How to Claim a Shopify Website on Pinterest

Claiming your Shopify website on Pinterest is one of the most powerful steps you can take to turn the visual discovery platform into a serious traffic and sales driver for your store. This simple verification process unlocks essential professional tools, including deeper analytics and the game-changing Rich Pins feature. This guide will walk you through exactly why claiming your site is so important and provide clear, step-by-step instructions on how to get it done.

So, Why Should You Bother Claiming Your Shopify Site on Pinterest?

Verifying your website is more than just getting a little checkmark next to your store's URL. It's about establishing your Shopify store as a legitimate brand on the platform and gaining access to a suite of features designed to help you sell more. If you're using Pinterest for business, this isn't an optional step - it's foundational.

1. Unlock Product Rich Pins

This is arguably the most significant benefit for any e-commerce store. Once you claim your site, your Product Pins transform into Rich Pins. What does that mean? Instead of a simple image and a link, your Pins will automatically pull real-time information from your Shopify product pages, including:

• Latest Price: The Pin always shows the current price. If you run a sale, the Pin updates automatically.
• Availability: The Pin indicates whether the item is in stock.
• Product Title: The official title of your product appears right on the Pin.
• Product Description: A rich snippet from your product description gives users more context right away.

Rich Pins are more professional, provide more value upfront, and lead to higher click-through rates because shoppers have the information they need before they even visit your store. They look dynamic, trustworthy, and are built for commerce.

2. Access to In-Depth Website Analytics

Until you claim your website, your Pinterest Analytics are limited. You can see how your individual Pins are performing, but you can't see what traffic they are driving specifically to your Shopify site.

After claiming your site, your analytics dashboard gets a major upgrade. You'll be able to see:

• Which of your products and blog posts are most popular on Pinterest.
• How many impressions your domain is generating across the platform (even when others Pin from your site).
• Your total number of outbound clicks directly to your Shopify store.
• Top-performing boards and Pins that are driving the most traffic.

This data is pure gold. It tells you exactly what kind of content resonates with your target audience, allowing you to create more of what works and ditch what doesn't.

3. Establish Your Brand and Boost Trust

Once you've successfully claimed your site, your Pinterest profile will display a small globe icon with a checkmark next to your URL. This tells everyone that you are the official, verified owner of the website. It also means your profile picture will appear next to every single Pin that originates from your website - even Pins saved by other people!

This subtle branding touch builds immediate trust and authenticity. When a user sees a Pin from your website saved by one of their friends, your logo will be right there, reinforcing brand recognition and lending credibility to the content.

4. Your Store Gets Top Billing on Your Profile

Another nice benefit of claiming your site is that the header of your Pinterest profile can feature a carousel of Pins that link directly to your website. It's a great visual way to showcase your best products and content in prime real estate, right at the top of your page.

Before You Start: A Quick Pre-Flight Check

To make this process as smooth as possible, make sure you have the following ready:

• A Pinterest Business Account: You can't claim a website on a personal account. If you have a personal account, you can convert it for free in a couple of clicks under your account settings.
• Admin Access to Your Shopify Store: You'll need to be able to edit your theme's code. Don't worry, it's just one simple copy-and-paste job.
• Your Top-Level Domain: Make sure you're claiming your main domain (e.g., yourstore.com), not a subdomain or a specific page URL.

The Easiest Method: How to Claim Your Shopify Website with a Meta Tag

For Shopify users, the most direct and reliable method is using an HTML tag (also called a meta tag). It sounds technical, but it's a simple copy-and-paste process that takes just a few minutes. Let's walk through it.

Step 1: Get the Meta Tag from Your Pinterest Account

1. Log in to your Pinterest Business account.
2. Click the downward-facing arrow in the top-right corner to open the menu, then select Settings.
3. In the left-hand navigation menu, click on Claimed accounts.
4. Under the Websites section, you'll see a Claim button. Click it.

A popup box will appear with a few claiming options. Select the 'Add HTML tag' option.

Pinterest will generate a unique meta tag just for you. It will look something like this:

<,meta name="p:domain_verify" content="a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0k1l2m3n4o5p6"/>,

Click the tag to copy it to your clipboard. Now you're ready to head over to Shopify.

Step 2: Add the Meta Tag to Your Shopify Theme

1. Log in to your Shopify admin dashboard.
2. In the left-hand panel, under "Sales Channels," click on Online Store, then go to Themes.
3. Find the current theme you are using (it will say "Live") and click the three-dots button next to it. From the dropdown menu, select Edit code.
4. This will open the Shopify theme editor. Don't be intimidated by all the files! You only need one of them. In the file list on the left, under the "Layout" folder, find and click on the file named theme.liquid.
5. The code for this file will appear in the main editor window. Look for the opening <,head>, tag near the top of the file.
6. Paste the meta tag you copied from Pinterest on a new line directly below the <,head>, tag. It should look like this:

<,html>,
<,head>,
<,meta name="p:domain_verify" content="a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0k1l2m3n4o5p6"/>,
... other code will be here ...
<,/head>,
<,body>,
...
<,/body>,
<,/html>,


Once you've pasted the code, click the green Save button in the top-right corner.

Step 3: Finish the Verification Process in Pinterest

Now, head back to the Pinterest settings page where you copied the tag.

1. With the tag now saved in your Shopify theme, click the Continue button on the Pinterest popup.
2. In the next step, enter your full website URL into the box (e.g., https://www.yourstore.com) and click Verify.

Pinterest will then check your site for the code. You should get a message saying "All set! We will email you in the next few hours to let you know if your website has been successfully claimed." In most cases, it happens very quickly, but sometimes it can take up to 24 hours.

Once you receive the confirmation email (or see the checkmark next to your website in your profile settings), you have officially claimed your website!

What About the Other Verification Methods?

Pinterest also offers two other methods: uploading an HTML file and adding a TXT record to your DNS.

• HTML File Upload: This method requires you to upload a file to the root directory of your website. Shopify doesn't give users direct access to the root directory, so this method is not a practical option for Shopify store owners.
• Add DNS TXT Record: This involves adding a piece of code to your domain's DNS settings. It's a perfectly valid method, but it's typically more complex than the simple meta tag approach, as you have to navigate your domain provider's interface (like GoDaddy or Namecheap). If you bought your domain through Shopify and are comfortable with DNS settings, you can use this method, but for most people, the theme.liquid edit is faster and simpler.

What's Next? Putting Your Verified Account to Work

Claiming your site is just the beginning. Now that you've unlocked Pinterest's full potential for your store, here are the first two things you should do:

1. Apply for Rich Pins: Shopify websites are automatically enabled for rich pins by nature of their format, but it's always smart to use Pinterest's Rich Pin Validator. Just enter a URL for one of your product pages, and Pinterest will confirm that your Rich Pins are ready to go. Once one is approved, all your products will display as Rich Pins.
2. Dive Into Your New Analytics: Take some time to get familiar with the new analytics dashboard. See what people are already pinning from your site under "Website claims analytics," and start tracking your impressions and clicks. This will form the foundation of your Pinterest content strategy moving forward.

Final Thoughts

Activating these powerful tools starts by getting your Shopify site claimed, which transforms Pinterest from a simple bulletin board into a powerful platform for direct customer engagement and commerce. It connects your storefront to Pinterest's discovery engine, making your products more visible, professional, and easier for Pinners to purchase.

Seeing those analytics roll in after you've claimed your site is exciting. As we grew our Pinterest strategy alongside our other platforms like Instagram and TikTok, managing all the visual content started feeling like a full-time job. With Postbase, we built the visual calendar and reliable scheduling tools we always wished we had to plan everything in one place, so we could spend less time wrestling with our strategy and more time seeing great results.