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By Terry Detty
This week we're going to look at trackbacks - what they are, how they work, why they're important to blog traffic and how to get more. After you've read this article you'll know just about everything you need to know about the subject.
The concept of trackbacks is a bit hard to explain so we'll use an example. Let's say you see a great blog post on another person's blog and want to link to it on your blog. You could do this the old-fashioned way by manually putting a link on your site to that blog, but if you do that, the person whose blog post you're linking to won't know that unless you tell them.
This is where trackbacks come in. A trackback is a program which will notify the owner of a blog when one of their posts has been linked to at another blog.
A blog that has a trackback system set up will have a link at the bottom of every blog post. This link will say something like "Blog This!" Anyone who clicks the link can then put a link to that blog post on their site. The person who posted the original blog will then be notified via email that another site has linked to their blog posting. Additionally, the link that was clicked ("Blog This!") will change to "Trackbacks." From that point forward, the "Trackbacks" link will keep track of how many people have chosen to blog about that particular post. So after the first trackback, it will say "Trackbacks: 1." The number of trackbacks recorded will be updated as they occur.
The easy answer is that trackbacks are important because they increase awareness of your blog. Trackbacks also make a blog seem more credible.
Anytime a person makes a trackback on your blog, they make a post on their own blog about your blog. This, in turn, lets their readers know about your blog. Chances are, their readers will want to visit your blog. If they see something they like, they"ll keep coming back for more, which means you"ll have a whole new fan base of readers. That means more traffic for your blog.
Can you imagine what would happen if 5 different bloggers trackbacked a post on your blog? Depending on the popularity of their blog, that could genrate hundreds of new readers for your blog! Pretty incredible, right?
Also, every trackback made, assuming it's a legitimate one (some trackbacks are spam), adds credibility to your blog. Blogs with high amounts of trackbacks look credible because lots of people like the posts enough to trackback them.
The easiest and best way to increase trackbacks is to post frequently . If you post 2-3 times a week, people will have quite a few posts that they can trackback, but it's imporant that these posts contain good content, which is easy to relate to and entertaining to read. If you post a long, boring rant, people probably won"t want to trackback that. In contrast, if your rant is entertaining (and one that people are likely to agree with), you"ll get trackbacked.
The number of trackbacks you get is totally dependent on the number of visitors your blog receives and how frequently you're able to make quality posts. If you"ve got a good amount of visitors and write good blog posts, you"ll get trackbacks. It"s a win-win situation for you!
Terry Detty, 42, enjoys all aspects of Internet marketing and occasionally getting out for a breath of fresh air. He has several sites, covering Internet marketing, time and attendance and credit repair.
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Created: March 27, 2003
Revised: February 25, 2008
URL: http://webreference.com/promotion/trackbacks/1
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