rel="pingback" is a special <link> tag that WordPress (and some other CMSs) insert into the <head> of your site. It looks like this:
<link rel="pingback" href="https://example.com/xmlrpc.php" />
What it does
- It tells other sites where to send pingbacks when they link to your posts.
- Pingbacks are part of WordPress’s old XML-RPC system, used for blog-to-blog communication (when someone links your post, WordPress tries to notify you).
Pros
- Used to be good for SEO visibility and networking between blogs.
- Lets you know when someone links to your site.
- Can create automatic backlinks if the other site also supports pingbacks/trackbacks.
Cons
- High spam rate: Spammers can abuse pingbacks/trackbacks to flood your site with fake notifications or links.
- Security risk: XML-RPC (which powers pingbacks) has been exploited in DDoS attacks and brute-force attacks on WordPress sites.
- Not useful anymore: Most modern blogs and CMSs have stopped using pingbacks.
Current Best Practice
- Not recommended for modern WordPress sites.
- If you don’t actively use or need pingbacks/trackbacks, you should disable them.
- You can disable from WordPress Settings → Discussion → Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks) (just uncheck it).
- You can also remove the
<link rel="pingback">tag from your theme’s header.php for cleaner code.
Conclusion:
For SEO and security reasons, it’s better to disable pingbacks today. They add little value and open doors to spam/attacks.
