
Watch out for that ping...
Simply put, a ping is a “this site has new content” notification that invites search engine bots to visit your blog.
By default, WordPress pings one pinging service called Ping-o-matic; that service will in turn ping others.
You can always add additional pinging services to be notified when new content is published. Simply go to Settings > Writing in the admin panel.
My List of Pinging Services
Here’s a list of services I currently use to ping my blog posts:
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogcatalog.com/
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.wasalive.com/ping/
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://rpc.odiogo.com/ping/
I am not saying this is the most thorough or the best list to use; that’s just what I use on my blog.
Feel free to copy and paste it under “Update Services” in your “Writing” options.
HOW TO AVOID BEING “PINGED” AS A SPAMMER
By default WordPress pings whenever you post a new topic on your blog. That’s fine and that’s what we want.
But do you know WordPress also pings whenever you edit and update any existing post?
If you edit a post 10 times, then WordPress will send 10 pings. It doesn’t matter how small or big a change you make, WordPress is always pinging content whenever you edit it.
IT’S VERY DANGEROUS and if you edit your blog a lot, then your blog might get banned from pinging services because of excessive pinging.
Here’s an easy fix to your problem: make sure you install this free MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer plugin; it will correct the pinging problem without any work on your part.
Ping Your Comments
Blog commenting is still one of the most accessible link building strategies there is and it’s important to do both for link diversity and networking/name and brand recognition.
To maximize the potential of your commenting links to be discovered (you see, just because you leave a comment, doesn’t mean that the search engines will find you link quickly or ever), I suggest you ping your comments, preferably after they get approved.
All you need to successfully ping your comments is the comment URL – it would look something like this: http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/top-google-ranking-factors-2011/#comment-28661.
Go to any one of the numerous pinging services out there – I usually use either Pingomatic.com or Pingler.net, add your URL and press “Ping!”
Simple enough.
How to Ping in Bulk
If you leave a lot of comments, pinging them one by one could become a chore.
Pingfarm.com to the rescue!
Gather all your links in a text document, copy and paste, and you are all set.
Marketing Takeaway
Yes, yet another little pesky thing to keep in mind. Good thing it’s simple to do and easy to make it a part of your routine blog commenting.
Happy pinging!





{ 65 comments… read them below or add one }
To avoid beind marked as a spammer I usually edit pages or posts not going over one or max two per day. Easy done as I have less than 100 posts.
Great ping list, now I must find a way to see if I can mix it with mine without having duplicates on WP.
If I can I’d like to ask you a question, I’ve seen that the permalink of the post now has web address / #something which I guess is Tynt, doesn’t it affects Seo? Just curious before using tynt too on my website.
Have a great week!
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Tynt doesn’t affect SEO; that extra string of code is just for tracking purposes.
However, I found it too annoying and stopped using that tracking feature, but I am still using Tynt.
Thanks Ana for both your kind answers.
I’ll guess I’ll do the same as regard Tynt. Yesterday I received a pingback from a site which copied verbatim my last post, even the flattr button, and surey not from my rss feed as I just send excerpts around. Well, at least there was a link to my website. I deleted the pingback and next time it happens I’ll report the site to Google and mark it as spam. I’m used to the spammy pingback you talked about but a complete article is too much.
For the other thing it doesn’t seem to have affected my website, hopefuly it will remain this way.
Bye!
Andrea Hypno invites you to read: How to Open Your Third Eye Step by Step
Let them build links for you, Andrea! As long as you don’t link to them and they link to you, I’d leave them alone.
Hi Ana.
Am I understanding correctly that we want to add that entire list to our ‘update services’ area in wordpress? I’m confused why pingomatic wouldn’t be enough on its own. Unless I’m reading this wrong and you’ve given that list as optional ones to use? In short, do we want to have that whole list, or just one?
Thank you!!
In a nutshell, the more services are being pinged, Aileen, the more backlinks you create back to your post and the quicker (in theory) your posts will be indexed.
No, you don’t have to use all these services, but I strongly suggest you do – it’ll take just a couple of minutes to take care of this and you are done.
Ana, Thank you so much for responding! And thank you for clarifying this for me

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Thanks Ana,
Is there a way to see if you have been blocked due to over pinging?
Hi! Ana,
Guess what?
I was already set to copy and paste even before you permitted me. :-p
Thanks for the MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer plugin, a perfect suitor for me – I edit too much. A certain post of mine has been edited about 20 times. Can you imagine?
Time to P-I-N-G like on a blackberry;-)
Chukwuka Okwukwe Chukwuka invites you to read: 9/11: The Grief We Share
Thanks so much for this Ana. I was not aware of this, as far as every edit sends a ping. I have gone over a post a number of times in one go, as I have this strange proof reading tendency to only catch one mistake at a time, and then notice another right after I published the first one.
Great to know
Sounds like a very important and easily over looked probability.
Over all very helpful information here, thank you,
Martin
I do the same, Martin. Glad you found it helpful.
Hey Ana,
Great article about pinging. I have a huge list that I put into Max blog pinger and that is all I do with it.
Now I can see different ways to get more pings. Thanks for the resources.
Thanks again,
Jeff
Thanks for the great strategy Ana. I never even knew about how wordpress would constantly ping your blog if you kept making changes. I also didn’t think of pinging my comments either. Good strategy. This will help get rankings quicker.
Another great Friday Tips for Keeps. I just love how you inter link and keep me hear reading article after article!
I have a ping list of over 200 services. I would love to send it over and you can post it somewhere for your readers to download and put into the MBP plugin.
And great tip on pinging comments. I’m usually pretty good at keeping track of my backlinks but not comment backlinks i will start to include them into my excel sheet.
Joshua the ZamuraiBlogger
Hi Ana,
I recently discovered your site and it is a wealth of information. One question – does pinging comments help if there is no link in the actual comment box (i.e. the only link comes from what is entered in the ‘website’ field of the comment box)?
I’m new to all this and I look forward to reading more!
- Joshua
Definitely does, Joshua – a link is a link no matter where it comes from.
I’m finding them all to be broken. The Feedburner Ping is there but it doesn’t allow you to put in specific URL’s.
I just tried Pingomatic and it let me use a specific comment url. It asks for blog homepage but I guess you can get around it.
Interesting! I’ll see how it all works out. I would love for my newer photography website to jump up the ranks!
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These are not the kind of links you access via search engines, Scott – you don’t do it by hand. Just follow directions on how to add the list to your blog dashboard.
Wonderful advice, I will get to work on my blogs to get them updated.
Thank You
This is an amazing list Ana, I use a few of them on my blog. I never knew that little changes is usually pinged by wordpress, this is a BIG eye-opener and I’m going to be more careful next time I update. Everything has to be done with great precept henceforth.
Yes, be careful and get a plugin to help with that.
Hey Ana,
Yet again you offer great value! I haven’t updated my pinging services list in awhile. With your list I can do just that.
I was unaware that every little change you made to a post, would be pinged. I have the MBP ping optimizer, just haven’t installed it yet. Guess what, going to do it right now.
Thanks for sharing so much info Ana and as always have a good one!
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You’re welcome, Ian. MBP should do the trick!
Thanks for the list of pinging sites, Ana. You had some that I had missed!
I’ve been using the MBP Ping Optimizer for a while now and feel better knowing that I won’t be seen as a ping spammer. One less thing to worry about!
I do ping my comments since you recommended this in an earlier post. It makes a lot of sense. Didn’t know about pingfarm.com. I’ll have to give that a try.
Thanks for the information, Ana!
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I’m glad you could benefit from the list. Pingfarm is a nifty little tool, try it out!
Ana | Traffic Generation invites you to read: How to Make Google Crawl Budget Work in Your Favor
Cool list Ana, I already forgot about this area of link building, since tweets and shares’ signals seem to act pretty much the same with pinging. Especially with comments, if you are socially sharing the blog posts where your comment links are hosted, you’ll be able to hit two birds with one stone (hinting search engines for your newly acquired link + building a relationship with the blog owner).
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That’s it, Jason! It’s a cool way to go about link building.
Thanks Ana – TGC comes up trumps again. I was pinging about three or four services manually – so you’ve just made it much easier and better for me. Thanks. Hadn’t thought to ping comments either and have just bookmarked pingfarm for that. Brill. Fiona
PS When you install the Ping Optimiser Plugin it asks for a list of the pinging services you’re using. Presumably you cut in the same list that you have in settings/writing? I suppose Ping Optimiser will only not ping edits on those services in it’s own directory?
That’s correct, Fiona.
You can copy and paste the list of services I mentioned in the post, or else take a look at the list one of the commentators below left – it’s a bit more complete.
So the Ping Optimizer will ping your post the first time around after it’s been published, but will prevent WP from pinging any subsequent edits.
Thanks for the tip, I never thought to ping comments before. I especially appreciate the link to PingFarm – I actually want to try them out for pinging backlink URLs to see if it makes a difference with getting them indexed.
You’re welcome, Christine.
Hello Ana,
These are some welcome tips…I really don’t want to wind up in the spam can. Are these revisions pinged by WP only after your post is published…I hope?
I didn’t know you could use such an extensive list of pinging services…or that there was such an easy way to ping your comments…I’ve been falling behind on that because of overtime on my day job. Thanks for the great information.
Lou
You are correct, Lou – your post and any subsequent edits are only pinged after you publish your post.
My hat goes off to you and other bloggers who manage to stay on top of your game in addition to your day job – what an accomplishment!
Hey Ana,
I sooo need this information right now wink* wink*. You used to have the comments plugin that assigned numbers to comments but not anymore.
Pls how do we get the comment number in #comment-28661 from your type of blog that does not contain comment numbers? Or maybe we should just ping the permalink of the post?
Pingomaticking here I come …
Большое спасибо
*************
Maky invites you to read: If Your Website is a Book, will it be on the NYT Bestsellers List?
Wow, what a pleasant surprise to see a little Russian in your comment, Maky – warmed my heart!
My blog still assigns numbers to all comments – that’s the standard way WP generates comment link. I wonder what you saw that made you think that…
Pinging the post itself is the next best thing, although it does go against what I am teaching in this post: don’t ping the post too much. However, it’s not your headache to deal with, but the blog owner’s.
O yea, I must have had celebral lag when I mentioned pinging the whole post. Too early in the morn
Pardon me.
When you had the other comment plug in (super comment or something like that), hovering on the keyword of the commenter displayed the permalink of the comment. But now, I just found that hovering on the date stamp takes you there.
Good stuff!
Ana,
Your ping list is actually more robust than the one I have been using. I found a few to add to my list.
I do a lot of pinging on just about everything I put online. backlinks, social media etc.
But I have never thought to ping comments. What a great idea and something that is good for both you AND the site you visit.
thanks for the hint and a few additional ping services.

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I love it to hear when a seasoned blogger like yourself, Steve, learns something from my posts.
You are very welcome!
I hear you should not update wordpress content that often. You should edit it in a text document or whatever until you are content with it and then publish so it doesn’t get ping’ed all the time. I know what ping is, but I never thought it would be a big problem. But, then again I don’t edit that much, nor do I ping other backlinks. I assume a few of them are normal and not a problem.
Let me politely disagree with you, Ray.
You can edit your posts to your heart’s content (and many of us do – for SEO or any other purposes), and as long as you have the ping optimizer or any other plugin that controls the amount of pings submitted, you should be just fine.
Ana
Thanks so much for this ping list! I wasn’t even aware of how pinging worked before reading this post.
You’re welcome, Thomas. It is an often neglected aspect of many webmasters.
Hi Ana,
Pinging is very important if you’re basically focused on blog commenting for your backlinks. This is huge list…… if I can remember one of two that would make my life very easy.
Just kidding I’ve bookmarked this page.
That’s cool, Sam! Glad you bookmarked it.
I see I still have a lot to learn about blogging. This was the best explanation of what the ping section was in WordPress. I only have a handful in my list, so I will definitely update. I also didn’t know about comment pinging, and that every time you update a previously published post, WordPress sends a ping. I don’t do this often, but I’ll download the plugins just in case I forget about this annoyance in the future. No sense in ruining my business in the future for something I can easily fix now. Thanks for the post.
We all have to start somewhere
. Yes, download it now, rather than later.
Thanks Ana for a great article. It’s great to know that each time I’ve made changes on my posts that it pings it…not a good thing as I don’t want to be a “spammer.”
I will down load MaxBlog plugin so that does not happen. Thanks for all of the great SEO info you share.
Barb
You’re most welcome Barb. I know I am often tempted to update and really find this tool useful.
Hi, Ana.
I ran into the “Hey there Spammer”! type of message when I was doing my pings Yesterday(Manually).
Some services are quite sensitive to the number of urls(posts) pinged per days/ day/hour).
I mixed up the 3day Ping with the “Ping till your hearts content” Ping service. Ouch!
Oops! Glad you now know how to avoid that.
Hi Ana,
Thanks for this post. Whenever I see a post with a list of ping services, I always reconcile the list against my own using the magic of VLOOKUP in MS Excel.
I discovered that you have the Feedburner entry in your list twice.
A plugin called ‘Ping List Checker’ is good to check that you do not have duplicate entries within your list because although some have slightly different URLs, they’re actually the same.
I have also reconciled my list against James Schramko’s list, so I now know I have my own ping list + James Schramko’s + Ana’s as distinct entries in my new ping list which is great for max exposure.
OK, hands up. Who wants it? I’m sure Ana won’t mind, so heres the link to download the text document with them all in.
All you have to do is download the text file, copy and paste into your writing services and you’re done.
==> http://tps-vreports.s3.amazonaws.com/The-Ultimate-Ping-List.txt
Also make sure you have ‘cbNet Ping Optimizer’ and ‘Ping List Checker’ plugins installed on your blog to protect your blog (and your business). Both are available for free in the WordPress plugin repository.
Thanks,
Wayne
P.S. It would be useful for you to track your “direct traffic” in Google Analytics from this date and share your results in the comments below. Makes for interesting case study material for us all.
Thanks for the list, Wayne – I now have updated my own list based on the work you’ve done.
PS Not sure what you meant about direct traffic tracking – was it supposed to somehow change? Would love for you to elaborate.
Ana | Traffic Generation invites you to read: How to Make Google Crawl Budget Work in Your Favor
Hi Ana,
As you’re likely to know, tracking “Direct Traffic” is pretty tough. It’s difficult to get any accurate data on, so you can understand exactly where that traffic is coming from.
It’s kind of like a catch all category in Analytics which cannot be attributed to a referring site.
I have an incline that a fair amount of my ‘direct traffic’ comes from viral reports and downloadable products/reports, etc that I have out there with links in to various blog posts, etc.
I also know that some people will bookmark in their browsers rather than use good old FeedDemon Pro (how I frequently view Traffic Cafe
)
Whenever I make adjustments to my ping list (which basically means increase it), I notice an increase in direct traffic. Hard to drill it down to whether it is exactly for that reason, however the pattern is still there.
I wish I could drill down into direct traffic more, because for me, almost 40% of my traffic in the last month is from ‘direct traffic’
Wondering if you and your readers would have this same increase following changing (increasing) their ping services list?
If many people had similar experiences with traffic spikes for posts after changing their ping list, then this observation could become more of a concrete finding making it strategic action as opposed to speculative action.
I usually annotate my Analytics account to help me monitor cause and effect of implementing changes in building my traffic systems.
I hope this helps.
I see what you mean, Wayne.
“Direct traffic” is usually referred to visitors who type your URL directly into the address bar. Obviously, these are most likely frequent visitors who know your site and come to you to check out your new posts, make some comments, etc.
With that in mind, I am not sure how it would be impacted by the pinging services – I am not sure it makes sense logically.
I don’t track my traffic nearly as closely as you do, Wayne – just enough to know what works and what doesn’t and where I need to make adjustments. With that in mind, I wouldn’t necessarily be tracking the causation between changing my pinging services and my direct traffic.
Just remember: correlation doesn’t always mean causation.
Thanks for clarification, by the way.
Ana
HI Wayne,
Thank you for your input and the resources. Does “Ping List Checker” and in place of MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer plugin and cbnet Ping Obtimizer? or does it just clean the list?
Why do you recommend cbnet Ping Obtimizer over MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer plugin?
Thank you for your contribution and look forward to your response,
Jeff Faldalen
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Hi Jeff,
Ping List checker ensures that you do not ping the same directory twice.
I don’t necessarily recommend cbNet Ping Optimizer over MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer, I just recommend it. They both do the same job which is to essentially regulate WordPress from pinging too aggressively when you make tiny little updates such as spelling mistakes, etc.
Just install either of those two plugins, set and forget, and you’ll be good!

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Hi Ana,
I usually ping my comments one by one but because of you I can ping my all comments in one time. Thanks so much.
That’s a great tool to know about, Riya – definitely made my pinging life much easier!
Thanks for the warning, Ana.
I’ve also read that every time WP makes a revision it pings automatically. Do you know if this is true?
Cristina invites you to read: Working from home will kill your business
Christina – could you elaborate as to what you mean by “WP makes a revision”? Since you are the only one who can revise your post, I am not quite sure what you are referring to.
Where do you come up with these things, Ana?!
Every time I read your stuff I get more great instruction and ideas, this of course being no exception. Then I think, oh my, what else don’t I know?!
Guess I’ll have to keep reading your blog!
Thanks as always.
That’s the idea, Gib – always pleasure to see you around.
Hi Anna,
What a huge list. Thank you very much!
Yeah I’ve heard about the wordpress pinging your post everytime you edit and republish it. Pingfarm sounds great though. Will definitely try it. 
I’m sure you’ll find it useful, Calli. Thanks for visiting my blog!