😱 Is This Is Pinterest Update We Feared?

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How’d you spend your weekend?

I had a nice lazy weekend, though I did spend a little time responding to emails people sent me asking wtf is going on with Pinterest.

If you’ve been on social media at all in recent days, then you know what I’m talking about.

And if not, well, I’ll clue you in and share some screenshots of my accounts.

More on that in a moment.

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WTF Pinterest?

Just over a week ago I gave you the heads up that a Raptive site owner was told by a Pinterest ad sales rep that they are throttling traffic to sites running ads.

Two days later, I published an update after hearing from some of you.

Fast forward to today, and it’s been mass panic on all the socials and groups that I’m in because people are losing traffic from Pinterest with no warning.

I’ve seen reports of 100% traffic loss. I’ve seen reports of accounts being closed (wish I had more details on that!).

And I’ve seen a few people saying they’re fine.

Like most things, I suspect we’re not hearing from too many people who are fine or who are seeing increases (cause that traffic had to go somewhere).

First thing I have to say is that it was only a matter of time before Pinterest took action on both the massive amount of AI images and the people who are pinning 100 pins a day.

This is what happens when SEOs/site owners abuse things.

Also, this isn’t the first time Pinterest has done a major algo update and shuffled Pins to the detriment of site owners trying to squeeze some traffic.

How long will it take to return? Who knows.

And there’s always the chance this is just a random glitch happening at Pinterest.

Where did all that traffic go? Look at what pins are showing up for the traffic you lost. For me, it’s a lot of Etsy products.

Anyways, let’s look at screenshots of some of my Pinterest accounts. At least the ones I could quickly find passwords for this morning.

First up, a site with over 13,000 posts (all AI) that has been pinning sporadically 30 daily pins with heavy AI image use.

Pinterest account age: more than a year

This is not one of those niches that is “good” for Pinterest, which is why the outbound clicks isn’t impressive for the amount of pins on the account.

In case you can’t clearly see the numbers in the image:

• Impressions down 29%

• Engagements down 17%

• Outbound clicks down 14%

• Saves up 30%

Next up, a Growth Cupid client site with over 300 posts (supposedly expert written, but my guess is the experts use AI) pinning 10 daily pins with no AI image use.

Pinterest account age: less than 3 months

This site is in the travel niche, so a good niche for Pinterest.

In case you can’t clearly see the numbers in the image:

• Impressions down 27%

• Engagements down 48%

• Outbound clicks down 47%

• Saves down 71%

Next up, a site with around 250 posts (~80% AI) that WAS pinning 10 daily pins and no AI image use.

Haven’t pinned to this account in MONTHS because the site was deindexed when Google targeted me with all those manual penalties in March. So, it’s essentially a dormant account.

Pinterest account age: more than a year

This site is in the spirituality/religion niche, so a decent niche for Pinterest.

In case you can’t clearly see the numbers in the image:

• Impressions down 67%

• Engagements down 75%

• Outbound clicks down 85%

• Saves no change

Next up, a client site with over 200 posts (no AI) that was pinning 4 daily pins and no AI image use (he took his own photos).

Possibly worth mentioning, this client sporadically ran ads to his pins.

Pinterest account age: more than a year

This site in the popular home niche, though in a less popular sub-niche. It was hit hard by HCU saw a great recovery with Pinterest.

Client recently sold the site, so good for him but someone is feeling regret out there.

In case you can’t clearly see the numbers in the image:

• Impressions down 19%

• Engagements down 14%

• Outbound clicks down 17%

• Saves down 8.6%

Next up, a site with around 150 posts (~90% AI) that sporadically pins 15 daily pins and some AI image use.

I’m not very regular about scheduling pins for this site.

Pinterest account age: more than a year

This site is in the gardening niche, so very popular on Pinterest.

Also worth noting that the high season for gardening is over, so some decline here could be natural.

In case you can’t clearly see the numbers in the image:

• Impressions down 27%

• Engagements down 31%

• Outbound clicks down 31%

• Saves down 41%

And last, a site with around 200 posts (no AI) that hasn’t pinned anything for years.

Pinterest account age: more than 5 years

This site is in the fitness niche, which trends highest around the start of the year.

In case you can’t clearly see the numbers in the image:

• Impressions down 5%

• Engagements up 0.7%

• Outbound clicks down 2.3%

• Saves up 9%

So, those are all the passwords I could find easily this morning (my desk is pure chaos).

It’s not a lot of data, but do with it what you will.

And if you want to dig deeper into Pinterest stuff, I recommend checking out the link in this tweet I saw earlier today.

What actions am I taking?

Nothing really different from me since Pinterest isn’t my main traffic focus for any of my sites. So, I’ll just keep pinning while continuing to focus on other things.

And I’m expecting Facebook to be where all the Pinterest people flock to, which means it will be the next to crush sites more.

If you find something working well, then maybe don’t share it far and wide to get internet clout. That’s why Pinterest got overwhelmed and took these actions.

Week 17 of Newsletter Life Starts Now

Today marks week #17 of doing a local newsletter on Beehiiv.

We’re currently two subscribers below 3,000 (as of this morning).

I’m not surprised to see this drop in subscriber growth because our Facebook ads costs were a bit up this past week.

I think that is partly due to school starting here today, so people were busy with back-to-school stuff last week. Hopefully the trend doesn’t continue.

In terms of revenue, we did manage to sell another $50 annual premium subscription on Friday. And we made a whole dollar promoting Beehiiv Boosts.

Reminder: I'm writing updates about my local newsletter on Twitter here.

Next Time…

Upcoming topics: more tips and ideas on Etsy and KDP, how it’s going with my chatGPT fiction ebook and the AI music thingie, and growing an ecomm site.

Stay awesome,

Shawna

P.S. If you’re looking for high level discussions or tips on things like local SEO and Rank & Rent, I highly recommend Jacky Chou’s Advise community. I’ve been in it for several months and there’s tons of value in it, including a SOP for local SEO.

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