Trackbacks, also known as Pingbacks or Pings, started out as a method for having two different Weblog Articles cross-reference each other. For example, if one person were to write an article on their website and another person were to point to that article on their website with a specific link, then people reading that article could click through and read the first article. However people reading the first article would know nothing of the second article.

But what if the blogging management system could be set up to notify the first blog of the second blog's link? It would increase traffic to both blogs, helping to improve their PageRank. If you could link to popular sites like PRWeb and get a link back from them, it would help your site bloom. The idea behind this is how you respond to the blogs you read. Many people add their comments and then go on their way. But what if you took your comment idea and turned it into a blog post on your own site? You could then link back to the other site and create a trackback.

Setting this up requires going into your blog settings and turning the feature on. Your blogging software determines whether it is called a Trackback or a Pingback. Once you have enabled it you can start testing the feature, how it works and how it can bring more visitors to your site. Once you have the feature optimized it can do wonders to improving your Pagerank. And if the sites you're linking to like what you're doing then you can have a nice network of Trackbacks to make your page hits soar.

The only drawback to Trackbacks or Pingbacks is their use by spammers. Someone can repeatedly Trackback to your site with a link designed solely to draw traffic to their site. Their site may have nothing to do with yours. It doesn't matter to them. If this happens too much, it can be detrimental to your Pagerank. However, the internet marketing community feels that the pros of using this feature outweigh the cons. Something as simple as disabling or limiting comments can make this problem minimal.

Trackbacks or Pingbacks can be a very effective tool to add to your Internet Marketing arsenal, bringing in new traffic to benefit your website.