Web Cash

Well… why not?

By creating a trackback, you’re creating a link to your website on a relevant website somewhere else on the internet. What’s not to like?

Well, to be entirely truthful, there is one reason that these links aren’t as good as they could be - rel=”nofollow”. In short, this is a tag that most blogs put into trackback links - and this tells Google and other search engines to ignore the link.

Although your trackbacks won’t get you search engine ju-ju, they’re still helpful.

Whenever I get a trackback to a website I run, I check out where I came from. I want to know who’s commenting on my writing. Chances are I’ll look around the site a bit and see what’s going on.

Voila. You just got some traffic - albeit just one visit. However, if I like your site I might now write a post in response to something you’ve written. That’s how conversations start.

Links in the comment section are also useful for getting readers to go from one blog to another.

I typically ignore the link contained in someone’s name. Why? Because I have no idea if his content is at all relevant to what I just read. Someone may enjoy reading and commenting about technology - and then write on his own blog about the the opera.

With a trackback, I know that the link will take me to an article that is directly related to what I’ve just read. If I just read something interesting, and I want to read another viewpoint, I’ll hop over to the article that initiated the trackback - meaning you just got some more traffic.

In short, trackbacks are a good way to build up backlinks that attract humans. The search engine might ignore them, but isn’t your goal to get people to read your website anyway?

Head back to the Trackback Guide if you’ve got some more questions.