What exactly is “Fresh” content?
Pinterest is increasingly prioritizing fresh content for distribution as today’s Pinners respond most strongly to fresh content. Pinterest’s algorithm favors content that’s relevant and timely, so creating more fresh content and ideas means more exposure for you to your followers, in users’ home feeds, and in search results -- helping you to maximize your reach and traffic potential on Pinterest.
What is a “fresh” idea exactly? Fresh ideas are defined by Pinterest as images or videos that they haven’t seen before. You can create several images that link to the same blog post, page, or product listing, and each of those would be fresh when saved to Pinterest for the first time. For example, fresh ideas can come from creating new images for links you’ve previously shared to Pinterest.
Note: The following changes would NOT be considered creation of new, fresh content:
Pinning the same image and changing the Pin title, Pin description or alt text
Making small, imperceptible changes to an image that has already been Pinned before (for example, shifting your background image a few pixels or moving your logo slightly to try to “fool” Pinterest into thinking it’s a new Pin)
🔑 The key is that the image must appear new and fresh to Pinners!
What are “Duplicate” Pins?
Duplicate Pins are Pins with an exact image/URL combination that has already been Pinned to Pinterest before (by you or anyone else). Basically, if Pinterest has seen the image before, then it would not be considered “fresh.”
It’s still okay to save some Duplicate Pins - especially if it’s something you genuinely love or believe your audience would love, or relevant seasonal and evergreen content in moderation. It’s OK to naturally curate relevant and high quality content to your boards, but if the vast majority of your Pinning is Duplicate Pins, then we would definitely encourage you to begin shifting some of your effort towards creating more fresh content to maximize your distribution on Pinterest!
When thinking about Duplicate Pins in SmartLoop, you’ll want to ensure that you’re intentional about the types of Pins you loop. There are two main reasons you’d want to add a Pin to one of your loops:
Sharing timely seasonal Pins once a year. This can surface seasonal content when it’s most relevant, meaning more engagement and distribution for the content people are ready to act on now.
To engage new followers with your best content. You can reshare your Pin once or twice a year to surface it in the following tab of your newest audience members. You’ll see even more distribution when you refresh the images in your Loops!
How much fresh or duplicate content should I be sharing to Pinterest?
We definitely recommend Pinning more fresh content than duplicate content, but there’s no perfect ratio here. You should definitely avoid Pinning the same photo every day. Not only could Pinterest flag your account as suspicious, but it’s a poor experience for your followers, and could increase the likelihood of them unfollowing you or reporting your Pins.
Worried about how much time it will take to generate new, fresh ideas? One great way to generate several Pins that are new and fresh would be by trying to create many versions of a Pin for your content by recreating it in meaningful ways. For example, if you had written a blog post about how to “create a DIY Towel Ladder in 4 steps”, each of the images below would be great alternatives to create more Pins. Notice the different angles, text on image, and focus on the items in the room to help keep it "fresh":
Remember: the key is that the image must be new and fresh to Pinners! So use your best judgment and don’t try to make minor imperceptible changes to try to “fool” Pinterest into thinking that it’s fresh or a new Pin. If you have to look really hard to see what’s different about one Image from another, that’s probably a good sign that you need to make some more meaningful changes.