The Quick & Easy Way to Set up Rich Pins on Pinterest
Things with social media is always changing and new things are coming out daily. For someone like me who loves social media and learning new things this is part of what makes social media exciting. I know not everyone feels this way though and it can be overwhelming to learn about social media. I love sharing what I learn and know though. That's my hope with this blog.
Today I'm sharing a Pinterest tip. Pinterest is my favorite social media platform and the one I spend the most time on and have the most knowledge about. So let's learn about rich pins on Pinterest today.
So first let's go over what rich pins are and then how to get them and why you should. Pinterest is made up of images called pins. Rich pins are pins that are enhanced with extra details and more information than regular pins. There are six types of rich pins: product, recipe, article, movie, place, and apps.
There are so many pins on Pinterest and since we all want our pins to be noticed. Having rich pins helps your pins do just that. It makes them stand out just a little bit from the rest. Especially because of the favicon next to my name. In the image below it is the pink F in the green circle. Not a lot of pinners have rich pins so the favicon really stands out.
There are a few bloggers on Pinterest whose pins are rich. I notice them and are immediately drawn to pins from their site.
If you are wondering about the types of rich pins and what they mean. This is a break down of how each type works.
Product rich pins give information about a product's price, availability, and where to buy.
Recipe rich pins show ingredients, serving sizes, and more.
Article rich pins provide post titles and descriptions.
Movie rich pins include rating information, cast members, and reviews.
Place rich pins show a map, address, and phone number for a particular location.
App rich pins include an install button to instantly download an app right from Pinterest.
You can only use one type of rich pin at a time so think carefully about which one you choose to use. I've had people ask me about the difference between product and article pins and how they should be used. Product pins are for items you are selling directly from your site (your blog, your Etsy store, etc.) Article pins are for pages that have original content or tell a story; this includes blog pages.
I use article pins and the image above of my pin is what it looks like for an article pin. I also included the image below of a recipe pin so you can see how it looks with a recipe included.
There are different ways to set up rich pins depending on what platform you use and how much you know about coding. For me I use wordpress and I want things to be super simple with little coding and tech involved.
So here is the super simple and quick tutorial that I use to set them up on my site.
Step one: Set up Meta tags (Don't worry this can be simple.)
Since Pinterest requires you to add certain meta tags to your site in order to get rich pins. You can either add the meta tags yourself.
- First decide which type of rich pin to use on your site
- Then copy the appropriate HTML code:
movie rich pins for beginners
place rich for beginners
product rich pins for beginners
recipe rich pins for beginners
3. Next you will paste the HTML code between the <head> </head> tag on any one of your posts.
This can be confusing and it was for me but there is an easier way. Luckily, the Yoast plugin adds these for you! No coding needed here! Thank goodness! In case you’re unfamiliar with Yoast, it’s a search engine optimization (SEO) plugin, which can boost your blog in search engine rankings, when used properly. I already used Yoast for SEO before I applied for rich pins. It’s a great tool!
Anyways what you'll need to do is install and activate Yoast. After Yoast is activated, go to the “social” tab under Yoast’s settings. Make sure the box is ticked next to “add open graph meta data.”
Step two: Use the Rich Pin Validator!
Now that your site has meta tags that either you inserted or with Yoast head over to the rich pin validator . Take a post that you added meta tags to or any post if you used Yoast and insert that into the validator. click validate
Step three: apply and wait
After validating, you should see a message that says “your pin’s been validated!” Then, click “apply now.” A pop up will come up with your website’s domain and “HTML tags” selected. Click “apply now” once again. It will take a couple days but once your site is validated and enabled for rich pins, your pins will show up as rich pins on Pinterest.
See it wasn't that hard! was it? Now you'll have rich pins. Which is great for building your pinterest following and getting your pins noticed. If I go to my Pinterest analytics and look at the top pins from my pinterest profile at least 80% are rich pins. A couple aren't but I'd still rather place my luck with being in the 80% by having rich pins.
I hope you found this tutorial on how to set up rich pins helpful. For more posts on Pinterest visit my Social Media page.
