“I truly love your website.. Excellent colors & theme. Did you build this amazing site yourself? Please reply back as I’m wanting to create my very own blog and would love to know where you got this from or exactly what the theme is called. Appreciate it!” by home and family crafts at homeandfamily.eux
Now this sounds like an enthusiastic comment on my blog.
But it isn’t. It’s a computer generated random comment and instead of being added as a comment – it’s been added as a Pingback.
What are Pingbacks?
These are like making comments by remote.
The spammer makes an entry on their own website/blog etc. and adds a large number of links to pages she wants to advertise. Each link goes to the comments section of a legitimate blog (or website) such as Fightback Ninja blog.
That registers a comment (pingback) on my blog and when I read it that counts as a page hit on the scammers website.
Scammers and spammers want high levels of traffic to their websites as they can then charge more to their own advertisers, but I don’t want pingbacks because they are always spam.
Pingbacks are automated and meaningless. If someone wants to make a legitimate comment, they would do so and not use a pingback.
Self Pingbacks
Self-pings (pings within your own blog) are found useful by some, annoying by others. Those who find them useful feel that if someone finds the old post that they will see the link to the new post. But some are unsure if this is a good idea or not.
Normally when you create a link, the entire URL including http:// is used. That will cause a self-ping.
To prevent self-pings, use a shortened url i.e. remove the http:// and the domain name
e.g. https://fightback.ninja/test/the-1000-gift-card-scam/ shortens to /the-1000-gift-card-scam/
Note: Your editor may add back the domain information so you need to check this.
How to Disable Pingbacks
In WordPress, go to Dashboard, settings, discussion and find the relevant box to untick.
You can also disable pingbacks on individual posts via the Discussion metabox on your Add New or Edit Post page:
Do enter your email address and click on the subscribe button on top right to keep up to date with new posts.
