2018 Pinterest Best Practices — 5 Need to Know Tips

UPDATE: So happy you found your way here! Obviously, you are interested in the current best practices so I’d like to point you to our comprehensive Best Practices Guide for 2019.

Ready to chat about 2018 Pinterest best practices?

Today we’re going to be talking about all the things that Pinterest has recently shared directly with content creators regarding the most current best practices. Their goal is to share more about how they operate with content creators. I think this is so amazing and so helpful that they’re communicating with us about how they want us to use the platform!

But this recent communication also brought up a few more questions and has created some confusion. In my Pinterest facebook group, I noticed that there were some assumptions being made after Pinterest shared this new information with us. Today, I’m breaking down the top five things you should be focusing on so that you don’t get bogged down in rumors. Above all else, I want to help you to avoid wasting your time and energy.

One of the assumptions I have seen in my own Facebook group is that this is a great algorithm change. If you are unsure of what an algorithm even is, it’s just a detailed, step-by-step instruction set or formula for solving a problem or completing a task. It’s a way of instructing the program, or platform, on how to do its job.

2018 Pinterest Best Practices

Change # 1 – Image Size

The first thing that did change in the algorithm and that you need to be paying attention to is image size. Images need to be a 2:3 ratio or they will not be distributed. My preferred image sizes are 600 x 900 or 735 x 1102. You can do up to 1260 but they won’t be shown, especially on mobile. All images you create moving forward need to match up with these sizes but you don’t need to spend the time to going back and updating all your old images.

Related: How to Use Pinterest Analytics the Smart Way: Keyword and Image Secrets 

Change # 2 – The Definition of “Fresh Content”

What defines fresh content? Pinterest now defines fresh content as:

• a new pin from your site (if it’s just been published)
• a new pin with a new description

If you have a pin from last year, you can repin it from your site with a new description and it will be viewed as fresh content. Your other option is a new pin of old content with a non-unique description. Fresh content can be created by simply changing the description.

The most notable thing that Pinterest communicated is that you should always pin from your site and never repin from Pinterest. Let your followers do the repinning for you.

Change # 3 – The First Five Pins of the Day

We discussed the whole First 5 Pins of the Day directive in the Busting Pinterest Myths episode a few weeks back.

Update: Pinterest has removed The First Five Pins of the Day from their Best Practices so we have removed them here as well. 

Change # 4 – Board Focus

For a long time, we believed that boards that we weren’t pinning to very often or that were outside of our niche were hurting us, but they’re not. What you should be focusing on is that you’re pinning to boards that contain content and keywords that your audience is searching for.

Always remember that the place where you are most active is where you will get the most engagement.

Change # 5 – Take a Deep Breath

Just take a deep breath. Take some time to do some digging into your Google analytics. I talked all about understanding Pinterest analytics in a previous podcast episode with Kristie Hill and also about “how to use Pinterest Analytics the smart way” in an episode with Monica Froese. You need to be a critical thinker when it comes your traffic. Use Google analytics to find that post that performs best and then become the party host! Greet them on your site, serve them an email opt-in, and direct them to where you want them to go.

After Pinterest dropped their series of best practices bombs, I sent a message to Kristi Hill that I wanted to share it with you as well.

We get something from Pinterest and there’s this expectation that magic will happen: A + B = C. And when that doesn’t happen, people start to panic and then they lose sight of their user and their reader. They’re then serving the algorithm instead of serving their audience. The clients we find who are most successful have two common threads:

1. They know their person. They know their avatar. They know who they’re serving.
2. They keep creating new content that serves their person. Their audience feels served, and as a result, their audience shares for them. They share on Pinterest without even being asked.

That’s where we see increasing traffic back to their website over and over.

I know that everybody loves a good graph with upward trends and that that makes us motivated, so I want to inspire you and encourage you today with a few from our clients who are following all of the recommendations I made above:

Client #1:

Client #2:

Client #3:

Client #4:

If you have not nailed down your target audience, sit down and write down everything you can about them on paper today. Above all else, just keep pinning. Work on using keywords that will really target your audience. Take all these things into consideration and then leave us a comment and tell us what your game plan is. We’d love to hear from you.

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Time Stamp:
 Intro
 2:31 – 2018 Best Practices
 5:45 – The Algorithm
10:10 – Change # 1 – Image Size
12:00 – Change # 2 – The Definition of Fresh Content
14:10 – Change # 3 – The First Five Pins of the Day
18:36 – Change # 4 – Board Focus
19:45 – Change # 5 – Take a Deep Breath