Want to embed Pinterest Pins or boards on your website?
And stop embedded Pins from disappearing?
This article is all about:
- Pinterest widgets to embed Pins, boards, and profiles.
- When you should (and shouldn’t!) use them.
- How to stop embedded Pins from disappearing.
- Plus secret hacks to make your site load faster.
Updated for 2020!
Let’s solve copyright infringement, embedding Pins, and the disappearing act – in one fell swoop.
Table of Contents
Why Embed Pinterest Pins? just below
How to Embed Pinterest Pins on your Website: Click to jump
How to Prevent Embedded Pins from Disappearing: Click to jump
How to Embed Pinterest Boards and Profiles: Click to jump
Fast-loading “fake” Pinterest Board Embed: Click to jump
Why Should You Embed Pinterest Pins?
1. You want to use other Pinners’ images
I’ve discussed at length why you should never use other people’s images on your website, unless you have permission.
Using images you don’t have rights to use is copyright infringement.
Please be aware that:
- Anything found online should be presumed copyrighted.
- Images, text, etc. don’t need to be marked © to be subject to copyright law.
- Crediting and linking to the site where you found the image does not absolve you of copyright infringement.
But, embedding Pins is a way to use others’ images on your blog legally! Embedded Pins will retain the link to the owner’s website (don’t ever change their link).
2. You want to get more Repins
Embedding your own Pins on your blog is a great way to increase Saves of your Pins. This builds more links to your site, so more people find your site!
I detail below how I embedded my most popular Pin in my sidebar and got over 2,000 repins in one month.
3. You want to beat content scrapers (image theft)
At least one known “image scraper” that steals Pin images for their own website “scrapes” them from other website like ours (not from Pinterest).
An embedded Pin can’t be downloaded from the web page. It must be repinned from the link to Pinterest. Theoretically, embedding the Pin rather than showing the original image on your site would defeat this major source of stolen Pins.
Do This Before You Embed Others’ Pinterest Pins
Unfortunately, you’re not off the hook if you embed a Pin that has already infringed copyright.
Before you embed someone’s Pin, I recommend you click through to the website.
- Check that the Pin actually appears and belongs there.
- Confirm it’s a site you’re happy to link to.
- Make sure they have a Pinterest Save button.
- If not, ask if it’s OK for you to Pin and embed it.
- Repin to your own board to get some exposure for your Pinterest account.
- Embed the Pin from your own board.
As of 2020, I only embed a single Pin in a blog post, as seen above.
You can, however, create a blog post with multiple embedded Pinterest pictures.
However, embedded Pins from others will link to their website and not yours! They also won’t appear if someone clicks their browser’s Save button.
So, it’s better to create and embed your own images.
A post I created with others’ embedded Pins was getting thousands of repins – for others!
It would be awesome to have those Pins pointing at my website. Still, it was good for my Pinterest account to have so many repins.
I eventually decided to trade out those Pins from others and create my own 🙂
How to Embed Pinterest Pins on Your Website
Note: Pinterest widgets can only be made on the Pinterest website, not the app. So please use a computer to follow these steps.
Step 1: Find a Pin you want to embed!
If it’s your own image, you’ll need to save it to Pinterest. Be sure you write a great description.
If it’s someone else’s image, I recommend saving it first to one of your own boards. Be sure to keep the URL link on the Pin intact.
As long as the creator is okay with having their content shared on Pinterest, embedding their Pin is legit. It’s in the Pinterest Terms of Service that users must agree to.
If the content creator isn’t a Pinterest user, then you might want to see if they have a content policy, or reach out personally to ask.
Step 2: Grab the embed code.
It’s easy to do.
- Find your Pin on Pinterest.
- Open the Pin to full size.
- Click the 3 dots at top right.
- Select “Embed.”
Clicking “Embed” will take you to the Pinterest Widget Builder. Here you can choose:
- Small, medium, or large Pin image.
- Show or hide the Pin description.
I like to hide the description for a cleaner look.
I find the Small image looks great set off to the side in a blog post.
Medium fits perfectly in my sidebar!
Large gives you the impact of a full-size image.
Step 3: Paste the code.
Open the “text edit,” source, or HTML pane of the page or post you wish to add the Pin to.
On WordPress, it looks like this:
Copy and paste the first code into your text / HTML where you want your widget to appear.
Paste the script into the page’s “body scripts” section.
It’s also possible to add this site-wide so you don’t have to place it on every page where you wish to embed a Pin or board. Use Google or ask a techie friend if you need help with that.
Step 4: Enjoy the repins and traffic!
Got a Pin you want to go viral? Embed this Pin in your blog sidebar.
I tried this with my “Social Media Sizes Cheat Sheet.” In 3 months, that specific Pin has gotten over 4,000 repins. Over 2,000 in the first month!
When your content gets a lot of repins, Pinterest sees you as a quality resource, and boosts the appearance of all your content in its Smart Feed. Double win!
So pick your most valuable Pin and give it a try.
Why Did My Embedded Pin Disappear?
WARNING: Once you embed a Pinterest widget, you can’t ever open the edit page on the “visual” side. The embed code will disappear. You need to only open it in the text, source, or HTML editor.
If you can’t trust yourself to remember, if you’re on WordPress:
- Go to Edit my profile.
- Set to disable visual editor.
Option 2: the reason the Pin disappears is that it’s a link code with no content.
Try this:
Insert a character like | between the pin embed code and the closing tag </a>.
I tried it on this post and it did save the code, plus I can’t see the character in the blog post.
It worked for a Pinterest friend, who said:
This is genius!!! I just put a dash before the closing tag and it saved it without any issue! Thank you thank you thank you! I can only image reopening that post for a number of reasons and it deleting all that code… I would have been so SAD!
So it might work for you too!
Another way embedded Pins disappear is when the original Pinner deletes their Pin. So, save it to your own board and embed that Pin.
How to Embed a Pinterest Board or Profile
Pinterest widgets work just as well for Pinterest boards and profiles!
Embed a relevant board in a blog post, or use a board embed in its related category sidebar on your blog.
The widget will include a call-to-action button for viewers to follow your board.
It looks like this (note, this is a screenshot, not a widget):
You could also blog about others in your niche that your audience might want to follow. It’s fast and easy when you embed these influencers’ Pinterest boards or profiles.
Instant visuals!
It’s also a great way to connect with your influencers! Be sure to let them know, and ask them to share your blog post on their social media.
Embedding Boards and Profiles
You can embed any Pinner’s profile or board – including yours!
These update to show their recent Pin saves. All you need is the URL of their profile or board.
Note: Pinterest removed the “Create widget” button from individual boards, but it’s still easy to make a widget.
Step 1: Go to the board or profile and copy its URL.
Step 2: Go to the Pinterest Widget Builder and choose “Board” or “Profile” at the top.
Step 3: Paste in the URL.
Step 4: Choose your size.
You have a choice of several shapes and sizes, or you can set your own specifications. I used “header” on the visual pros post.
Step 5: Embed the code.
Again, you’ll just copy the code and paste it into your HTML. Don’t forget the script too. All this is explained above under “How to embed Pins.”
Do Pinterest Embeds Slow My Website?
As you may know, you want your website to load quickly, preferably in just a few seconds.
Readers are impatient and will click away if they don’t see what they’re looking for – fast!
Search engines, including Google and Pinterest, know this, so they don’t like to send searchers to slow-loading sites.
In my experience, large embedded Pins don’t slow your site much more than the same size image uploaded to your site directly.
Embedded boards and profiles are a different story.
That’s because, regardless of how many Pins you see on first glance at these embeds, they’re trying to load 30 Pin images.
That’s a lot of image-loading time!
They do this because board and profile embeds are scrollable. More images need to be ready to appear if your reader scrolls.
I’ve got an easy solution to keep your page speed fast!
Fast-loading “fake” Pinterest board embed
Create a WordPress widget for your sidebar with a single small image – instead of loading dozens of Pins in a Pinterest widget!
You can do this quickly by creating the Pinterest widget you want to emulate, and simply taking a screenshot of it.
Step 1: Crop and size your screenshot to the width of your website’s sidebar.
Step 2: In your WordPress Admin, go to your Content Areas and create an Image widget with your image.
Step 3: Add the title: Follow my account or board name – whichever you show on your image.
Step 4: Now click the Edit Image button.
Step 5: Add alt text for the image that describes it.
Step 6: Add the URL of the board or profile you wish to link to.
Step 7: Check this to open Pinterest in a new tab, so your website stays open when the image is clicked.
Step 8: Click Update – and you’re done!
Alternately, you can just link an image within a blog post or page to your Pinterest account.
Take a screenshot of the wide board embed as I showed at the top of this section, and add a custom link in your image details.
Will You Embed Pinterest Pins, Boards, or Profiles?
Have you tried it before? Share your tips in a comment!
Learn something new? Let me know how you’ll use it!
I hope I’ve cleared things up around Pinterest embeds. Let me know if you still have a question.
Freddy G. Cabrera says
Hey Louise!
This is something new to me. I’m still a rookie with Pinterest marketing, but I’m learning a lot, so far.
It’s good to know all of the things that you can do with the content in this social media platform.
Thank you for sharing these Pinterest tips! Very helpful!
Best regards! 😀
Louise Myers says
Thank you Freddy. Pinterest is quite amazing!
Carolyn Nicander Mohr says
Thank you, Louise. This is brilliant! Pinterest sends me more traffic to The Wonder of Tech than any other site, except Google. I love all of the tricks embedded in this article, as well as the reasons to embed Pinterest pins.
I’m pinning this right now to my group Pinterest board. You rock.
Louise Myers says
Terrific! Thanks Carolyn.
Adam Robertson says
Hi Louise,
Fascinating article,
would you say Pinterest is better than flickr for SEO?
Many thanks.
Adam
Louise Myers says
I don’t use flickr and am unaware of any SEO benefits. One of the biggest benefits of Pinterest is that it sends website traffic (2nd largest social referrer). I’ve never heard about flickr sending traffic.
Jen says
I just tried your trick about the dash before the closing tag to keep the pin from disappearing… and it worked! I have been looking for a solution to this for a couple years, trying all sorts of plug ins and nothing ever worked before. This will be such a time saver (and sanity saver!) for me . Thank you!
Louise Myers says
Glad this helped! It is an awesome trick if I say so myself 😀
Kaya says
This worked for me after searching unsuccessfully for a plugin. What an odd issue – thanks for the solution!
Louise Myers says
Glad it helped!
Peter says
Hi Louise,
Thank you for the “I” trick to prevent the code snippet disappear.
That is the thing i was looking for a long time.
Do you maybe know how i can align the embedded photo to the centre of the page? (because it is aligned to the left side by default for me)
Thank you,
Peter
Louise Myers says
Have you tried using the center alignment tool in your blog editor? Not sure it will work but worth a try.
Brittni says
How do you line up 3 small embedded pins on your post? Rather than stacked on top of each other
Louise Myers says
Don’t put a return between the pin embed codes.
Cheryl says
Thanks so much! I was just about to throw my computer out of the window when I came across this post. 🙂
The ‘|’ worked for me!
Do you know why some pins show up in the preview and others don’t? The pins that do not show up in the embed preview won’t show up on the blog post either…
Louise Myers says
I haven’t had this problem. Does it stay blank? (Could be caching).
Not sure this would help but you could try the URL debugger – enter your blog post URL there.
Wanda says
Thanks so much for passing along this useful tip. So glad I came across it in my search today!
Louise Myers says
Happy to hear it helped!
Gene C. Andrews says
Remember to you again; just solved the mistake that was really painful as I am not an expert to use Pinterest. Thanks to you!
Louise Myers says
Glad it helped!
Rachael says
Hi Louise,
Wow! Your site seems so packed full of useful information, thanks so much!
I have one question on embedding pins – I have tried this today but clicking the three dots on an enlarged pin only brings up options to download image or report pin. Am I doing something wrong?
Many thanks,
Rachael
Louise Myers says
Oh no! I guess they removed that shortcut. At least today lol.
So, copy the URL of the Pin and enter it on the widget builder page.
Agnes says
I no longer see this option as of this week, and have been embedding pins for months. Did Pinterest remove the embed option??
Louise Myers says
You can’t access it on the pin right now. Copy the URL of the pin and go to the widget builder page.
Ольга says
Good day! My pins are embedded on the site only with a description. When you click three dots, there is no function to hide, and through the page of the widget designer, the function for some reason does not work and in general the pins are not displayed on the site. Please help me figure it out.
Louise Myers says
“Hide Pin description” is a checkbox. I’m not sure what you’re asking about three dots, or what exactly your question is.
Louise Myers says
OK I see that there’s a new “shortcut” popup window that doesn’t offer “Hide Pin description.” In this case you can copy the Pin’s URL and paste it on the widget builder page.
Ольга says
Through the page of the widget constructor, the description is also not removed, I cannot understand what is the matter.
The essence of my problem is that in no way can I remove the description under the image.
Louise Myers says
Sorry, I don’t know why that would be. I don’t get a description with either method.
Tysonjm says
Great info as always, Louise, thanks!
I’m still a little concerned about the “off the hook” for copyright infringement mentality when embedding pins, and thus, other people’s images.
I haven’t written Pinterest about this, but I did write Instagram, who also has a similar way to embed IG posts/images. Their reply was that simply embedding in no way makes it “legal” to display others’ images on you blog. They said you still must seek and attain permission from the original creator before embedding.
I’m wondering why Pinterest would be any different since the law is the law, right? In your article, you mention a couple times that the embedded pin takes you to the creators website, but it actually takes you back to Pinterest (before you can click to their site). And what about pins that say “Uploaded by…” and there is no site URL associated?
Do you have any sources or confirmation from Pinterest that we can embed pins/images legally, i.e. without ALSO needing to get written permission to display the image on your blog? Thanks for any more you can share here, since it’s potentially a big deal. 😉
Louise Myers says
I doubt you’ll find a definitive answer on this. Anyone could pin something they have no rights to put on Pinterest, so there’s no guarantee it’s OK to embed it. That’s why I included the “before you embed” section, but perhaps I should word that even more strongly.
However, the big difference between IG & Pinterest is what users agree to when they set up an account. Still, there’s no saying that pins come from a website that has a Pinterest account (hence my cautions).