Recently, Pinterest has been showing false or incorrect “404” Not Found page signals for Pin URLs that are definitely on the web. Why?

Written by +Titus Hoskins

What’s going on here? Does Pinterest have a coding problem or is it deliberately blocking traffic to your website by throwing false 404 links? Or is it blocking traffic to affiliate sites/links?

Something is definitely not right in the land that Pin built. I have been getting these 404 “not found” links (like the one in the Screenshot below) for over a week now and it is totally ticking me off because I am a die-hard Pinterest fan and user.

I like finding helpful content and clicking thru to read the article on the linked site. But lately, all I am getting is these annoying “404” pages.

I swiftly learned these sites/links are not 404 pages – but are still up and running. I just as quickly started to edit out the jumbled link and click the desired URL.

Here’s what I am talking about. You see an interesting pin in your feed.

Then you click the Pin for a closeup.

You click the Pin to go to the interesting content and this happens:

But don’t despair – the content and page IS STILL on the web.

If it’s great content and it’s still on the web – I want to read and view it. Just takes a little more work since Pinterest is falsely 404ing these pin links or pages.

Don’t know why Pinterest is doing this? Coding problems? Blocking affiliate links?

Or do they want to keep visitors on their site longer?

Can’t believe they would be so foolish as to try the last one. Mainly because their whole business model is letting users view images and then clicking thru to read the bookmarked content. It’s what makes Pinterest work. It’s what makes Pinterest fun to use.

And it’s what makes Pinterest great!

Just wonder what’s really going on and how long I will have to play “hide & seek” with Pinterest links?

Meanwhile…

This Is How To Find The Good URL In Your Pinterest Pins:

HAPPY PINNING & BROWSING!

This Issue Seems To Be Fixed So It Probably Was A Coding Hiccup.