Ping: I just don't get it, could you explain?

[JustaWizard]

I'm not a newbie. I have sites on the first pages of msn, yahoo, and google. I've never heard a good explanation of what ping / pinging is.

Moreover, I'm not clear on a good ping strategy - yeah, I've heard of pingomatic, but can you bring me out of the dark with what ping is and what the strategy should be?

I'm a steps/procedures kind of guy, so if you could dumb it all down to "this is what it is, and this is exactly how you do it/how often" etc., I'd sure appreciate it!

Best,
David Portney

[Loren Woirhaye]

It just tells the blog directories your blog has new content and
their "spiders" should come and check it out to update their
content. After awhile of updating your blog every day you
probably don't need to Ping because the directory software
and the search engines get "trained" to visit the blog often.

[DrewG]

Yep, Just as Loren said-

it lets the spiders know that they should come and crawl your site because there was an update. One of my favorite pingers (fast and easy) is Blog and Ping Tool - Use Pingler.com to Drive Traffic your Blogs and Websites

[shorwood]

You don't really need a ping "strategy". Just ping your site after it is updated significantly. ie a new post/article, new page, etc. If you just change a few words, don't ping your site.

So basically, every time you update your site, go to pingomatic or pingoat or pingler and enter your URL and tell it to ping. This will basically tell the search engines that there is fresh content and it will get your site indexed.

You only need to ping after each time you update. No real strategy, just ping after updating.

[Norma Holt]

Good thread and helpful to many. Well done.

Norma

[Mike Hill]

Use the MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer plugin and you won't ever have to worry about pinging your blog posts automatically.

It's a great plugin and if you just edit a post t won't re-ping...

MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer

Mike Hill

[JustaWizard]

Okay, so far so good: questions...

1. can I ping a static HTML dreamweaver created website?
2. do I need some kind of script or gadget? (see #1 above)

THANKS!
David

[shorwood]

You can ping any website you want. All you need is the URL. It doesn't matter what type of website it is.

Shawn

[Walter Cruickshank]

Great info. I am always learning something on this forum. Thanks

[laurelwachtel]

Shorwood is right on the money, you don't need a strategy for pinging your blogs or pages just ping them to start getting some attention to your site. A great one that I use is feedshark which lets you ping to several sources at once, giving you more exposure for your sites and blogs!

[g00db0y]

Originally Posted by JustaWizard

Okay, so far so good: questions...

1. can I ping a static HTML dreamweaver created website?
2. do I need some kind of script or gadget? (see #1 above)

THANKS!
David

Thanks bringing up this issue. Finally, my question is answered (thanks to other fellow warrior).
It's my turn to ask you, what is static HTML dreamweaver created website?

Thanking in advance for your help.

[rob6188]

Originally Posted by g00db0y

Thanks bringing up this issue. Finally, my question is answered (thanks to other fellow warrior).
It's my turn to ask you, what is static HTML dreamweaver created website?

Thanking in advance for your help.

static html: a web page that is not dynamically created. It just sits there "as is" until you change in manually then upload it to your hosting company. A typical static web page would be an "about us" or "contact us" page.

Dreamweaver: is an html editor, similar but much more powerful and costly compared to nvu.org. Another highly regarded editor is xsitepro. However, if you know html, css, php, or whatever programming code, you could use a simple text editor like notepad.

So the above statement just states that a web site was created by an html editor that must be updated manually.

You can create dynamic websites using an editor if you know php, javascript, etc. xsitepro creates dynamic websites, and there are numerous scripts (created using javascript) that can be inserted into html code that will make a web page dynamically update - like google adsense code.

[tommygadget]

??? Doesn't WP have the ping functionality built in? You just have to edit the ping list if you want to add more services.

TomG.

Mike: I thought the pinging issues were resolved by the 2.7 release.

[rob6188]

Originally Posted by tommygadget

??? Doesn't WP have the ping functionality built in? You just have to edit the ping list if you want to add more services.

TomG.

Yip. Key is building the list of ping sites and updating it. Ping plugins get updated by the author of the plugin so you don't have too. I suppose they have other funtionality that you might find useful. Just looking into this myself right now.

[tjmiller]

This is what is in the update services (ping) area of WP:
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

What I don't understand is that some people have said to add others to this list, but I have also been told that pingomatic pings multiple services, and that you dont' want to ping the same service more than once, because that is considered ping spam. So how do you know what services pingomatic pings, and what other urls you need to add into that update services section?

Did that make ANY sense at all?

Thanks!

[tommygadget]

Originally Posted by tjmiller

This is what is in the update services (ping) area of WP:
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

What I don't understand is that some people have said to add others to this list, but I have also been told that pingomatic pings multiple services, and that you dont' want to ping the same service more than once, because that is considered ping spam. So how do you know what services pingomatic pings, and what other urls you need to add into that update services section?

Did that make ANY sense at all?

Thanks!

True. This is why I created a list that does not overlap. Some people have even suggested just leaving the single ping service there. I am now inclined to believe them.

TomG.

[tjmiller]

Yes, I think that is what I intend to do. At least until I learn a little more about it. I have seen a lot of lists, but I am a little unclear about what would overlap, so I think just leaving the one on there for now is my safest bet.

[Mike Hill]

Originally Posted by tommygadget

Mike: I thought the pinging issues were resolved by the 2.7 release.

Really? I didn't know that... That's good to hear!

Mike Hill

[g00db0y]

Originally Posted by rob6188

static html: a web page that is not dynamically created. It just sits there "as is" until you change in manually then upload it to your hosting company. A typical static web page would be an "about us" or "contact us" page.

Dreamweaver: is an html editor, similar but much more powerful and costly compared to nvu.org. Another highly regarded editor is xsitepro. However, if you know html, css, php, or whatever programming code, you could use a simple text editor like notepad.

So the above statement just states that a web site was created by an html editor that must be updated manually.

You can create dynamic websites using an editor if you know php, javascript, etc. xsitepro creates dynamic websites, and there are numerous scripts (created using javascript) that can be inserted into html code that will make a web page dynamically update - like google adsense code.

Thanks for the detailed explanation.

[WinsonYeung]

In blogging, ping is an XML-RPC-based push mechanism by which a weblog notifies a server that its content has been updated. An XML-RPC signal is sent to one or more "ping servers," which can then generate a list of blogs that have new material. Many blog authoring tools automatically ping one or more servers each time the blogger creates a new post or updates an old one.

Try pingomatic.com if you want to ping your site

[g00db0y]

Thanks for the info Winson

[grumpyb]

Another great thread here on Warrior
I just pinged and I must say i enjoyed it very much
Threads like this that give so much information and are fantastic for people like me.
62 years old and on the biggest learning curve
Thank you All

[g00db0y]

Good on you grumpyb. Keep up the spirit.

[Scott Lundergan]

Thank you for the detailed explanation. This is a really great thread.

I have not pinged for almost three years and really had no idea what was
updated, new, different etc as I just use different ways to work with getting
traffic from blogs,

I bookmarked the resources mentioned as well for down the line.

[Vanquish]

great thread lots of good info here for a newbie like me. One more question about pinging when i update my sites content do i ping the main url each time for example www.mysite.com or the url with the fresh content exmaple www.mysite.com/article2

[g00db0y]

Good question. I'd like to know it myself. Anybody can help us?

[Malachi Kelly]

Originally Posted by tommygadget

True. This is why I created a list that does not overlap. Some people have even suggested just leaving the single ping service there. I am now inclined to believe them.

TomG.

Hi Tom,

I was also under the impression that you only needed pinomatic in WP.

Do you have the list on your website?

If so posting a link on this thread would be very helpful for me and i sure future readers of this thead.

P.S. I'll PM you this message

[grumpyb]

One more question about pinging when I update my sites content do I ping the main url each time for example www.mysite.com or the url with the fresh content example www.mysite.com/page2

I would like an answer to this question as well

[Oscar D]

Do I need to Ping my site everytime I do a update?