How to Make Your Images Not “Pinnable” in Pinterest

Pinterest is a website that offers a service for others to share or “pin” content from your site on their Pinterest board. The site has made it easier than ever for others to share your photographs, whether you like it or not.

In case you’re in the latter group, this quick tip will show you can stop visitors from “pinning”  your images and content. It’s as simple as adding one line of code – we’ll show you how.

This tip stops visitors from doing the following:

  • Stops users from using the “Pin It” bookmark
  • Stops users from copy/pasting your url into Pinterest
  • Stops Pinterest from scanning your site for images to pin

This tip does not stop visitors from doing the following:

  • Downloading your images
  • Directly linking from your images
  • Using the built-in screen grab to copy your images

Option 1

If you want a quick fix and are not familiar with WordPress hooks, this option is for you.

  1. Back ‘Er up.

    Hold up! Before making any changes to your site, remember to back up your site. We know it’s a pain. Go on, do it anyway. Try using one of these handy plugins to automate the process.

  2. Open your Header file within your code editor.

    If you’re not sure how to do this, click here (we recommend Editing Files Offline).

  3. Insert the code snippet.

    Scroll through the code. Near the top, you will see html tags such as <head> <title> and <meta>. As recommended in the Pinterest help section, add the following line to your header below the <head> tag and above the <title> tag.

    <meta name="pinterest"content="nopin" />
  4. Upload your header file to your site using FTP.

    If you’re not sure how to do this, click here.

  5. Refresh your site.

    Click the “Reload” button in your browser, or hit F5 (if you’re on PC) and Command-Shift-R (if you’re a Mac) on your keyboard.

    Now, when visitors try to “pin” an image,they will see this message: “This site doesn’t allow pinning to Pinterest. Please contact the owner with any questions. Thanks for visiting!”

  6. Finito!

    Grab a drink. There’s nothing more to do here.

Option 2

This approach is for the more advanced user. It supplies the code for a WordPress hook to be used in your Functions file, so that the hook action will occur no matter what (whether you have a header or not, for instance). Since the code will reside in your core files, this option can be more reliable.

  1. Back ‘Er up.

    Hold up! Before making any changes to your site, remember to back up your site. We know it’s a pain. Go on, do it anyway.

  2. Open your Functions file within your code editor.

    If you’re not sure how to do this, click here.

  3. Insert the code snippet.

    Add an action to wp_head, which writes out the code above. The snippet below is copy-paste ready to be placed into your functions.php file.

    add_action('wp_head', 'gpp_no_pin');
    function gpp_no_pin(){
        print '<meta name="pinterest"content="nopin" />';
    }
  4. Upload your functions file to your site using FTP.

    If you’re not sure how to do this, click here.

  5. Refresh your site.

    Click the “Reload” button in your browser, or hit F5 (if you’re on PC) and Command-Shift-R (if you’re a Mac) on your keyboard.

    Now, when visitors try to “pin” an image,they will see this message: “This site doesn’t allow pinning to Pinterest. Please contact the owner with any questions. Thanks for visiting!”

  6. Finito!

    Go out and enjoy the sun. There’s nothing more to see here.

4 responses to “How to Make Your Images Not “Pinnable” in Pinterest”

  1. HenkBekker Avatar
    HenkBekker

    Is it possible to block Pinterest from only certain parts of a wordpress site. While I’m happy to have pictures pinned, I don’t want the Pinterest link to go directly to the jpg file but rather to the page that the photo was used on.

    So would it be possible to block say anything in the url: website.com/wp-upload/* but still allow links to any other folders?

  2. Peter Pauer Avatar
    Peter Pauer

    Just tried it, new meta tag shows up on my GPP web site header,
    then made a test pin on pintrest, did not stop it from pinning the images from my home page at all. no popup, no warnings just added the images to my test pin board.
    Guess pintrest has changed and doesn’t respect the nopin meta tag anymore

  3. Jannese Torres Avatar
    Jannese Torres

    How do I keep people from pinning pictures on my home page without affecting their ability to pin photos on individual posts?

    1. Thad Allender Avatar

      You’d want to wrap the tag mentioned above in a conditional tag, like is_home(). Please see the WordPress codex if you’re unfamiliar with conditional tags: https://codex.wordpress.org/

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