What the heck are rich pins & how do you get them?
Pinterest is an awe-inspiring platform. Anybody can post anything from products, articles, recipes, blog posts & more.
What’s even great is that Pinterest is a marketing platform not a social platform, (which is the misconception most have about it) & it can help capture all sorts of leads whether they be potential clients, new followers or awesome new business pals.
Pinterest is great all-around to get your business out there in the spotlight where it belongs!
But don’t worry if you, like many, thought it was just a social platform, because today I’m going to be teaching you one of the first steps you’ll take towards Pinterest marketing. In this article, I’m going to be showing you one of Pinterest best quality’s - rich pins.
I’ll explain what they are, why you desperately need them & how to set them up, ready for you to take your Pinterest to the next level!
So are you ready to get started?
What the heck are rich pins?
Well, to answer that question in short for you, rich pins show viewers that there is more context to a pin.
By this I mean, they show extra information about a pin that you’ve posted. This way, viewers can understand more of what your pin is about before clicking through to your website.
Here is an example of an Article rich pin:
Why do you really need them?
The answer to that question is heck, yeah & I’ll give you two reasons why you need them:
Rich pins are must need if you want to up your engagement game on Pinterest. If you want more click-throughs on your pins & you want that traffic of yours to skyrocket then rich pins is your way of doing so.
Rich pins create a richer experience for the viewers visiting your Pinterest. It gives it a more of a je nais se quois & helps you stand out from the large crowd on the platform. So when people search for you, rich pins makes it easier for viewers to find you.
Before we set things up, here is what you need to know
Now that we know what rich pins are & why you need them, you also need to know the four different types of rich pins there are.
Lucky for you this Pinterest fairy godmother is going to explain them right here in the simplest way possible so you can identify what sector of rich pins you need for your Pinterest.
Types of Rich Pins
Article Pins
So, firstly we have article pins. Article Pins help Pinners, mainly those of you who are bloggers to show extra information to your audience about your article. It lets viewers know if they want to carry on reading what you’ve got to say. Article Pins are like the example I showed earlier when comparing rich pins to normal pins.
Each Article Pin shows:
A headline
Author
Story description
Product Pins
Next we have Product Pins. This makes shoppers lives a lot easier. Why? Well, it’s because you don’t even have to click on a pin to find out any extra information about a product because it’s already displayed on the pin. So If you’re an online seller, then this is perfect for you to sell your products quickly!
Each Product Pin shows:
Real time pricing
Availability
Info on where to buy your product
Recipe Pins
Moving on, we have mouthwatering Recipe Pins. These pins are perfect for you talented cooks & bakers out there. Why? Well, it is because it makes cooking at home a lot easier for viewers. Viewers can get a hold of your recipes in a matter of seconds & not worry about wasting their time. Especially if they’re in a rush & trying to prepare meals for family, friends or special occasions.
Each Recipe Pin shows:
Ingredients,
Cooking times
Serving sizes.
App Pins
Lastly, we have App pins. What do they do? Well, these pins show an install button so people can download your app without leaving Pinterest. So App Pins are great for those of you who are looking for a new platform to expose your app. For now, app Pins are only compatible with iOS.
Each pin shows:
Availability
What platform the app is available on
Installation button
Now, Let’s get to setting them up!
So first things first, you need to make sure that you have a Pinterest business account in order to activate rich pins. If you already have a Pinterest account, all you need to do is go (1) settings, (2) account settings, (3) convert to a business account. You can fill in your account details there.
For those of you who don’t have an account yet, you can get a business account when your first sign up for Pinterest.
After you’ve converted or signed up for a business account, you need to know which sector of rich pins you fit in.
So if you’re mainly an online seller, then you will only need to activate Product Pins. But say if you’re both an online seller & blogger, then you can activate both but do take note that you can’t have both rich pins on the same blog post URL or page.
My advice would be, If you have more products than posts, then it would make sense to activate Products Pins first. But if you’re a service-based business (like me) & you have more content than products that you would like to promote on Pinterest, then start with Article Pins instead.
Now that we’ve got that cleared up & I hope I didn’t lose you there, now we can officially start installing & activating rich pins.
By the way, the following steps are for WordPress users only. If you’re a WordPress user, please skip to the steps section.
What if I’m not a WordPress user?
Don’t panic! This is nothing to be worried about. You Squarespace users out there like me have got away easier job. How come? Well, one reason is that Squarespace is awesome like that, but mainly it is because you don’t need plugins as WordPress users do.
All you need to do is connect your Squarespace to your Pinterest account. To find out how to do that here is an article by Squarespace themselves that can help you with the rest of your rich pin set-up:
Article - Using Rich Pins with Squarespace
Good luck!
Step 1. Adding Metadata to the Content of your Site.
You need to install the free Yoast SEO plugin.
Using the Yoast plugins will make things a lot easier for you, especially for those of you who aren’t very tech savvy.
In your Wordpress dashboard, you will want to go to your (1) plugins, (2) Add New > search for “Yoast SEO” (3) Install (4) Activate. Then configure the settings to your needs.
step 1.2
Now what you want to do it on your Wordpress dashboard got to (1) SEO, (2) Social - click on the Facebook tab and click Enabled under Add Open Graph metadata
Step 2. Validating your rich pins
Hooray! You’ve added metadata to your site. Now it’s time for the final step - validating.
So what you need to do is got to the Rich Pin Validator. You’ll see a text box labelled “Enter a Valid URL”. There is where you put blog post URL in there.
Once you’ve done that, hit the button that says “validate” & all you have to do from there is sit back, relax & wait for the validation to come through.
If you’re going for Product Pins & you’re using Shopify it’s the same thing but make sure you add “.oembed” to the end of your link. Remember to pick Shopify when applying.
It shouldn’t take more then an hour for the validation to come through, but don’t panic if it takes longer (like 24 hours longer) because sometimes it takes a while. If it takes more then 24 hours, then please contact Pinterest Support & they will help you from there.
Have fun pinning!
