Do You Use Trackbacks As Part of Your Link Building Campaign?

We all know that your blog's ranking in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) is dependent on both on-page and off-page SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) techniques. The on-page techniques include things like the use of the H1 tag and keyword density. Each search engine's closely guarded ranking algorithm places a different weight on the on-page SEO techniques, however most search engines place the greatest weight on the number of incoming links your blog has. And a great way to increase the number of incoming links is through the use of trackbacks or pingbacks.

A trackback (or pingback) is a notification that another blog has referenced one of your posts in a post on their blog. The trackback includes four pieces of information:

1. URL

The URL of the post that has referenced a post on your blog

2. Anchor Text

The text used in the link to your blog

3. Excerpt

This is generally an abstract from the blog post that surrounds the link to your blog. This ist to provide some context to the link.

4. Blog Name

The name of the blog that is sending the trackback.

Depending on your blog's software or theme, you will generally find trackbacks displayed below the post contents either in a Trackback section or in the Comments section.

So, by referencing other blog posts on your blog, you are in fact creating a link back to your own blog post. Now, just rinse and repeat!

There are also some techniques to increase the number of trackbacks created for each post. These include a Link List post, a Blog Carnival post or a Comparison Review post.

A Link List post focuses on a particular topic and is then complemented by a number of links to relevant posts on other blogs. On publishing your post, the linked blogs will be pinged and your trackback will appear on their blog post. This is a win/win type of post as the reader is provided with a range of perspectives on a particular topic, the blog authors receive a link from your blog and you receive a number of incoming links.

A Blog Carnival is a collection of blog posts on a particular theme submitted by authors to the carnival host. Think of an editor publishing a magazine - the authors submit articles to the editor, the editor selects articles that best fit the next issue, writes an introduction for the articles and then publishes the finished magazine. A blog carnival is the blog version of a magazine and the blog carnival host is the magazine editor. By hosting a blog carnival you have the perfect opportunity to link generously to other blog posts and receive a trackback link to your blog from each of these.

A Comparison Review post looks at a product or service and provides information on how the product or service is provided by a number of supplies or vendors. By linking to other blogs where the product or service has been mentioned, you are building up a review that is helpful to your readers but also provides you with a number of trackback incoming links.

A trackback link needs to provide value to readers; otherwise it is just considered spam. If you are trackbacking to blogs that are not relevant to your topic you may find that the trackback notification is removed. Many blog authors have their blogging software set to moderate incoming comments/trackbacks for approval before publishing. No one wants to find their blog to be the target of spam. But, if you ensure that you are also providing value, to both readers and blog authors, your trackback request will be approved and providing another valuable incoming link to your blog.

Kerrin Hardy of kdays.com is the author of the Ultimate Trackback Help Guide