There are lots of businesses that can benefit from the image-rich landscape of Pinterest. But knowing how and why to verify your website on Pinterest can take your presence on the platform to a whole new level.
When I work with businesses on their organic online presence, many of them already have a Pinterest account. The quality and frequency of their posts on the platform can vary widely, but one common denominator is how few of them have chosen to verify their profiles as business accounts.
Converting to a business account on Pinterest provides a ton of benefits, particularly improved engagement and website traffic. This is largely due to the process of claiming your domain and verifying your website through the platform. So, let’s take a look at the step-by-step process of verifying your site on Pinterest.
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Why verify your website on Pinterest?
Improved Website Visibility and Reach
Pinterest is a busy, competitive place. Research shows that around 2 million shopping Pins and over 14 million article Pins are created each day on the platform. This is the result of approximately 5 billion searches that are made on Pinterest monthly.
With this amount of activity, verifying your site goes a long way toward ensuring your content is seen in Pinterest search results. With better visibility, you get more traffic to your pins and, therefore, to your site.
The benefits go beyond visibility in Pinterest’s native search. Links from your pins that go back to your verified site can also help with your organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) performance, as backlinks are an indexing factor that Google’s algorithms take into account when ranking your site.
But one of the main reasons I encourage clients (particularly ecommerce businesses) to verify their websites on Pinterest is the high intent behind the searches. Pinterest has one of the highest click-through rates of any social media platform.
In my experience, those clicks are far more likely to lead to sales in comparison to other channels.
Access to Rich Pins and Analytics
When you convert to a business profile and verify your site on Pinterest, you get access to new features and detailed analytics.
As a consultant, access to analytics is always a big plus for me as I can track Pinterest activity through to website conversions and properly assess which content is performing best for the client.
Pinterest provides pretty decent analytics, and you can use it to see how people are engaging with your brand and Pins to inform your strategy.
If you’d like to integrate your analytics right within your site and incorporate things like Pinterest sharing buttons right onto your site images, you can combine site verification with Pinterest WordPress plugins for extra functionality.
But you’ll also get access to Rich Pins, meaning details like your website address or the price and availability of your products can appear directly on a Pin. Rich Pins tend to generate higher numbers of clicks and conversions, so they can massively boost engagement with your content and traffic to your site.
Enhanced Brand Trust and Content Control
When you verify your website on Pinterest, the URL for your site is displayed on your profile. This not only encourages more clicks to your site — it also lends credibility and trust to your profile.
The same goes for your Rich Pins. By having content displayed as Rich Pins, your content looks far more official and credible, thereby encouraging a higher likelihood that users will click and purchase from your site.
But there’s another branding benefit that comes with a verified Pinterest profile that I always highlight. As soon as your company or products gain some recognition, you can be sure that others will be posting content and links related to your brand.
Without verification, users are not easily able to distinguish between your account and any others. Verification means Pinterest users know that they’re interacting with an official representation of your brand, whether it’s with product questions in comments or deciding to click through to your site.
How to Verify Your Website on Pinterest
When I discuss verification with clients, I’m often asked to do it for them — and I do, gladly. But, in reality, verifying your website on Pinterest is a very straightforward process as long as you know where to look. So, if it’s something you’d like to take on yourself, here are the steps I recommend.
1. Convert your profile to a business account.
By default, Pinterest creates standard user profiles when you sign up to the platform. But to verify your website, you first need to convert to a business account.
When you’re signed into Pinterest, click underneath the circular profile icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen. There, you’ll see a “Convert to business” option.
When you click this option, Pinterest takes you to a screen that highlights the benefits you’ll get with the free upgrade to business.
I know this screen can throw people off sometimes, as it looks similar to a paid subscription outline. But there’s no action or payment needed from you here. The upgrade is entirely free. So, just go ahead and click "Upgrade."
On the next screen, you’ll be prompted to add details like your website address.
You’ll need to add these details before you can progress to the next screen. If you already have some of this information on your profile, you’ll just be asked to confirm it.
The next few screens are fairly self-explanatory. You’ll be asked about the focus/niche of your business and your goals for using Pinterest.
I’m sometimes asked about the importance of these choices. The focus (or niche) of your business is important as it will affect the appearance of your profile and Pins in search results. The rest is more for Pinterest’s information than anything that will affect your profile.
Finally, Pinterest will ask if you’re interested in running ads on the platform.
Your selection here doesn’t make a material difference to your profile. If you pick “Yes,” you’ll get an extra screen prompting you to schedule a consultation with an ads expert. If you pick “No,” it doesn’t exclude you from using ads in the future.
I recommend selecting “No” or “Unsure” here just to speed up the process of your business account creation.
The next screen you’ll see is your Business Hub!
2. Claim your website.
I know there’s a lot going on in the Business Hub, and you might like to spend some time exploring the analytics section. But to get straight to verifying your website, check out the bar near the top of the page.
You’ll see three options:
- Claim website.
- Install tag.
- Create a campaign.
Select the first “Claim website” option.
Beside the websites option, hit “Claim.”
You’ll see three options, as in the screenshot below. If you’re not super familiar with websites, these options can sound intimidating. But I regularly walk clients through this process, and it’s not as difficult as it seems.
I recommend the first option, as it’s typically the most straightforward, no matter which website builder or CMS you’re using.
3. Add the Pinterest HTML snippet to your site.
Next, you’re going to add this HTML snippet to the header of your website. The hardest part of this step can be finding where you can add the code.
For example, I’m working with more and more clients who are using website builders like Wix. In that case, you’d go to the “Tools and Settings” section of your website dashboard and click “Site Verification,” where you’d see a Pinterest-specific option ready and waiting for you. Most popular website builders, like Wix, Squarespace, etc., have a similar methodology.
But if you’re working with a HubSpot, WordPress, or custom CMS, you’ll need to add the HTML into the header code of your site.
If you’re working with a WordPress site, the location of your header/footer settings can depend on the theme you’re using. But, typically, you’ll find it under “Appearance” and “Customize,” where you’ll see a “Header/Footer Scripts” section.
In some WordPress themes, you may be able to hit “My Site” and head to the “Marketing” settings, where you’ll see site verification options with a specific spot labeled for your Pinterest tag.
Now all you have to do is open the header and just paste the full Pinterest HTML code snippet in, being careful not to interrupt any existing snippets and including it before the </head> code.
If you’re uncomfortable at all with this step, I always recommend getting your site developer to complete it for you.
Either way, once the HTML snippet is in the header, you just need to hit “Update” or “Publish” on your site, and you’re good to go!
4. Complete the verification process on Pinterest.
Head back to Pinterest and click “Next” from the verification options screen. You’ll be prompted to enter your website:
Enter your website address and hit “Verify.”
If you haven’t installed the HTML code properly, you’ll get an error message saying, “No relevant meta tag was found.” If this happens, the first thing I do is go back to the site and check that the full HTML snippet was added, that I put it in the right place, and that I remembered to publish the change to the site.
Once Pinterest finds the tag on your site, you’ll get a green check mark and a notification that the site verification is in progress. It usually takes less than an hour to receive confirmation that your site is fully verified on Pinterest.
Take Advantage of Enhanced Pinterest Analytics and Features
Once your website is verified on Pinterest, you’ll be able to see detailed analytics in your Business Hub and start making use of Rich Pins. The net effect is great insights into the demographics and behavior of Pinterest users and the ability to assess which content is performing best.
If you do decide to start running ads, be sure to add the Pinterest tag to your site as well. This will enable you to track conversions from Pinterest ad clicks, get more insights about user behavior, and create custom audiences to retarget site visitors.
