What Are Trackbacks and Why Do They Exist?

Trackbacks were created by blog software programmers to help bloggers easily link to each other and get credit for doing so with automation. Rather than writing about someone else’s blog post on your site and then writing to them to let them know you just linked to their post and asking for the possibility of them linking back to you, trackbacks automate the process.


Trackbacks are sort of like “remote comments” in that, the blog you are linking to gets notified automatically that you’ve linked to a particular post and the blogger gets the same email they would had you commented directly on their blog that a comment is awaiting moderation.


They check it out and see that you’ve done a trackback.

They come to your post through the link and see that you’ve been flattering them by linking directly to their latest post in your post and explaining why you liked their post.

They go back to their moderation area and approve your trackback and it shows up in the comments area with all the other comments on that particular post you linked to.

Other readers get into the discussion on that blog, see your trackback and click the link to see what you had to say about this post. Not all, but some will do this.

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