Pinterest Account Suspended? (How to Fix it)

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If you woke up to find you can’ t access your Pinterest account for no apparent reason, breathe, it will be alright.

I know that you are probably freaking out right now, but if you’ ve been suspended or deactivated, then you will not be alone. This happened to me and many others a few days ago.

I woke to an email saying “Your Pinterest account has been suspended ”.

What the …this was a total shock and my immediate thoughts were what the hell!!

You see, I only recently started to add Pinterest to my traffic strategy in December 2020. Since then I have been growing it slowly and gaining some traction. Pinning a few pins daily and creating new pins using Canva.

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Before the suspension my traffic had started to grow and my impressions were sitting at an average 6k (slow but sure wins the race) and I was pleased with the new content I was creating.

I had taken the Pinterest Strategies course and learnt how to pin manually just a few pins a day.

What if I have a Tailwind Account — is this linked to Pinterest suspension?

However, I had also linked my pinterest account to Tailwind.

As a result, at the same time, I also got an email from Tailwind asking me to re-connect my account.

Only I hadn’ t disconnected it.

It was of course automatically disconnected due to the suspension.

I am not sure if the two are linked as yet.

I am going to hold off re-connecting my Tailwind account for the moment.

Although Tailwind were the preferred partner of Pinterest, I am not so sure about the relationship anymore since Pinterest went public.

I will update this if and when I decide whether to reconnected my Tailwind account to Pinterest. For now it is manual pinning.

Want to know how to manually pin effectively then this is the only course I recommend.

Let’ s keep going on how this unfolded.

I soon found in the blogging groups I am in, that I was not the only one. It seems that this had affected so many people over night.

People were posting of how they had lost followers and their traffic had gone down.

People were frantic as this was their main source of traffic.

I had worked hard on building up the Pinterest content. Pinning just a couple of pins using the pinterest planner.

But like I said I also had tailwind connected. I did try to space out my pinning on Tailwind and did not go crazy with my pinning there either. I had also decided to turn off the Smartloop feature on Tailwind.

What is Tailwind Smartloop

The Smartloop feature allows pins to be recycled and re-pinned to your boards.

This was great before the huge updates. Smartloop meant that if you had a popular pin you could have it come back again and again. Repining it in a scheduled cycle.

But now Pinterest wants NEW CONTENT only.

Consequently, I don’ t use Smartloop feature anymore.

What this does make me realise, is that you shouldn’ t have all your eggs in one basket.

When you are looking at ways to gain traffic to your website you need to diversify.

I have also been learning and implementing SEO strategies as well. Need SEO Training this is where I go.

My Backstory — What I did to get my Pinterest Account Back

Like I said, it was in the morning when I found out what had happened to my Pinterest account.

All I wanted, was to get this Pinterest issue resolved. And resolved as quickly as possible. I was wondering if I would even get my site back again.

So, what did I do after I panicked?

The email I received asked me to click a link if I thought that this was an error.

Therefore, that was what I did. I knew that I hadn’ t done anything differently of late to breach any terms, not that I ever would.

This sent an immediate appeal to Pinterest. There was nothing else to fill in. I did not have to state any other reasons etc.

After this I received an on-screen message which said

“Thanks for your appeal.

We will take a look soon. ”

That was at 9:00am on Friday 1.7.2021.

Then I waited and tried not to think about it.

I was told by others who had experienced this before that you need to give it at least 24 hours.

It was hard not to think about it, somehow I managed.

Several hours later, I noticed people commenting in the blogging like we mean it group, that their Pinterest account was back up and running.

Tentatively, I had a look and Yippee, I too was back up and running.

I can’ t see any drop in traffic or change in followers but will see how it goes in the next weeks.

UPDATE 22.07.2021

I received an email from Pinterest apologising as this was a bug on their end.

Why were Pinterest Accounts Suspended

From what I can gather, this seems to happen to content creators at some time.

It usually coincides with the time when updates happen behind the scenes in the Pinterest lab.

Usually when they are testing out things and checking that everything is working ok.

It is life. Sometimes when these changes happen, the settings on the Pinterest filters seem to pick out not only the bad but the good as well.

Resulting in many bloggers Pinterest accounts being suspended for no seemingly good reason.

If you believe that your account has been shut down for no reason, read Pinterest terms . Make sure that you have not broken any of their terms.

“Accounts may be suspended due to single or repeated violations of our community Guidelines concerning : Pinner safety for example hateful speech, pornography, graphic imagery and misinformation). Account security (including impersonation and third party logins ) Spam. ”

If there is nothing obvious you can see, you will find in this post, what you will need to do to get your Pinterest account back.

What Does it mean if an account is suspended?

This means that your Pinterest account will not be able to be accessed any longer.

Any pins and boards you have are no longer accessible.

That means you cannot pin.

You cannot create any new content.

And you cannot go in and fix any of your content.

You are basically shut out. Just like not having the key to your front door.

You can stare in through the window but can’ t do anything.

Why Was My Pinterest Account Suspended?

Pinterest likes to keep its site clean. They want to be able to provide good quality content.

To do this, they will make routine clean ups of its site.

They do this to get rid of actual spam accounts.

Spam accounts are those which pin the same thing over and over again.

Sometimes pinning a pin maybe 50 to 100 times using robots to do so.

Or the pin content is not in line with Pinterest terms.

It could be that the pin is not suitable for all audiences.

Maybe it even makes shady offers.

Consequently, you can understand that it is a good thing, that they will clean up every so often.

Just like your house gets messy, it needs a good clean through from time to time.

By doing this Pinterest is able to keep everything fresh and running smoothly.

But sometimes honest and legitimate sites can get caught up in these cleans up.

Just like when you’ ve thrown something out that you didn’ t mean to, it’ s the same thing. It happens.

I know you may be freaking out and wondering what you have done wrong, and if you will ever get out of Pinterest jail.

Don’ t worry, keep reading, and you will learn what you need to do next.

Firstly,

Work out what type of suspension you are dealing with.

Account Suspension

This means you have no access to your account. Your pins will still be getting traffic to your site, but you have no access to your account

Blocked account

This means you still have access to your account and people will be able to still find you but all of your links will be broken. This means that you will not be getting any traffic. I know after all that hard work. (This happened to me)

How Do I know if My Pinterest Account has been suspended?

If you click on a pin and try to go to your website, it will tell you that your website was blocked or something like that.

This is an indicator that your account has been marked as spam and suspended.

If people are still able to visit your site, then you have not been marked as spam.

No more panic!!!

How Do I Unsuspend my Pinterest Account?

What to do if this has happened to you?

I know you are panicking right now.

This is normal.

Most people are able to work with Pinterest to get the account re-instated.

I’ m not saying it will be easy or quick and it is going to take some persistence on your part, but it can be done.

Make sure that you continue talking to Pinterest.

I understand that this can take up to 10 days before people can get their accounts back again.

I was lucky that mine was back up and running within 24 hours.

What are the next steps to get your Pinterest account back

You will of course need to contact pinterest. To do this go to the Pinterest Help Desk

Decide which option best fits your current circumstances.

“Appeal an account suspension ” or “pinterest blocked my site ”, scroll down and click continue.

You will be asked to complete your basic details.

Then you will be given the chance to write what the problem is that you are experiencing in more detail.

In your message “You will need to provide an explanation as to why you think your account should not be suspended and that you would like it re-activated. Ask them for the reasons why so that you can rectify any pins/boards that may have triggered this action. ”

Then you will need to hit Submit.

How Long does it take for Pinterest to unsuspend your account?

After you have completed the appeal form, you may get an automated email or if you are lucky you will get a response from a person who you can deal with.

At first you may need to wait and see if Pinterest are able to resolve the problem. It could take a couple of days before they get back to you.

But don’ t wait too long, I would try to follow up every 2/3 days.

Persistence will be key in getting your account back.

Pinterest should be able to tell you why your account has been suspended.

You will need to provide an explanation as to why you don’ t agree with this, if you believe that you are not spam or did not post anything inappropriate.

You will need to show them that you have kept to their terms and conditions.

Try telling them what it is that you do. If you are a blogger, then essentially you are creating content for pinners.

The process to get your account re-instated can usually take 7-10 days.

What if I get no response what else can I do?

You can try to email Pinterest help desk at support@pinterest-business.zendesk.com and submit a contact request from there.

You will be able to reply to any email response to give a more detailed explanation.

Another way is to use the Pinterest Business Community Forum. You can reach out on the forum for more ideas and support

What if I did spam, can I still get my account back?

Maybe you are new to Pinterest and were still learning about how this platform works, and have done something that you shouldn’ t without realising.

Whilst this is no excuse, because you must read Pinterest Best Practice you can try to explain this to them and apologise.

Accept when you were in the wrong.

Appeal to the better Pinterest nature.

Let them know it was a one off accident and explain how you plan to avoid this happening again.

Tell them you have made sure to read the Pinterest best practice.

Maybe take some training courses. Looking for some good training, this is the same pinterest training that has helped me to create and build my account.

Make sure that you are polite in all communication and speak nicely.

They are afterall also only doing a job and don’ t deserve to receive any abuse.

This will not help you in getting your account back.

Remember they are trying to help you.

Are Suspended Accounts Deleted

If your pinterest account has been suspended, you will need to appeal the suspension so that you can get access to the account once again.

Suspended accounts will remain there and aren’ t deleted.

However you will not be able to access the account either to delete anything.

Deactivated accounts are purged forever after 30 days.

Let’ s sum up, what to do if your Pinterest account has been suspended.

If your Pinterest account has been suspended, don’ t panic. It is most likely an update that caused this issue.

Check your email and respond to the message that you have probably been sent. It’ s likely that your account will be back up and running within 24 hours and that this was just a blip in the system.

If this is not the case, then you will need to make contact with Pinterest, go to their helpdesk and complete the appeals form.

Keep following up every 2-3 days, it can take up to 10 days to get your site restored.

If all else fails, try emailing support@pinterest-business.zendesk.com for support and advice.

Need help in learning more about getting started with Pinterest

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