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What Are TrackBacks And How Do You Use Them To Get Traffic With Your Wordpress Blog

Posted by Samuel in November 9th 2008

Before writing this post I noticed a section of my wordpress blog that says “TrackBacks”. I had no freaking clue what a trackback was and how it worked. I was starting to wonder if I was missing out on something because I would always bypass this entry when I make my posts. It was really bothering me that I didn’t know what a trackback was and it kept me wondering if this thing could help me get more blog traffic. So I did some research to find out what exactly is a trackback and it’s purpose in a wordpress blog. Here’s what I found.

A trackBack is a way for the Blog Author to get notification when someone links to any of their blog posts. Blog authors can then keep track of who is linking and referring to their blog posts. The Trackback is sent via a ping from the originating site to the receiving site. The pictures below should help visualize all this for you. Now the trackback does not require the originating site to be physically linked or have a link in their post to the receiving site, however you may want to do this as etiquette if you want the receiving blog author to approve your trackback. This is how traffic comes to your wordpress blog.

If the receiving blog author getting the trackback gets a lot of traffic to their blog, you want to make sure you have a link to their site in your post so they will approve your trackback. This exposes your trackback link to the receiveing blog authors readers. This exposure can provide for some nice traffic flowing in your direction. Now what you will see on the receiveing blog is a display of summaries to all trackback links below the original post entry. This creates an envirnonment of conversation spanning many different blogs. Below are step by step pictures highlighting this process. Please post your comments if you have questions.