What is Pinterestbot?

Pinterestbot (also known as Pinterestbot or Pinterest crawler) is the official web crawler operated by Pinterest, the popular visual discovery and bookmarking platform. It functions as a specialized web crawler designed to index and catalog visual content across the internet. Pinterest uses this bot to discover, analyze, and index images and other visual content that may be relevant to its users.

The bot identifies itself in server logs with the user agent string Pinterest/0.2 (+http://www.pinterest.com/bot.html) or simply as pinterestbot. When it visits your website, it systematically examines your content, particularly focusing on images and visual elements that could be "pinnable" on the Pinterest platform.

Pinterest's crawler helps maintain their vast visual search index, which powers the discovery features that millions of Pinterest users rely on to find inspiration, ideas, and products. The bot is programmed to follow standard web crawling protocols, including respecting robots.txt directives and crawling at reasonable rates to minimize server impact.

Why is Pinterestbot crawling my site?

Pinterestbot visits websites primarily to discover and index visual content that may interest Pinterest users. If your site contains images, infographics, photos, or other visual elements, Pinterestbot is likely scanning this content to make it discoverable on Pinterest's platform.

The bot may visit your site for several specific reasons:

Your content has been directly pinned by Pinterest users, triggering the bot to index the original source.
Your site contains the type of visual content that performs well on Pinterest (recipes, DIY projects, fashion, home decor, etc.).
Pinterest is proactively crawling your site as part of its broader web indexing efforts.

The frequency of visits depends on your site's popularity on Pinterest and how often your content is shared. Sites with highly "pinnable" content may experience more frequent crawling activity.

What is the purpose of Pinterestbot?

Pinterestbot serves several critical functions for Pinterest's platform:

First, it discovers and indexes visual content across the web, building Pinterest's massive visual search database. This enables Pinterest users to discover relevant content based on their interests and search queries.

Second, it verifies and updates information about content that has already been pinned. When users save content to Pinterest, the bot may revisit the source to ensure the information remains accurate and up-to-date.

Third, it helps Pinterest understand the context around images by analyzing associated text, metadata, and surrounding content. This improves the relevance of Pinterest's recommendations and search results.

For website owners, Pinterestbot can drive significant referral traffic. When your images are discovered and shared on Pinterest, they can reach millions of potential visitors interested in your content or products. This is particularly valuable for businesses in visual-oriented industries like fashion, food, travel, and home decor.

How do I block Pinterestbot?

If you prefer to control or restrict Pinterestbot's access to your site, you can use the standard robots.txt protocol, which Pinterest's crawler is designed to respect. To completely block Pinterestbot from crawling your entire site, add the following directives to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: Pinterest
Disallow: /

If you want to block access to specific directories or files while allowing access to others, you can customize the directives:

User-agent: Pinterest
Disallow: /private-images/
Disallow: /confidential-content/
Allow: /

Keep in mind that blocking Pinterestbot will prevent your content from being discovered and shared on Pinterest, potentially reducing referral traffic from the platform. If your business targets demographics that actively use Pinterest, blocking the bot might not be in your best interest.

For content you've already shared on Pinterest, blocking the bot won't remove existing pins. It will only prevent Pinterest from updating its information about your content and discovering new content on your site.

Pinterestbot