Thursday, November 29, 2012

How to Verify Your Blogger Blog on Pinterest with a Meta Tag

Apparently Pinterest is dealing with as much spam as the rest of the internet and has instituted a website verification process for websites listed in your profile.  You have to prove that you own a website by mucking about in its code.  I deduce that the idea is if you are a spammer who is paid to promote a website as many (poorly written) places as possible, you will not have access to the server/code of the website you're promoting.  Pinterest will then delete the website reference from the account, thus defeating the purpose of paying spammers to promote websites there.  So eventually, companies wil realize they're not getting anything for their money, stop paying the spammers, and then Pinterest will be spam free.  Ta da!  We'll see how that works.  To paraphrase Jurassic Park, "Spam finds a way."

At any rate, that leaves a lot of bloggers who have blogs rather than personal websites so that we don't *have* to muck about in code scratching our heads.  I found instructions for verifying using the downloaded html file, but it didn't work for me.   After a little trial and error I figured out how to verify using meta tags for a Blogger blog (I'm afraid I have no idea how other blog platforms work).

When I logged into Pinterest, this window was waiting for me:

Choose _Verify with a meta tag_

Click on the option at the bottom, "Verify with a meta tag."

Which brings you to this screen:

Pinterest Meta Tag

Which has your custom meta tag.  I have whited out most of the content from mine out so that nobody can hijack my profile and redirect to, what else, spam.  (Hidden underneath the white bar is a long string of  letters and numbers.  You'll have your own unique string.)  Copy the entire line, from "< meta name" to "/ >." (I had to add spaces so Blogger wouldn't interpret this as code; don't change it or add spaces.)

Now go to your Blogger edit page.

Go to your Template

Click on "Template" on the lower left.  When you are on the template page, click "edit html."  You will receive a dire warning that you are going to ruin your blog for all time and plus the zombies will come if you edit your own html.  Accept this risk.  We will be very careful.

Insert Meta Tag in Template HTML

Once the html window is open, look for < head > (with no spaces).  It is only a few lines down, you don't have to dig.  Put your cursor at the end of < head > and press enter to go to a new line.  This is just to keep things neat, not for a special coding reason.  Then paste the entire line of code you copied from Pinterest, your meta tag.  Once that's done, hit "Save template."  You don't need to refresh your blog or do anything further in Blogger.

Background:  A meta tag is a little piece of code that talks only to other machines.  It has no effect on what a real person sees and will have no effect on your blog.  Meta tags have been (ab)used, for instance, to list a popular search term over and over again.  When a machine crawls the web looking for results relevant to a search term, why lo and behold this here webpage talks about this search term endlessly!  So it became the most popular page for that search term.  The webcrawlers and indexers quickly caught onto this spammer scam (spammers again!) so don't get any ideas.  This is just to explain what metatags do.  They tell machines what's on your blog, among other things.

Click to Verify

Once that's taken care of, go back to Pinterest and hit "Click here to complete the process."  It will look around your blog for a second and if all went according to plan...

Success!

You win!

You can keep the metatag in your template, or delete it once you've been verified.  I don't know Pinterest's plans for repeated verification; I'm just going to leave the tag so I don't have to do this again in the future.

PS If you'd like to be my friend or whatever we call ourselves over there on Pinterest you can find me here.

PPS Also please tell me if you can't pin from my blog.  I did something at Flickr a while back that should have fixed it, but I have no way of knowing because I'm always me, at least as far as Google/Flickr/Pinterest are concerned.




149 comments:

KID, MD said...

Trena, you are awesome! Thanks for posting this!! I totally had no clue what Pinterest wanted from me.

Sew Hopeful said...

Awesome vote #2. Thanks so much. Love your blog to bits BTW.

Lori said...

Thanks so much, I had used another tutorial with no luck. This was very easy to follow, plus successful. Thanks again.

niddetissus said...

Thank you for explaining that! I think I'll have to reread it more closely later :)

CarmencitaB said...

Thanks!

Karin said...

You are way ahead of me. I don't even have my blog linked to Pinterest! Instead of being a beautifully curated place filled with all my charming interests and chic style, it's sort of a visual dumping ground that is working better for me than bookmarks. It's helpful because when I see lots of my different pattern ideas side by side, the bad choices tend to stick out.
You are on a whole different plane. I'm following you now:-)

Vicki said...

I just pinned this, just in case I need it! Ta

Unknown said...

Thank you showing the structure. I have done it successful.

Linda L said...

Thank you for sharing this information. Geez! I have not been to Pinterest in a week or so, was not aware of all of this. I will have to give this a try this weekend.

Claire (aka Seemane) said...

Great how to - thanks for sharing (I just used it to verify myself and it worked perfectly) :)

SnoWhite said...

Thank you. I tried for 2 hours last night to get my blog verified... found your tutorial this morning & 2 minutes later, done. Thank you.

Mary said...

thank you so much. I got as far as Edit HTML and said...uhhhh, too hard!

Sarah C said...

Thank you for this post! I hadn't even noticed this verify situation on Pinterest yet. Thanks for bringing it to my attention and making it super easy to do!

MySummerTouch said...

Trena, your blog is absolutely must-have read for me in sewing because of your very detailed instruction. And with your every post I wish you make a video!
Would you consider making videos about your sewing? Could we (your readers) wish this???!!!

Mojo said...

Thank you! Great set of instructions.

Becky said...

Thanks for sharing this! Mucking about with the html always scares me (which is why I'm scared to ever give my blog a face-lift--I don't know if I can successfully find and implement the scrollbar changes that I did make again!) But this was really super-easy.

Kathleen said...

You rock. took all of ten seconds from start to finish.

THANK YOU!

Kathleen

Emily said...

I was having a rough time with this. Thanks so much!! The intrusctions were simple and easy to follow! :)

Roma Amor Aguilar-Bingcang said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Roma Amor Aguilar-Bingcang said...

Thanks a lot for this tip. This is very easy and very helpful!! :)

Angela said...

Hello, I saw a link to this on another blog so clicked through. Thank you so very much for taking the time to put this together. It's easy to follow and works perfectly.
Angela

Get Pinterest Followers said...

Excellent website with great information.

Get Pinterest Followers said...

Excellent website with great information.

Mrs. Micawber said...

I am completely baffled - but since I don't Pin that's probably okay. :)

Seraphinalina said...

You make me laugh, zombies editing html, apparently you've seen my hubands movie where zombies are articulate.
Thanks for the tech support.

Unknown said...

Thank you so much!

Alex Hicken said...

Thank you!

Fresh Juniper said...

Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!

lucy said...

Thank you for this post!!

Storyteller said...

Let me add my voice to the chorus: this was super-helpful. Thank you!

Claire said...

Thanks so much, I spent ages trying to get the HTML file instructions (linked from pinterest) to work, this worked first go!

Zaira Ivette Sierra said...

Thanks a lot! I was a t the point to start banging my head against the wall, when Google directed me to this post. You just helped me to get my blog verified, and saved the aesthetics os my forehead in the process!

Jasmine Ward said...

You're awesome, thanks!

Lori said...

Thank you! I tried this verifying my blog several times by following several other blogs and for some reason I could not get it to work. Your explanation what right on target. Thanks!

LuaBleu said...

Thank you....was so frustrated, then googled it & your blog came up. I like to sew...a bonus!

lovefam6 said...

THANK YOU! I wish I would have found you before the first 3 unhelpful ones, but whatever. I'm good to go now. Blessings in Christ to you and yours =)

Kneale Culbreath said...

Thank you so much for your super helpful instructions! Much appreciated!

Kate S said...

Thank you for this- I had put verification in the " too hard" basket but now I think I can do it - yaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!! :) :) :)

Candela said...

Thank you!!!

Quiltocalypse said...

thanks so much! you rock!

Erica Cook said...

Thank You! :)

Unknown said...

Thank you, you made it really easy.

Unknown said...

Thanks a million for this! I was wondering how the heck do I verify my Pinterest account. Thanks so much!

ravenmaidenmaven.blogspot.com

OldThingsNew said...

Hooray! We did it! Thank you so much for sharing this excellent step-by-step tutorial. Forever in your debt, Patti@OldThingsNew
http://patricia-krank.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for your helpful tutorial! I was about to give up until I found your site... Thank you again!

Judy said...

Thank you so much for this! I tried verifying with Pinterest's instructions and was not successful. I then did a quick search on Google and I'm so happy I found this post. You are awesome!

♥ Nadine said...

Thanks a million, that helped me a lot. I'm such a fail when it comes to template things... :)

Have a great week. xo.

Jaclyn said...

Thanks for the tutorial!!! I've been trying to figure out how to do this for awhile...I'm so inept when it comes to code stuff!

Unknown said...

Thank you sooo much! You are the best, so helpful. Thank you.

www.breezysmommy.blogspot.com

sharin said...

Thank you for such clear instructions; they worked perfectly the first time and I pinned them here: https://pinterest.com/pin/241013017530800867/

;)

smash said...

Thank you so much for this post, so helpful!

Unknown said...

thanks so much for sharing this. Been trying to figure this out all morning, now I finally did it because of your blog post :)

purplecinn said...

Brilliant easy instructions! Thanks so much!

Thrift Store Mama said...

Worked perfectly. Thanks so much !

Leah said...

good tute - thanks!

Jennifer O said...

Perfect instructions - thank you SO much!

Divya said...

Super...thanks Job got done in 2 mins

Amy said...

You are great! Thank you for making this so quick and simple!

Jeannine said...

Did everything exactly like you said and when I went to the final "Click here to complete the process" it sat there saying "verifying" for an unbelievably long time. I tried doing it a few times, now it says I've done it too many and will have to try again later.

Wondering if you have any idea if I've done something wrong, or if this is a problem you've heard of before?

I literally waited 15 minutes to see if it would work, and still nothing.

Thanks in advance.

Jeannine @ TheConcreteCottage.blogspot.com

The Slapdash Sewist said...

I'm sorry, Jeannine, I haven't heard of that problem before. The Pinterest website has been pretty intermittent for me lately--lots of failures to load. It might just be that their servers got overwhelmed at the exact wrong time for you.

Pam - GetSilvered said...

Thanks for this - It worked for me :)
I was redirected here by a post from the blog Maven.

kellythom747 said...

BOOM- it worked- thank you sooo much- no one else is willing to go into blogger html and show just where to paste code- I spent hours before x over a month but in 5 minutes my site is verified- I am looking to see if you did a tute on how to get that pinterest hover code on your pics now- you rock- God bless!!!

Elizabeth {Real Inspired} said...

Thank you so much! As a new blogger without any techie skills, I was lost. Now I'm verified and ready to go!

Laura Larson said...

Thank you so much for showing us how to do this. I was always confused about it and I was nervous editing my blog's html. Your screen shots really helped me out for exactly what to do.

Thank you!

Unknown said...

Verified! I gave up trying this a while back because I could never get it to work. Found your site and got verified in minutes! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this tip!

Unknown said...

Verified! I gave up trying this a while back because I could never get it to work. Found your site and got verified in minutes! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this tip!

Kim @ NewlyWoodwards said...

Thank you so much for sharing this. I found you via the Blog Maven and you made it so simple. Truly appreciated.

Stacy said...

Thank you so much for this post! It really helped me!

Unknown said...

Thank you SO much for this! I was trying to sort this out on my own and after much head scratching gave up, until I found you! Another good karma point for you!

Unknown said...

Gah! Thank you SO much for posting this. Headache=BOOM. Gone.

<3

Jackie

Bow & Arrow said...

It's obvious what I'm going to say! THANK YOU! so easy to follow your instructions and make me a very happy pinteresting women!

Anonymous said...

thank you soooooo much!!!

Audra @ Once a Mom Always a Cook said...

Thank you so much, you are a lifesaver! I love the blog community :)

Unknown said...

Your tutorial is excellent. I was really expecting to link my blog website to my pinterest account. I'm a blogger newbie. I followed each step, yet pinterest keeps saying "We couldn't find the meta tag. We checked at blah blah the name of my blog" I even "viewed my blog" and copied and pasted the address url just in case I was making a typo. I can tell from all of the "Thank You" comments that it isn't your tutorial it must be me or my blog. Any advice?

The Slapdash Sewist said...

Sorry, Amanda, I can't determine what's going wrong from your description. This only works for Blogger/Blogspot blogs in particular. If you are using Wordpress or another blogging platform, I do not know how to do the verification.

Anonymous said...

So weird...I (like Amanda) had the same trouble today with the exact same error message. Found your blog after Google Search of "Verifying Blogger blogs on Pinterest." Thanks for the info, though...will try again!

Anonymous said...

Oh sorry...that previous comment about having trouble was from me :) I'm not a robot or spammer :)

Juliana said...

Trina, thank you so much for the step by step explanation. But I am using wordpress - not blogger.com. Would you know how to verify the website to complete my registration with Pinterest please?

The Slapdash Sewist said...

Hi Juliana-
Sorry, I'm not a Wordpress user. I believe others have done Wordpress tutorials you can find by googling around.

Kimberly Merritt said...

Thank you for this simple tutorial!

Kim

Jen said...

Thank you so very much! You saved me so much time and frustration. This literally took 20 seconds.

Michelle said...

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

The Gift Package said...

Thank you so much for explaining how to do this, I spent ages looking at other tutorials & yours worked instantly, I got quite excited when it said I was successfully verified :) Thanks for pointing out where the 'head' word was too, went straight past it in other tutorials.

Unknown said...

Thank you! Your instructions were exact and got the job done quick fast, saving me heaps of frustration!

Ms. Barbara said...

Thanks SOOOOO much!! I had no idea how to complete the verification and was getting very frustrated with the whole process. Ms. Barbara from For the Children

Denise E. Templey said...

Yay, Pinterest is verified!
Thank you :)

Unknown said...

Thank you sooooooo much for your awesome tutorial!!!!

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for this tutorial! It was extremely easy to follow and worked perfectly. Sometimes it's so hard to find tuturials for Blogger so I really really appreciate it!

Virginia J Bailey said...

Thank you so much for this tutorial. I had know idea what it was that Pinterest wanted me to do.
Your great tutorials was easy to follow and understand. You are the best. I'm so glad there are people like you on the internet.
Now, I am going to subscribe to your blog.

Terri said...

I am trying this out but I keep getting this message "Error parsing XML, line 653, column 5: The element type "meta" must be terminated by the matching end-tag "< / meta >"." Have you seen/heard of anyone getting this message before? I am not sure what I am doing wrong.
Thanks,
Terri
Terri's Teaching Treasures

The Slapdash Sewist said...

Terri, I haven't heard that before. Are you copying the metatag exactly as it appears on Pinterest, with /> at the end? A "/" is necessary to close a tag.

Jane said...

Thank you so much - I've been trying to do this for weeks and your instructions are crystal clear. It worked too!!! x

Rhonda said...

thanks so much! I am a computer idiot but I followed your instructions and it worked the first time!

Unknown said...

Thank you SO much! I've been trying to figure out how to do this & you made it easy peasy!

Unknown said...

Thanks for your help. You made it so easy.

Juanita said...

Thank you so much. I just spent almost an hour trying to figure out what I was supposed to do. I finally found your post and it helped so much.

Judy said...

This was a huge help. Thanks so much!

LyricalTwo said...

Thank you! Your instructions are easy to follow and worked straight away.

erinz said...

Thank you, thank you!!! Such a frustrating process was made so easy.☺

TBC said...

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation- I'd been trying to verify my blog for a couple of days without any success. I saw your post, followed your simple instructions and a few minutes later, the process was complete! Thank you!

Unknown said...

Thank you for the help!!

Monika Wright | I Love It All said...

Thanks so much, it worked for me!

Rebel Glitter Goddess Skin Care & Cosmetics said...

thanks so much for the pics & break down. this worked for me ! thanks again!

Unknown said...

Thank you! I was right there, but you gave me the confidence I needed to actually slap it in there :D

Lorie said...

Thank you. I wasn't able to figure it out on my own (so nervous to mess with code) and this was really helpful.

Marce said...

it was so useful to me Thankyou sooo much!

Stacy Olson said...

You are a life saver. Thank you for the thorough explanation and images. It was so helpful.

AB. said...

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I would have never figured this out without your expert help!

xxxxxxxx

Rox said...

Awesome... was SO looking for this info!

nnn said...

This was so helpful!

Finas.Store said...

Thank you sooo much!

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for your help!! This is really great.

Tonia said...

Thank you! Very helpful.

Julius said...

Thanks for the tip!

Unfortunately blogger users are reduced to adding lines after lines of code into the template. With all the meta tags of all my posts plus verification codes from different sites like pinterest, I am afraid that soon my blog will load to slow and get an alert from google that my load time is too high.

Unknown said...

THANK YOU!!! Tried two other set of instructions from two "experts" without success. You gave this computer dummy every piece of information that I needed to get the job done. Thanks again!

Unknown said...

Thank you! <3

Anita Houston The Artful Maven said...

Big thanks for your help!!!

The Gifted Gabber said...

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I was getting so frustrated with trying to figure this out on my own. I wouldn't even bother to have a blog or do anything "tech-y" if it weren't for nice people like you sharing your knowledge. :)
Amy @ http://www.thegiftedgabber.com/

Jayne said...

Thanks so much! This worked perfectly. :)

WPBMOMMY1 said...

Thank you for posting this! I wasn't sure how to verify my site but now I have done it thanks to you!

Dips said...

Thank you, very much appreciate your advice. I knew that I needed to post the code into the HTML but wasn't sure where to do it. Your tutorial was simple and reassuring (and it worked0!

Martini Mummy said...

This was super helpful - thanks!

MM x

Unknown said...

Perfect timing!! I shared with a blogger network that I am in now.

Theresa Lukes said...

Thank You for your advice. It was clear, concise, and very helpful.

Jen Wilson said...

Thanks - I'd done this before but just couldnt remember what to do !

cheat lost saga said...

Thank you! I was right there, but you gave me the confidence I needed to actually slap it in there :D

Casey said...

Thanks for keeping it so simple!

Unknown said...

I feel awesome adding meta tags all thanks to your oh so simple instructions. you rock!

Unknown said...

Thanks !!! This was the best tutorial I have come across.

Unknown said...

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! So simple. It took less than a minute! Step-by-step instructions truly appreciated!

Alicia said...

WOW! This is awesome!! Thank you a ton for the super easy tutorial!
Alicia

Courtney said...

Super easy tutorial! Thanks for your help!

Honey I'm Home Blog said...

Thank you so very much! I have been trying to get verified on Pinterest for months. It wasn't until I found your {"Verification for Dummies"} excellent tutorial, was I able to accomplish it! Thank you for making it so simple even a blonde can do it!

Warmly, Michelle
Honey I'm Home

Angelo said...

Big Big Thank you!!!


www.angelotheexplorer.com

Cheryl Brown said...

Thank you so much. I just found your website and after trying for nearly a month, you were able to help me. Thank you again.

Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing this information. Big help!

middleschoolteachertoliteracycoach said...

THANK YOU so much for these instructions. I cannot express how frustrated I got trying to verify my website on Pinterest before reading this. Very much appreciated!

Kasey

Annie said...

Thank YOU!!! I have been having a heck of a time getting my site verified and now, thanks to you, it finally worked!

AS said...

Thank you!

Cailee said...

thank you so much for this! Very detailed instructions, so it's just what I needed! :)

Unknown said...

Awesome! Wasn't sure where to put the code. Thank you!! :)

http://www.mycupofchic.com

Lara B. said...

Trena thank you for writing such a straightforward tute! Worked like a charm! I followed you on Pinterest and tested - yes I can repin from your files.

Wassim said...

Thanks to your tip, I was able to verify my blog http://aouadi.blogspot.com on Pinterest!

Amanda Gia said...

Thank you so much!!

Mandi said...

Worked perfectly. Thanks a million!

Sadanand Raje said...

Thanks a lot. WORKED ! ! ! !

Helen said...

Brilliantly and simply explained, thank you. However, I'm still getting 'domain not found', so I'm going to have to contact Pinterest

Unknown said...

Wow! Thanks!! I got mine verified :)

Bible Fun For Kids said...

Thanks so much! Super easy with your help!