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I think my account has been flagged as spam

sarawatsonim
Just visiting

Hi there,

My account is @sarawatsonim and I have been a Pinterest user since the beginning and slowly have grown my account over the last decade+ to over 100,000 which is something that I am proud of. I noticed several days ago that Pinterest traffic has all but stopped for me. In all these years there have been ebbs and flows, but it has never been like this. One day normal traffic then the next day all but stopped. 

So the paranoid me comes out, and I use my daughter's account to run a search for my pins and there are absolutely no results that go to my website. It is like thousands of my pins have just disappeared. The only pins it pulls when searching my blog name either go to an image file, or someone else's account (so stolen pins). 

I have played the game and followed the rules. I keep updated and follow the best practices. I post original content created by me for my website, I even use idea pins even though they don't drive website traffic. And after all these years I have all be but wiped from the site. 

Can someone please tell me what is going on because I am shocked, and disappointed that this has happened. This is beyond ebbs and flows, this is straight off a cliff. I have had this account since the beginning of Pinterest, so I am acutely aware of what is seasonal trends and when all my pins are completely removed from search. 

Thanks for your time,

Sara

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10 Replies
terezatoledo
Pinterest Pioneer
Pinterest Pioneer

Hi @sarawatsonim , welcome to the PBC!

I'm sorry to hear that you are dealing with this. Aside from possible glitches and even the possibility of getting caught on a spam filter accidentally there are other things that could affect a drop in views.

First, if you haven't done so, contact support. They are the ones able to look into your account and see if something is going on. This may take a few days, but it's the only way to check that. Contact the help desk here.

You account still looks great, over 100K followers and 7.9M views. Fluctuations are normal and happen to all accounts. Here'a an article explaining more about pin views and distribution: 

https://help.pinterest.com/en/business/article/pin-performance-and-distribution

Once this is out of the way, there are a few things you should look at. Research your stats, check your Google Analytics and compare to the previous year. This could give you more insights as to what has changed. Look into your content and see the their performance had been decreasing gradually. You may be due for a content revamp.

Moving forward I'd avoid repeating the same images, specially back to back. I don't know how often you pin, but repeating the same photos could seem spammy to Pinterest. Also, try to avoid just keywording your pins. Write complete title and descriptions. Same for Idea Pins. 
Have you ever though of using video when creating your idea pins? Most of the time they get more views and engagement.

I hope this helps!

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sarawatsonim
Just visiting

Thank you for the prompt reply @terezatoledo , I appreciate it.

I contacted support a few days ago but have yet to hear anything back yet. I check my Google Analytics on a regular and this is not within the normal range of fluctuations. I understand the fluctuations and experience those but like I said, my pins have all but disappeared from search. My account was actually growing/increasing in stats before the sudden complete drop off the cliff which makes it obvious that something occurred on that specific date. I was at 11.4 million two weeks ago until August 9/10th when the drop took place.

As for the repeated images, that was an issue with Tailwind and the most recent duplications happened way after my stats dropped. I actually stopped using it and have been manually pinning all of my pins to Pinterest for a while, and I was just letting my Tailwind queue finish.

My issues actually have nothing to do with the idea pins, since they don't link back to my website I don't seem to be having any issues with them and their stats. I sometimes use video in them, but my business isn't really conducive to video, so I make them when I can, but it is not always applicable to the situation. 

My issue is with any pin that has an URL directing to my website. They have disappeared. When search I get ones that go to static image pages, or to websites that have stolen my pins. None to mine. 

I also have started right complete descriptions as well as per best practices. Up until a few weeks ago I got large amounts of likes and shares on a daily basis. Anytime I was on the app notifications would be constantly popping up and now there are none. 

Sara

1 Kudo
terezatoledo
Pinterest Pioneer
Pinterest Pioneer

Hi @sarawatsonim ,

The best option is to wait for the support team to respond as they are the ones with access to this.

There are times in which we see more impressions and engagement on Idea Pins than standard pins. I understand you don't have the option to add a link to them, however they may be the best way to regain engagement and impressions for your account at the moment.

Pinterest has run a test on the possibility of adding links to idea pins, but we don't have a date for this to become official for all creators.

I know you have you content strategy in place and it has worked until this recent issue. Independently of the answer you get from the Pinterest support team, it's always a good idea to try new Pinterest features and explore their benefits. 

Many creators are seeing diminishing returns with some practices used in the past and seeing better results with newer approaches. Your content creation strategy is up to you, but most of us who have been leaned into creating Idea Pins and video, are seeing great results.

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sarawatsonim
Just visiting

I understand that and having to switch up your strategy, but people don't seem to understand that my pins are not showing up in the search even when I directly search them.

I search my website name which is attached to every pin, in the description, title and URL there are no results that direct to my website. All I get are image static pins that go nowhere, or my images that direct to other websites. At the very least when I search for my specific pins, should I not be seeing them in the results? Is that not the point of keywords, and especially that very, very specific keyword that is mine? Why would searching my website bring up other people's pins and not a single usable one of mine? That's my problem, my pins are not showing even when I specifically search for them which tells me there is an issue.

For instance, if I search "livelovesara capsule wardrobe" there should be a lot of results. I have put one out a week for the last 10 years. I understand that having the word capsule wardrobe will bring up other results too but any of mine that should direct to my website do not come up. If I get even more specific and just search "livelovesara" my pins should be top result right? How about none at all, which tells me that it isn't my strategy, it is something that is preventing anything directing to my URL from showing up. 

I got a response yesterday which was the same canned answer I was expecting, and what people told me I would get. The suggestions show me that they didn't even bother to look at my account because if they did they would know all those "tips" were implemented already. So, apparently based on other people's experiences I need to keep sending messages until someone actually looks at the issue which is completely frustrating and unfair to those that have provided the actual material for this website. Pinterest wouldn't exist without creators, and it is sad that they are completely brushed off when they are very noticeably having issues.

Sara

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terezatoledo
Pinterest Pioneer
Pinterest Pioneer

Hi @sarawatsonim ,

As much as I wish I had an answer to what's going on with your pins, I searched go "livelovesara capsule wardrobe" and immediately got your pins as you can see in the image I've added. I hovered over them and most went to your website (as you can see one example in the picture).

The best option to my knowledge is to reply kindly to the response you've received asking if they could look further into it.

I can also see that a few of them are just an image, which means someone pinned that image without a link (not from your account).

Screen Shot 2022-08-24 at 1.38.51 PM.png

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sarawatsonim
Just visiting

I did respond kindly with a few more details. Thank you.

Those images that you see with my website aren't pinned by me and actually go to the image file page, not the post. This, unfortunately, leads to a bad user experience, but I can't do anything about it because someone else opened the image in another tab and pinned them instead of from the post, so I can't change it or delete it. 

All of those actually go to the file page and are not pinned by me. The ones that I pinned with a correct URL are not in the search results and if one or two out of literal thousands are, they are way down the page. I have found one that I pinned that directs to a corresponding post out of all these results. 

I never use the pin button to pin from my site, I upload everything manually to Pinterest to make sure all the information and the image is correct.

Sara

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terezatoledo
Pinterest Pioneer
Pinterest Pioneer

@sarawatsonim , I see what you mean now.
I'm glad you replied with details and I hope they look into it ASAP.

I'm afraid that this issue is more than just your pins not getting impressions.
Looks like someone has been "cloning" your pin images and or some kind of shady activity. As a creator and Pinterest expert I haven't personally dealt with situations like this. Have you talked to your website developer about this?

Maybe Pioneer @michaelbliss has seen this before?

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sarawatsonim
Just visiting

Yeah, I am not certain what is going on. Unfortunately, I don't have a website developer and I am not certain what I am supposed to do. What I don't understand is why these pins are ranking ahead of the ones I manually pin on there that actually go to the website pages where they are supposed to. It doesn't make sense that these are the first ranking when I search my website name.  It is massively decreased traffic to 10% of what it was and is affecting my income dramatically.

Sara

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michaelbliss
Pinterest Pioneer
Pinterest Pioneer

Thanks for the tag @terezatoledo !

@sarawatsonim I can understand how frustrating this has been, you've worked very hard growing your community and I can see the effort you've put into Pinterest.

I've noticed some changes over the last couple of years how the Pin Extension occasionally links to the directory path on Wordpress sites ( /wp-content/uploads/ ) instead of the actual landing page (livelovesara.com/2022/08/a-fall-capsule-wardrobe-with-an-edgy-style/ is an example). My "blog" is on Tumblr, about 5 years ago I started posting in the same manner as you: upload the image and link that to the entry page.


That may explain search results have image only results and others will point directly to your profile and then to your website. A visitor saved your image with the Pin Extension, others you uploaded.


I did a search on "A Fall Capsule Wardrobe With an Edgy Style" which was on your website here: livelovesara.com/2022/08/a-fall-capsule-wardrobe-with-an-edgy-style/
Your website and profile were included in the search results, along with other similar images.

This does not explain the analytics tanking, but it does give a hint on how Pinterest distributes Pins based on search terms, user engagement and similar images. Make note of the top results, these are clues on ranking.


In 2020 my numbers completely dropped, so I decided to read a few articles from the Pinterest Engineering Blog and ran across this article:
https://medium.com/pinterest-engineering/unifying-visual-embeddings-for-visual-search-at-pinterest-7...


Basically this (and a few other articles I found) talked about user *engagement*, relevance, Pin habits, click through ratio and, importantly, similar images. Pinterest literally is a visual search engine, and machine learning has to deal with similar images and how to better rank them. I found if my Pin description included word for word snippet from the landing page, my numbers went up. Not immediately, but they did rebound. I removed a longer description and replaced it with the text that was on the actual image and from the landing page. Over using keywords seemed to work against me, but using 'casual' language payed off. But now we have Idea Pins which will have much better distribution overall, this can be to your advantage.


All of the tech stuff means this: we can't get ahead of the algorithm, because engagement and relevance matter the most in terms of ranking. Over use of similar layouts and images may lower pin distribution.


I would agree with Tereza that it may be time to try a new approach, specifically using fresh images, at the least revamp the layout of the images, and using some type of video inside of Idea Pins. Your numbers will rebound, but you also want to see overall growth.


I hope this helps you. We want to see you succeed, so please let us know where we can help.

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