Vincent NG
Welcome to day 2 of the 31 Days to a Better Pinterest Page. It’s also the day that my fiancee and I are moving in together. And we’re definitely looking forward to spending time together.
Today’s actionable step will for the 31 Days to a Better Pinterest Page will be to to verify your website with Pinterest.
Verify Your Website With Pinterest
I strongly believe that verifying your website is extremely important, and that’s because there are so many spammers out there that it can be hard to find out which Pinterest accounts are real, and which ones are not.
One of the most effective ways of gaining consumer confidence with your Pinterest account is to verify it.
Of course, there are some scammers and spammers that go through all the trouble of getting their site verified still. But many of them don’t go through the extra trouble.
There are Three Reasons to get Your Pitnerest Account Verified
1) It Proves That You have Control Over the Website
With Pinterest it’s very easy for me to copy your business, copy your profile description and copy every single name of your board, the order of it, and repin all your pins. That’s kind of scary if you think about it, but it’s possible.
But the only way to be able to verify that you are the legitimate account of a company is to have an account verified with your business’ official website.
By doing this, it allows for a check mark that shows up next to the Pinterest account name which gives potential customers confidence to continue window shopping on your Pinterest account.
That check mark is a mark of trust.
When Pinterest first started, and verification wasn’t required, there were so many fake accounts that were trying to copy Nike and sell counterfeit Nike products. And there still are. Have your business account verified to help you protect against these fakes.
I decided to search for the term Nike under pinners search on the desktop version of Pinterest. Notice how similar each one is?
It can be hard to tell which one is real and which one is fake. Because the url www.Pinterest.com/Nike was taken early on, Nike had to use the Pinterest url www.pinterest.com/nikewomen. Because Pinterest didn’t name their account Nike, I was very suspicious at first about whether it was the official account or not.
It was only after clicking on it, did I see the verification check mark next to Nike.com did I realize it was the legitimate account.
Here’s what a fake Pinterest Nike account looks like.
In the case that you do have someone that is violating one of your trademarks in regards with a Pinterest name, you can go through Pinterest’s trademark form to file an official challenge. You can visit the page here.
2) Verified Results Stand out In Pinterest Search Results
When I decided to search up the term Zappos on the iPad under pinners search, I noticed immediately that verified accounts had a little grey check mark next to them for the automated search results, helping them stand out.
On the desktop version of Pinterest, Zappos has a check mark next to them, helping them stand out from other search results that may also contain the word Zappos in their Pinterest account name.
Though it’s not related to search results specifically, when people do click on the search results on the iPad version of Pinterest, there’s a nice red check mark next to the website. Again, giving consumers a boost of confidence about your Pinterest page.
3) Get Analytics for Your Website and Your Pinterest Account
When you verify your Pinterest account, you get analytics and data about what’s being pinned from your website. You’ll be able to know who’s pinning, as well as how many people are clicking through pins to visit your website.
The great news is that Pinterest is slowly rolling out a new data and analytics platform that will give you data about your Pinterest account and your website. This has been a big request by users, and Pinterest is slowly rolling out the features. The announcement was made back in Jun of 2014, and hopefully many of us will get the new platform soon!
How to Verify Your Website On Pinterest
There are three ways to verify your website. In order to do this, you first have to go to your Pinterest account and then click on the pencil icon on the desktop version of Pinterest.
After the pop up shows up, you scroll to the bottom and insert your website asking it to be verified.
Once you click on the verify website button, you will have two different ways to verify your account.
There are Two Options on How to Verify Your Website with Pinterest
1) You can choose to upload the given html file by Pinterest. To do this you will need to click on the “Download Verification File” and add this HTML file to the main directory for the website you wish to verify.
2) Add a metatag to your website, which may require the help of a programmer.
Once that’s done you’ll have to back your Pinterest account and do the steps above and then click on Complete Verification. The verification should be quick, and if it doesn’t verify within half an hour, then a misstep was taken during the process.
Verification Through WordPress Plugins
If you operate a self hosted WordPress site, there are plugins that will help with the verification process through the meta tag method.
Here is a “Pinterest Verify Metatag plugin”
If you would like more of detailed list of how to verify your website, Pinterest has created a nice list that you can find here for a variety of different hosts that include:
Big Commerce, Blogspot, Bluehost, FatCow, GoDaddy, Goodsie, Hostgator, HostMetro, iPage, Prestashop, StoreEnvy, Shopify, Squarespace, Tumblr, Weebly, Wix.com, WordPress and Zenfolio.
Day 2: Actionable Step
Take the time to go and verify your business Pinterest account if you haven’t already done so. Prevent your Pinterest account from being copied, and help it stand out in search results.
Additional Resource:
16 Tips, Tools and Tricks to Improve Your Pinterest Marketing Strategy by the good people at Buffer.
Do you have a Pinterest tip you would like to share? Don’t hide it from the world like your some secret agent. Share it in the comments section for others to read. And if you wrote an excellent blog post about Pinterest, don’t be afraid to share it with the world.
