By now every Ecommerce Merchant taking advantage of the social media platform giant Pinterest has become obsessed and reliant on Pinterest Rich Pins.

What are Pinterest Rich Pins?

Late to the game? Rich Pins are Pinterest pins that display more detailed information about the product that you pinned. They are a free service from Pinterest that allows merchants to mock up organic pins with more information.

There are 4 types of Pinterest Rich Pins: 

1. Recipe Pins: Pins that automatically pull the recipe information from the blog post or article share and displays it on the Pin Itself. 
2. App Pins: Allows Pinners to download your app without leaving Pinterest. 
3. Article Pins: Allows Pinners to see the headline, author, and story description from all articles and blogs that are shared. 
4. Products Pins: The most important for Ecommerce Merchants, Product Pins pull the LIVE SEO data from your site (like the Meta Title and Description) as well as the current price, if it’s on sale, and if it’s in stock! 

Pinterest Rich Pin functionality is relatively easy to install.

With a simple code added to the back of your site, and a quick validation with the Rich Pin Validator, you’re ready to start adding Rich Content to your Pinterest Channel. Sounds amazing, right?

Pinterest Rich Pins Not Working

What happens when the Rich Pins stop working? If your answer is complete chaos, you’re not far off.

For months there have been reports, posts, tweets and more of Rich Pins not working, even after going through the trouble-shooting steps on the Pinterest Help Site. You’re not alone if your Rich Pins aren’t working even though they’re validated, or you’ve validated Rich Pins but they still don’t work.

We scoured Pinterest Groups, Blogs, message boards and more to find answers only to come up dry. Pinterest has also been suspiciously quiet about the issue, even after contacting our Pinterest Representative within the company. After emailing in to their help desk, this is the email we received: 

Email #1: 

Hi there, I’m a robot.

Troubles with your Pins can be caused by your browser, computer, or mobile device. Please try the following steps:

Computer

• Clear your browser’s cache and cookies
• Make sure your browser is up-to-date
• Try from a different browser, such as Firefox or Chrome
• Disable any browser extensions one by one

Android

• Reboot your device
• Uninstall and reinstall the app
• Update to the latest Android OS software
• Make some extra space (Pinterest works best with at least 20 MB of extra space)
• Clear cache (open your Android settings, find Apps, then Pinterest)
• Clear data from your Pinterest app (this doesn’t affect your Pinterest content)

iOS

• Reboot your device
• Uninstall and reinstall the app
• Update to the latest iOS version
• Try switching from data to Wi-Fi (or vice versa)

If none of these steps helped and you want to talk to a human, reply to this email.

Thanks,

The Pinterest team

After responding to the email, I got this message, which also seems to be a canned response as other Pinners are receiving this too. 

Hi Aly,

Sorry for the inconvenience caused!

Due to the technical issue at our end, the Rich information isn’t appearing on the pins even though the website is Rich Pin enabled. There are many other users who are also affected.

Right now we do not have an exact timeline for the fix-sorry about the same but please be assured that my team is already working on fixing the issue as soon as possible. 

This email was from August 6th, and there is still no fix. 

What to Do About Pinterest Rich Pins Not Working

So what are we supposed to do in the meantime while Pinterest Rich Pins aren’t working?

We suggest sticking to Pinterest best practices and updating Product Pins if applicable. Here are a few quick tips to optimize your Pinterest Boards and Pins while Rich Pins are being fixed: 

1. Optimize the titles of your boards. If you’re a merchant selling health supplements and have a Pinterest Board with healthy recipes, don’t just name the board: “Yum” Instead, use long tail keywords that merchants search for like Easy Healthy Dinner Recipes or Healthy 30 Minute Meal. 
2. Optimize your Pins. Each Pin should Include a Title that describes exactly what the Pin is and the description should provide more information about the Pin. Think of a Product Pin as the Title being the name of the product and the Pin description being the description of the product. 
3. Use quality graphics, photos, and content. Use photos that include a human element, are high resolution, and use colors and styles that represent your branding. If there is a shopping element to your Pin, let other PInners know by including a price in the graphic or using terms like ‘Buy Now’. 

There’s no telling when Pinterest Rich Pins will be fixed, but there are plenty of ways to optimize until then. Check back here for updates on Rich Pins, and when and if Pinterest provides a fix. 

Want help with Pinterest Rich Pins?

Give the folks at Studio a shout and one of our social media specialists would be happy to help!

Pinterest Rich Pin FAQs

What are Rich Pins on Pinterest?

As stated in the post, rich pins are organic Pinterest pins that display additional pieces of information about the image you pinned that make it more likely for someone to click through to your site. There are rich pins for recipes, apps, articles, and products. Rich Pin information can include product titles, product descriptions, recipe information, download URLs and more.

How do I know if my products are eligible for Rich Pins?

Your site and products are eligible for Pinterest Rich Pin functionality if you are pinning the following types of content: food recipes, articles/blogs, apps, and products. As long as you have metadata on your site that describes the above items, you have information that is eligible for Rich Pinning. For more information on the types of metadata that Pinterest Rich Pins supports, click here.

How to tell if Pinterest Rich Pins are working?

Pinterest develops have provided a handy tool that allows you to verify and troubleshoot Rich Pins from your website. Once you’ve added Rich Pin functionality, grab a URL that has a product and paste it into the Rich Pin Validator. From there you’ll be able to see Rich Pin data and fix any errors. You can only validate a single URL at a time.

Troubleshooting Pinterest Rich Pins

If Pinterest Rich Pins aren’t working, it’s likely an issue with either your Rich Pin integration, or the meta data on the site itself. For metadata issues, the Rich Pin Validator will tell you what the issues are and allow you to fix them. If you’re having an issue with enabling rich pins on your website, follow the guide above.

How do you enable Rich Pins on Pinterest?

Enabling Rich Pins on Pinterest is fairly easy.

As long as you have metadata for your site content (you can check this by running a page through the Rich Pin Validator) you’ll want to click the ‘Apply’ for Rich Pins. Assuming your application is accepted, you should see Rich Pins appearing for your products in a couple days.