A pingback is a particular type of comment that’s created when you link to another blog post, as long as the other blog is set to accept pingbacks.
Pingback is a mechanism notifying the linked address that it has been mentioned in a post or on a website. WordPress sends a pingback when you publish a post or page. Pingback usually appears as the address of a website in the comments of the website informed about the post.
Incoming Pingbacks are handled like comments in that they can be deleted and approved for publication. Sending and receiving pingbacks is set in the administration panel, in the Settings> Discussion tab.
Example of a pingback:
- Person X publishes a post.
- Person Y publishes her post, including a link to Person X’s post.
- WordPress.com automatically sends a pingback to Person A’s post, letting Person X know someone has linked to them.
- Person X’s post then displays a special type of comment linking to Person Ys post. Pingbacks appear mixed in with any other comments on the post.
Are Pingbacks good for SEO?
Getting more links to your blog is one of the best ways to improve your SEO. Since pingbacks are created by having external links on another person’s blog, they are directly related to your SEO. So, yes, pingbacks are useful for your blog’s SEO.
You have to be aware that spammers can abuse pingbacks and use them for spam comments. Low-quality pingbacks could eventually hurt the integrity of your blog. We recommend setting up notifications for pingbacks that will enable you to approve or deny each request. For professional bloggers, the best way to use pingbacks is to display only authentic pingbacks and monitor new requests often.