11 Easy Tips To Avoid Getting Your Pinterest Account Suspended

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Did you know that your Pinterest account can be suspended or blocked for spam?

It’s actually more common than you might think.

Not to mention the significant impact it can have on your blog traffic. If you use Pinterest for marketing your blog content.

Over the years, there have been lots of bloggers who have been blocked on Pinterest for things like spam. Even though they felt like they weren’t being spammy at all.

The truth is Pinterest can block good accounts by accident. As it’s just a computer filtering through people. Not a real person.

The good thing is, that there are some things you can do to help prevent yourself from being flagged as spam on Pinterest.

So you can decrease your chances of getting your Pinterest account suspended or blocked.

Why You Want To Avoid Getting Your Pinterest Account Suspended

Having your Pinterest account blocked even for a short amount of time will hurt your traffic. Plus it will take time to recover as well.

And there is always a risk that you may lose your Pinterest account completely and have to start from scratch.

It’s rare for this to happen, but it can.

Overall, having your Pinterest account blocked for spam is serious business that you want to avoid. But there are plenty of practical things you can do that will help you to stay safe.

Keep on reading to find out how.

What To Know Before You Start With These Pinterest Tips

It’s worth noting that Pinterest themselves do not specify how or why people’s accounts are blocked for spam. They do this because they don’t want people to try to game the system.

Because, if spammers know how they are being detected. Then they can use this information, to change their strategies. Making it much more difficult for Pinterest to find and hit them with a Pinterest spam block.

Meaning there are no hard and fast rules for avoiding the Pinterest spam filter. The below tips will help you to avoid getting your Pinterest account suspended. But in no way is a guarantee.

Pinterest can block accounts by mistake and sometimes there’s nothing you can do about it. Except to appeal the decision and hope it gets reverted back on review.

You can read about how to get your Pinterest account restored and unblocked towards the end of the blog post. If you want to skip to it.

1. How Much You Pin Per Day

There have always been lots of questions about how much you should pin per day?

Is there such a thing as pinning too much?

Well, how much you pin per day could have an impact on whether you get flagged for spam.

In particular, the recent changes with Pinterest and their push for more fresh content. Has resulted in the suggestions on how much you should pin per day to lower.

In fact, if you use Tailwind to schedule your pins. Their current recommended Pinterest best practices. Are that you should pin 15 – 25 pins per day. As these are the accounts that see the best results amongst their users.

So, with these recent changes in mind. If you are pinning a lot more than this. Then not only is there a higher risk of Pinterest seeing your account as spammy. That can lead to getting your Pinterest account suspended or blocked.

But there is also a chance that your pins will be seeing less distribution and reach. Which is always bad for getting Pinterest traffic to your blog.

So how much pinning is too much?

Firstly, anything over 50 pins is likely way too much.

For a long time now, there have been many bloggers who have seen diminishing returns over the 50 pins per day mark.

And this will only get more apparent over time as Pinterest shifts focus to more fresh and high-quality content over duplicate content.

Next, keep in mind what Tailwind is suggesting about 15 – 25 pins per day.

And finally, what stage your Pinterest business account is in will have an impact too.

As brand new accounts will be pinning more than say a more established and successful account.

Makes sense right?

As new accounts require more pins to get their first boards setup and going.

2. How Much You Pin Per Session

So, how much you pin per session in relation to how much you pin per day. Basically, is how much you spread out pinning throughout the day.

It is an important consideration.

Because if you are pinning 25-30 pins per day. As an example.

If you did all those pins in 10 minutes.

Then not only will this look like spam to other users. But it has a high chance of the Pinterest algorithm flagging you up for a suspended Pinterest account.

Think of it this way.

It’s not unusual for Pinterest users to pin a bunch of pins, all at once. (Like a handful.)

But it’s very unlikely they’re pinning huge amounts of 30 or 50 plus pins in one go.

So, the more you can spread out your pinning into smaller batches. The better you can avoid getting your account on Pinterest blocked.

Obviously, you don’t need to go crazy with this. And only pin, one pin per hour as that’s on the extreme end.

Instead, just pinning a handful of pins in one session is perfectly normal behavior.

As an example, pinning about 5 – 10 pins in one session is within the normal range of a Pinterest user.

3. Pinning The Same Pin Over & Over Again

Now that we’ve covered the general pinning amounts. The next thing I want you to consider is how many times you pin, the same pin image and URL.

Basically this is what Pinterest sees as duplicate pins.

It’s worth noting that just changing the Pinterest description does not make your pins unique.

The combination of your Pinterest image and blog URL is what does.

This means that every new pin image you upload to Pinterest counts as fresh content.

What does this mean for preventing your Pinterest account from being suspended and staying out of Pinterest jail?

As a general rule of thumb, you want to avoid pinning the same image and URL in close succession.

The safest way to spread out pinning these types of pins. Is to avoid pinning the same duplicate pin more than once every 2 days.

In fact, the Tailwind scheduler was updated to prevent pins from being set to an interval of less than 2 days. Because they want the scheduler to help keep your account safe from being suspended on Pinterest.

Oh, and you may find that some bloggers find they are able to pin the same image and URL. A couple of times per day.

And that they haven’t been blocked on Pinterest… yet.

This doesn’t guarantee that they won’t log into a blocked Pinterest account tomorrow though.

4. Pinning The Same URL Over & Over Again

Okay, so now you might be thinking…

“I can just create a bunch of unique images and pin those over and over again. However I like, right?”

Well, that would be a mistake!

Even if your images are different. The URL that pin is pointing to is still the same remember.

So, use the same practices as identical pins that have the same image and URL.

This is especially true if you’re pinning the same URL to the same board.

For example, if you have two pins with the same URL but different images. You want to try to avoid pinning them to the same board closely together.

Spread Out Your Content On Pinterest!

The most important takeaway, you should get from these first few tips to avoid getting your Pinterest account suspended and ending up in Pinterest jail.

Is that you need to spread out your content.

Not spreading out your content and pinning things in close succession. Or just pinning too much in general.

Is a quick way to a Pinterest spam block and getting your Pinterest account suspended.

Just think about how the real spammers on Pinterest behave. And whether your pinning strategy could be mistaken for spam.

Tailwind is one of the best ways to spread out your pinning to avoid many of these spam triggers.

Because it’s not easy to spread out your pinning with manual pinning.

Especially if your ideal audience is in a different timezone to you.

Imagine being an EU blogger when the majority of your traffic is based in the US. No one wants to stay up till 4 am to manually pin at their peak time.

But even if timezone isn’t an issue for you. Sometimes it’s just time-consuming to have to drop whatever you are doing. So you can go manually pin to Pinterest.

It’s disruptive to your routine, time-consuming, easy to forget, and not always practical.

But with Tailwind it’s much easier to batch pin at a time that best suits you.

5. Spikes In Pinterest Activity & Pinning

Another thing that Pinterest really doesn’t seem to like that can get your account flagged for spam – are huge spikes and changes to your activity.

You need to be particularly careful of this when you first start your Pinterest account. 

Because it is super easy for you to create an account. Create tons of boards and then, pinning tons of content to those boards.

After all, you are just trying to get your account setup and boards filled out. Right?

As you can imagine, you are doing a lot of stuff in a short amount of time.

Sadly, too much activity can look spammy to Pinterest. Resulting in a swift ban hammer for your account before you’ve even fully started.

So when you first start a Pinterest business account. You want to start off with creating a few boards at a time.

For many people, starting off with 5 boards when you first create your account.

And then gradually going through these to fill them up with 30, or so pins. Whilst sticking to the 50 or below pins per day guideline mentioned earlier.

And then once you’ve done with those you can consider expanding to another five boards, and so forth.

This is a good way to start a new Pinterest account quickly without being likely to get suspended or blocked.

But what about more established Pinterest accounts?

Well, huge changes in the way that you pin can also make Pinterest flag your account. As it could be seen as suspicious behavior.

When you make significant changes. Such as suddenly going from pinning 10 pins per day to 200+. Then this is a pretty big change and Pinterest. tends to react the worst when you make changes like this.

So whenever you want to change your Pinterest strategy. Do it gradually.

If you want to add more boards to your account. Stick to adding a couple at a time to fill up and prioritize first.

6. Pinning Stolen Pins & Images

Sadly, stolen pins are a common thing on Pinterest even in 2022.

If you don’t know what a stolen pin is. It is when someone takes a pin image that they did not create themselves and uploads it to Pinterest using their own URL. Instead of the one from the original pin.

Don’t Steal Other People’s Images

Bots and accounts purely created to spam a certain URL link over and over again. Love to steal other’s pins.

This behavior on Pinterest is NOT okay. If you don’t have permission to use the image then don’t do it.

There are plenty of ways to create your own Pinterest images quickly.

But this isn’t the only way stolen pin images can get your account suspended by Pinterest.

Check You Aren’t Repinning Stolen Pins

If you repin something that was stolen by someone else. You can get suspended and blocked by Pinterest as well.

Because, if the original owner of the pin before it was stolen sees your copy of the stolen pin. They can report it for infringing their copyrights and it’s your account that will get penalized.

So, you need to make sure any pins that you repin are legit and not stolen.

You can do this by checking the URL of the pin. And whether it makes sense where it is pointing to. This is significantly easier to spot if the blogger has put their URL on the bottom of the pin too.

Don’t Copy Other People’s Pin Designs Without Permission

You should also try to avoid copying other people’s Pinterest designs unless you have permission. Like these amazing Pinterest templates.

Because the original pinner could potentially flag your account, and if Pinterest approves it then it could get you in trouble.

Don’t Use Any Old Image You Find In Google Image Search

Finally, another thing to watch out for is the images that you use when you create your pins.

You need to make sure you have permission to use those images.

Because if you use images that you just find in Google image search. Chances are you don’t have permission to use those images.

Meaning the original owner could go to Pinterest and flag your account by reporting you. All of which could get your Pinterest account suspended and blocked.

Use High-Quality Stock Photos

Instead of using images, you find in Google. Take a look at these free stock images instead that you can use.

Just keep in mind that free stock images tend to not perform as well on Pinterest as premium images.

Because, as you can imagine, the free images will be used a lot more on Pinterest.

And they’ll be used for a variety of topics. That might not be directly related to what YOU are using the image for.

In which case, if someone is using an image of a rubber duck. For a cleaning blog post, and someone else is using that same image for baby bath time.

Then Pinterest might have a hard time understanding that your pin is about cleaning and not baby bath time.

I don’t know about you but I would rather Pinterest knew what my pin is about rather than confuse it. (It’s easier to do than you think.)

Which is why premium stock images perform better. And images that you create yourself that are 100% unique to you go even further.

This is why I only use paid stock photos for all my new Pinterest images. Such as those from:

• DepositPhotos
• Or AppSumo’s deal for DepositPhotos when it’s available
• Stock Unlimited
• IvoryMix

7. Repetitive Messages On Pinterest

Did you know you can message other users using Pinterest?

If you’ve ever tried to join group boards. You have probably come across board descriptions that tell you to message the owner of the board to join.

Well, if you are going through lots of group boards and trying to apply to as many as possible in one go. You may end up sending a lot of messages to Pinterest users in a short amount of time.

If you are sending lots of messages on the Pinterest platform, especially if they are very similar, or include any kind of URL.

Then Pinterest is highly likely to suspend your account for spam. Even if it is a legit use of Pinterest messages.

Because it’s not normal behavior for the average Pinterest user to send out a dozen chat messages at once.

It’s more likely for someone to send one or two messages without any URLs in it.

In fact, the majority of Pinterest users don’t use the messaging that much. Because they are mostly there to find and save ideas to their boards for later.

Spammers love to use it though.

8. Mass Commenting on Pins

The same is also true for bulk commenting on pins. Especially if it’s the same message over and over again.

Getting comments on your pins can be good for engagement.

So, some Pinterest users are tempted to go into the pins and thank the person who pinned it.

In cases like this, you can end up writing lots of comments in a short space of time. That are closely similar, like “thanks for sharing!”.

And this could be seen as spam behavior and trying to game the system by Pinterest. Which could get your Pinterest account suspended fast.

After all, Pinterest doesn’t understand that you are just trying to thank someone for sharing your pin.

It only knows you are adding the same message to a bunch of pins close together.

In addition, keep in mind that when spammers actually comment on people’s pins they usually try to link to a URL too.

Because of this, if you use a URL when you comment on a pin. It’s even more likely it will get flagged as spam.

This is not to say that you can’t comment on pins. Just do it in moderation. (As in a couple at a time.)

And, absolutely avoid using URLs if you can.

9. Bulk Following Or Unfollowing Other Users & Boards

Have you ever heard of following lots of people on Pinterest, to try to grow your followers quickly?

This seems to come from any social media platform that allows you to follow people.

The follow for follow game is 9 times out of 10, a complete waste of time.

Worst of all, mass following or unfollowing people and boards can quickly get your Pinterest account blocked for spam. Hurting your blog traffic and Pinterest marketing in the long run.

Should you follow people on Pinterest?

Yes.

If they are writing on the same topics that you are, and are relevant to what your audience may be interested in.

Then you should definitely follow them.

So that you can find more relevant and high-quality content to add to your own boards to break up pinning your own content.

But you shouldn’t be doing this in massive amounts. Even though it’s super easy to do.

The same is also true for following boards.

Basically you only want to follow people or boards as and when you find them.

Just try not to follow dozens of people or Pinterest boards in a short amount of time.

Otherwise you might find your Pinterest account suspended and blocked.

10. Pinning Old Content Pins Over & Over

With Pinterest’s push for new fresh content. Where fresh content is considered a new image never before added to Pinterest

Even if it’s to a blog post URL you have pinned to Pinterest in the past.

This means that pinning your old content, over and over again is only going to be more detrimental to your account, going forward.

Gone are the days where you could pin the same pins over and over again to get lots of traffic.

You need to be creating new Pinterest images on a regular basis now.

You can check this link on the best ways to create new pins quickly. If you’re concerned, it will take too much time to do this.

But also think of this from a user perspective.

If all you see is the same pin image over and over again from the same person.

You’re going to think they are spamming.

Also, you are not likely to save the pin again. Once you’ve saved it the first time, right?

Meaning you will just ignore this pin once you see it the second, and third time above.

Unless, it’s been awhile since you last saw it and forgot you pinned it!

Just to be clear though.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t repin your older pins.

You simply need to be mindful of the other points I have mentioned to avoid getting flagged for spam.

As well as focusing on repinning only your best-performing pins from time to time. So that you can show them to your newer followers.

Or if you have seasonal content from last year. It’s well worth resharing these again this year once the time comes back around again.

As a general rule of thumb, schedulers like Tailwind. Suggest only pinning the same image and URL combination to the same board. Once every 4 months or more using SmartLoops.

SmartLoop is an additional PowerUp for Tailwind users. That lets you automatically reshare your best content at set intervals.

By default, you’ll be able to schedule 250 SmartLoops pins with a Tailwind account. But you can always upgrade to a paid PowerUp if you need a bigger allowance later.

11. Using Unapproved Apps On Your Pinterest Account

Lastly, one of the biggest things that bloggers do in particular. That can result in getting a Pinterest account suspended and blocked.

Is using unapproved apps and tools to make changes to your Pinterest account.

There are tools out there that let you do crazy things. Like follow tons of people or boards and pin lots of stuff.

These are tools you want to avoid as they are against the terms of use for Pinterest.

If you break the terms of use then Pinterest can not only suspend and block your account. And it could be permanent.

Which Pinterest Tools Are Safe To Use?

So, how can you know if a Pinterest app or tool is allowed on the platform?

Well, you’ll want to look at the Pinterest partners that are listed on their website.

As these brands have permission, and the proper access to interact with the Pinterest platform.

If the creator of the tool is not listed on this page. Then there’s a high chance they are not approved by Pinterest. So you should avoid them.

A good example of a safe and approved app to use on Pinterest is Tailwind.

How Tailwind Can Help Keep Your Pinterest Account Safe

Tailwind allows you to schedule out your pins, making it very easy to spread out your strategy and avoid being spammy.

In addition, they also have something called the SmartGuide.

And this is something they’ve recently implemented to the scheduler. In order to help bloggers keep their accounts safe with the ever-changing requirements and Pinterest best practices.

In fact, the Tailwind SmartGuide will help you to spot and fix your pinning strategy if it is not within the best practices for Pinterest.

Meaning it can not only save you time and effort on Pinterest. But it can stop your Pinterest account from being spammy and ending up suspended or blocked.

It will give you warnings for things like pinning too much. Such as going significantly over the 25 pins per day recommendation.

But Tailwind doesn’t have a hard limit on how much you can schedule to pin with it. It will just warn you if your pinning might be considered spammy by Pinterest.

The same is also true if you are repeating the same content to the same board or just in close succession. As the SmartGuide will also flag this with warnings as well.

The SmartGuide is a relatively new feature to Tailwind and does not cost anything extra while using the scheduler.

You can try out Tailwind for yourself with their trial here. This means you can schedule your first 100 pins for free. And see the SmartGuide in action for yourself.

Use Tailwind To Avoid Being Spammy, Save Time & Improve Your Pinning

If you would like to spread out your pinning more easily without having to constantly be at your computer. Then Tailwind can be a good alternative to manually pinning all the time.

As it will help you save time by allowing you to bulk organize your strategy. Whilst keeping you updated on the best Pinterest practices to keep your Pinterest business account safe and out of the dreaded Pinterest jail.

Oh and the plan going forward for the SmartGuide is to keep it updated with all the latest best practices for Pinterest.

Since they work closely with Pinterest themselves. They are able to update the SmartGuide to reflect any changes in the future.

So if you use the Tailwind scheduler, you can be confident that their pinning strategy isn’t spamming and likely to get their Pinterest account suspended or blocked.

But also, the hope is that it will help improve your overall Pinterest strategy, even if you don’t know that much about Pinterest to begin with.

What To Do If You Pinterest Account Is Suspended Or Blocked

Despite your best efforts sometimes things can go wrong and Pinterest accidentally ends up blocking your account.

Don’t panic!

If your account does get blocked on Pinterest. Here’s what you can do to get it back:

Go to the Pinterest support page. Or use the link in your email if Pinterest sent you one.

(You used to be able to email [email protected] directly. But this is no longer the case and you need to go through their ticket system instead.)

In the message you send, explain that you’ve been blocked and that you don’t feel that any of your behavior was outside the guidelines. Ask them nicely to review your account.

As frustrating as getting your Pinterest account suspended is. Make sure you are as polite and nice as possible in your email. As you’re more likely to get a positive response.

And if you don’t get a response right away. Keep emailing them back every other day or so to ask for an update.

For the majority of bloggers, their accounts will get restored.

But sometimes in rare cases, Pinterest decides not to reopen those accounts.

It’s not clear why this happens. Which is why it’s important to try to avoid getting blocked by Pinterest in the first place.

Recap On Tips To Keep Your Pinterest Account Safe From Being Suspended & Blocked

Overall, the best practices for Pinterest changes all the time with frequent updates.

These can have a huge impact on bloggers who drive Pinterest traffic to their blogs.

As a blogger looking to grow your traffic. It’s incredibly important to keep your Pinterest account safe and fresh!

As getting your Pinterest account blocked or suspended for spam. Or even your URL being blocked as spam.

Can be hugely detrimental to your progress and your traffic.

As a general rule of thumb, the best way to not be spammy or get your account blocked on Pinterest. Is to make sure that your pinning behavior isn’t something that could be seen by other users as spammy.

Always think if you saw someone else doing what you’re doing. Would you think they’re a spammer or a bot?

And if keeping up with the latest Pinterest best practices is something that you struggle with. Then consider investing in something like Tailwind.

So that they can analyze your individual pinning strategy and give you suggestions in the SmartGuide. That should help keep your account safe and improve your overall pinning strategy.

If your Pinterest account gets blocked. You can appeal the decision. But it can often take time.

Such as about a week to get your account unblocked. In which time your results will slowly be declining, if not completely dead in the water.

Meaning Pinterest will see your account as inactive. And it will take some time once you recover a Pinterest account to get back to where you were before you got blocked.

Like anything from a few weeks to a month.

So it’s definitely something you want to avoid so that you aren’t setting back your progress.

So what are your thoughts on keeping your Pinterest accounts safe? Have you ever had your account suspended or blocked? What do you think caused it?