What is Pinterest Spam Block (Spam Filter) and How to Avoid it?

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The dreaded word in the world of Pinterest marketing: Pinterest spam filter.

Whether you’re currently having a first-hand experience of your account being flagged up, or just want to know the best practice methods to keep your account safe, I’ve got you covered!

This article will guide you step by step on how to keep your account safe and also how to recover your account if you’ve been impacted by the filter.

Let’s dive in!

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Pinterest Spam Filter: Key Takeaways

Pinterest Spam Filter Essentially a shadowban on Pinterest. Your content is being hidden and data in your analytics takes a steep nosedive.
Types of Blocks There are four: spam block, website block, account suspension, and rate limit block.
Signs of Spam Filter Big drop in analytics, your content doesnt appear in search results. No impressions on new pins.
Duration Weeks or months.
Common Reasons Too many repins, pins to the same url on the same day, other violations of spam and community guidelines.
How to Fix it Send support ticket immediately.

What is Pinterest Spam Filter

Pinterest spam filter, sometimes also called Pinterest spam block, is a term that has been used for a few different things, so it’s important first to clear up what it actually is and what it isn’t.

1. Pinterest Rate Limit Block

If you hit this one, you have nothing to worry about.

Here is the definition from Pinterest help pages:

‘A rate limit block is a temporary block that may automatically be put on your account if we notice that you’ve repeatedly done the same action too many times in a short period of time. This is to prevent spam on Pinterest and to keep Pins working properly.’ (source)

Notice that it’s a temporary action, so if you’re experiencing what looks like a spam block, you might recover the account in a few hours or days.

In that sense, there is nothing for you to do, for now, just keep your hands off of Pinterest.

The rate limit block is an automated action that will be set off once you hit a certain threshold of actions, which could include any of the following:

  • Log in a lot
  • Comment on Pins very quickly
  • Post the same comment many times
  • Follow a lot of people in a short period of time
  • Add or save a lot of Pins from the same website quickly

What exactly the frequency of these actions is, nobody really knows.

And trust me, you don’t want to find out either, so make sure if you need to do some repetitive actions, that you alter them or do them slowly.

For example, if you want to follow 20 new accounts, follow the first 5, do some other actions like add pins, share repins, or add comments, and later follow more accounts.

Bottom line: do not do anything in bulk, or perform actions that look like might have been automated by a bot.

How is it different from a spam filter?

The spam filter is a permanent action affecting the whole account, not triggered by any of the actions listed above.

The spam filter will not get unblocked by itself and you won’t restore your account unless you contact Pinterest support.

2. Pinterest Account Suspension

This is the most serious and difficult thing you can deal with.

When you try to log in to your account, you will receive a message notifying you that your account has been suspended, possibly for violation of the Community Guidelines.

You will also receive an email with the same message, without further explanation.

If this is the case, you have an option to appeal this decision and get in touch with Pinterest support.

The suspension could be related to a single or repeat violation of Community Guidelines:

  • safety of the content (hateful speech, graphic images or misinformation)
  • spam
  • account security
  • intellectual property

When this happens, act quickly and contact them via this contact page.

Try to gather as much information as possible to make your case and assure them that you comply with the Community guidelines.

Here are the official guidelines for account suspension.

3. Pinterest Spam Block (the real thing!)

Pinteres spam block looks very much like a shadowban on your account.

That means your content will stop showing in the feed, and your impressions and outbound clicks will drop dramatically.

You won’t see any notice or warning on your account, apart from the steep decline in your analytics.

The best thing is, you probably won’t even know what you did wrong or what triggered it (we get to that part later).

Pinterest only references spam briefly on one of its help pages and says this:

‘Spammers will sometimes create Pins with misleading links or follow you in hopes that you’ll visit their profile and click on their Pins. The technology we use to combat spam gets better every day, but it’s possible you’ll come across spam while using Pinterest.’ (source)

Their technology is getting better at picking up spam activity (as seen below in the report from 2022), but unfortunately, sometimes inspecting accounts, especially new ones can get caught in the filter.

If your account is flagged with a Pinterest spam filter, the platform will stop showing your content to users.

Diagnosing Spam Block on Pinterest

So how do you know which one hit your account?

Here is a quick guide to help you diagnose what’s happening with your account:

Type of Action Description
Spam Filter/Block Acts like a shadowban, hiding your pins from home feed and search results, leading to a drop in stats.
Website Spam Block Pinterest marks your site or URL as spam, preventing access through pins.
Account Suspension Your account is suspended and inaccessible, with an option to appeal.
Rate Limit Block A temporary block for repeating certain actions too frequently in a short period.

Common Reasons for Triggering Spam Filter on Pinterest

There is no official guide for avoiding the Pinterest spam filter, apart from general spam rules from Pinterest community guidelines, explained further down the article.

In this section, I will list the most common things that trigger spam filters, based on my experience and what others have shared online.

1. New vs Old Accounts

Before we dive into the many ways you can mess up your account, there is one thing I wanted to point out.

I have both old and new accounts, and the Pinterest spam filters seem to have different sensitivity when it comes to these types of accounts.

If you have a brand new account, you have to be extremely careful to do things in moderation and slowly build up your content schedule and activity on the platform.

Especially if you use automation like Tailwind, they tend to make it easy to spam so much content is such a short window, and put you on the best path to get caught up in the spam filter.

On my older account, I get away with breaking a few of the rules below because my account has been operating for more than 6 years without ever being banned, blocked, or caught up in the filter before.

Pinterest seems to have a higher tolerance for these older accounts.

Having said that, you shouldn’t just go about ignoring the best practice tips, thinking that your account can take it.

2. Too Many Repins

A few years back, Pinterest had no issue with your account being mostly repins from other content creators.

Things change and evolve, and so does the Pinterest algorithm.

Right now, Pinterest wants fresh pins.

It makes sense.

People come to the platform to find inspiration. And if you only circulate what’s already available online, there is no new source of inspiration and a reason for people to return to the platform and stay on the platform.

If you continue sharing too many repins, it will hurt your distribution, impressions and overall account quality.

How much is too much?

That’s hard to say.

If you’re starting out, you will have to use some repins. But you can also be smart and pin content from other creators as fresh pins, something I focus on in my course.

3. Too Many Pins from Same URL

This might be the single most important thing that new bloggers on Pinterest ignore or are not aware of.

You should NOT add more than one pin image pointing to the same url per day.

Ideally, space them out so that there are at least two or three days between pining the same URL, especially if your account is new.

If you ignore this rule, Pinterest is very likely to flag your account as spammy as most spammers flood the platform with links to the same page or article.

Keep this in mind when you’re planning your pinning frequency.

4. Access from Different Country

If you have a VA managing your account, make sure she uses VPN to access the account, otherwise, it might trigger the spam filter.

It’s not always the case, I think some countries are ‘safer’ than others, but it’s worth keeping this in mind to be safe.

If you want someone to manage your account, you can easily give them access to Tailwind from where they can manage your schedule without having to log into your account.

5. Violation of Community Guidelines

The last part is a whole bunch of reasons why Pinterest might consider your account to be low-quality and spammy.

I have outlined them in the next section, so please make sure you read them so you don’t accidentally end up in the black hole of Pinterest.

What is Considered Spam on Pinterest

Pinterest tells you exactly how to avoid the spam block in their Community Guidelines.

Here is a short version of the rules:

1. Use Only Pinterest Approved Automation

Tailwind is fine, but any other tools that are not listed in their approved partners list are not.

2. Don’t Create Spam Accounts

These could be accounts that are not authentic, creating multiple accounts same time, or recreating new accounts after you’ve been suspended.

3. Don’t Create and Share Spam Content

This includes repetitive pining and creating content to make money.

Keep your account information and inspiration only to start with, and you can add monetized content later. See notes on affiliate content further down.

4. Irrelevant Low Value Content Made For Profit

‘In general, don’t attempt to make money from Pinners or Pinner web traffic in ways that are misleading, detract from the Pinner experience, or don’t add value for Pinners.’

5. Don’t Link to Unsafe Websites

‘Don’t link to websites that are unsafe, deceptive, untrustworthy, unoriginal, or that facilitate or encourage spam. Websites should have original content that adds unique value for Pinners.’

6. Don’t Spam People with Messages

Don’t send other accounts your pins via message, or send other unsolicited messages.

Each user has a very quick way to report you for spamming, and you’re on your best way to get your account blocked.

I get annoyed with this every single day and see dozens of message notifications in my inbox.

I don’t know why people do it, but when I see it, I hit the block button immediately. Do it a few more times and you will get your account not just in a spam filter, but also suspended.

7. Don’t Spam People in Comments

The same applies to comments. Don’t post irrelevant, spammy, or self-promotional comments on other people’s content in order to get them to visit your profile or website.

8. Don’t Manipulate the Platform

This includes 1) creating multiple accounts and pinning between them and also 2) coordinating with other people in order to boost the visibility of your content.

There are a few groups on Facebook that are set up just for this purpose, which is in direct violation of Pinterest community guidelines.

No only its a waste of time, but it won’t help with your account performance as much as creating new great quality content.

9. Don’t Use Other Spammy Techniques

Redirecting links, buying and selling engagement, stuffing keywords or attempting to evade spam detection systems by using redirections.

PS: Redirections if you genuinely moved the content to a new site is perfectly fine.

Final Thoughts

We’ve covered a lot in this article, so if you feel a little overwhelmed, you can jump to the first section with the table that summarizes the key takeaways.

Keep your account healthy and safe to benefit from long-term traffic from Pinterest.

Need Some Help?

As part of my account audit, I can help to identify issues with your account and create a complete roadmap for recovery.

Check out the service details here.

Need to Learn More?

If you want to learn more about success on Pinterest, I created a free simple mini course that will teach you everything you need to know about the platform.

You can get this PDF guide for free if you sign up to my newsletter bellow.

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Author
Lucia is a senior marketing professional with over a decade of experience in digital marketing. She is dedicated to helping bloggers and business owners grow their revenue through strategic and data based marketing strategies. Her areas of expertise include SEO, Pinterest marketing, branding, social media marketing, and e-commerce.

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