Website blocked for no reason at all! Why?

[Tehuti]

I notice a huge drop in traffic last night. This morning I realized that Pinterest had started blocking the links on my pins. When I click on the "Visit" button on a pin, I get a popup that says something like:

"Blocked Link
We blocked this link because it may lead to spam. Learn more."

When I click "Learn more", it gives me the reasons as to why my links might have been blocked, such as breaching the terms or spamming Pinterest.

The thing is, I haven't done any of these things! Genuinely!

Is there anything I can do?

I have appealed the decision, but they are not responding.

This is a huge shame because my pins are unique and very helpful to people. They make a very positive contribution to the Pinterest community.

[Peter_S]

Website blocked for no reason at all! Why?

There is a reason, since they say this is for because of spam.

This is a huge shame because my pins are unique and very helpful to people. They make a very positive contribution to the Pinterest community.

From what I understand, it's still the case, The Pinterest community can see see your images. This is simply if they want to visit your site that it doesn't work any more, isn't it?

In all events, you made an appeal, you said it was yesterday, and now it's the week-end, so I wouldn't expect an answer immediately.

[Tehuti]

I hope it doesn't take too long! Pinterest is my main source of traffic!

I know the rules well. I haven't broken any. There must be a mistake.

[Tehuti]

Well, my site has been blocked because they say that people have reported it as being "spammy". This is so frustrating because my site is not spammy at all. The whole point of the site is to help people for free!

I have thousands of followers on Pinterest. Can anyone help me to get my site unblocked, please? I'll even pay you!

[keyplyr]

@Tehuti - do you have ads on the pages that the pinterest images link to? If people are reporting the pages as "spammy" then maybe you should consider re-evaluating these ads. Move them to different places on the page, reduce the number, change ad types... etc.

It's good practice to do this anyway as visitors get ad-blind seeing the same ads on the same pages in the same place all the time. Doing this periodically often results in more clicks.

After you get this done on all those landing pages, re-submit your request for reevaluation and note the changes you made. Show them you made an effort to comply with their rules.

Good luck.

[Tehuti]

Thank you, keyplyr, for your help.

No, there are no ads on any pages that are linked to, except a small banner right at the bottom, which I doubt is causing any problems.

I suspect that competitors played a hand in getting my site blocked.

I heard that I can get it unblocked if many people complain, so I am trying to get people to complain!

[chrisv1963]

Stay away from Pinterest. They take your images,build a business around them and finally block you for no reason. They have your pictures and you've lost your traffic.

[tangor]

Another example of bait and switch on the web. :) or is that :( ?

"Come join us! It's free! Look at all the traffic! (until we build our numbers and can get some VC funding then we'll kick you in the teeth and keep your images, too!)

Tangor ... who always sounds like doom and gloom (but is rarely wrong) about gift horses, mouths, looking, and all that other stuff.

I feel the pain ... that is a large traffic source ... but you get what you paid for, and they got what they paid for it, too. Free has no value. Never has, never will.

Build your biz a different way and forget the freebie stuff ... unless you can make IT for YOU instead of the other way around.