Trackback and Pingback - What is the difference?

One of the question that nearly every team member of the web development and sometimes the customer ask is what is a trackback and pingback and should one or both be used. To understand it first lets define what trackback and linkback do.

Linkback and trackbacks are standardised ways to connect similar content on different websites (including blogs) on the Internet. Most of the CMS and blogging platforms usually have the linkback and trackback capabilities.

How can I add a trackback and linkback to my content?

Linkback searches links in the content and if s a link is found a pingback is created automatically. A pingback is created by adding the title of your post (which is linked to the post) as comment to the post or content referred to.

A trackback is little different because a trackback has to be submitted with a content while posting the content. Unlike linkbacks, trackbacks have to be manually submitted with the post even if the actual link is there in the content you posted. The trackback is created like a linkback as well except that with the title an excerpt of your post is added to the comments of the post referred to.

For example if you wrote a post on Google Sky and you come across another post on a blog or website that is interesting, You can post a trackback or pingback (depending what is accepted by the website on which you found the content) to that post from your blog or website using the pingback or trackback feature. Once a trackback or pingback is posted readers of that post would see a link to your post in the comments of that post. 

Difference between trackback and linkback

As mentioned before the difference between a trackback and pingback are very subtle but I will try to make it as simple as possible. The differences are

• A linkback is automatically generated and includes only links that are part of the content published. A trackback has to be appended while posting or after posting the content manually.
• Trackbacks contain the post title which is a hyperlink to the content of your post along with an excerpt. Linkbacks just have the title which is linked to the content posted. 

Accepting trackbacks and pingbacks

• It is advisable to moderate trackbacks and pingbacks to ensure that there is no spam in trackbacks and pingbacks. SEO professionals would advise you to do this if you do not want to dilute your page rank. However, Akismet WordPress plugin, which is installed by default with the WordPress install catches most of the spam including spam tracks and pingbacks. For most of the WordPress users turning on of the Akismet plugin is enough to ward away trackback and pingback spam.
• You can add a "nofollow" link to all trackbacks and pingbacks. To do this you would need to edit code of the CMS or the blogging platform you are using. If you request your web developer to make the changes it can be done easily. 

WordPress and linkbacks and trackbacks

Linkback and pingback features are available when you use a WordPress blog. Pingbacks and linkbacks is a tool that can help you get new readers of your blog.

WordPress by default pingbacks those URL's that are there in the posts. However, some of the other platforms do not support pingbacks, for such platforms you can manually add trackbacks to your posts and they would be pinged. I would be posting details on how to turn off trackbacks and pingbacks in WordPress.

via ScribeFire