Do You Know What Trackbacks Are?

Use them wisely in your blogging strategy

What are trackbacks

Trackbacks first started in the Movable Type blogging software, and have now become a standard feature across most other blogging software and tools.

Trackbacks are a simple way of informing another blog that you are talking about a post on their blog.

It uses a command called ‘ping‘ which basically sends a very small packet of information to the blog telling it that another blog has linked to it. Both blogs need to have trackbacks enabled for this to work, but most blogging tools (with the exception of Blogger) offer this functionality, and in some it is automated.

You need to use the special trackback link on a blog post, rather than the blog URL, when setting up a trackback manually, but most blogs make this really easy, as it such an important way of getting the word out about a blog, and promoting it.

One of the most useful purposes of a trackback is for any blogger to know when an article has been written about a specific blog post, or if a blog post has been referenced elsewhere.

This can quite often lead you to discover readers of your blog you may have been unaware of, and can often lead to mutually beneficial relationships between the blogs if you follow it up by contacting that blogger.

It is surprising how sending an email to another blogger can lead to a whole world of new connections, other blogs where promotion of your blog may prove valuable and even new friends and business contacts!