Pinterest Adds New Options for Recipes Yum!
Pinterest just added a few search options to make finding recipes easier. Now Pinterest Pinners can narrow their search results by ingredients, time, and diet – gluten free, paleo, vegan or vegetarian. Note – apparently junk food is not a “diet!” Now it is much easier for users to find a last minute recipe.
The Lens rolled out not long ago. Although it is still in beta, it works well with images. Sure, it turned my rescue dog into a small brown pony. But, at least is was sort of close! The lens is working well for food photos.
In order to take advantage of these new features, users need to have the latest version of the Pinterest mobile app. In case you did not know it, the Pinterest app is updated weekly. Yes, that’s right – weekly! So if you are trying to save a mobile data charges and have your smartphone set not to auto-update, it may be time to visit Google Play or the iTunes store for the latest Pinterest app update.
What does this update mean for brands?
Brands involved in food related industries should incorporate recipe pins and attractive images in their marketing strategy. The search parameters – by ingredients, time to cook, and diet type – are all parameters that exist on a type of rich pin called a Pinterest Recipe Pin.
Pinterest Recipe Pins can contain the following meta information:
- recipe name
- ingredients list
- canonical URL for the page
- one to six high-resolution images of the recipe
- total time it takes to cook
- quantity or servings made by this recipe
In order to use any type of Pinterest Rich Pin, website admins must do the following to add Rich Pins to a website:
- Prep the website with meta tags or an oEmbed endpoint
- Test using the Rich Pins Validator
- Apply to have them approved for use on Pinterest
The new search results include Promoted (paid) Pins which makes the page more competitive. As the Pinterest news feed becomes more crowded, it is important for brands to be sure their Pinterest Pins can be found. Adding multiple images – remember taller is better! Add meta data to your website so it can be searched and shown on Pinterest. And as always, be sure your Pin contains a working link back to your landing page.
