Why trackbacks matter

Good deeds deserve recognition!

Which of these actions do you think deserves the most attention?

Comments – which let other bloggers know that you are reading their posts.

Trackbacks – which let other bloggers know that you are writing about them.

If that doesn’t explain why trackbacks are so important as a PR and networking activity, let me give you an example:

I was browsing through my visitor logs today and discovered that I am receiving visitors as a result of an excellent post by Thom Singer which was written in August 2005.

I had never read this post by Thom before even though he had quoted me favorably, because he didn’t leave a trackback! As a result, he didn’t get added to my blogroll.

Thom left a comment to my original August post and I must have followed it back at the time because I knew of his site, but I had never seen this post. As a result, his excellent post had received no comments!

It has one now, because I finally discovered his post because of a visitor that came from his site. How much more effective it would have been if he had left a trackback.

The lesson here, for those who would care to hear it, is leave trackbacks when you write about someone’s post. It doesn’t matter whether you write favorably, as he did, or unfavorably. In either case, you will generate traffic to your site and will elicit comments.

No good deed should go unnoticed.
Use trackbacks!

Tag: Trackbacks