subject: Wordpress and Trackbacks and Pingbacks [print this page] Author: Donna Scheenloop Author: Donna Scheenloop
Pingbacks and trackbacks are different communication technologies (XML-RPC and HTTP-Post, respectively). Pingbacks automatically find the links in a post and tries to pingback to those URLs. Trackbacks are done manually by entering the URL that it should be sent to. Pingbacks do not send content. What are Pingbacks? Pingbacks were developed to solve some problems that were found with trackbacks. Blog pingbacks automatically notify your blog when other websites link to it. It's detectable to the linking author and requires no user intervention to work. Here is a typical scenario of how it works: John writes a post on his blog. Dan reads John's post and decides to post his comment on his blog linking to John's post. Dan does this in order to have more content on his blog. If both persons have the pingback enabled, Dan's post will automatically send a pingback to John. John's blog will receive the pingback, which will automatically go to Dan's post to confirm the pingback originated there. This creates another link for Dan. The pingback will display in John's blog or comment section as a link to Dan's post. Pingbacks allow editorial control over posts with each of the individual authors. This automatic verification process allows authenticity and makes it hard to fake a pingback. Trackbacks, on the other hand, can be edited by the recipient. In order for this to work, John's blog must allow pingback. Usually, most bloggers set the "Do Follow" to allow trackbacks and pingbacks. In order to ensure that the blog allows trackbacks and pingbacks, simply check out the blog comments section and see if there are any pingback and trackback links. If you use Firefox, you can install the SEO for Firefox plug-in. This plug-in will let you know which links are "No Follow". If the link doesn't designate that it is a "No Follow", then it is a "Do Follow". Unfortunately, at this time, Internet Explorer doesn't have this feature. Is Your WordPress Blog Configured for Automatic Pinging? WordPress has a built in feature that allows the webmaster to automatically ping RSS and blog feed directories every time the webmaster makes a post. Here is how you set this feature up: Log in to your WordPress admin panel Scroll down and on the left side, click on settings, then on writing Scroll to the very bottom and make sure in the update services box, it has your pinging service website. How To Enable Pinging URLs in WordPress Log in to your WordPress admin panel Scroll down and on the left side, click on settings, then on discussion Ensure under the first section, default article settings, the first item "attempt to notify any weblogs linked to from this article (slows down posting) is checked. What are Trackbacks? Trackbacks were developed to provide notification between websites. It allows John to say to Dan, "Hey, I think you may be interested in this". To notify Dan, John would send a trackback ping to Dan. Here is a typical scenario of how a trackback works: John writes a post on his blog. Dan reads John's post and wants to comment about the post. Dan decides to post his comment on his blog {Dan does this in order to have more content on his blog and to allow his readers to see his comment and make their comments on his blog} and sends a trackback to John's blog. John's blog will receive the trackback and display it as a comment to the original post. This comment links to Dan's post. This process introduces John and Dan's readers to the conversation and the readers are sent to the other blog posts. John and his readers will only see a "teaser" of what Dan wrote within the comment section of John's blog, which will encourage them to click over to Dan's blog to read the rest. This trackback process was thought to be a level of legitimacy to the trackback comments because they originated from another weblog. However, John could edit the contents of the trackback on his blog only, which means the idea of "legitimacy" isn't solved. Also, there is no actual verification process on the incoming trackbacks and they could be faked. Other Important Factors: You want to ensure that you are getting quality links to your blog. Therefore, always check the website content prior to allowing links. Ensure that you are writing quality content posts on your blog so other bloggers will want to link to your posts. Make sure you find quality content posts to link to. WordPress by default sets the "No Follow" trackback/pingback link. By default, WordPress pings every time you update/edit your blog post. If you want to avoid ping frenzy and to prevent getting banned for ping spamming, install a plug-in, such as MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer. Once it is installed, it will only ping when you add a new post. Trackbacks and pingbacks are an excellent way to build links and traffic to your blog. It also allows you to build relationships with other bloggers. About the Author:
Hello. My name is Donna Scheenloop. I am the owner of http://www.mulamoney.com, which focuses on the work at home internet business opportunity, Acme People Search. This business rolls 8 income streams into 1 platform.
I own http://www.mulapeoplefinder.com, which allows you to search for someone for free, complete a background check, search criminal records or search for sex offenders. To read more articles about keeping you and your family safe or community crime, please visit my blog at http://www.mulapeoplefinder.blogspot.com
