Trackbacks VS Pingbacks

Category: Web Development Author: User Image

Gary R. Hess

If you use WordPress or Moveable Type you’ve probably noticed there are two ways to notify blogs you link to, trackbacks and pingbacks, with each having their own usages and advantages.

What is a Trackback?

Trackbacks are generally a type of reference for a post. Within WordPress you are given the choice of adding one trackback per post.
Trackbacks notify websites when you publish an entry, and generally a link with a short excerpt of your entry will appear on the linked website with your site name and post title (if trackbacks are turned on within the linked to blog).
Every post has a specific trackback uri. This helps the linked to website recognize it as a trackback.

What is a Pingback?

A pingback is when you link to a website that has pingbacks enabled. Your blog will then attempt to notify the site you have linked to it. If all goes well and the blog doesn’t moderate your site, a link will be placed within the comment section of the site.
You must have “attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the article (slows down posting)” checked in order to send pingbacks.
You can easily check if a website supports pingbacks by looking at their HTML for <link rel=”pingbacks”>.
A pingback is essentially a XML-RPC request (a ping of sorts).

Some Notes on Trackbacks and Pingbacks

You can check if your trackback (or pingback) was successful by visiting the blog (although some might moderate or delete them).
Alternatively, click edit next to blog entry, open custom fields
Avoid sending both pingback and trackback to the same website. It can be seen as spam since they would both be listed within the comments. This might tick off a few bloggers.
- While this is true, you should still place a link within the content during a trackback (disable pings first).
Turn on pingbacks and trackbacks Options > Discussion “Allow link notifications from other weblogs.”
- No real SEO value, but good for readers
Write > Post “Allow Pings” to automatically turn pings on for each post.