Schema.org | Geek Life: Augmenting Reality

No this is not a get-rich-quick scheme! This is an article on how to get cool information like your blog name and favicon onto each pin sent to pinterest from your website, so that you won't have to continually remind yourself to add alt="//mywebsiteisthebestest.com" to your images for Pinterest "copyrighting". Thanks to schema.org microdata markup, Pinterest can add a bit more info to pins originating from your website, so that the viewer isn't just looking at a pretty picture. We're talking about a really cool service called Rich Pins that is available for Business branded pinterest accounts. [caption id="attachment_9015" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Using Alt to auto-fill description for Pinterest. Probably best to not add your URL here if you have Rich Pins enabled.[/caption] What will this do? Check out these awesome examples available on Pinterest right now... [caption id="attachment_9011" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Rich Pins: Article[/caption] [caption id="attachment_9016" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Rich Pins: Recipes[/caption] [caption id="attachment_9018" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Rich Pins: Sales[/caption] Do you see the differences to regular ol' pinning? Here's a little reminder, just in case... [caption id="attachment_9017" align="aligncenter" width="746"] A regular pin found on Pinterest.[/caption] More or less, you're branding your images on Pinterest. Rich Pins code develops a type of copyright from where the image originates, along with some helpful stats based on the type of pin. So if you have a recipe to share, you can potentially add pertinent information of the recipe like Martha Stewart has above with "50 minutes to make, serves 4"; or if you have an article, your pin could potentially have author and website info, including a blurb from the post! [caption id="attachment_9012" align="aligncenter" width="758"] This is what I saw while verifying my site for Rich Pins. Pretty cool, huh?[/caption] There is a waiting period involved, and I'm now keeping an eye out for an email from Pinterest to discuss/confirm my use of Rich Pins, but this type of branded information is well and truly worth the wait! So how do you get started verifying Rich Pins the easy way? If you go the Schema.org route, by adding certain code to your theme, it can get quite technical, and even more technical for oEmbed (which unfortunately is the only route to dig into recipe data,) but Pinterest has a list of acceptable Rich Pin fields if you're up for the challenge! For basic article information though, WordPress folk can utilize the SEO by Yoast plugin to take advantage of the meta data developed with Open Graph! [caption id="attachment_9010" align="aligncenter" width="669"] Ensure that 'Add Open Graph meta data' is selected in the Social: Facebook tab of the Yoast WordPress SEO plugin.[/caption] Once you're sure the meta box is checked, select and copy the url for any post on your website (not your main page, you'll need a random article link,) and paste that link on Pinterest's Rich Pin validation page to see if it reads your site's Open Graph information. If it does, congrats! You will then get to apply for approval! I'm not sure what happens after this point, as I'm waiting for approval myself, but I will update here once I know more! If it doesn't work for any reason, you may need to talk to your web designer about adding Schema.org or oEmbed code. A great way to tell what information is being data-mined from your pages is to check Google's Rich Snippets tool (the image below shows data for my article The Measuring Tape is Your Friend.) I already have Schema code on my site to improve the way Google Search shows my entries, so I have no way of showing how my site would validate with only Open Graph (even though I have that active on my site too.) [caption id="attachment_9014" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Schema.org data found using Google's Rich Snippets tool.[/caption] Well, here's keeping *fingers crossed* that it won't take very long to verify my site for Pinterest Rich Pins! UPDATE I got the fabulous "you've been verified" email over the weekend, so I would guess that it takes roughly 5 days for pinterest to check out your Rich Pins request. This "upgrade" is definitely not instant, but ultimately, the timing isn't bad for the return in this investment. So here's what pins coming from my site look like now... [caption id="attachment_9013" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Pinterest's Rich Pins are now verified for Geek with Style[/caption] Just to reiterate a few things to make this a simple process for you: as far as I can tell, this only works if you have a Pinterest business account - this account doesn't cost a thing, and works exactly like a personal account; and if you use SEO by Yoast for a WordPress blog, chances are that your site is all ready to verify if you've told it to include Open Graph meta data to your pages. Anyway, good luck on your Rich Pins adventure! :)

Tag: Schema.org

If You Blog and Use Pinterest, You Need to get Rich… Pins.

Technology. Collectibles. Travel.

Technology. Collectibles. Travel.