Title: understanding pingbacks
Last modified: August 20, 2016

---

# understanding pingbacks

 *  Resolved [goldmember](https://wordpress.org/support/users/goldmember/)
 * (@goldmember)
 * [15 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-pingbacks/)
 * i just got a notice that [this site](http://guitar-book.org/?p=1532) posted a
   link to an article on my site. it came in the form of a pingback notice.
 * are they just spamming? i’m assuming that since there’s a link to my site on 
   their site, then I shouldnt really complain because its good to have inbound 
   links.
 * but should i be aware of anything more sinister here?
 * please advise. thanks in advance.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

 *  [s_ha_dum](https://wordpress.org/support/users/apljdi/)
 * (@apljdi)
 * [15 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-pingbacks/#post-2081558)
 * [http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging#Pingbacks](http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging#Pingbacks)
 *  Thread Starter [goldmember](https://wordpress.org/support/users/goldmember/)
 * (@goldmember)
 * [15 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-pingbacks/#post-2081640)
 * thanks for the link but that doesnt really anwswer my question.
 * why is this other site linking to mine? there doesnt really appear to be any 
   substance on this other site. just a bunch of links to elsewhere. what are they
   up to? why would they do this?
 *  [s_ha_dum](https://wordpress.org/support/users/apljdi/)
 * (@apljdi)
 * [15 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-pingbacks/#post-2081646)
 * Search engines, notably Google, use link relationships to determine the quality
   of a site and thus to rank the site. Seems like you already figured that out,
   at least in a general way. Links on your site are good for the spam site and 
   visa versa, at least for until Google notices and punishes one or both of you.
   Why? To fake having content on the site, to ramp up impressions for advertising–
   essentially cheating, to ramp up a domain’s price hoping to sell it, all of the
   above and more, I’m sure.
 *  Thread Starter [goldmember](https://wordpress.org/support/users/goldmember/)
 * (@goldmember)
 * [15 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-pingbacks/#post-2081647)
 * but on what grounds would they penalize the site that is linked to?
 *  [s_ha_dum](https://wordpress.org/support/users/apljdi/)
 * (@apljdi)
 * [15 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-pingbacks/#post-2081666)
 * > but on what grounds would they penalize the site that is linked to?
 * Participation. You can’t control what the other site owner does, of course, so
   its a matter of controlling what you can. You can control which links appear 
   and remain on your site. If you let the pingbacks show on your site, which they
   do by default (I believe), you could be considered to be participating in the
   scam, since your site would be directing traffic to the other site. Just look
   at the source of the pingbacks and delete them if the originating site looks 
   questionable. That should keep you safe. That’s how I understand it at least.
   It isn’t an authoritative opinion in any way.
 *  Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * (@ipstenu)
 * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist
 * [15 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-pingbacks/#post-2081668)
 * You’d have to be getting a LOT of pingbacks for that to matter. Most of the time,
   one or two won’t effect you, especially since the nofollow tag is flagged on 
   WordPress comments and pingbacks.
 *  Thread Starter [goldmember](https://wordpress.org/support/users/goldmember/)
 * (@goldmember)
 * [15 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-pingbacks/#post-2081669)
 * so basically as long as I do NOT approve the pingback, and do NOT link back to
   this other site, I don’t have to worry about anything, right?
 *  Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * (@ipstenu)
 * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist
 * [15 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-pingbacks/#post-2081670)
 * Yep 🙂 Delete ’em and you’re good to go.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

The topic ‘understanding pingbacks’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [pingback](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/pingback/)

 * In: [Everything else WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/miscellaneous/)
 * 8 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * Last activity: [15 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/understanding-pingbacks/#post-2081670)
 * Status: resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics