When Should I Comment? When Should I Trackback?

Comments and trackbacks are two different things that share a common purpose. They are both a way of leaving your thoughts on a specific post, and they can also be a way of talking to the blogger and the blog’s readers. Here’s the differences between the two:

Comments

When you leave a comment you are leaving your thoughts directly on someone else’s blog. Generally they are much shorter than the post that a trackback links to, but can can be more efficient in some respects. For someone to visit the post a trackback goes to, they have to click on it, while a comment is right there and requires no clicking. However, you usually have very little control over what happens with a comment you left on another blog, plus you are putting content on someone else’s blog instead of your own (a big no-no if you write 5 paragraph comments).

Trackbacks

When you send a trackback you are basically linking to another blog post from your blog and telling the other blog about it. Usually when you send a trackback your blog software will quote the text around it, send it to the trackback URL for the post you are linking to, and then the other blog will display the quote and a link to the post. Sometimes requiring people to click on your trackback can be advantageous, since it brings you more traffic.

While you may have very little control over the actual trackback (bloggers can delete them just like regular comments), you have full control over the blog post it links to.

Another reason to use trackbacks is to reference another post from your own.

When Should I Use One Or The Other?

If you are leaving a quickie 1 or 2 paragraph write up - comments are usually the way to go. But if you are going to be completely critical about the blogger or something they said, or if you are writing a long comment, a trackback might be better (simply because you don’t have to worry about your post getting deleted).

Plus, comments add more content to someone else’s blog. If your comment is worthy of its own post, then give it its own post.

Stay tuned for even more Back To The Basics posts!

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