With the popularity of social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, there has been an increase of pingbacks and external comments. Therefore, some bloggers find it easier to separate the two, so it’s easier for their readers and themselves to distinguish between the two. This can be done in two ways: Using a WordPress plugin or manually changing your blog’s code.

What are pingbacks and trackbacks?

Pingbacks and trackbacks are very similar, but other than using different communication technologies (Pingbacks use XML-RPC; Trackbacks use HTTP POST), there are only minor differences. Pingbacks are a way of keeping track of other blogs who have linked to your blog posts within their own blog posts. In order to do this, external blogs have to use your blog post’s hyperlink. Trackbacks work the same, except the blog post’s hyperlink is not placed within an external blog post. They are usually placed in an area specified for trackbacks. Additionally, pingbacks automatically will find the URLs; while trackbacks are done manually.
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