What Not to Repin on Pinterest (And What to Do Instead): 7 Instant Tips

Pinterest can be a powerhouse for driving free traffic to your blog or website. But if you want to see real results, there are a few things you should never repin on Pinterest. If you do, you won’t see the growth you expect.

Pinterest is the main traffic source for many of my websites and for my clients in various niches, so I’ve been perfecting my Pinterest marketing strategy since 2019. Throughout the years, I’ve learned what really works on Pinterest and what doesn’t.

In this post, I’ll walk you through the worst things you could repin on Pinterest. Avoiding them from the get-go is the best way to make the Pinterest algorithm work for you.

You’ll learn what not to repin and, importantly, discover smart alternatives that align with your goals.

Follow along to grow your impressions, get more Pinterest followers, and drive more free traffic to your website!

Please note: This post contains affiliate links to products I use, trust, and recommend. If you choose to purchase a helpful product using these links, I may receive a small commission for referring you – at no extra cost to you. These funds help me keep this blog up and running.

What does repinning mean on Pinterest?

On Pinterest, “repinning” simply means that you save an existing Pinterest pin from someone else’s board to one of your own Pinterest boards.

When you open the pin close-up, select a board on your account and click Save, that’s a repin:

That pin can be an image or video that links back to a blog post, website, or product.

When you repin content, you’re adding it to your curated collection of Pinterest pins on the Saved tab in your profile:

Thus, repinning is how content spreads across the platform as users share and re-share the same pin over and over again.

The more repins your pin gets, the higher it will rank with the Pinterest algorithm, the more users will see it, and the more traction you will get on the platform.

What’s changed about repinning on Pinterest?

A few years back, repinning was an easy way to grow your reach on Pinterest. You would take an existing pin and repin it to several boards on your profile.

The algorithm would then distribute it to users, meaning you would get seen in people’s feeds again without having to design an entirely new Pinterest pin.

The more repins you had, the chances you had to generate clicks and website traffic. Therefore, repinning to 20 or 30 boards was totally normal. Repinning your top-performing pins could easily double your traffic.

However, this meant that people were creating less new pins and simply repinning older ones again and again. For a platform that aims to inspire people with new ideas, repins aren’t the best way to keep users engaged.

As a result, in early 2020 Pinterest started updating its ranking algorithm towards favoring new, fresh pins instead of repinning.

In the next few months, I saw tons of bloggers wonder why their numbers suddenly dropped.

So we started seeing emails from Pinterest support saying that excessive repinning was the reason for the traffic drop. The standard emails would say something like:

“We encourage new publishing over saving others’ or your own already-pinned content. Pinners come to our platform to find new ideas, and we suggest creating more original content that will be prioritized.”

And just like that, fresh pins became your best chance to get seen in users’ feeds. The more fresh pins you create, the faster your traffic will grow.

That said, it’s still perfectly OK to repin the best content you can find on Pinterest. But you want to focus your efforts on creating new, fresh pins at the same time.

With this in mind, it’s more important than ever to know what NOT to repin on Pinterest. Since repins aren’t the best way to generate traffic from Pinterest, you want to be extra careful about what you re-save to your boards.

8 things you should NOT repin on Pinterest

Now, what types of pins should you never repin on Pinterest, then?

Pin this post before we dive in!

1: Low-quality images

Pinterest is a visual platform, so a picture is worth more than a thousand words for your followers.

People use Pinterest to find ideas and inspiration. Hence, they love high-quality, inspirational images!

After all, who’s going to feel inspired by a pixelated mess of a pin, eh?

Using low-quality images on Pinterest is like trying to sell a product with a blurry commercial. Low-quality images make your Pinterest boards look messy and unprofessional. If you keep repinning sub-par pins, potential followers will scroll past without a second thought.

What to do instead: Repin high-resolution, eye-catching images

If you want to generate clicks and growth, your Pinterest boards need to look absolutely stunning.

Whatever your niche is, your boards need to offer pinners a reason to stick around.

With 1.5 billion pins saved on Pinterest every week, people will move on if your boards are sub-par.

Here’s what you should do:

1. Stick to high-resolution images: Always repin crisp, sharp, high-res pins to your boards. Steer clear of blurry and pixelated pins.
2. Pay attention to lighting: Professional photographers make good lighting look effortless. Natural lighting brings out the colors and details, making the entire pin more appealing and interesting. Nobody’s going to pin images that look like they were shot at the dentist’s office.
3. Keep it simple: Cluttered pins are hard to interpret in the Pinterest feed and they make your boards look messy. Repin images that convey their message instantly when you look at them.
4. Know your audience: Who are you repinning content for? Who’s your target audience? Figure out their aesthetic so that your repins resonate with them. If you know your audience loves rustic home decor, include images featuring weathered wood and earth tones. The more your image reflects their tastes, the more likely they’ll be to engage.

2: Irrelevant content

If you are serious about generating free website traffic from Pinterest, you need to stick to your niche.

Most importantly, you need to know what your target audience wants from you. They have specific questions and problems they want to overcome. Your job is to help them with valuable, actionable content that delivers solutions and answers.

Thus, all pins on your Pinterest boards have to be relevant to your audience. Think of them as the perfect curated collection of resources for your followers and readers.

If your audience is interested in gardening but half of your boards are about cooking, parenting, and motivational quotes, your audience will feel confused.

What to do instead: Stick to relevant, niche-specific content

You want to fill your Pinterest boards with content that resonates with your target audience.

Stick to relevant, niche-specific content. Be mindful of what your audience is struggling with and what type of content they’re searching for on Pinterest.

Here’s what you should do:

• Know your niche: Define your niche as clearly as you can. Whether it’s home decor, travel tips, or healthy recipes, make sure every pin aligns with your overall theme.
• Understand your audience: Figure out what your audience is interested in. What are they looking for on Pinterest? Consider their needs, questions, and the kind of content they engage with the most. Are they interested in how-to guides, inspirational quotes, or detailed product reviews?
• Regularly update and edit: Pinterest isn’t a “set it and forget it” platform. Periodically review your boards. Is there a board that doesn’t feel relevant anymore? Make that Pinterest board secret to hide it from others.
• Curate thoughtfully: At the end of the day, you are a content curator on Pinterest. It’s OK to be picky when saving pins to your boards. Quality content that’s on-topic will keep your followers coming back for more.

3: Misleading and outdated infographics

Infographics are huge on Pinterest! They make complex information easily digestible and can go viral on Pinterest in no time.

However, time is their biggest enemy. Infographics often contain time-sensitive data, such as current trends, annual averages for specific data, or even comparative percentage figures.

Thus, outdated infographics are another thing you should never repin on Pinterest. For example, this 2020 social media statistics infographic isn’t relevant or up-to-date anymore:

Also, infographics can contain misleading information, which is a massive no-no for repinning. This world doesn’t need any more misinformation. Repinning “facts” that simply aren’t true will damage your credibility.

What to do instead: Fact-check your infographics

Before repinning an infographic to your Pinterest boards, especially if you’re using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog or website, pause for a moment.

Put that detective hat on and fact-check the infographic to spot potential red flags before saving it to your board.

I know fact-checking can be time-consuming if you want to repin tons of infographics. But trust me, it’s worth your time!

Here’s what you should do:

1. Check the sources: Look at where the data comes from. Reputable, niche-specific sources are easy to check. If the data comes from an individual content creator, check their methods. How did they study the topic? Does their methodology feel legit?
2. Assess the accuracy: Even reputable sources sometimes make unrealistic claims. Compare the stats or facts with other credible websites. A quick Google search can help verify the information.
3. Evaluate the logic: Sometimes the conclusion drawn in the infographic doesn’t logically follow the data presented. In other words, the person who created the infographic misunderstood the data or used the findings in an unrelated context. If it feels off, it probably is. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
4. Watch out for bias: Does the infographic feel informative or rather persuasive? If you feel like the creator is making arguments for a personal cause rather than presenting facts in a neutral way, move on.

4: Pins with broken links

Imagine this:

You do a search on Pinterest. You scroll through hundreds of pins in the search results.

Then, you spot the most stunning pin and can’t wait to click through to visit that website.

But when you do, the link doesn’t work. You see a 404 error page or get redirected to an entirely different website.

How frustrating is that, eh?

Pins with broken links are disappointing for your audience, too. Saving them to your boards can damage your trustworthiness and your overall ranking with the Pinterest search algorithm.

If users keep hitting roadblocks on your boards, you won’t see the results you expect from your Pinterest marketing strategy.

What to do instead: Check all URLs and links

Before you hit the “save” button on a pin, ensure that it leads your audience down the right path. You don’t want to send them on a journey that leads nowhere.

If your goal is to drive blog traffic through Pinterest, you want all your pins linking to relevant, helpful content. Thus, the pins on your boards can either link to your website or other people’s sites.

Here’s what you should do:

• Open the link: Click through every pin to see where it leads. Does it take you to the intended blog post or page? If not, move on to the next pin.
• Verify URL accuracy: Sometimes links might not work due to minor typos in the URL. Double-check to ensure there are no extra spaces or misspellings.
• Pin the image from its original source: If you must repin an image with a broken link, use the Image search button in the bottom right corner. Chances are you will find the original image with a working URL in 10 seconds.

My tip: Pin URLs and links don’t really matter if you use Pinterest for personal purposes. For example, if you want to gather ideas and inspiration for your next kitchen makeover, create a separate Pinterest account and save those pins there.

5: Square images

Pinterest is all about tall, vertical images. When you open your home feed, that’s what you will see:

Horizontal or quadratic images don’t work on this platform. Thus, you don’t want to save those to your boards.

For example, when I search for chocolate chip blondies, I see these two square and landscape pins that don’t stand out:

In fact, Pinterest explains this in their creative best practices:

And even more clearly:

“Other ratios may cause your Pin to truncate, or may negatively impact performance.”

What to do instead: Save tall, vertical pins

Tall and vertical images will keep your audience engaged and generate clicks and followers on Pinterest.

Furthermore, your boards will look more consistent and clean when all your pins are long and vertical.

Here’s what you should do:

• Use the right aspect ratio: Pinterest recommends a 2:3 aspect ratio. Create pins with 1,000 x 1,500 pixels when designing them in Canva. When saving other people’s pins, avoid horizontal and quadratic images.
• Create custom Pinterest graphics: If you’re a blogger, you probably have horizontal features images for your blog posts. Since that format doesn’t work on Pinterest, you should create dedicated images to publish on Pinterest. Again, Canva makes this a breeze.
• Save tall infographics: Infographics perform well on Pinterest because they contain a ton of data in a compact format. Infographics can be much taller than the standard vertical pin. Thus, they may get truncated in the feed — which is perfectly normal.
• Resize your templates: If you’ve designed Pinterest pins using other dimensions, you can resize your templates in Canva or Photoshop.

6: Spam and stolen pins

Spam has always been a problem on Pinterest. Spammers love Pinterest because it’s easy to steal beautiful photos and publish them with a link that leads to a scam website.

Luckily, Pinterest has done a great job fighting spam lately. They usually respond quickly to spam attacks and ban suspicious accounts.

Stolen pins are another thing you should never repin on Pinterest. I see stolen pins all the time, including my own pin images. Stealing someone else’s pin saves a ton of time since you don’t have to create your own designs.

For example, here’s a pin Creative Market stole from me and is now using to link to their own website — not cool:

Repinning stolen pins is a bad idea mostly because it’s just not right to steal other people’s work. Plus, they are usually taken down quickly. If you fill your boards with stolen pins, your boards will soon be empty again when those pins get taken down.

What to do instead: Only save legit, original pins

Repinning the wrong content is risky. If people get directed to scam sites from pins on your board, they will most definitely not follow you or engage with your content.

By sticking with genuine pins, you’ll not only protect your boards but also build a trustworthy resource for followers. This way, when someone comes across your pins, they’ll know they’re getting the real deal.

Also, if you fill your boards with spammy pins, your account might get flagged, wrecking your chances of driving traffic to your site.

Here’s what you should do:

• Check the source: Before repinning, click on the pin to see if it leads to the site it claims to come from. If a pin on “gardening tips” leads to a spammy site full of ads, that’s a red flag right there.
• Look at the branding: Make sure the branding on the image matches the website it links to. Inconsistent branding might mean someone swiped the image without permission.

7: Affiliate link pins without proper disclosure

Affiliate link pins are a staple in Pinterest marketing. They help creators earn extra income by promoting products to pinners.

However, these pins must include a clear affiliate disclosure. It’s legally mandatory, and it helps build transparency and trust on the platform.

After all, transparency is key when it comes to affiliate marketing. If someone’s affiliate with a brand, you want to know that they’re getting compensated for recommending a product, right? That way, you can draw your own conclusions about whether their recommendation is genuine or not.

Repinning pins with undisclosed affiliate links can mislead your audience and even violate Pinterest’s guidelines. Hence, it’s our job to make sure this platform stays as transparent and trustworthy as possible.

What to do instead: Check the affiliate disclosure before saving a pin

How can we make sure a pin has proper affiliate disclosure? It’s simpler than it sounds. Here’s a checklist that makes identifying these disclosures easy:

• Look for clear wording: A proper disclosure should use straightforward language like “affiliate link” or “I earn a commission.” The disclosure should be upfront, either on the pin’s image or in the description.
• Positioning matters: The disclosure should be visible without needing to click or scroll excessively. If you can’t see it right away, it might not be compliant.
• Consistent transparency: Regularly check if other pins from the same user include disclosures. A consistent approach indicates credibility.

Next time you come across a pin that doesn’t immediately reveal the affiliation, think about how it mirrors shopping at a store without price tags. Confusing, right? Spotting these cues ensures you’re supporting ethical practices on Pinterest while keeping your boards clean and professional.

Ultimately, being mindful of affiliate links helps you maintain trust with your audience and adhere to Pinterest’s community guidelines.

Remember, a transparent approach not only fosters credibility but also boosts your chances of success in driving traffic to your blog or website.

Final thoughts: What not to repin on Pinterest

If you made it this far, here’s the #1 takeaway from this guide:

Before you publish or save a pin to your boards, do a quick search for the corresponding topic and keyword.

Peruse the search results. What do you see?

Ask yourself two questions:

• Is this pin on par with the quality of the other images?
• Is this a resource you want to send your followers and customers to?

If not, move on. You’ll find better stuff!

Summing it up:

If you want to succeed on Pinterest and grow your business or blog, you need to follow a consistent Pinterest marketing strategy and be mindful of your repins.