Pingbacks can be a fantastic source of traffic
I always try my best to link to articles i am referring to. It makes sense to show the reader the article you are talking about.
Linking to another blog is great because :
- You give credit where credit is due
- You show your reader a good post that they would like to read (unless you like linking to bad posts - unlikely!)
- You generate a link back from the post in the form of a pingback (assuming they haven’t switched it off)
It’s this last point i want to expand on. I have been tracking the stats here a lot and have been aware for a while that i have been getting a certain percentage of traffic from pingbacks. I’m not sure of the exact percentage is but its enough for them to be included in my webalizer stats.
A Sudden Surge of Traffic
Like most blogs in this genre, i posted about the Digg revolt in my post ‘Digg have shot themselves in the foot‘. When i wrote the post i really didn’t give much thought to traffic benefits when i linked to articles which were covering the digg revolt. I just wanted to show readers how crazy it all was and how many bloggers were covering it. That day i saw a jump in traffic by about 30-40% which was generated by the pingbacks in that post - it was crazy!
I knew pingbacks were good for traffic but i just didn’t realise how much.
I encourage you to link to any blog post which you are talking about or just think that your readers will like reading however you should be aware of the traffic benefits of getting a pingback on a high traffic blog.
Some things to note :
- You should see more traffic if you ping the post early in the discussion. This means that your pingback will be close to the top of the comments (though bear in mind some blogs seperate regular comments and pingbacks/trackbacks).
- Guides, tutorials and that kind of thing should send you much more traffic in the long term. For example, if i linked to a post on ProBlogger i would see some visits coming from there for a week or so but a pingback on a post which releases a new wordpress plugin should keep sending me traffic long after the traffic from ProBlogger has stopped. Information and useful posts which stand the test of time tend to get more traffic over the long haul.
- Any link you post should be relevant to the post. It’s common sense - don’t just whore your blog and link to any high traffic blog in the hope of a pingback
What are your experiences with pingbacks? I’m curious what percentage of traffic established blog sites get from pingbacks and referrals.
kevin
p.s. feel free to link to this post to get a pingback haha 
Success Online | May 28th, 2007 at 9:57 am #
The Ping Thing! Finally this week I actually understood what the heck it was. I have to agree with you 100%. While we all want the traffic from such main stream and high traffic sites making sure it flows with relevancy is the all important factor. It won’t take readers long to figure out your just posting for “ping”
Tay | May 28th, 2007 at 1:15 pm #
I’ve never really understood the whole idea of pinging but now thanks to you I get it! I will definitely make sure I link to my sources more. It’ll make everyone happy. =)
Tay | May 28th, 2007 at 9:03 pm #
Hey Kevin, sorry for the second comment on this but I have a question…
Do trackbacks register automatically? I linked to a post today, a couple hours ago, and I went back to their original post that I’d linked to and it did not show my trackback.
I know they were accepting trackbacks as there was one from another site. How come mine doesn’t show up?
I’m new to this thing but I’m working on it
~Tay
Kevin | May 28th, 2007 at 9:31 pm #
some blogs do not add pingbacks to their comments. If this blog definately does then perhaps they are moderating all pingbacks/comments etc before posting. Do they use wordpress? (different scripts work in different ways with regards to comment and trackback moderation)
Carlie | May 28th, 2007 at 10:42 pm #
I agree with this post whole heartedly. Last week I wrote about another article and the amount of users visiting my blog increased by about 40% as well. It’s a great idea, but I only do it if the story is relevant to my blog.
richard | May 29th, 2007 at 1:24 am #
I agree, it’s good to link to relevant blogs. I think Google also give higher search engine ranking if you have good, relevant external links
BHARAT KARNANI | July 18th, 2007 at 4:41 pm #
Gr8 work buddy!!!
CLICK HERE TO START EARNING IN 15 MINUTES
Fatcow Coupon | September 3rd, 2008 at 10:06 pm #
Cool tips and thanks for this post. this make me think that make money more easy than I think before, I have learn a lot from a top forum about the this topic and I still learn till today.