Linkback confusion. Should I Refback, Trackback or Pingback?

I'm new to blogging but not the web or internet or PC's, so I'm going to stick my neck out and risk getting my head lopped off for what might turn out to be a "bad idea." However, if that happens I'll be in Godin company.

I came across the term 'Trackback' reading Seth Godin's blog today. You'll find it under all his posts. Today he posted about Fear of bad ideas and underneath you'll find something called a "Trackback URL." Knowing that Seth Godin is a "God in" blogging circles I headed off to learn what this was and why it is such a good idea. At Wikipedia I found that its a kind of "Linkback" and there are three types, so I had to decide: "Should I use a Refback, Trackback or a Pingback?" My conclusion: Its a Bad Idea to worry about this, so don't. Just link as normal. I'll explain why.

What are Linkbacks?

Linkbacks are ways that a blogger (or website author, content publisher etc.) can let someone know that the blog or website is linking to that person's content. They provide a means for someone being referenced to find information about content that contains links to them. According to Wikipedia there are three types of Linkback: Refback, Trackback and Pingback.

I list them in order of complexity, and one might therefore presume, of benefit - however I'm thinking that there isn't much, actually anything, to be gained by worrying about them. Just link as normal and forget it. Please let me know if you disagree - I may learn something, which I always welcome. I don't mind people thinking I'm dumb, or saying so if it makes you feel better, so by all means go ahead! But first let me explain my reasoning, and then you can explain why I'm wrong, rather than just contradicting me.

What's a Refback, Trackback and a Pingback?

A Refback is a normal hyperlink. You put it in your content so a reader can click on the link and be taken to the content you are referring to on another site. The other site can usually tell where the click came from (so long as the browser supplies appropriate headers which almost all of them do).

So a normal hyperlink (a Refback) is a type of Linkback that lets the referenced site know that it is getting traffic and where it is coming from. Note - this is true for all hyperlinks without you (or you blogging platform) having to do anything special. It just happens because when a web browser follows a link it very politely tells the website it is accessing where it came from.

Now, if people are not clicking on the link, I don't see much value in the reference, and very little to be gained from knowing about it. I see no significant disadvantage in this kind of linkback compared to Trackbacks or Pingbacks.

A Refback provides less information than a Trackback but I'll comment on why that's irrelevant while explaining Trackbacks, next.

What is a Trackback?

A Trackback is a special feature supported by some publishing systems (e.g. blog platforms) that send some information to a referenced site when the content including the reference is published.

In theory this makes it easier for sites whose content is being referenced to keep track of who is referring to them and to gather a little information about the refering site and content (e.g. site and content URL, and title).

However, a spammer can send fake Trackbacks very easily which means that they need to be verified if you want to avoid acting on unreliable data. So it is still necessary to go to the referring site and gather the information from the referring page to check it exists and also to try and filter out spamming links.

Hence I see no benefits in using a Trackback for the owner of referred content. So there is no benefit, only a cost, in providing this extra information to someone making a reference.

Which brings me to Pingbacks.

What is a Pingback?

A Pingback is like a Trackback, but uses a different protocol. Its a little more sophisticated, but for most people that doesn't matter because like a Trackback it is taken care of by the content platform. Some blog platforms provide this feature for you. When you publish your post, they scan your article for Refbacks, and do a Pingback for each one.

The Pingback tells the owner of the referenced content the address of the referencing site, and the URL of the content being referenced, and the URL of the content containing the reference (e.g. a blog post containing the link). To get more information (e.g. to help weed out spam) the referring page needs to be retrieved and analysed and referring sites checked for spam etc.

Now I guess there are some benefits to the Pingback system or it wouldn't be there, but I can't see them. Ok, so you get to know if someone links to you even if people are not clicking on the referring link. But why would you care about references that bring no traffic?

If you know any other benefits, let me know, because I would hate to be giving out poor advice! In the meantime I say...

Don't Worry About Linkbacks, Just Link as Normal

For the Blogger/Webmaster linking to someone else's blog post, article, website content and so on I believe that you might as well just link as normal. By all means use a URL shortener to track numbers of referrals if you like. Currently I use http://j.mp (formerly bit.ly) but there are many others.

But whether you link direct or using a URL shortner, I suggest you use a normal hyperlink and not worry about whether your platform provides Trackbacks or Linkbacks.

When linking, you might want to include a 'target' attribute with value "_blank" so the link opens in a new window rather than navigates away from your site.

Example: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.markhughes.com">markability's website</a>

I can check my weblogs to find out where visitors are coming from, go get the referring content and track that. If that link is not bringing visitors, why would I care?

For the Content Owner wanting to track referring links and their owners. You can't rely on everyone using Trackbacks or Pingbacks, so you are going to have to assume a lot of Refbacks and handle these.

So I suggest you forget about this issue. If you need to know about referrals, by all means make use of Trackback or Pingback information if you can, but as a referrer, I shouldn't worry about it. There seems little if any advantage in providing the extra information by supporting Trackback or Pingback. Just link!

Unless of course, you know better, in which case please comment and let me know if this is just one of my "bad ideas".

Happy Linking!

Mark

References:

Wikipedia: Linkback