Hi Reader,
Welcome to week two of the August Q4 Audit. Last week we tackled keywords, and this week we're looking at the actual pins those keywords live on. Most creatives make one of two mistakes in August: they refresh nothing and let stale pins carry them into Q4, or they refresh everything and burn a weekend redesigning pins that were already working. There's a smarter middle path, and this week's audit walks you through it.
In this week's newsletter…
- The refresh vs. retire vs. leave-alone framework for your existing pins
- A 20-minute pin audit you can run on your top performers today
- Pro tips for redesigning pins without starting from scratch
- SEO fun fact about how Pinterest treats fresh imagery on old URLs
- The Book More Weddings Summit is one week out — final call to register
The Pin Design Audit
Every pin in your account falls into one of three buckets: keep, refresh, or retire. Keep pins are your steady performers with strong Q4 relevance already baked in. Refresh pins had a moment but their imagery is stale, their text overlay is outdated, or their aesthetic doesn't match your current brand, and a redesign with the same keyword strategy gives them a second life. Retire pins are the ones with poor engagement despite fair chances, and August is a fine time to stop feeding the algorithm content that isn't earning its keep.
Here's the framework: pull your top 30 pins from the last 6 months, sort by outbound clicks (not impressions), and tag each one. Anything with strong clicks and Q4-relevant imagery is a keeper. Anything with strong clicks but summer-locked visuals goes in the refresh pile, and anything with weak clicks after 90-plus days can be quietly retired. You'll usually end up with about 60% keeps, 30% refreshes, and 10% retires, which means your Q4 workload just got much more focused.
PRO TIP
- Refresh with the same URL. Creating a new pin design that points to your existing blog or offer page gives you a fresh chance at algorithmic pickup without splintering your traffic across new links.
- Update text overlay before you rebuild the whole design. Sometimes a stronger hook or a Q4-relevant phrase is the only change that pin actually needs.
- Keep a "refresh library" folder in Canva or your design tool with your top-performing pin styles saved as templates. You'll cut redesign time in half every time you sit down to work.
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Reply and tell me: how many of your top 10 pins do you think will need a refresh, and how many will you retire? I always love hearing where people land on the ratio.
The right August refresh does more for your Q4 than any November scramble ever could. See you Tuesday for week three, where we're rebuilding your board structure.
Talk soon,
Dana
Resource Recommendation
Pretty Isn't Enough: Why Your Pins Aren't Converting (Yet)
If your top pins are getting saves but not clicks, this post is the diagnosis. It pairs directly with the refresh vs. retire framework above because it explains why "beautiful" isn't the same as "clickable," and that distinction is exactly what your Q4 refreshes need to fix.
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A little fun fact:
Did you know?
When you attach a new pin design to an existing URL, Pinterest treats it as fresh content while still crediting the URL's historical performance. This is why a well-refreshed old post can outperform a brand-new one; the URL already has authority, and the new pin gets the fresh-content boost.
Upcoming Events
Book More Weddings Summit
August 17-21
If you're a wedding pro, this one's worth clearing your calendar for. It's 5 days with 34 experts and 5 learning tracks built around the exact things you said you're stuck on: attracting better couples, killing the ghosting, getting found, and building income you can count on.
It's a full lineup so you can find the answer that fits YOUR business, your vendor type, and your couples, not a cookie-cutter formula that works for planners and nobody else.
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When "More Content" Isn't the Answer
Wednesday, August 12
I'm teaching a one-hour masterclass with Together Digital on the infrastructure layer most marketing plans skip: long-range discoverability. It's a concentrated walk through the full VEIL framework — how to build a search-driven visibility system that keeps working long after you hit publish. If you (or a friend outside the wedding space) want the framework in one hour, this is a low-friction way to catch it.
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Pinterest is Better with Friends
Know a fellow creative or wedding pro whose Pinterest is beautiful but not converting? When they book a service, you'll receive a $50 thank-you from me. It's a small way to say thank you for opening the door, and it helps another business owner get their Q4 pins working harder.
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