Pingback: A pingback is one way for blogs to automatically communicate with one another. It is a type of notification that is generated by WordPress and similar blogging platforms when a user posts a link leading back to another user’s blog post. When such a link is posted, the platform automatically verifies that the link exists and notifies the initial poster, appearing in the pending comments section of the user’s management dashboard. Once approved by the user (either manually or via commenting settings), pingbacks appear under the comments for a post, leading to the second user’s site.
Pingbacks do not send content, only posting information. A pingback notification includes an exerpt of the content in which the link is embedded and is easily recognizable due to the […] formatting on each side.
Pingbacks were designed to eliminate the spam-related problems of trackbacks. Though pingbacks and trackbacks appear similar to lay users, they use different communication technologies (XML-RPC and HTTP POST, respectively). Trackbacks are left intentionally by other users or sites.
Pingbacks are used in marketing for search engine optimization purposes. Reputable links leading both in and out of a website improve its ranking due to Google’s search algorithms. However, approving pingbacks from spam blogs can be detrimental to one’s own site. So while enabling pingbacks can improve SEO, improper monitoring and approving of pingbacks can have the opposite result.