What is WordPress Trackback?

Interesting article about trackback feature in WordPress by Telly Adlam.

Telli Adlam writes: “When used properly, trackbacks and pingbacks are an excellent way to build links and traffic to your blog, as well as building relationships with other bloggers.”

Wikipedia defines trackback as “one of three types of linkbacks, methods for Web authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking, and so referring, to their articles. Some weblog software programs, such as WordPressDrupal and Movable Type, support automatic pingbacks where all the links in a published article can be pinged when the article is published. The term is used colloquially for any kind of linkback.”

It’s important to use Trackback functionality wisely to avoid to be baned as a spamer. When sending a trackback, be mindful of sending a pingback. If the site you’re linking to has pingbacks enabled, be sure not to trackback. You may end up inadvertently posting two links to their site and this may annoy some webmasters, or may even be construed as attempted spamming.

Avoid sending a trackback unless you actually reference or link to the site you’re sending the trackback to, otherwise, it can be considered spam.

If your trackback or pingback doesn’t show up on the website, don’t try to force it by continually using trackback or pingback. Instead, head over to the actual blog entry and leave a note with a link to your blog entry manually. If the blog owner thinks it’s relevant enough, he will approve it.

Credits:
– Telly Adlam …
Wikipedia …