What is a pingback?

A pingback, in the world of blogs and content management systems like WordPress, is a method of notifying and linking two websites that relate to each other. Pingbacks allow blog or website owners to automatically receive a notification when another website links to one of their posts. This notification will then typically appear as a comment under the post in question, with a preview of the linking website and its URL attached.

How do pingbacks work?

Pingbacks are based on the XML-RPC interface and use the HTTP web protocol for communication. When a link from a website B is added to a website A, website B sends an XML-RPC request to website A to inform it of the link. Website A then reviews the link back and decides whether or not to create a pingback comment.

Benefits of pingbacks

• Automatic links: Pingbacks allow blog operators to be automatically informed about new links to their content without having to manually search for links.
• Network building: Because pingbacks offer the opportunity to react to other websites that relate to your own post, cross-blog communication can be promoted and a network can be built.
• Increase Visibility: Pingbacks can help increase a website’s visibility because they expose both inbound and outbound links. However, they are not directly relevant to search engine optimization (SEO) as most content management systems mark pingbacks as nofollow links.

Disadvantages and abuse of pingbacks

Unfortunately, pingbacks are also often misused to spread unwanted comments and spam. Cybercriminals can use automated scripts to send a variety of pingback requests to promote spam or phishing websites. For this reason, many blog operators have now deactivated pingbacks or are using alternative methods for notification of links, for example using Google Alerts or special SEO tools.