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What is WordPress xmlrpc.php (XML-RPC)?

Category: WordPress
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As WPSec.com explains, WordPress “XML-RPC is a remote procedure call (RPC) protocol which uses XML to encode its calls and HTTP as a transport mechanism.”. Originally, XML-RPC was developed back in the early days of WordPress, where Internet connections were slow and sporadic at best.  In fact, rather than actively writing new posts via the WordPress […]

How are WordPress Pingbacks Exploited?

Category: WordPress
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While you may hear a lot about WordPress exploits, it could be that you’re not familiar with how the pingback mechanism in WordPress works, or how it can be used by dastardly hackers. One of the most popular approaches is to use the XML-RPC mechanism, inherent in WordPress, because it gives hackers the ability to […]

How to Turn off Rel=Nofollow and Make Pingbacks Dofollow?

Category: WordPress
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As mentioned in the pingback guide overview, pingback links are by default flagged as rel=nofollow.  That means some search engines will ignore, while others will treat as regular dofollow links. When a link is dofollow, search engines will attribute link trust and authority to the linked site, and pull some of that back from the […]

How to Enable/Disable Sending Pingbacks?

Category: WordPress
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You can easily turn off, or on, the sending of pingbacks from within the main WordPress menu options of your given site install.  If you’d like to know, “How do I disable sending pingbacks?”, then read on…. If you’d like to send pingbacks whenever you link to a blog post, internally or externally, then make […]

What are Self-Pings?

Category: WordPress
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The beauty of WordPress is that it’s so smart, it even detects when you link from one post of yours to another.  Remember, it’s the LINK that triggers the self-ping in WordPress. If one blog post were to mention another by linking to it, you’d find a link like this somewhere on the page:  Web Hosting […]

Get Started With Pingbacks

Category: WordPress
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How are Pingbacks Created? To create pingbacks, all you really have to do is link to another post.   Behind the scenes, a pingback notification will be sent to the other blog, prompting the other site owner to approve the pingback.   It’s very much like a comment awaiting moderation – the only difference is that it […]

What is Spamvertised or Spamvertising?

What is Spamvertising? Spamvertising is the practice of sending E-mail spam, advertising a website. The word is a portmanteau of the words “spam” and “advertising”. It also refers to vandalizing blogs, online forums or wikis with hyperlinks in order to get a higher search engine ranking for the vandal’s website. Spamvertisers insert links to their […]