Pinterest Strategy: Deleting Pins on Pinterest

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Deleting pins on Pinterest or not to delete pins on Pinterest, that is the question!

Should you be deleting the pins that aren’t bringing as much traffic as the other ones that you tested are? Let me just go and make this short and sweet for you and simple and say DO NOT delete your pins. Done. Mike drop. I can walk away now, right?

No way! Let me explain why. Deleting pins is actually not going to help you at all. There are a number of different Pinterest strategies and reasons that I can go through as to why it’s not going to help you and how it might actually hurt you, but one of the things that I want to cover is when it is actually essential for you to delete a pin.

Wait, Laura, you just said don’t delete pins. Well, there are actually three reasons why you should delete a pin. Okay?

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Deleting Pins with Broken Links On Pinterest

So the first reason that you should delete a pin is if you find out that the link when they click through the image goes to a broken or what I call a dead link, meaning it’s not going to pull up it gives them that 404 error 402 error like all the things it’s not showing them the value that you are trying to bring to them.

If you find out that that is true for one of your pins on your platform, I would suggest immediately deleting it, and then fixing the problem. So you can use that same image and repin on as a new PIN with the right link.

Unrelated Page Or Stolen Link

Tip or reason number two as to why you should delete a pin is if it goes to an unrelated page. So if you have a pin that’s talking about how you’re going to show them a video, but then you go to a homepage or landing page that’s not related one, you’re going to probably get marked as unhelpful or as a spammy post and to that person is going to be feeling unresolved, frustrated and probably still concerned about how to still answer the question they came to you in the first place.

So what you want to do is first before you delete that pin, you want to go in and see if you can edit it right. How many days was it that you pinned it? Has it been repaired and things like that, take that into account, see if you can edit it and put a right link in there. If you can’t it might be time to consider deleting the pin.

If you need help figuring out which of these strategies is best for you and your account, talk to a Pinterest coach. A coach helps you focus your efforts on successful strategies. Trial and error will involve wasting time by trying a range of strategies. After all, you don’t know what will work for you. A Pinterest coach, however, has plenty of experience. They know the types of strategies that produce the best results for each situation.

Time Sensitive Event vs. Evergreen

The third reason to delete a pin is if you have something that is time sensitive and not evergreen, meaning if you have a giveaway or an event that’s local, and it’s done, and it’s never going to happen again, it may be time to delete that pin.

My suggestion to you though, is to always think about what you’re putting out there in the world and how you can make it so that it is evergreen content. I have a client that we were just talking about how to turn Facebook events into evergreen events. So after the event happens, whether it’s local or virtual, how can you go into that event and update those people that said they were going to go to it or the people that are coming to it now past the date to show them that they can still get the good tips, whatever you are providing value help anything to make it more evergreen.

Try to see if you can make that event evergreen, which means like anytime they come to it, it will still be relevant to them. If you can’t, and it’s a giveaway or a promotion or an event that can’t be done that way, then it might be time to delete a pin.

Should You Be Deleting Pins?

So the question is, should you go through the effort of deleting your old pins? And the answer is probably not, but maybe yes. 

For most pinners who have thousands of pins, going through and deleting pins with no engagement is a massive undertaking. It’s time that is probably better spent creating fresh new content that will convert your audience. 

At the same time, Pinterest’s Smart Feed algorithm prioritizes content from high quality pinners. So any low performing, or low quality content you have can affect how often you show up on others’ feeds. 

You also want to make sure your pins are on brand and on message, so it might be worthwhile to make sure your messaging is consistent. 

So, if you have the time or can outsource this project, deleting poor performing pins can improve the performance of your other pins.

How Do I Delete Old Pins on Pinterest?

You can delete pins individually on the mobile app but you can only do a bulk delete on the browser version of Pinterest.

• First go to the board where the pins to be deleted are located. Click on the “organize” button.

• Next, select the pins you want to delete (up to 50 at a time). You can in fact delete multiple pins at once if you so choose to do so. Pins you’ve selected will be outlined in red and Pinterest will keep track of the number selected.

• Third, you can choose to move, copy or delete the selected pins. Verify you would like to delete the selected pins. Once a pin has been deleted you can not undo it, so be sure that you are positive you want to delete those pins. Then it is as simple as ‘tap delete’. You are done. You have now deleted pins from your pinterest account.

How do I know which Pins to delete?

So how can you choose which pins to delete? First, you’ll want to check your analytics and see which pins have the lowest engagement. 

The TailWind app even allows you to sort by underperforming pins so you can easily delete pins in bulk. Look for pins that have the lowest engagement which means other pinners have seen them, but they aren’t saving or clicking on them. 

Think carefully, though, before you delete any of your own content, since it will lower the number of repins others will see on the Pinterest stats on your website. Instead focus on deleting other people’s content that you’ve pinned. If any of that content is low performing, feel free to delete the pins. It won’t hurt your numbers and will help you see which content just doesn’t resonant with your audience.

One last thing to remember is sometimes it takes awhile for a pin to go viral. Be sure to give your pins a month or two before you decide whether to delete or not. Sometimes, a pin that wasn’t successful initially, can really take off as the trending topics change on Pinterest. 

How do you delete a pinterest account?

Well if you want to go the nuclear route and delete your account all-together here is how:

1. Open the Pinterest app on your device and log into your Pinterest account.
2. Tap your profile picture in the bottom-right corner.
3. Tap the nut icon in the top-right corner.
4. Tap Account settings.
5. Scroll to the bottom and tap Deactivate account.
6. Tap Deactivate account to confirm.

How to delete boards on pinterest?

If you realize that you want to remove a board (and all of its pins) completely to clean up your account a bit then here is how to delete pinterest boards:

1. Log into your Pinterest account.
2. Click your profile picture in the top-right corner of your screen to open your profile.
3. Click the board you want to delete to open it.
4. Click the ellipsis icon next to the board name, then select Edit board.
5. Click Delete in the bottom-left corner, then click Delete forever to confirm.