Pinterest Shadow Ban- How to deal with it?
If you’ve noticed a sudden drop in your traffic or feel that the traffic you’ve been receiving has drastically decreased over the past few days, your Pinterest account might be shadowbanned.
But what exactly is a Pinterest shadowban?
If you’re reading this, you’re likely suspecting your account has been shadowbanned, or perhaps it already has.
Either way, this post will help you understand what might happen and offer tips for recovering your account.
What is Pinterest Shadow Ban?
A shadowban occurs when Pinterest restricts the visibility of your content without notifying you.
This means that even though you’re still pinning and posting, your pins aren’t being shown to your followers or in Pinterest search results.
The old pins ranking in search and getting you traffic suddenly disappear from search, leading to a significant drop in traffic.
How do you know your account has been shadow-banned?
If you’ve noticed that your Pinterest pins have suddenly disappeared from search results or your account’s performance has dropped significantly within just one or two days—without any seasonal factors or other issues that typically affect Pinterest traffic—there’s a strong chance your account has been shadow-banned.
What causes the Pinterest Shadow Ban?
A Pinterest shadow ban will happen when your account gets flagged by Pinterest’s spam filters, and your traffic and impressions suddenly take a downdive. This can be triggered by several actions performed on a Pinterest account some popular ones are-
- Posting too many pins in one day
- Repinning excessively
- Not following Pinterest’s guidelines
Sometimes, a shadow ban can also occur if you’ve made sudden, drastic changes to your Pinterest strategy, like going from pinning one pin a day to pinning 15 pins the next day and making these sudden changes often. Such rapid shifts in behavior can trigger the spam filter and result in your account being shadowbanned.
While the specific reason for a shadow ban can vary, the most common triggers include over-repinning or violating Pinterest’s guidelines. If this happens, your pins won’t be visible in search results, and traffic from Pinterest will drastically decline.
How do you deal with a Pinterest shadow ban?
If your account has been hit with a shadowban, there are several steps you can take to address it:
1. Contact Pinterest Support
The first step is to contact Pinterest’s support team. They can provide insight into whether your account has been shadowbanned and explain why.
However, Pinterest support can sometimes be dismissive, so persistence is key. If you’ve noticed a significant drop in traffic (like a 60-70% decrease in outbound clicks), your account has likely been shadowbanned.
Politely insist they investigate the issue and answer why your traffic suddenly declined.
1. Address the Issue
If you suspect your shadowban was caused by excessive repinning or violating Pinterest’s guidelines, try to correct the behavior.
Start pinning fresh, original content gradually to avoid triggering the spam filters.
Suppose there has been a major policy violation. If that is the case, I would definitely consider starting a new account, especially if you see that your Pinterest impressions are not increasing on the new pins and continue to remain zero even after 2-3 weeks. This implies that Pinterest has decided to maintain the shadowban despite your persistent efforts to fix issues.
2. Be Patient but Persistent:
Sometimes, shadowbans result from more minor issues like a sudden change in pinning strategy.
If so, continue contacting Pinterest support and requesting that they reverse the ban. Your account will often return to normal, and your traffic will recover.
3. Starting Fresh if Necessary
If Pinterest refuses to lift the shadowban after repeated attempts or if there is a significant violation of their guidelines, it might be best to start a new account.
When doing so, ensure you avoid the mistakes that led to the ban, like over-repinning or neglecting Pinterest’s terms of service.
This will give your new account a fresh start and prevent it from encountering the same issues.
Can you ever overcome a Pinterest Shadow Ban?
Absolutely!
I know many Pinterest creators who have successfully regained their traffic and visibility after communicating with Pinterest support. Hearing that some have seen improvements in just a day or two is encouraging.
Starting a new account might be the best option if your account has not recovered after three months of consistently posting fresh pins.
People think starting a new account is bad, but it is actually so much easier to get traction and traffic on a new account compared to an older account that has not gained any increase in impressions for months.
Use the lessons learned from past mistakes to make this experience smoother. With a fresh start, you now have some knowledge and can apply strategies immediately to see better and faster results!
