Having Rich Pins enabled on Pinterest is essential. Rich Pins can be the difference between visibility and a lack thereof.
When you’re scrolling on Pinterest, you’ll notice that some (most) images have a bold title below them. Some pinned images even feature a ‘read now’ button or live stock and pricing information about a product.
This additional data gets added to these pins automatically because the owner of the original website has configured “rich pins”.
What exactly are Rich Pins?
Rich Pins on Pinterest use schema data taken from the origin website. Schema is a form of structured data that’s easy for search engines to understand.
When you paste a link into Facebook to share it, Facebook usually populates the title, description and image – all automatically pulled from the source page. Facebook uses the same schema data for this purpose.
Google also uses schema data to display rich results in search engine results pages.
Schema, if used correctly, means that images pinned from your website on Pinterest are eligible for rich pins. Also, having correctly configured schema has other benefits for your website, such as:
- Better visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs)
- Increased click-through-rate from all platforms
- More attractive appearance when your content is shared
- Makes it easier for search engines to understand your content in more detail
How do I enable Rich Pins?
Unfortunately, Rich Pins from your website are not enabled by default.
First, you’ll need:
- An active Pinterest Business account
- A self-hosted WordPress website (other website platforms and CMSs can use rich pins, but this tutorial only covers self-hosted WordPress websites)
- The Yoast SEO Plugin active on your website
What is Yoast SEO?
Yoast SEO is a popular WordPress Plugin that adds essential functionality to ensure your site is correctly configured for search engine visibility.
In the WordPress dashboard, Navigate to Yoast > Social > Facebook and ensure this setting is ‘enabled’
Next, visit the Rich Pin Validator page. Paste in a URL of any blog post, page or product from your site.
One you have validated Rich Pins, you can then apply.
One you’ve applied, it takes a few hours for Pinterest to approve your application. Once it’s approved, you don’t need to do these steps again as all future pins from your site will now be rich!
Why Are Rich Pins important?
Rich Pins have so many benefits, such as:
- All pins from your website display the title, description, author, button and pricing/stock info (if applicable)
- Even if other visitors pin your content, they will still display as rich pins if they’re pinned from your site
- Rich pins are shown more visibly on the main Pinterest feed
- You can have 3 types of Rich Pins: article, product or recipe. Recipe pins also display cooking time and ingredient information.
