, avoid pinning from the same URL more than once per day. Â It may look spammy in Pinterest’s eyes and therefore you might get penalized.
A good rule of thumb is to pin 5-10 fresh pins per day (all different URLs).
Make your pins eye-catching
Back to the fact that Pinterest is a VISUAL search engine.
This means your pins need to have high-quality images, ideally – of the highest resolution.
You can find some amazing free stock photos or use paid stock photo websites.
Use an image editing tool such as Canva to edit your images and add a text overlay.
Colors and fonts matter – bright, warm colors are your friends on Pinterest.
Study your competition and see what pin designs are they using. Do not copy – but you can use this research as an inspiration to come up with your style.
I find this Anastacia’s video very helpful to learn how to create great pins:
If you don’t have an eye for graphic design – do not worry!
You can also buy premade pin templates that will look amazing and make your pin creation process very easy.
Again, a little bit of an investment in creating perfect pins is time well spent as it will pay off when you get more Pinterest views.
Try Idea pins
Pinterest introduced idea pins to help businesses make the most of Pinterest.
Idea pins allow multiple slides and video formats. They introduce more flexibility in terms of content and ways to use Pinterest.
There is a reluctance in the blogger community to use idea pins as they do not allow you to include a link to your website.
However, they are a great way to enhance visuals and increase your brand awareness.
Moreover, it is a feature introduced to the platform and you should explore it if you want to not get behind.
You might not like the fact that Pinterest has changed and it is trying to keep users on the platform instead of sending them to your blog, but that’s where we are. The faster you make peace with the new rules, the sooner you will learn how to make them work for you.
Experiment with using a mix of Idea and static pins.
If Pinterest sees you as a team player who engages with the platform’s new features and keeps producing fresh, good-quality content, you will stand out from the crowd and your Pinterest views might start going up.
Pin seasonal content
If you want to maximize your Pinterest views, it’s a good idea to schedule some seasonal content.
Pinterest users LOVE seasonal trends.
If you pin content that is relevant to the season (such as Christmas, Easter, or back-to-school) – you will see an increase in Pinterest views.
This, of course, does not mean you should forget about your niche and start pinning images of snowmen in winter.
But in most niches, you will be able to find seasonal content opportunities.
Use this to your advantage if your Pinterest impressions are low.
It takes time for new pins to rank
If you were using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog before 2020, you have experienced the golden Pinterest age for bloggers.
A few years ago, before Pinterest went public, it was much easier for bloggers to gain traction on Pinterest.
It was the perfect traffic loophole.
Google SEO was harder to master and took a lot longer to see results.
To gain traffic from social media, you would either have to pay for ads or put in a lot of effort to increase your following.
And then there was Pinterest, which was a fairly new platform, happy to receive any content from creators and share it with their users.
Blogger pins were getting re-pinned by Pinterest users all the time, and if you had good content on your blog – you would see it go viral in no time.
However, things have changed.
Nowadays, there is a lot of ads at the top of search results, pushing out other great content.
Does this mean Pinterest is not worth it anymore?
Recent changes can be discouraging for some creators, but you need to adjust your Pinterest strategy and mindset.
It takes a longer time to get your pins to rank.
But it is still effective at generating traffic to your blog if you’re patient with it.
Just work on all the other things we have listed above, and don’t be afraid to test new strategies.
You might not see the results overnight, but once you start getting more Pinterest views, you will know your strategy is working!
So be patient, even if your Pinterest impressions have tanked.
The possibility of free traffic is definitely worth the effort.
Final thoughts – Pinterest not getting views
It’s easy to feel like you’re not getting anywhere on Pinterest.
The lack of response from Pinterest users can make it seem like your pins are falling out into the dark abyss and no one is seeing them.
But there are a few things that may be holding back your success, and we want to help you fix those issues so more people will see your content!
We’ve outlined some possible reasons why your Pinterest impressions dropped together with tips for how to increase these numbers.
If none of these suggestions work for you, don’t give up yet – keep trying new strategies until something sticks!
You never know what could happen if you just keep going.
