Pinging Your Blog – To Ping or Not to Ping?

by Richard Petrillo on 03/03/2011

You should be pinging your blog each time you update your site with fresh content!

Pinging your blog allows you to automatically let the blog directories and search engines know that your blog has been updated.
One of the main reasons you should be pinging your blog is the search engines will quickly index your site, and thus drive traffic to it from several other sources.

One word of caution… If you are using a WordPress blog, by default, any time you hit the “Update” button WordPress will ping your blog. If you’re like me and make several changes along the way, this can be detrimental.

Pinging your blog too often will alert the search engines and you may be considered spamming… Worse yet, you could even get your website banned!

There is a work-around that I’ve found, it’s a plug-in for WordPress called, Ultimate Plugins – Smart Update Pinger

This plug-in will allow pinging your blog to happen only when you tell it to.

From the creators website:
Features:
1. Services are only pinged when a new post is created (not when an existing post is edited)

2. For future posts, services are only pinged when the post has appeared on your blog

3. Detailed reverse-style (newest entries first) logging

4. ‘Ping services now’ function

5. Auto-selects whether to do an extended or normal ping

6. For extended pings, it uses the new URL instead of just the homepage URL to ping (resulting in a much higher quality ping)

It keeps a complete log of the last 100 actions so you know exactly when your site is sending out a ping.

Smart Update Pinger updates through a service called Pingomatic and you can add several other pinging services to this plugin.

My good friend John Engle recommends using just one Ping service with the plug-in when pinging your blog, and manually pinging through these other 5 sites.

As John will tell you, there may only be 5 sites listed, but keep in mind, Pingler alone pings up to 84 websites, and the others will ping anywhere from 20 to 50.

So you should be covered!

Here is John’s list for Pinging Your Blog! Thanks John for your expert advice!

http://blogbuzzer.com/
http://www.pingler.com/
http://pingomatic.com/
http://www.pingoat.com/
http://feedshark.brainbliss.com/

For some other simple SEO tips be sure to check out this article.

Richard Petrillo

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{ 31 comments… add one }

Richard Petrillo 09/29/2013,

Hey Tanya,

Sure, I would use Google ping, along with a couple of the others mentioned above.

Thanks again,
RichardP

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Tanya 09/26/2013,

Thank You Richard..
Can I use Google ping after publishing every post???

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- Richard Petrillo 09/29/2013,
  
  Hey Tanya,
  
  Sure, I would use Google ping, along with a couple of the others mentioned above.
  
  Thanks again,
  RichardP
  
  Reply Link
Tanya 09/22/2013,

Yes I think this plugin can help me. But there is a huge ping list in pingmyurl.com which is can also be done manually. Can i go for it instead of using plugin? as you know using too much plugin increases load on site….
Thanks regards
Tanya

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Richard Petrillo 09/21/2013,

Hey Tanya,

You can keep that list in your settings but I would download the free plugin – Smart Update Pinger which will override WP from pinging each time you make a post or a correction to a post. Once you are satisfied with your post, you can manually ping all your services via the plugin-in just one time.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope this helps.

RichardP

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Tanya 09/21/2013,

Hello Richard,
I have uploaded a Ping list in general settings of Wordpress Blog. When ever I Publish a new post then it automatically sends updation to those ping sites. But after reading your post I think i should remove that list from Wordpress. Should I do this or there is any other way???
Thanks regards
Tankya

Reply Link
- Richard Petrillo 09/21/2013,
  
  Hey Tanya,
  
  You can keep that list in your settings but I would download the free plugin – Smart Update Pinger which will override WP from pinging each time you make a post or a correction to a post. Once you are satisfied with your post, you can manually ping all your services via the plugin-in just one time.
  
  Thanks for stopping by, I hope this helps.
  
  RichardP
  
  Reply Link
donald ukponu 04/20/2012,

Hi there,
Thanks for the updates on Pinging service.

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Richard Petrillo 02/04/2012,

That’s great to hear Mario!

Keep up the good work, your site is really coming along!

RichardP

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Mario Wilson Health 02/04/2012,

Thanks for this tip Richard. With this and a couple of others from your previous blog, I have quite a few of my blogs on the first page of Google! Quickly!

Reply Link
- Richard Petrillo 02/04/2012,
  
  Hey Mario,
  Thanks for the comment! I sent you a request via your blog to chat. Look forward to talking with you.
  Thanks again!
  
  RichardP
  
  Reply Link
Richard Petrillo 05/11/2011,

Hey Matt,
Thanks for your comment and sharing Ping List Checker, I’ll look into it!
RichardP

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Matt Stefanik 05/11/2011,

Hey Richard, excellent post! Thx 4 sharing. Another good Wordpress plugin that is free is Ping List Checker which checks for duplicate domains on your ping list.

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- Richard Petrillo 05/11/2011,
  
  Hey Mike,
  
  Thanks for your comment and offering up some more valuable info! I will check it out!
  Hope all is well,
  RichardP
  
  Reply Link
Richard Petrillo 05/10/2011,

Hey Mark,
Thanks for your comment. I’m surprised I didn’t get banned when I first started my blog with as many changes as I made to each post! Appreciate you stopping by!
RichardP

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Mark Harbert 05/10/2011,

Richard,

Great post my friend. I just recently did a post on this on my blog, and you really hit some great points here. I don’t think a lot of bloggers are aware of this function in WordPress so its great that you are bringing it to the forefront. Thanks for bringing the value Richard.

Mark Harbert

Reply Link
- Richard Petrillo 05/10/2011,
  
  Hey Mark,
  Thanks for your comment. I’m surprised I didn’t get banned when I first started my blog with as many changes as I made to each post! Appreciate you stopping by! Enjoy your blog and will be back. Nice to connect with you on Tribe Pro!
  Take good care.
  RichardP
  
  Reply Link
Richard Petrillo 04/23/2011,

Hey Joe,
Thanks! The same can be said for your blog and work! Great videos, articles and a ton of Value over at your site!

Thanks for stopping by,
RichardP

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Joe Shaw 04/23/2011,

Richard,

I’ve been privileged to have been following your blog for a while now, and I just have to say what an amazing job you’re doing. This article reflects just how much your technical and writing expertise has flourished.

Keep the great content coming!
Joe Shaw

Reply Link
- Richard Petrillo 04/23/2011,
  
  Hey Joe,
  Thanks! What a compliment!
  The same can be said for your blog and work! Great videos, articles and a ton of Value over at your site!
  
  How are you doing? Seems like we lost touch there. Glad to have connected again.
  RichardP
  
  Reply Link
Richard Petrillo 03/25/2011,

Hey Robert,
Thanks man!

This plugin has been a lifesaver! I tend to make several changes to each blog post and in the beginning without realizing I was pinging each time I hit the publish button.

Nice to have piece of mind now!
RichardP

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Richard Petrillo 03/25/2011,

Hi Lynn,
You’re welcome, thanks for your comment.
I have to say, I was horrified when I found out it was possible to get banded from over pinging. When I first started out with my blog I was constantly correcting mistakes and there were times when I would hit that publish button 15 times or more, never realizing I was pinging each time.

Ha, if anyone should have gotten banned, it was me, LOL.
RichardP

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Lynn Brown 03/24/2011,

Thanks Richard for sharing this awesome tip. I knew about WP auto pinging but did not know that if you edited your post it would ping again. That is good to know and I will certainly try out this plug-in that you recommend. I also will have to compare my ping list to that of your friend, John Engle.

Always appreciate your ideas, info and advice.

Reply Link
- Richard Petrillo 03/25/2011,
  
  Hi Lynn,
  Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment here, I really appreciate it. I have to say, I was horrified when I found out it was possible to get banded from over pinging. When I first started out with my blog I was constantly correcting mistakes and there were times when I would hit that publish button 15 times or more, never realizing I was pinging each time. Ha, if anyone should have gotten banned, it was me, LOL.
  
  It is great to connect with you and I look forward to spending more time on your blog, learning and syndicating!
  Have a great week.
  Richard
  
  Reply Link
Robert 03/24/2011,

Great words of advice there Richard! Pingomatic.com seems to be the most effective and efficient way of getting a new Wordpress site indexed on Google. But flip side of the coin, pinging too often is not appreciated by the search engines. Great post yet again. Thanks

Reply Link
- Richard Petrillo 03/25/2011,
  
  Hey Robert,
  Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment, I really appreciate it.
  
  RichardP
  
  Reply Link
Richard Petrillo 03/05/2011,

Hey Steve,

More is better but keep in mind and make sure that all the ping services you are using, are not duplicating themselves. Pinging the same sites over and over again can look like you’re spamming and throw up a red flag.
The last thing you want to do is get your site banned. This could be one of those times that “Less is More”.

Thanks for your comment!
RichardP

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Steve Dooley 03/04/2011,

I actually have the smart update pinger. I’ve been sending “pings” out to a bunch of sites including pingomatic. I’ll add these five as well. Richard, why don’t you want to ping to more than these five sites? Isn’t more better?

Thanks for the insight…..Great article!

Reply Link
- Richard Petrillo 03/05/2011,
  
  Hey Steve,
  
  More is better but keep in mind and make sure that all the ping services you are using, are not duplicating themselves. Pinging the same sites over and over again can look like you’re spamming and throw up a red flag.
  The last thing you want to do is get your site banned. This could be one of those times that “Less is More”.
  
  Thanks for your comment!
  RichardP
  
  Reply Link
Richard Petrillo 03/03/2011,

Thanks Wendy!

RichardP

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Wendy Webb 03/03/2011,

Excellent WordPress tip! Thanks!

Reply Link