We all know how easy it is to get traffic on our blogs from Pinterest, but enabling Pinterest Rich Pins will make our posts even more popular. Rich Pins include extra information about the source of the pin like the author’s name, post name, the favicon and the description of the post. For all this information to show, you will have to enable Rich Pins.
I have only set up Rich Pins this month, but I’ve already noticed more traffic from Pinterest. It will take about 10 days for your Rich Pins to be approved, and this is how they look like:
This tutorial has three parts: the first is for WordPress users, the second for Blogger users, and the third part will show you how to validate Rich Pins on Pinterest.
How to set up Pinterest Rich Pins on WordPress
As always, enabling Rich Pins on WordPress is very easy. To do this, you will have to add the “Yoast” SEO plugin that will help you add meta tags. I highly recommend setting up this search engine optimization plugin even if you don’t want to use Rich Pins.
After the plugin is installed, go to SEO/Social and check the box that says ““. This will add the necessary code to your posts and you will only have to validate them on Pinterest.
How to set up Pinterest Rich Pins on Blogger
Enabling Rich Pins on Blogger takes a bit more work and you will have to edit your template, but don’t worry, it’s easy.
Go to Settings/Search preferences and under Meta Tags enable description. This will help you add a Seo-friendly description to your blog and posts.
Before you edit your template code, backup your template by going to Template>Backup/Restore.
Now it’s time to add the meta tags by going to Edit HTML and search for:
<b:includable id=’post’ var=’post’>
if you can’t find it, try searching for:
<b:includable id=”post” var=”post”>
Search the code by clicking in the text box and typing CTRL or CMD + F .
After you find the line, hit enter and paste the following code below it:
<meta expr:content=’data:post.title’ property=’og:title’/>
<meta expr:content=’data:blog.metaDescription’ property=’og:description’/>
<meta content=’article’ property=’og:type’/>
<meta expr:content=’data:blog.url’ property=’og:url’/>
<meta expr:content=’data:blog.title’ property=’og:site_name’/>
<meta expr:content=’data:post.timestampISO8601′ property=’article:published_time’/>
<meta content=’Blog Topic’ property=’article:section’/>
<b:loop values=’data:post.labels’ var=’label’>
<meta expr:content=’data:label.name’ property=’article:tag’/>
</b:loop>
Change Blog Topic with the topic that suits your blog best. I would choose Design because my main topic is design.
Don’t forget to save your template!
How validate Rich Pins
To activate your Rich Pins, you will have to go to the Rich Pins Validator, enter a link to any post on your site and click Apply now when prompted.
A pop-up will appear with your blog’s domain name and HTML tags selected. Click Apply now again and wait for your application to be processed.
It can take between a few hours and 10 days for your Rich Pins to be enabled, but you will be notified by email when they are approved. Mine were approved in 6 or 7 days.
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