Pinterest Account Suspended? 8 Steps to getting It Reactivated in no Time!

Was your Pinterest account suspended or are you worried about doing something wrong which could get you in Pinterest jail, then this post is for you.

Yes, we love Pinterest. I love Pinterest. It is still a huge traffic source to my blog, and especially if you are starting with a new Blog, Pinterest is a lifesaver.

Getting my Pinterest account suspended could potentially be a considerable risk to my business as my Blog is my primary source of income. So, I decided to cover everything I learned about this topic and put it into this blog post, so let’s dig in.

In this post, I am going over:

My best tips to avoid getting suspended from Pinterest in the first place.
The Effects of a suspension for you and your biz!
How to get your Pinterest account back if it was wrongfully suspended.
What Pinterest considers violations against Guidelines, which could end up getting your account suspended.

1. How to Avoid Getting your Pinterest Account Suspended?

There are a ton of rules you should follow to avoid getting suspended from Pinterest, and I get it, it’s overwhelming. That’s why I decided to jump right in and give you the nine activities I believe are getting most people into trouble and could get your Pinterest account suspended.

I picked these nine because I do see people going wrong here a lot. At the end of this post under section 4, however, I am going into a lot more details. So, If you are a skimmer, this is for you 😉

Aso, here is how the email from Pinterest about your suspended Pinterest account can look like:

Tips 1: Follow the Community Guidelines

Follow the Pinterest Community Guidelines. See section 4 for a comprehensive list of Dos and Don’ts. Or check out this link where Pinterest lists their Community Guidelines.

Tip 2: Convert to a Business account and verify your Domain

Converting your personal Pinterest account to a business account is super easy and totally free. Now, if you are using Pinterest for business or commercial use, it can get shut down if not display it like that.

Plus there is no reason why not to convert to a business account. This will let you verify your blog or website, which helps you reach more people and boost your pins. And you get free analytic to track your progress.

Check out this where I cover how you can convert to a business account and activate Rich Pins.

Tip 3. Don’t Over-Pin

Pinterest states that you should not: “create or save content that is repetitive, deceptive, or irrelevant in an attempt to make money.

According to the newest Pinterest Algorithm update, the most successful Pinterest account post between 15-25 Pins a Day. More than that can get you into trouble. I recommend using Tailwind to schedule out your content. It’s easy, and they also help you follow Pinterest Guidelines!

Check out my post on “How to go viral on Pinterest – Pinterest’s Algorithm Update.”

Tip 4: Don’t use nonapproved Pinterest Scheduler

Pinterest allows you to use 3rd party services to schedule and manage your pins. However, there are a lot of different services out there that are not approved by Pinterest.

So Pinterest does not grant these service access to their system, and they do it anyways. You can see how this could get you into trouble, and your Pinterest account suspended, right?

My absolute favorite approved Pinterest Scheduler is Tailwind. You can start your free trial here and check it out for yourself!

Also interesting is: What happened to Boardbooster (old unapproved Pinterest scheduler) and my favorite Pinterest scheduler alternative!

Tips 5. Don’t send unsolicited messages or make irrelevant comments in bulk

I see this all the time. I get so many spammy messages and comments on my pins, and it’s kind of frustrating. It’s my goal to reply to all the comments and I know many people are the same.

It takes me about a second to know where this is a legit comment or a copy-paste spam.

I know it can be tempting to comment the same comment on a lot of pins to reach more people, but believe me, if you are following Pinterest rules, your audience will grow organically and faster as you thing. Believe in the process, girl!

Related: 10 Ways to organically grow your Pinterest Account Fast!

Tip 6: Don’t try to trick the system

According to Pinterest, please: “Don’t attempt to artificially manipulate distribution, clicks, or other metrics, including but not limited to:

buying or selling engagement,
“stuffing” irrelevant keywords,
generating inauthentic traffic,
redirecting existing Pins to new destinations,
using fake or compromised accounts to perform coordinated actions.

This is also a super important one where I see a lot of people go wrong. Especially important is not to overstuff your Pin descriptions with Keywords. Try to write a Pin description, which makes sense and includes organic Keywords!

Also, stealing pins and redirecting existing Pins to a new destination is a total no-no! This is sadly, something that happens a lot ad can be so frustrating. I even had someone else link my URL to someone else’s pin, which is now floating out there. Don’t mess with other people’s business and focus on creating your awesome unique content.

Tip 8: Disclose Paid Partnerships!

Now, this is a massive topic on Instagram but has now also arrived on Pinterest.

You are allowed to work with brands and be paid for your work, but it’s super important to disclose the commercial nature of your content.

This means you should, as the use of #ad to indicate that your content is a Paid Partnership.

Tip 9. Creating affiliate Pins repetitively or in large volumes

According to Pinterest: “marketers should follow our spam policy and use affiliate links in moderation.”

We are allowed to use affiliate marketing on Pinterest, such as pinning directly to a product which we are an affiliate of. However, it’s important to let that pin grow organically and not try to boost the pin to reach a broader audience artificially.

Make sure you believe in the product you are promoting and don’t try to scam people into buying just random stuff on the internet. The people and planter will thank you.

Here we go; these were the nine activities I believe most people do and can get your account suspended.

But what are the actual consequences of getting suspended?

2. Pinterest Jail: Effects of a suspension for you and your biz!

I know that Pinterest is one of the biggest sources of traffic to me and many of your blogs. If we are monetizing our Blog with ads that requires a lot of traffic but also affiliate marketing where it’s essential to get the product link in front of the right people, we relay a lot on free, easy Pinterest traffic.

So, a potential suspension of your Pinterest could result not only in a loss of traffic or reputation but money, my friends.

I wanted to start by showing the effects because I know that it’s not always fun to follow the rules or read a 3000-word blog post about what not to do, regulations or guidelines, but my bloggy friend it’s important!

Let’s put on our big girl pants and figure this out cause potential short and long term effect of getting our Pinterest account suspended could be:

Loss of Traffic
Which, in turn, leads to loss of income, clients, potential partners …
Stress
Reputation Loss
Shut down of our Blog

Ok, now what if you followed all of the rules I mentioned and your account still gets suspended? First of all, breathe and don’t panic! Second of all, read the next section!

3. How to Re-activate your Pinterest suspended account and Appeal to a wrong Account Suspension

If you believe you followed Pinterest’s rules but your account got suspended anyway, this is a step by step Guide to re-activate your wrongfully suspended Pinterest account. Sadly, this happens more often than you think, and I hope this helps:

Step 1: Don’t Panic

Step 2: Make sure you are clear on your Community Guidelines. Make sure you read this post carefully, and you did not unintentionally violate their guidelines.

Step 3: Contact Pinterest here: “Get more Help from Pinterest” Or if it concerns copyright and intellectual property appeals, read their Copyright policy.

Step 4: Describe your Situation.

Include Name, Pinterest Account, other relevant information which could be helpful
Explain your situation in-depth, what happened, how it affected you.
Tell them why it’s essential for you to keep this account.
Explain that you are willing to fix any mistakes you unintentionally made in the past.

Step 5 Step. Send an email asking for help at

creators-support@pinterest.com.

Creators Support is a separate team inside Pinterest that was created in 2018 to help legit bloggers and content creators resolve their issues with Pinterest faster.

Step 6: Be Patient

Step 7: (Optional) File a report at BBB an official Better Business Bureau (BBB) complaint against Pinterest on the same

Step 8. Get your account back and re-activated.

4. Violations against Guidelines that could end up getting your account suspended!

Hey, there still here? Cool!

This section is for all of you Pinterest nerds, who want to make 100% sure that they are following Pinterest Best Practices.

Now, Pinterest is very clear on what they allow and don’t allow on their platform. I want to go over the most critical points, in my opinion, but I would love for you also to check out Pinterest’s Community Guidelines for even more info! Community Guidelines.

Pinterest sais they account for violations:

“through both automated processes and human review. (…) and your account can be suspended:
“due to single or repeat violations.”

Violations can occur in the following things:

Pins,
comments,
photos,
messages, or
accounts dedicated to policy-violating content

Stop doing this! Pinterest Community Guidelines in Detail!

Ok, so this sounds scary. I get it. I mean, even a single violation can get your account suspended. So what are the exact things which can get you into trouble! Here are the exact activities they do and don’t allow on Pinterest.

1. Intellectual Property Righty Violations:

Infringe anyone’s intellectual property, privacy, or other rights. Eg. Using images with copyright or unknown source to create Pins.
Content that violates laws or regulations.
Use Pinterest’s name, logo, or trademark in a way that confuses people.

-> How to get free Copyright and Stock Images

2. Spam

Spam has to be the single biggest reason why your account could get suspended. There are a lot of don’t in this section, but personally, I understand why these rules are set in place. I am a big believer that if you are being authentic and focus on creating unique content, you will be successful on Pinterest. No need to trick the system. Here we go:

Don’t use automation that hasn’t been explicitly approved by Pinterest. This includes Pinterest Schedulers as an example. I recommend Tailwind is an approved Pinterest Partner)
Don’t create or operate accounts that aren’t authentic, create accounts en masse
Don’t create or save content that is repetitive, deceptive, or irrelevant in an attempt to make money. (Check out my Pin Guide Below)

Don’t attempt to make money from Pinners or Pinner web traffic in misleading ways, detract from the Pinner experience, or don’t add value for Pinners.
Don’t link to websites that are unsafe, deceptive, untrustworthy, unoriginal, or that facilitate or encourage spam.
Please don’t send unsolicited messages or make irrelevant comments in bulk,
Don’t attempt to manipulate distribution artificially, clicks, or other metrics, including but not limited to buying or selling engagement, “stuffing” irrelevant keywords, generating inauthentic traffic, redirecting existing Pins to new destinations, using fake or compromised accounts to perform coordinated actions.
Don’t attempt to evade our anti-spam systems, for example, by using shorteners, redirects, or intermediate websites to obscure a link’s final destination. (Source)

3. Paid Partnerships:

Pinterest allows you to work with partners on your Pinterest account, whether we are talking sponsored content or promoted pins. However, paid Partnerships are responsible for complying with the following guidelines. Again if you fail to follow these rules, you could get your Pinterest account suspended.

All applicable laws and regulations, including but not limited to, all advertising laws and Federal Trade Commission regulations including the FTC’s Endorsement Guidelines.
disclosures required to indicate the commercial nature of your content (such as the use of #ad to indicate that your content is a Paid Partnership). (Source)

4. Affiliate Guidelines

Similar to sponsorships and partnering with a paid service, you are allowed to use affiliate marketing on Pinterest. Please make sure if you do that you consider the following rules:

Affiliate content should be original and add unique value for Pinners.
Be transparent about the commercial nature of your content. Don’t use shorteners or redirectors that make the destination domain of a link unclear or that redirect to hide an affiliate parameter.
Using fake accounts to create or save your affiliate links.
Asking other users to save your affiliate Pins in a quid pro quo.
Asking other users to create Pins with links that include your affiliate identifier.
Creating affiliate Pins repetitively or in large volumes – marketers should follow our spam policy and use affiliate links in moderation. (Source)

5. Safety

Now, the Safety Guidelines are actually under point number 1 in the Pinterest Community Guideline. In my opinion, these are basic rules we would expect everyone to follow, and I see no justification for not following these rules in the first place. Your account can be suspended when you display content such as:

Sexual content
Violence
Rationalizes or encourages suicide, self-injury, eating disorders, or substance abuse.
Hate speech and discrimination
threaten or organize violence or support violent organizations.
Attacks on private people or sharing of personally identifiable information.
Content used to sell or buy regulated goods, like drugs, alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and other hazardous materials.
Accounts that impersonate any person or organization.
Disinformation campaigns. (Source)