Claim Your New Pinterest Business Page Today

In a move that probably should have happened a year ago, Pinterest has finally announced business pages (as well as a new set of business terms of service).

What’s New About Business Pages?

Not a lot, which is a good thing because sometimes it’s tricky to implement social media advice. Basically, business pages make three major changes on Pinterest:

1. Website Verification

Pinterest will add this nifty checkmark to your profile to verify that you own the site. Verification will most likely impact search results in Pinterest, making your brand easier to find.

2. New Buttons

Adding to the Pin It button, Pinterest now offers a Follow Button that will allow users to follow your account. Go ahead and try it: Portent, Inc.

Pinterest also unveiled a Profile Widget and a Board Widget that displays 30 of your latest pins in an iframe that links to your business page.

3. Access to New Features

Pinterest is a little vague about what these features are, but my guess is that Pinterest analytics must be right around the corner. In the mean time, I highly recommend pingraphy for scheduling and tracking pins.

How Do We Sign Up For a Business Page?

If you already have a Pinterest account, it’s not too difficult to create a business page by verifying your website. Here’s a quick walkthrough:

Log into your profile and visit Pinterest’s business page. If you don’t have a page yet, you can now join Pinterest as a business.

To finalize the process, you’ll need to verify your website, which you can do by downloading a Pinterest verification file and uploading it to your site’s server.

Uploading the Verification File

For many of us, this is where we hit the wall for our knowledge of the Internet. To upload the file, you’ll need FTP access for your website. Since some server setups are complicated (especially for those of us that don’t know what we’re doing), make sure that you’re in the right folder when you upload.

You’re looking for the docroot – it should be browsable at your domain without any subfolders (www.yourdomain.com/pinterest-file.html). Most hosting companies use “httpdocs” but it might also say “wwwroot” or some other variation.

Once the file is uploaded, check for the file in your browser. In our case, https://www.portent.com/pinterest-b107e.html. It should look like this:

If all went well, visit the verification page again and click to complete the process.

If you have any trouble converting your Pinterest Business page, don’t be shy. Leave a comment or send @Portent or me (@SocialDoug) a tweet and we’ll get back to you.