During my presentation at IIMA, it became clear that many aspects of blogging that we begin to take for granted are actually not logical for the blogging novice. One such aspect is Trackbacks.

Now, I may pehaps be an exception - I never questioned the whole linking thing. I’ve always been an overlinker. But for most, trackbacks seem quite laborious - you have to spend all that extra time searching for and adding in relevant links. I personally dislike that each time I add in the link it refreshes me to the top of my text. I spend all that extra time scrolling back to my writing.

But, besides learning how to use them, trackbacks are an important feature to a successful blog. They are your conversation with the blogosphere.

As T.L. Pakii Pierce says so well, “Trackbacks are often misunderstood and so seldom used by new bloggers. Trackback is a powerful way to get content recognition from search bots crawling the rich blog link structures, it is a great way to alert others to your content as well as receive notice when other bloggers are referencing you. Trackbacks are a good way to get inbound links and generate FREE traffic. Trackbacks are definitely a powerful content promotion and distribution strategy. When used properly, Trackbacks can get you noticed and get you traffic.”

As a method to understanding, Kris Krug has pointed us to this video/audio session to understanding trackbacks.