THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO RICH PINS ON PINTEREST
Pinterest’s Rich Pins — Everything you need to know about enabling rich pins for your Pinterest Business account.
As a Pinterest strategist, one of the most common questions I encounter from people trying to improve their Pinterest profile is:
What are Rich Pins?
Simply put,
Rich Pins are those pins saved to Pinterest that carry additional information about a pin.
Here’s what Pinterest says about Rich Pins:
“Rich Pins provide more context about an idea because they show extra information directly on a Pin. There are four types of Rich Pins: app, product, recipe and article.”
A Rich Pin is basically the premium version of a pin which makes it more actionable for its pinners.
What do Rich Pins look like?
There are 4 types of Rich Pins: app, article, product and recipe Pins.
Article Rich Pins show the title, the meta description (snippet), publish date, and sometimes the author’s name. In the feed, the article Pin shows the title of the post. You will see the additional information when you click on the Pin.
Recipe Rich Pins include ingredients, cook time, and serving info. The information displayed will vary depending on the recipe plugin you use. In the example below, the image on the left is what the recipe looks like in the feed and the image on the right is how it displays once you click on the image.
As you can see, it provides pinners with information that will help them decide if they want to come to your site: Vegetarian, ingredients, how long it will take to make, and how many people it serves.
Product Pins include real-time pricing, availability, and where to buy.
If you have a verified Pinterest account all types of Rich Pins add your branding to the Pins: Your icon and the name used on Pinterest.
Benefits of Rich Pins
Rich pins help improve your potential reader’s experience with your pins. They tell pinners what your article, recipe, or product is about. Think of rich Pins as ad copy for your post.
- Automatic updating: All the information that changes on your website are updated automatically on Pinterest without you having to change it manually. Huh, saves tons of time!
- Higher Visibility: Although there are stunning graphics which Pinterest wants, a potential reader will definitely be impressed by having extra information on the news feed. It makes the post stand out.
- Easier purchasing/information: Since Pinterest gives you all the detailed information in Rich Pins, it is easier for the buyer to learn any additional information that Rich Pins would show on the news feed.
How to get Rich Pins?
All Pinterest for Business accounts have access to Rich Pins. If you use Pinterest for personal use but would like to use Rich Pins, then I would highly recommend switching your personal account to a Pinterest for Business account.
You can get Rich Pins set up for your site in three steps:
- Add metadata to your site
- Validate and apply for Rich Pins
- Create a compelling title and description for every post.
Step 1: Add Metadata to your website
The easiest way to set up Rich Pins for WordPress is to use the Yoast SEO plugin. Yoast is also great for Facebook and SEO.
If you don’t already have the plugin, head to Your WordPress dashboard and install the Yoast SEO plugin. Configure the plugin and make sure to include links to all of your social media platforms when prompted.
Once you’ve configured your Yoast SEO plugin you will be able to navigate to SEO > Social > Facebook tab. Click enabled, if it isn’t already, under Add Open Graph metadata.
Step Two: Validate and apply for Rich Pins
Now that your site has all the necessary information for Rich Pins, you can apply to activate them. Head to the Rich Pin Validator.
Add the URL to one of your blog posts in the validator box and hit validate.
Once you get the green check and ‘Your Pin’s have been validated!’ message you can click apply.
This will be followed by instructions “We’ll review it and email you with any questions or next steps”.
Either way, it can take a couple of days for your pins to start showing up as Rich Pins.
Step Three: Create a compelling title and description for every post
Now that you have Rich Pins installed, images saved from your site will show additional information on the pins. Enabling Rich Pins is only half the equation though — you need to utilize them!
The description that is displayed in your article Rich Pins is controlled by the copy you write for your meta description. If you leave the meta description blank, your Pins will show the first couple of lines of the article. Take advantage of the description space by adding a compelling description to every post.
NOTE: if you Social Warfare, the social media description may be displayed instead of the meta description (snippet).
