Blog Tip: How to do a ping back. It’s more than you think.

Ronovan Blogging, , , , ,

WordPress has changed a few things on the tech side since I first wrote this about 2 years ago, so here’s an updated take on things.

Ping backs.

A lot of blogs talk about ‘put a ping back to my blog’.

All a ping back is, is you copy the URL of an actual post into your post. I know that sounds simple, and once you’ve done it a time or two it really is. But let’s talk about how you do it and the different ways to do it.

First let’s talk about the word Ping. What a blogger is asking you to do is to have your blog speak to their blog post. That’s called a Ping. By using the URL of the blogger’s Post within your own Post, you create that first step to a Ping.

Now, to make the link active and carry out the actual Ping Back, you need to do the following in WordPress:

  1. Decide if you are going to have the URL visible on your post or if you would rather it be hidden within a word. Some people like to say “Click HERE to see the rest of the entries for the contest.” You can actually hide the URL within the word HERE in the previous sentence. You can even hide it within an image.
  2. You’ve decided on the type of Ping Back you want to do. If you want it within a word like ‘HERE’, or perhaps using the URL just as it appears in the address bar, highlight the word or URL, then click on the Insert/edit link icon in your Toolbar. The icon looks kind of like a paperclip.
  3. After clicking the icon you will get a pop up on your screen where you place the URL within. Do that and then click the Blue Box with the White Arrow in it. You’re done.
  4. If you are placing the URL within an Image, click the Image and then Click the Insert/edit link icon in your Toolbar and repeat #3.

It can be a link in the words you type, you know like a hyperlink thing where it says click HERE to go to something. Well HERE is not the actual URL. HERE is just the word the URL is hiding behind so to speak. An example of a page you could do a ping back for is an About Me. (To learn how to put a link so it is in a word instead of that long ugly URL format, click HERE for a step-by-step with images and you will leave this page. Thanks to Wendy Kate in comments for giving me the idea of noting this putting the link to my article here.)

An example would be like when I suggest putting a ping back to my Haiku Prompt Challenge.

The URL not to use as a Ping Back because it is to a page not a post: https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/

The URL not to use as a Ping Back because it is to a category page not a post: https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/category/haiku-prompt-challenge/

For the week of this article the challenge post URL to use is: https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/ronovanwrites-weekly-haiku-prompt-challenge-13/

Notice the date and the challenge number included for the one to use. Also note the word category in the second one not to use.

Well that’s about it. I hope that ugly little thing that tech people try to make sound kind of difficult is a little easier now.

 

Much Respect

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Ronovanfollowmeonbloglovin

 

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161 thoughts on “Blog Tip: How to do a ping back. It’s more than you think.”

  2. Can I ask (and show my ignorance here..) yes, I know how to cut and paste the url but some clever folk can then put this, for example, behind the typed name of the blog. Is THAT a hyperlink? How do you do that?

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  3. I think it’s frou frou. No? Yes? I am not so sure myself. Thanks for doing this post. I actually do it all the time, I just didn’t know this is called pingback and I always caught myself mispronouncing it piggy-back. Why does it have to be so complicated?

    Liked by 2 people

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  7. Hey, your giving away all the secrets! Us IT geeks and geekettes like having our own language. It’s how we recognize each other and weed out posers. (Hopefully I mentioned in my profile that I worked in IT for 30 years–otherwise this is totally not funny)

    Thanks for the post. It took me forever to figure out what a ping back is. Maybe you have a future as a geek-speak translator. hahaha

    Liked by 1 person

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    • I was a geek-speak translator for about 11 years as I would have to learn new programs that were used by my people to direct incoming call traffic between up to 10 cities around the US. It was my job go turn it all into English and then teach it to everyone else and create user guides.
      Now I have fun and tell people how to do cool little things that have always seemed a mystery to most of us. 🙂

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