16 Ways to Clean Up Your Pinterest Account

or…A spot of spring cleaning….

It was the first day of Spring recently, the sap is rising, and it is time to give your Pinterest account a thorough clean!

Why Clean Up Your Pinterest Account?

• Make your Page look more attractive
• make your boards and pins look more attractive and pinnable
• Get your pins and boards found in searches
• Increase followers and engagement

1. Combine Boards

If you have a number of different boards, with very little content, why not combine them? It doesn’t look very attractive if you have boards with say, only 20 or 30 pins. For example, if you have boards related to hair, beauty, and makeup, and very few pins on each board, combine them to make a far more attractive looking board.

 2. Move seasonal boards

It is a good idea to put your seasonal boards at the top of the page, so they are more easily noticed. But once Christmas or Mother’s Day is over, move them back down the page, to make way for other boards.

3. Delete boards

Maybe when you were setting up your pinterest account, you set up boards, but have since changed your mind about what you want the content of your account to be. These boards have very few pins, and hardly any re-pins, so delete them!

 4. Viral Boards

If some of your boards are getting popular, then move them to the top two rows of your page. These boards get more engagement, as they are the first that people see when they land on your page.

5. Split up Large boards

If your boards are getting very large, it is often difficult for people to find content. Why not split them up? E.g. if you have a large craft board, why not divide into Christmas craft, kids craft, and recyclables craft for example?

6. Layout of boards

Why not move your boards around on the page, to encourage people to engage more with certain boards? The top two rows of your account get more engagement, so move some boards there.

7. Board Names

Make sure that you have optimized the board name, and included words that relate specifically to the content. E.g. Photography rather than Pretty Picks is far more searchable.

8. Board descriptions

Again, you need to include keywords in your board description. But do not use hashtags, as these are not searchable by google.

9. Cover images

Changing your cover images regularly is a good idea as it freshens the look of the page, and encourages people to re-pin the cover image.

 10. Pins on correct boards

Quite often, we manage to pin to the wrong boards. Go through your boards, and check that the pins are in the right categories, i.e. boards. It can be frustrating to your followers that they see a bunch of pins that are unrelated to the subject area.

11. Double Pins

Now you are given a message if you try and double pin to the same board. But if you were one of the earlier users of pinterest, then it is possible that you have a load of double pins out there. Go through your boards and delete them.

12. Pin Source

Check that you have included the URL link in your pin, and that it is going where you want it to.

13. Pin Description

Have you got a good description of your pin, and have you included keywords? These will improve your chances of the pin getting found in pinterest searches.

14. Re-pins

Make sure that any pins you have re-pinned from other people go to the source indicated on the pin, and that they are not spam.

15. Include text in re-pins

Have you included text in the description of re-pins? Quite often you re-pin someone else’s pin, but it doesn’t include much in the way of a description, or keywords. Underneath their text add your own!

16. Followed accounts

It is so easy to click on that Follow All button, but in reality it can result in your home feed getting clogged with images that you aren’t interested in. Go through the list of people you are following, and delete ones that don’t fit with your niche. If that is too extreme, then there is the option to just follow individual boards. This also makes it easier when you want to re-pin a pin, as you can easily see in the homefeed the pins that are in your niche.

If you can think of any other ways to spring clean your pinterest account, then let me know!

Edit: Michael Cudahy of Big Brand Boost reminded me of another excellent way to update your boards. When your are initially on pinterest, you could have some great pins, but not many people see them. Later on, when you have more followers, re-pin them to the top of your boards, for the whole world to see! Not forgetting to delete the old pin! This is an excellent way for some of your great earlier pins to get seen by a wider audience, and get more re-pins and followers.