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Why has my Pinterest Traffic Dropped? And How to Fix it (2022)

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If you’re experiencing huge traffic drops on Pinterest, this article will cover 7 reasons why your Pinterest traffic has dropped and a 7 step process on how to fix it.

1) The algorithm changed

Every platform has a specific way of distributing content. In the past, the Pinterest algorithm was structured in a way where the content a user interacted with the most is what was shown to them.

In 2020, Pinterest restructured their algorithm to feature diversified content types on a users timeline. These content types featured story pins and video pins.


Now while video pins aren’t new to Pinterest, Pinterest are now keen on keeping people on the platform for longer. This is why you might have noticed seeing more video and story pins on your timeline.

Given these and other changes, it’s natural to experience a drop in traffic especially if your content fails to reflect these changes.


2) Re-pins are affecting your traffic

Re-pins on Pinterest are pins saved from third parties.

What most people fail to realize is that re-pins are a double edged sword. If you re-pin/save a pin that is going viral your numbers will go up. Similarly, if a pin you had saved to your boards starts losing traction, your numbers will go down.

In the past, it was easy to avoid this by choosing to re-pin pins with a high number of saves.

Pinterest have since removed this feature and it’s impossible to tell which third party pins are performing well unless they rank at the top for a specific keyword.

To find out whether your re-pins are causing traffic drops on your account, filter them out in your analytics.


3) Your pins have been stolen

Yes, you read that right. Stolen pins are a big problem on Pinterest. Pinterest have amped up their efforts to stop this from happening but it still does.

What typically happens is some people will target pins that rank at the top for a specific keyword and copy them. They’ll then post them on their boards complete with the same keywords and detailing you used and outrank you.

Whenever this happens, you’ll start experiencing major traffic drops for pins that would bring you thousands of clicks.

4) Your seasonal pins are losing traction

Seasonal pins on Pinterest are pins that do well during a particular season. These could be summer related pins, fall/autumn, Halloween, Christmas and back to school.

Depending on whichever season you have pins for, your pins can and will do extremely well. You’ll get thousand of impressions, views and saves. The Pinterest algorithm will also work overtime to distribute and show these pins to more people who are searching for this type of content.

As seasons start changing, your pins will start loosing traction and you’ll in turn experience traffic drops.

I’m not saying you should not pin seasonal content, seasonal content is great because you’ll get repeated increased traffic for those pins seasonally. I’ll show you a work around for traffic drops in the what to do section.

5) Pinterest’s spam filter

As I mentioned earlier, spam is a big issue on Pinterest. In a bid to combat this, Pinterest have introduced a spam filter.

What typically happens is if your pins are marked as spam, people will be unable to click on your pins or your pins will be hidden from search.

Because of this, if you had pins that were ranking at the top for certain keywords, they’ll disappear from the list.

This has happened to a lot of people and is probably one of the worst things that could happen to you on Pinterest.

6) Pinterest is glitching

This happens more times than I can count. Sometimes you’ll pin something and it will get thousands of views, saves and clicks only to wake up the next morning to crickets.

The same is the case for monthly views.

7) Your need a better Pinterest strategy

How flexible is your Pinterest strategy?Changing times and algorithms call for a flexible strategy.

If you’re still clinging onto the same Pinterest strategy you were using when you first created your account, your numbers will suffer.

Pinterest has changed a lot since it was first introduced. Things and content types that once worked on the platform don’t work today.

Now that we have some of the reasons covered let’s jump into what to do and how to fix the traffic drop situation everyone is tired of on Pinterest.

What to do & how to fix Pinterest traffic drops

1) Restructure your content to reflect algorithm changes

If you weren’t using video pins before, you might want to start using them.

A lot of people have mixed feelings about video pins but I’ve had great success with them on different accounts. I started using video pins way before Pinterest restructured their algorithm to boost them.

Video pins auto play as the user scrolls on Pinterest and allows a user to engage better with your content.

The key to video pins is knowing how to create video pins that convert. I love video pins so much I dedicated a whole section to them in my Pinterest e-book Pin your Way to Conversions.

Idea pins are not available to everyone at the moment and even the ones who have them aren’t completely sold on them.

Whichever way you look at it, both of these type of pins can greatly boost your content if you play your cards right.

2) Limit your re-pins

Simply put, re-pins drive traffic to content that isn’t yours. If you have a Pinterest Business account, your main focus is probably driving traffic to your content or products. The more of your own pins you post, the higher your traffic will be.

3) Check for stolen pins

How often do you check whether your pins have been stolen? You can find this out by searching for your content/content you rank for.

If you find out that your pins have been stolen, report the pins or get in touch with Pinterest support.

4) Diversify your content

Don’t be too heavily reliant on seasonal content/pins. If your entire account is structured to accommodate seasonal content, your traffic will be seasonal.

If your website is monetized using ads, your income will suffer greatly.

This also goes hand in hand with not starting a Pinterest account that’s too niched down but that’s a topic for another day.

5) Avoid spamming on Pinterest

Your content can be marked as spam for one of two reasons:

I) You went against Pinterest’s best practices.

ii) You were accidentally marked as spam.

In both of these cases, you can plead your case with Pinterest via their support desk.

6) Don’t panic

There often isn’t much to do when a Pinterest glitch is happening other than to let them fix it.

Keep posting your content like you normally would and let them sort everything out.

7) Invest in a better Pinterest strategy

Speaking as someone who’s managed a lot of Pinterest accounts and run accounts in different niches of my own. No two Pinterest accounts will work with the same strategy. Sometimes even accounts in the same niche won’t work with the same strategy.

Similarly, no one will give you their best tips & strategies for free.

Don’t get me wrong, I love free content. I even created this blog to give people free Pinterest Growth tips and strategies. However, free content can only get you so far.

I like to think of a successful Pinterest Growth & Marketing strategy as a 3 step process:

  1. Starting out with free Pinterest growth & Marketing tips on Youtube & blogs.
  2. Investing in a comprehensive Pinterest marketing course.
  3. Using all the tips you learned from the Pinterest marketing course and your analytics to create a customized Pinterest Strategy.

That my friend is how you win the Pinterest Marketing game.

Speaking of comprehensive Pinterest Marketing courses, if you’re struggling with figuring out the A to Z of Pinterest Marketing, grab Pin your Way to Conversions .

If your Pinterest traffic is also not converting to link clicks, check out some reasons why your Pinterest traffic is not converting here.

8) Use Idea pins

Idea pins formerly story pins are slowly but surely being rolled out to more people.

With key thing such as the product tagging feature at the top of the list, there’s never been a better time to jump on idea pins than now.

There have been debates in the blogging community regarding whether using idea pins hurts your static pins traffic and the answer is NO.

If anything, idea pins boost impressions and traffic as a whole on your account.

I have several client and personal accounts that strongly back this claim.

You should at the very least take advantage of the product tagging feature in idea pins to make more money in affiliate income.

I hope this article has helped you shed some light on the Pinterest traffic drop situation. Feel free to comment down below if you have any other questions.

This Post Has 5 Comments

  1. Nesha

    Very helpful advice thank you. Need to buckle down and get my Pinterest working properly.

  2. Ekta

    Very helpful tips. I think I have to modify my pinning strategy. Thanks for letting me know about limiting the re-pins. I have a point to add. I also suffered a drop in my monthly impressions. That time I was repinning a lot but to check out I limited daily re-pins to 1 and I saw a little increase in monthly viewers. Although it wasn’t much and monthly viewers doesn’t matter but that’s what I experienced. Thanks again for these tips.

  3. sylvia

    Very helpful tips. I do believe Pinterest is a bit of a mess right now with numbers all over the place. Will follow these tips thanks!

  4. Menaka Rao

    Thanks for sharing! 😊

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