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Back in 2014, Pinterest updated their algorithm so that instead of being purely chronological, Pinterest created the Smart Feed, so does this mean we need to focus on updating past pins?
Now, Pinterest decides when to show your pin based on four different things
- Domain quality – aka – how often users pin content from your site
- Pinner quality – aka – how consistently you pin good content
- Pin quality – aka – how many users engage with your content
- The relevance of the pin
While this caused many business accounts to see a drop in their page views, the Smart Feed is actually a good thing because it makes the user experience better. And the better the experience is for your audience, the more often they will use Pinterest.
So how do you optimize your pins for Smart Feed? I’m glad you asked!
Table of Contents
What is Pinterest Smart Feed?
When you visit Pinterest, the first thing you see is your feed. It’s all the pins from accounts you follow and pins that Pinterest thinks you’ll like.
Before 2014, your feed was basically chronological.
Now, Pinterest uses an algorithm to show you pins based on your recent searches. Those could be old pins or new pins. It doesn’t matter to Pinterest. They want to show you relevant pins based on your behavior within the app.
So, what does this mean if you’re a business on Pinterest trying to schedule your pins?
It means your pins need to be relevant and high quality if you want people to see them. Your audience isn’t seeing the Pin just because it’s new.
How do I update my Pins?
One thing that changed is the size: Pins longer than 1260 pixels will be cut off. They also won’t be shown as much in the Smart Feed.
So, how can you update your Pinterest to work with the algorithm of Smart Feed? Should you update the image size of your older pins?
The ideal size for a vertical pin is now 1000×1500. But if you have pins that used to be top performers, then it might be a good time to refresh that content anyway. But really the most important thing is making sure your new content is optimized for Smart Feed.
- Include keywords your users will search for
- Use captions that grab your audience
- Create beautiful images that inspire
- Avoid any type of click bait that will frustrate your followers
How can I tell how many times my pin has been re-pinned?
You may have noticed that Pinterest removed pin counts from their analytics. You can see all sorts of things in your analytics – impressions, engagements like saves, link clicks and close-ups – but repin stats have been removed.
Pinterest is basically telling you that repin counts no longer make a difference in the algorithm, so they really shouldn’t matter to you anymore.
While this is not great news for older Pinterest accounts with higher repin counts, it does even the playing field so new brands can show their content to a larger audience.
Your focus should be on the analytics Pinterest does provide to guide your marketing strategy. If your content is relevant, optimized, beautiful, engaging and consistent, then Pinterest will show your content and the number of re-pins won’t matter as much.
We choose to focus on these metrics – especially saves – for our clients and personal accounts.
