- —
- PROSPECT
- NEW · every 48h
- 1/day
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Step 1.3 · Technical setup
- What happens
- Business account, claimed domain, Pinterest tag, catalogue connection, shopping recommendations off, site speed, image filenames, meta descriptions, save buttons, mobile experience, and the content bank audit.
- Where
- Pinterest settings, the client's CMS, and this dashboard for recording.
- Owner
- Media buyer
- Done when
- A technically clean account with the content bank counted per funnel stage.
Business account
No business account means no analytics. You can convert in the settings.
- · Waiting on task P1.0.4 (TODO)
Without a business account there is no analytics, no claimed domain and no catalogue. Everything else in this step assumes it.
How it scores. Every yes and this is settled — nothing to write. One no and the box at the bottom opens: say what is wrong and what has to happen, because that is what the next person needs.
Is this a Pinterest business account?
A personal account has no analytics and cannot claim a domain, so the whole of phase 1 step 3 is unavailable on one.
A business account shows an Analytics tab and a Business hub. Convert from Settings → Account management → Convert to business.
This task is blocked. Notes and documents can be added once it is unblocked.
Social claimed check
Confirm Shopify and Instagram are connected under Settings → Claimed accounts. Instagram auto-publish MUST be OFF: Pinterest re-posts otherwise get flagged as spam. Shopify claim unlocks catalog + rich pins; without it product pins never carry price. Needs the account owner's login — with partner access only, this is a request to the client. Record that in the box and skip; it is not something the organic operator can do.
Claimed social accounts unlock the catalogue and rich pins. One of these settings actively causes harm if left wrong.
How it scores. Every yes and this is settled — nothing to write. One no and the box at the bottom opens: say what is wrong and what has to happen, because that is what the next person needs.
Is the shop connected under claimed accounts?
The Shopify claim is what unlocks the catalogue and rich pins. Without it product pins never carry a price.
Settings → Claimed accounts.
Is Instagram connected?
It attributes saves of their Instagram content back to the Pinterest profile.
Settings → Claimed accounts.
Is Instagram auto-publish switched OFF?
This one matters more than the other two. Auto-reposted Instagram content gets flagged as spam and the whole account carries the penalty.
On the Instagram claim, the auto-publish toggle must be off. Check it even if someone says it already is.
Re-optimise existing top pins
Only applies to an account that already published organically — a fresh account has nothing to re-optimise, and skipping it with that reason is the right answer. For pins with impressions but no destination URL, add the correct link: those are the highest ROI edits. Then fix any pins with generic titles/descriptions on high-impression board pages. Cap yourself at 10 to 20 edits per day. Hard platform limit: 150 pin edits per day per account. Above that Pinterest rate-limits the whole account.
Pins that already have impressions are the highest-return edits available — the distribution exists, only the destination is missing. This is a takeover task: an account that has never published organically has nothing to re-optimise, and skipping it with that reason is the right answer rather than three empty ticks.
How it scores. Every yes and this is settled — nothing to write. One no and the box at the bottom opens: say what is wrong and what has to happen, because that is what the next person needs.
Do the pins with impressions but no destination URL now have the correct link?
These are impressions already being earned and thrown away. Nothing else in phase 1 pays back this fast.
Filter existing pins by impressions with an empty link, and add the right URL to each.
Has generic copy on the high-impression pins been rewritten?
A pin titled with the file name ranks for nothing, however many impressions it happens to have.
Work down the boards by impressions and rewrite titles and descriptions with real keywords.
Did you stay under the daily edit cap?
Above 150 pin edits in a day Pinterest rate-limits the whole account, which costs more than the edits gained.
Ten to twenty a day is the working pace. 150 is the hard platform limit — do not go near it.
Verified Merchant status
Verified Merchant is a Pinterest badge that unlocks product tagging, catalog boosts and shop tab prominence. Requires: business account, claimed domain, active shopping catalog, no policy violations, and passing a Pinterest review. Apply from Settings → Verified Merchant. Track status per client; some verticals require additional review.
Verified Merchant unlocks product tagging, catalogue boosts and the shop tab. It is a review, so it is applied for once the prerequisites are actually met.
How it scores. Every yes and this is settled — nothing to write. One no and the box at the bottom opens: say what is wrong and what has to happen, because that is what the next person needs.
Are all the prerequisites met — business account, claimed domain, active catalogue, no policy violations?
Applying before these are in place gets a rejection, and a rejected account waits before it can reapply.
Walk back through P1.3.1, P1.3.2 and P1.3.4. All three have to be green first.
Where does the Verified Merchant application stand?
This is the only item in the step whose outcome we do not control, so what gets tracked is the state and the date — not a tick that could mean either.
Settings → Verified Merchant. Some verticals get an extra review round, so 'submitted' can sit for weeks — put the submission or rejection date in the box at the bottom, since that is the date the wait is counted from.
Claim domain
Place the meta tag in the CMS until the checkmark appears. A condition for reliable analytics.
- · Waiting on task P1.0.4 (TODO)
The domain claim is what ties pins back to the site. Without it analytics are partial and rich pins never work.
How it scores. Every yes and this is settled — nothing to write. One no and the box at the bottom opens: say what is wrong and what has to happen, because that is what the next person needs.
Does the domain show as claimed, with the checkmark visible?
Unclaimed means no attribution on pins others save from the site, and no rich pin data.
Settings → Claimed accounts. It has to be the shop's own domain (valerie-mason.com), never the myshopify.com address — claiming the wrong one leaves the live site unclaimed and looks identical on this screen. Check the profile username is right while you are there. A checkmark, not 'pending'.
Is the verification tag in the live theme, where a theme update cannot wipe it?
A tag pasted into a duplicated or preview theme disappears the moment the live theme is republished, and the claim lapses without anything saying so.
Shopify: Online Store → Themes → the theme marked Live → Edit code → theme.liquid, inside <head>. Not in a duplicate, not in a preview, and not inside an app block that disappears when the app is uninstalled. Claiming by DNS record counts too, and is the more permanent option.
This task is blocked. Notes and documents can be added once it is unblocked.
Pinterest tag
Check that the base code is present and that PageVisit, AddToCart and Checkout fire. Needed for the organic-to-paid flywheel.
- · Waiting on task P1.0.4 (TODO)
The tag is what makes organic Pinterest measurable and what feeds the retargeting audiences later.
How it scores. Every yes and this is settled — nothing to write. One no and the box at the bottom opens: say what is wrong and what has to happen, because that is what the next person needs.
Is the base code present on every page?
A tag on the homepage only measures nothing that matters — the conversions all happen deeper in the funnel.
Pinterest Tag Helper, or view source on a product and a checkout page.
Do PageVisit, AddToCart and Checkout all fire?
Checkout is the event every downstream number is built on. A tag that only fires PageVisit reports traffic and no revenue.
Run a test purchase with Tag Helper open and watch all three fire in order.
This task is blocked. Notes and documents can be added once it is unblocked.
Connect catalogue
Connect the feed via Ads > Catalogs or the Shopify app. Enables dynamic product pins.
- · Waiting on task P1.0.4 (TODO)
The catalogue is what turns URLs into product pins that carry price and stock automatically.
How it scores. Every yes and this is settled — nothing to write. One no and the box at the bottom opens: say what is wrong and what has to happen, because that is what the next person needs.
Is the product feed connected and ingesting?
Without it every product pin has to be built by hand and none of them carry price.
Ads → Catalogues, or the Shopify app. Status should be 'active', not 'processing' or 'failed'.
Does the ingested product count match the shop, with no feed errors?
A feed that ingests 40 of 300 products looks connected and quietly excludes most of the catalogue.
Compare the ingested count against the shop's product count and read the error report.
This task is blocked. Notes and documents can be added once it is unblocked.
A private profile is invisible to Pinterest search, which is the entire channel.
How it scores. Every yes and this is settled — nothing to write. One no and the box at the bottom opens: say what is wrong and what has to happen, because that is what the next person needs.
Is the profile public and visible to search engines?
'Hide from search engines' is on by default on some accounts and silently caps distribution to nothing.
Settings → Privacy and data → the search-engine visibility toggle must be off.
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Turn off shopping recommendations
Settings > Social Permissions. If this is on, Pinterest shows competing products next to your pin and takes your clicks. Needs the account owner's login — with partner access only, this is a request to the client. Record that in the box and skip; it is not something the organic operator can do.
- · Waiting on task P1.0.4 (TODO)
Shopping recommendations put competitors next to your pin and take the click you paid to earn.
How it scores. Every yes and this is settled — nothing to write. One no and the box at the bottom opens: say what is wrong and what has to happen, because that is what the next person needs.
Are shopping recommendations turned off?
Left on, Pinterest shows similar products from other shops directly under the pin.
Settings → Social permissions → shopping recommendations. Needs the account owner's login — if we only have partner access, this is a request to the client rather than something we can do, and that is a legitimate reason to skip it with a note.
This task is blocked. Notes and documents can be added once it is unblocked.
Limit messages
Turn messages off if the client does not monitor the inbox. Unanswered messages create a bad impression. Needs the account owner's login — with partner access only, this is a request to the client. Record that in the box and skip; it is not something the organic operator can do.
- · Waiting on task P1.0.4 (TODO)
An inbox nobody reads is worse than no inbox: it is a visible unanswered message on a brand profile.
How it scores. Every yes and this is settled — nothing to write. One no and the box at the bottom opens: say what is wrong and what has to happen, because that is what the next person needs.
Does the messages setting match whether the client actually monitors it?
Unanswered messages sit publicly on the profile and read as an abandoned account.
Ask who reads the Pinterest inbox. If the honest answer is nobody, turn messages off: Settings → the messages section on the business account. It needs the owner's login, so without it this is a request to the client — say so in the box rather than leaving it unanswered.
This task is blocked. Notes and documents can be added once it is unblocked.
Pinterest judges the destination, not just the pin. A slow page suppresses outbound clicks on everything pointing at it.
How it scores. Every yes and this is settled — nothing to write. One no and the box at the bottom opens: say what is wrong and what has to happen, because that is what the next person needs.
Is mobile load time acceptable on the pages we will be pinning?
Outbound clicks are the ranking signal, and they are lost while a page is still loading.
PageSpeed Insights on two or three of the URLs from the pool, mobile tab. Under three seconds to largest paint.
Is there no single obvious blocker?
Most slow shops are slow for one fixable reason, and naming it is worth more than the score.
Look for uncompressed hero images, render-blocking app scripts, a bloated theme.
This task is blocked. Notes and documents can be added once it is unblocked.
Review URL slugs
Pinterest reads the URL. Do not change existing URLs, that breaks Google SEO, but advise better slugs for new pages.
- · Waiting on task P1.0.4 (TODO)
Pinterest reads the URL itself. Existing slugs stay as they are — changing them breaks Google — but new pages can be better.
How it scores. Every yes and this is settled — nothing to write. One no and the box at the bottom opens: say what is wrong and what has to happen, because that is what the next person needs.
Are the existing slugs readable and keyword-bearing?
A slug like /products/12345 tells Pinterest nothing about what the page is.
Look at the URL pool from P1.0.3. Words, not IDs.
Has the convention for new pages been agreed with the client?
This is advice, not a change we make. Unrecorded advice is advice nobody follows.
Only worth agreeing where new pages are actually coming — because the URL pool is thin (see P1.0.3), or because the client publishes regularly. A shop with enough URLs and no plans for more is a yes with 'no new pages planned' in the box; it is not an open item.
This task is blocked. Notes and documents can be added once it is unblocked.
Image file names
The OCR reads file names. IMG_8492.jpg says nothing, modern-vanity-lighting.jpg does.
- · Waiting on task P1.0.4 (TODO)
Pinterest runs OCR and reads file names. IMG_8492.jpg says nothing; modern-vanity-lighting.jpg says what the picture is.
How it scores. Every yes and this is settled — nothing to write. One no and the box at the bottom opens: say what is wrong and what has to happen, because that is what the next person needs.
Are the image file names descriptive rather than camera defaults?
File names are one of the few text signals on an image-first platform.
Inspect a handful of product images on the live site and read the src.
Is a naming convention agreed for everything uploaded from now on?
Renaming the back catalogue is rarely worth it; getting new uploads right always is.
Agree the pattern with whoever uploads images and record it here.
This task is blocked. Notes and documents can be added once it is unblocked.
Meta descriptions
Pinterest scans the summary text of the landing page. Keywords there help.
- · Waiting on task P1.0.4 (TODO)
Pinterest scans the landing page's summary text. Keywords there help the pin that points at it.
How it scores. Every yes and this is settled — nothing to write. One no and the box at the bottom opens: say what is wrong and what has to happen, because that is what the next person needs.
Does every URL in the pool have a meta description?
A missing description leaves Pinterest to guess the page's subject from the body copy.
Crawl the URL pool, or spot-check the collections and top products.
Do those descriptions carry the keywords we will be targeting?
A generic brand boilerplate on every page gives Pinterest the same signal for every URL.
Compare the descriptions against the keyword direction from phase 2.
This task is blocked. Notes and documents can be added once it is unblocked.
Save buttons on the site
Pins that visitors save themselves rank faster. If the button is missing, advise a plugin.
- · Waiting on task P1.0.4 (TODO)
A pin a visitor saves themselves ranks faster than one we publish. The save button is what makes that possible.
How it scores. Every yes and this is settled — nothing to write. One no and the box at the bottom opens: say what is wrong and what has to happen, because that is what the next person needs.
This task is blocked. Notes and documents can be added once it is unblocked.
Mobile experience
More than 80 percent of traffic is mobile. Judge loading, scrolling and buying on your phone.
- · Waiting on task P1.0.4 (TODO)
More than eight in ten Pinterest sessions are mobile. The desktop site is not the one that matters.
How it scores. Every yes and this is settled — nothing to write. One no and the box at the bottom opens: say what is wrong and what has to happen, because that is what the next person needs.
Does the site scroll smoothly on a real phone, with any popup dismissable?
Emulators hide the things that actually lose the click — janky scroll, popups that cannot be dismissed.
Open the site on your own phone on mobile data, not office wifi.
Can you complete a purchase end to end on mobile?
If checkout breaks on a phone, every click we send is wasted and nothing in the reporting will show why.
Go all the way to the payment step on your phone.
This task is blocked. Notes and documents can be added once it is unblocked.
Content bank audit
Count per funnel stage: top for inspiration, middle for consideration, bottom for conversion. At least two URLs per stage. Determines the achievable frequency.
- · Waiting on task P1.0.4 (TODO)
The content bank sets the achievable frequency. Two URLs per funnel stage is the floor a waterfall can run on.
How it scores. Every yes and this is settled — nothing to write. One no and the box at the bottom opens: say what is wrong and what has to happen, because that is what the next person needs.
Are there at least two URLs for inspiration (top of funnel)?
Top-of-funnel pages are what earn reach. Without them the account only ever talks to people already looking to buy.
Count guides, editorial, lookbooks and inspiration collections in the URL pool.
At least two for consideration (middle)?
The middle is where saves turn into visits. Skipping it makes the funnel a cliff.
Count comparison pages, collections, category pages with real copy.
At least two for conversion (bottom)?
Without bottom-of-funnel URLs the cycles produce traffic that never has anywhere to convert.
Count product pages strong enough to be a pin destination on their own.
This task is blocked. Notes and documents can be added once it is unblocked.