Blogging Terminology

by Erin Banister

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As a long-time blogger and blogging assistant, I know the frustration that comes with the ‘blogger jargon.’ It’s rough, especially for businesses just getting their feet wet on the Internet to grasp all the nuances of what goes into blogging. Fortunately, Daniel Scocco over at Daily Blog Tips has posted a comprehensive list of blogging terminology at http://www.dailyblogtips.com/the-bloggers-glossary/.

Here are a few to get you started, with some clarification thrown in:

Backlinks: Hyperlinks present in other blogs or websites that point either to the homepage or to internal pages of a website. They are important because Google and other search engines relate the number and quality of backlinks to the trust level of that website.

When you put a business website on the internet, your main purpose is for potential customers to find you. Your website can be found in several ways:

• Search Engines
• Forums
• Advertising
• Discussion Lists
• Social Networking Sites
• And so much more

Many internet users don’t use all of these methods, in fact, many users just use one mainstay to find what they need: a Search Engine. We use Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc to find everything from a local plumber to a life coach, from parts from your 1926 Ford Model T Coupe to an ecard to send to a colleague. It’s so easy to get lost in the mix - some business pay exorbitant fees to be found first in Google for specific keywords (i.e. Credit, Golf, etc)

If you want to be found in Google, and not fall by the wayside, one of your first plans of attack is through backlinks. As stated above, Google and other search engines judge your trustworthiness by the amount of backlinks your site has, and therefore puts you higher in the ranks the more you have.

A here are a few quick and simple ways to get backlinks:

• Create a Squidoo Page
• Create a Hub Page
• Join and Participate in Forums (like Ryze, Yahoo Groups, Etc.)
• Write and Submit Articles to Article Directories

And remember: the higer number of backlinks you have, the higher search engine placement you’ll get.

Pingback: A network tool used to notify a website when someone else has linked or referred to it. Most blogging platforms handle pingbacks automatically. That is, when someone links to an article that you wrote, his link will appear in your comments section.

Trackback: A network tool, similar to the pingback, used to notify a website when someone else has linked or referred to it. The difference between the two is that Trackbacks are more often subject of spam.

Ping/Trackbacks can be very important to you as a blogger. When you find something interesting on another blog, and choose to write about it it automatically notifies the other blog that you’ve posted their link.

So why are trackbacks and pingbacks important?

In the grand scheme of the blogosphere (which is a term that encompasses all bloggers writing on the internet) one of the goals is to get backlinks (see above) and to become part of the overall conversation in your niche. When a blogger receives a track/pingback, they may read your post, and in turn comment about or begin an offline conversation with you. This, in turn, increases your reach, which will, in turn, help get the word out about your blog.

And, even if a conversation doesn’t happen, oftentimes track/pingbacks are noted with an excerpt in the comments sections of posts, so even if you don’t begin a conversation with another blogger, a reader might find your comment useful and visit your site. It’s a win/win!

Tags: backlinks, Blogging, blogging jargon, pingbacks, trackbacks

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