Pinterest Issue Must Be Fixed - Negatively Affecting Sales

[klstock]

Pinterest has been 'running an experiment to remove the ‘Visit Button’ from Pins that lack a high-quality link.'  

When you make a Pinterest pin, many do not have any visible clickable link - no visit button, and the title is no longer clickable. There is nothing showing the potential customer where to click, they just think it is a dead link.

Pinterest explains that the customer can click the 3 dots in the pin and it will give other options such as to visit the site. The problem is, most customers do NOT know to do this. 

This has been brought up in other threads such as this: https://community.zazzle.com/t5/technical-issues/pinterest-pins-don-t-have-clickable-links/m-p/17836...

There, I posted that I had found a comment from Pinterest giving their explanation of why links/titles in pins were no longer clickable. The explanation was:

Thanks for sharing your perspective and working with me to figure this out. I checked the Pin that you shared based on the screenshot and we are running an experiment to remove the ‘Visit Button’ from Pins that lack a high-quality link. However, other users can still visit the link connected to your Pin by clicking the three dots and select Visit site.

This is and will continue to adversely affect sales. Imagine thousands of pins being made by designers to advertise Christmas sales/products and customers not able to click through on that link. Can someone from Zazzle talk to Pinterest directly and find out what is going on? This bone-headed move on their part of 'hiding the visit button' is negatively affecting designers' and Zazzles' earnings. 

ETA: When I link to my own website, this does not happen. It only happens when I link to Zazzle directly. As per the Pinterest explanation above, why would they be considering a link to Zazzle as 'not a high quality link'? 

[Barbara]

I'm freshly back from trying to use our Share link, finding I wasn't allowed to use it because of strange excuses about pinning too much or too quickly. Given this was the first time I've gone to Pinterest in several months, I'm thinking I was lied to about the reason. I ended up creating my own pin to upload, which works as it should--including an actual link!--but who has the time to create every pin manually? There's that, but there are also links being wiped out on older pins.

What on earth is the point of discouraging us from using Pinterest?

Colorwash's Home

[klstock]

Hi Barbara, all my pins are manual pins and it is still happening to me. On new and old pins. I think it is Pinterest that is doing it, not Zazzle as far as removing the 'visit site' button and making the pin titles not clickable. 

[Amanda23]

Agreed. I can't imagine why Zazzle would NOT want to make it as easy as possible for people to get here. Sounds like a Pinterest issue. 

[klstock]

Yes, and Pinterest said so in their own words! 

[Jadendreamer13]

So, the Pinterest you-tubers that I’ve been following recently said that Pinterest may block your account for spamming if you pin more than 5-10 pins a day. So, our options are to use a pin scheduler or create manual pins. I have been successfully pining about 10 manual pins a day, but as you mentioned, it is more time consuming to do so. The upside of that is, since I’ve been adding manual pins instead of Zazzle-generated pins my Pinterest views, engagements, clicks, etc., have increased drastically. This would be a good task for a Virtual Assistant, if you have the luxury of being able to afford one (I certainly don’t).

[klstock]

Interesting but I go days without creating a pin, all my pins are manual pins, and the most I ever pin a day is usually 2 pins. And yet when I create a manual pin and link to Zazzle, it most often makes the title not clickable.  I do think it is better to do manual pins vs the auto-generated ones for the same reasons you said. 

[tanyadraws]

This is a really good point about the engagement. I too have noticed my (albeit meagre) stats go up nearly double after pinning only maybe 3 - 7 pins a day, all pins created manually. Previously I used to manually create the odd pin here and there, but most of my pins were from the share tool and I never paid attention to how many I was posting. For all of November and through December I have been scheduling them with Pinterests native scheduler - it works, but it is definitely more time consuming. 

[LMGildersleeve]

@klstock  thanks for sharing what you have been shared by Pinterest. It's a shame for those who are using the the affilate link for the 35% referral fee for sure. Because those non clickable links have two visible options to click either to Zazzle's Pinterest page or to find other products that are similar within Pinterest. I've given up using the 2.0 referral system and gone back to the old fashioned 15% referral links. At the very least I can get some money for my efforts.

@klstock  You say your manual pins are also being hijacked?

[bkthompson]

@klstock @LMGildersleeve It seems to be completely random, which is doubly frustrating! Some of my manual pins do have it, some don't. Some of my straight-outta-zazzle pins have it, some don't. So apparently only SOME of Zazzle's links are high quality? 🤔🙈

[klstock]

That is a good point! I am and have gotten self-referrals, but I am linking to my own website now for the most part. For all the old pins I did prior to a few months ago, those link to Zazzle directly and only about half have a clickable title/visit button. 

And yes, all my pins are manual and about half of the ones linking to Zazzle directly get the thing where the pin title is no longer clickable and there is no visible 'visit' button. Also any manual pins linking directly to Zazzle are also subject to have the titles and descriptions revert to the generic Zazzle description. 

[Barbara]

Are you sending product links to your web site and then from your site to your product pages? In other words, kind of a stopover station? Or are you actively promoting from your site?

Colorwash's Home

[klstock]

Sending links to my website then from there they can click through to Zazzle. 

[PenguinPower]

I'll bet you that anything you pay to promote is high quality enough...  I just checked out my pins. Everything I pinned up until yesterday appears to have working links. Nothing I pinned yesterday does. FWIW, I only post about 4 pins in any one day.

[klstock]

Everything I have linked to my own website works fine. I only started my website less than a year ago though so all my pins prior to that link directly to Zazzle and many of those are no longer clickable. So it looks like, for those that are no longer working that are linked directly to Zazzle, I will need to replace the link in my pin so it goes to my website instead of Zazzle. 

ETA: I am almost always using my desktop computer and not a phone for viewing. But on some of the pins that no longer have a clickable title/visit button - when I view them on my phone, rather than on my computer, there is a visit button viewable/clickable - but not when viewing on my computer. 

[Malissa]

I believe the reason the links from Zazzle are not considered high quality links are because of the sheer volume of links that come from Zazzle that are on Pinterest.  In comparison, pins from our own websites will have fewer links overall (by millions I would guess) than pins linked directly to Zazzle.  Having said that, it makes me curious if say, Amazon links, are considered high quality.  If anyone knows any Amazon affiliates that use Pinterest to promote they could check the pins.  If they are clickable that would make my guess moot.  I hope that it can be fixed because regular Pinterest users won't really think to check around for other ways to find a link.  They will click, it won't work, and they will think it's a broken link and move on.  

[klstock]

I scrolled through my Pinterest home feed and found Amazon, Walmart, TeePublic, RedBubble, Etsy,  Ebay links that hand clickable titles. I will look around more later. I would never have thought to click on the 3 dots, I never even paid attention to it before!

[klstock]

Meant to say links that had clickable titles not hand. Doh! 

[ColsCreations]

I believe the reason the links from Zazzle are not considered high quality links are because of the sheer volume of links that come from Zazzle that are on Pinterest.

That was my exact thought, too, when I saw that Z has over 42 million pins attributed to them. But today I checked Walmart and they have something like 86 million attributed to them!

[Barbara]

When I click the three dots, the two choices are "Save Image" and "Download Image." What?!

Colorwash's Home

[Colorfulgalshop]

I completely understand your frustration and feel the same way about the challenges we’re encountering with Pinterest. However, I don’t think this is Zazzle’s fault—it seems more like an issue with Pinterest’s algorithm, and perhaps even AI analyzing pins.

From my perspective, Pinterest appears to favor Zazzle as the authority, likely because Zazzle invests heavily in advertising on the platform. When we upload Zazzle product photos to Pinterest, it seems the platform prioritizes Zazzle itself over individual designers. For example, when using Pinterest’s image search feature, the “shop similar” results often show a direct link to Zazzle. If I click on that image and make a purchase, I suspect Zazzle gets the referral—despite the fact that I was the one who posted it on Pinterest.

I’ve tried directing product links to my own website before routing them to Zazzle, but I imagine this process feels cumbersome to customers. Initially, this approach worked well for me and boosted my Pinterest views. However, about a month ago, my views began to decline. My guess is that Pinterest’s algorithm now gives more weight to the original source of the photo, which is typically Zazzle.

With all these changes, I’m curious: does anyone have insights on whether it’s better to stick with the Promoter 2 program or switch to the regular promoter program? I’ve also noticed a shift in my sales patterns. In the past, many were listed as “none” or self-referrals, but now nearly all are coming through as third-party referrals. Are our promotional days with Pinterest over?  

[klstock]

Yes, as I said in my post, I also believe Pinterest is the culprit and they said so in their own words that I posted above. But I am referring specifically to why some pin titles are made unclickable and/or the visit site button gone from many Pinterest pins that link to Zazzle. I am not referring to the issue of pins reverting to generic Zazzle descriptions which is another PITA! 

[Barbara]

I believe you may be correct about Pinterest using a (weighted) algorithm possibly run using AI, which appears to be the darling of so many of the larger platforms.

A lot of those third party referrals likely come from Zazzle itself because of their own promotional efforts, which quite often swipe our own self-referrals. One thing I've noticed is a distinct change in at least my own sales. I used to get a lot from the UK, but now my sales are almost exclusively in the U.S., which I think reflects the cost of shipping.

My plan is to fiddle with Pinterest but not break a sweat over it. They've been changing things so much that I fear any work I do now will be negated by the next thing they and Zazzle decide to do.

Colorwash's Home

[klstock]

I see a lot of pins on Pinterest that are my product and my cover photo, but in the square pin format like you would get from auto-pinning from Zazzle. But I only do manual pins and have never made square pins. Is this something Zazzle themselves are doing? I see the same thing for other Zazzle products/designers too and am just curious of the origin. 

Here is an example:

This is the manual pin that I made and posted https://www.pinterest.com/pin/657877458097037978/

This is the square pin format that I did not make or post https://www.pinterest.com/pin/16888567436040693/

[ColsCreations]

I have wondered the same thing about those type auto/square pins that aren't attributed to anyone but Zazzle, who has 41.2 million pins attributed to them so no way to even see what board it lives on. The one in your above example, I checked and there is no referral ID attached to the link which makes it even weirder. If it was another designer pinning, or even Zazzle themselves, why wouldn't they include a referral ID?

[klstock]

That's a good question/observation. If it is Zazzle themselves maybe it is one of those 3rd party referral things? Would they need a referral ID for themselves? 

I was just wondering if it could be a factor in why Pinterest seems to be viewing some Zazzle links as 'low quality' (their words not mine!). If the same image is being pinned by different parties is Pinterest viewing it as spam? I am not complaining - was just curious. 

[ColsCreations]

I was just wondering if it could be a factor in why Pinterest seems to be viewing some Zazzle links as 'low quality' (their words not mine!). If the same image is being pinned by different parties is Pinterest viewing it as spam? I am not complaining - was just curious.

I touched on this a while ago while I was monitoring test pins for titles & descriptions reverting to Zazzle's default. I learned then that pins with same image leading to same URL are considered duplicates even when by other users to other boards. Original pins get more love from Pinterest, so with the potential for many multiple designers/affiliates pinning the same Z product w/ same default image ... it could def be lowering the pin quality for all the "duplicates".  Personal cover images and unique images made just for the pin have probably helped that situation.

[tiffjamaica]

Curious if the links aren't considered "high quality" because of Zazzle's landing pages (vs. the ACTUAL product page). 

[klstock]

I hadn't thought of that but you might have nailed it. I googled "Why does Pinterest consider a link not high quality" and this was the answer:

Pinterest considers a link "not high quality" when it leads to a page with content that is irrelevant to the pin image, has poor quality visuals, is overly promotional or spammy, contains broken links, redirects to different pages excessively, or doesn't provide substantial value to the user, essentially failing to deliver on the visual promise presented in the pin itself

[karab]

I'm a little obsessed with Pinterest, but there are a lot of things being discussed here so I'll just address the basics.

When you pin directly to Pinterest from Zazzle, Zazzle "owns" that pin even though you made it. That's because Zazzle has claimed their website on Pinterest and everything that gets pinned with a Zazzle link is considered to be part of Zazzle's Pinterest account for their stats. It will usually make the pin a rich pin that pulls the price and description into the pin so that it keeps track of any changes. We usually can't edit those pins because it's not ours, it's Zazzle's, so the information is pulled directly from the site.

The best practice on Pinterest is to make your own pins and not pin directly from the listing. That's because you can enter the title and description that you want and it will follow the pin even if it displays something different. If you don't have time to do that, you should at least pin directly from the listing or the collection or wherever, that's better than nothing.

Anything that Pinterest does to make titles or pins unclickable or uneditable is a Pinterest thing, and Zazzle probably has no control over that. I've been on Pinterest since it started, and it changes constantly, I've never seen another platform switch things around so much. There are a lot of gremlins in their system.

[klstock]

I started this thread specifically about the issue of Pinterest making titles unclickable and hiding the visit button and to find out the reason Pinterest is considering links to Zazzle as "not high quality" and hopefully to have Zazzle fix whatever that issue is or talk to Pinterest themselves to find out. I don't want this to get conflated with the issue of Pinterest turning pins into a rich pin and replacing the title and description issue. There are lots of threads on that particular issue!

I do not pin from Zazzle and never have, all my pins are manual pins.  

I agree Pinterest has some gremlins in their system but in this case the issue seems to be that Pinterest is viewing Zazzle links as "not high quality". Per an earlier post I made in this thread: Pinterest considers a link "not high quality" when it leads to a page with content that is irrelevant to the pin image, has poor quality visuals, is overly promotional or spammy, contains broken links, redirects to different pages excessively, or doesn't provide substantial value to the user, essentially failing to deliver on the visual promise presented in the pin itself.

There are thousands of pins out there that have been made unclickable and therefore aren't bringing customers to Zazzle or the designers' products.  It's been going on quite awhile now. There are tons of threads of designers saying their sales are down and having a significant amount of previous pins being rendered useless could certainly be a factor in that and I would think it would be something Zazzle and other designers would be concerned about and want fixed. 

If the cause of why Pinterest is viewing Zazzle links as "not high quality" is something Zazzle is doing - such as redirecting to what could be considered a spammy looking landing page with several other products shown other than the one pictured in the pin, for example, then Zazzle does have control over that. I am not saying that is the cause, but it does make sense in context with the reasons given for why Pinterest would deem a link as "not high quality". I am not knocking Zazzle, just trying to get to the cause so the issue can be fixed.

[karab]

Ah, I see. I could ask my contact at Pinterest about it if I remember. I wouldn't take anything that Pinterest support tells you as gospel, though, they test a lot of things and don't tell people why. The "low-quality link comment" sounds pretty boilerplate as far as how they respond to questions when they don't want to address what they're testing. 

I've seen other people talking about the links being removed and I seem to remember that it was s short-lived test, but I could be wrong. They usually just remove pins that they think are spammy, though, they don't just remove the link.

[klstock]

Apparently they did address it, as stated in my original post where I included a link to the thread where it was posted. This is what was posted:

Thanks for sharing your perspective and working with me to figure this out. I checked the Pin that you shared based on the screenshot and we are running an experiment to remove the ‘Visit Button’ from Pins that lack a high-quality link. However, other users can still visit the link connected to your Pin by clicking the three dots and select Visit site.

If your contact can shed any light on that, that would be great. 

[Barbara]

I'll have to try those three dots again. The last time I checked a number of my pins, those three dots didn't have "Visit Site" as a choice, so those pins were all dead little things.

Colorwash's Home

[CreativeLeahG]

Maybe they deem them low quality links because the links no longer go to the product page for the image they go to a generic landing page? 

[Barbara]

If that were true, it would mean Zazzle is deliberately undermining us. Not a good thought.

Colorwash's Home

[klstock]

Maybe an unintended consequence since Pinterest has said they are running an experiment to remove the visit button from pins that lack a high quality link. But now that it has been brought to Zazzle's attention I would hope they address it and figure it out with Pinterest. 

[klstock]

Yes, that is what @tiffjamaica also suggested as a possible cause and it does make sense according to the reasons given of what would make Pinterest view a link as not high quality:

 when it leads to a page with content that is irrelevant to the pin image, has poor quality visuals, is overly promotional or spammy, contains broken links, redirects to different pages excessively, or doesn't provide substantial value to the user, essentially failing to deliver on the visual promise presented in the pin itself. 

[ColsCreations]

Lots of sites, though, have similar pages crowded with other products. A while ago I was trying to learn about 'nofollow' which led down a path of reading a bunch about "link juice" and SEO etc and it made me have an "AHA!" moment thinking, that's why Zazzle and all these other sites do that. Sure maybe partly to entice shoppers with other options, but I think mostly for internal linking for SEO.
https://yoast.com/internal-linking-for-seo-why-and-how/

I did a quick Google search for floral rugs on Wayfair and picked a random result - Kellems Performance Floral Rug.
The target product is only the small section at upper left of page, the rest of the page is all other products. You have to click somewhere in that upper left section to go to the real product page for the rug, and even that has bunch of other products on it. So I pinned the rug to see which page version it links to. It goes to the real product page (which as said, still has a bunch of other products on it).

Then I did some pins from other big sites, to see what kind of pages they open to. (Board link)

Zazzle is not alone in showing a bunch of other products on the page. BB&B is the worst, with a scroll of 'other products you might like' ABOVE the main target product.

Anyways, I know the subject of this thread is the concern over the Visit Site button being randomly removed by Pinterest on Zazzle pins but that turned to speculation that perhaps the "landing page" makes Pinterest think it's spammy/overly promotional etc. I do not know anymore than the next person what Pinterest is thinking when choosing to show the Visit button or not, but I honestly don't think it's the "landing page" as that tactic of crowding the page with other internal links is common on all the big sites.

* Also side-note: I noticed today that on the Z landing pages, if you scroll to the bottom it shows the "other products in this Collection" scroll and the "transfer this design" scroll. Huh! I think that's new so at least that's something.

[klstock]

You did a lot of digging there Cols, nice work! 

In your examples on your sample board the thing I found that is different with the pin leading to Zazzle (the leggings) as opposed to the other ones leading to Etsy, Wayfair, BB&B, Target and Walmart is that all except Zazzle allow you to see details of and add to cart/purchase product just from that initial one click to "visit site", whereas Zazzle makes you click another button to "view product details". Maybe that is the crux of it, because as you said all these other places load a bunch of other products on the pages too. Hmmm