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 
Written by Kevin Muldoon from Blog Themes ClubPosted on May 28th, 2007 and filed under Blogging
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18 Responses to “Pingbacks can be a fantastic source of traffic”
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[...] The readers who are getting involved in one site are more often than not to get involved in the conversation on your own. Some call it “link love” but what every you call it Kevin at Blogging Tips really hits the mark when he posts about the “ping thing“. [...]
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[...] aren’t using trackbacks, you need to stop and rethink your blogging strategy. Kevin at Blogging Tips recently posted on his experience using trackbacks, and the extra traffic that can [...]
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[...] These are very useful because they give you a backlink just for posting, no emails, no comments, just a post. If you use wordpress you’re in luck because wordpress pings any urls you link to by default which is very useful. Kevin from bloggingtips.com summed this up very well in an article called “Pingbacks can be a Fantastic Source of Traffic“. [...]
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[...] Pingbacks can be a fantastic source of traffic Pingbacks can be a fantastic source of traffic [...]
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[...] Blogging is not a competition. If other blogs are successful, it doesn’t mean less success for you. See other blogs as ways of helping you. The great thing about blogging is that linking to your “competitors” can actually help you in many ways. see: Pingbacks can be a great source of traffic [...]
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[...] until I read Kevin’s helpful post, I did not really understand what trackbacks were, but now I’m taking full advantage of them! [...]
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[...] Credit Where Credit is Due – Link to those posts that give you inspiration or are related to your topic.
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[...] of the first things you should look into is whether the blog allows pingbacks on their blog posts. There are many blogs who do not list pingbacks to posts so you should check some other posts on [...]
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[...] get a trackback link on another [...]
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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”
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. =)
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
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)
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.
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
Gr8 work buddy!!!
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After article publishing, I get an awful lot of pingbacks. This morning about 54 already.
I have two comments to make here, the first is kind of a warning.
Someone has created a program to auto comment in blogs and make it appear as if its a pingback. I didn’t detect this at first but being the curious timewaster that I am, i have been clicking on them all lately just to see where they go and what that person is trying to really say ( ergo increased traffic for someone ) and what I found is that some of these false dummies appear to go back in a circular pattern that eventually leads right back to my blog and nothing valuable said anywhere at all on the way back to my blog.
Thats just one variant of the two that I found. The other just came from a garbage site that was pinging literally everyone – as if it had gotten itself on the pingoat or pingomatic list somehow.
Anyway, the real comment I was going to make was that initially I didn’t accept pingbacks cause I thought that all these darn reciprocal links were going to cause a problem with Google. In theory, if you have a certain percentage that are reciprocal they do, but in theory Google must change their algorithm again… because someone said the other day that nearly 1% of the websites on the internet are wordpress based. I suspect this is true but can’t confirm it.
However, if 1% of the websites are pinging each other constantly and creating reciprocal links — ha ha Google must and will accomodate. Someone should ask Matt C about this.
In the future I am sure that drupal and other blogs will end up doing the same if they aren’t already, so I think that reciprocity is back in style — you heard it hear first ha ha.
Da marketing guy