Web Cash

Trackbacks are a great way to publicize your blog or website. They allow you to ping a person’s blog, say “Hey, I’m talking about you!” and leave a message.

These trackback pings will show up in the target post’s comment section, and sometimes the author will separate trackbacks out to show at the beginning of the list. Although they won’t always get you search engine ju-ju, thanks to rel=nofollow, they are a great way to get people to come to your website.

Why Trackback If the Search Engine Doesn’t Care?

I know that every time I get a trackback to one of my websites, I immediately check out the source. To some extent I want to check for spam, but I’m also concerned with, “Who’s this new guy talking to me?”

When I’m viewing another person’s blog, I also usually follow the trackbacks if I was interested in the original post. I rarely click on the typical name-link included in a comment, though.

The trackback signals to both the target website’s author and to its readers that this comment has something worth while for them to read. So often they’ll click the link and see what you have to say.

Ok, How Do I Send a Trackback?

Well, if you’re using a standard blogging platform like Wordpress, it’s pretty easy. At the bottom of your post editing screen, you’ll probably see a space to enter a trackback URI. This is the link from the original website that you send the trackback ping to.

Just enter the URI in your editor, and you’re all set. The problem, though, is that not every blogging platform supports sending trackbacks. You might also want to send a trackback from a non-blog website, if you’ve added some content that speaks to the original post.

Enter the trackback-via-form tool. This form will do all the work for you. Enter the necessary information (Trackback URI, your page’s title, your page’s URL, an excerpt of your page, and your blog name), and hit submit.

You should see a response with either an “All clear! Trackback was sent successfully.” or some kind of error message.

Enjoy, and good luck trackbacking. Test it out by sending a trackback to this page or the form’s page.

If you’re done with the trackback form, why don’t you go back and browse through some other online tools?