Pinging in terms of blogs is a simple programme that generates a peice of text that is sent out to the blog directories to let them know that you have just added a new post to your blog.

The text is usually in XML format and would consist of your blogs name and url.

Wordpress comes with a built in piece of software that will ping for you every time that you make a post. Its like you are shouting to the search engines "hey i have added new content to my blog". The search engine once it recieves the ping will spider your blog for the new content and add it to the directory.

The key to pinging is to have a good "Ping List" ie A list of directories that you want wordpress to ping.

To add/change your wordpress ping list simply go to the Options section and then the Writing section and down at the bottom you will see Update Services this is where your ping list is stored. To add to your ping list simple copy and paste the url into the list.

If you "google" ping lists there are loads of them - try not to make yours too long as this can slow down the publishing of your post. Below is the ping list that i use.

• <a href="http://rpc.pingomatic.com/" mce_href="http://rpc.pingomatic.com/">http://rpc.pingomatic.com/</a>
• <a href="http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2" mce_href="http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2">http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2</a>
• <a href="http://api.feedster.com/ping" mce_href="http://api.feedster.com/ping">http://api.feedster.com/ping</a>
• <a href="http://api.moreover.com/ping" mce_href="http://api.moreover.com/ping">http://api.moreover.com/ping</a>
• <a href="http://api.moreover.com/RPC2" mce_href="http://api.moreover.com/RPC2">http://api.moreover.com/RPC2</a>
• <a href="http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC" mce_href="http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC">http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC</a>
• <a href="http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc/" mce_href="http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc/">http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc/</a>
• <a href="http://coreblog.org/ping/" mce_href="http://coreblog.org/ping/">http://coreblog.org/ping/</a>
• <a href="http://ping.blo.gs/" mce_href="http://ping.blo.gs/">http://ping.blo.gs/</a>
• <a href="http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/" mce_href="http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/">http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/</a>
• <a href="http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc" mce_href="http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc">http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc</a>
• <a href="http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php" mce_href="http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php">http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php</a>
• <a href="http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php" mce_href="http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php">http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php</a>
• <a href="http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc" mce_href="http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc">http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc</a>
• <a href="http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/" mce_href="http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/">http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/</a>
• <a href="http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/" mce_href="http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/">http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/</a>
• <a href="http://rpc.pingomatic.com/" mce_href="http://rpc.pingomatic.com/">http://rpc.pingomatic.com/</a>
• <a href="http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping" mce_href="http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping">http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping</a>
• <a href="http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2" mce_href="http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2">http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2</a>
• <a href="http://topicexchange.com/RPC2" mce_href="http://topicexchange.com/RPC2">http://topicexchange.com/RPC2</a>
• <a href="http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2" mce_href="http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2">http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2</a>
• <a href="http://xping.pubsub.com/ping" mce_href="http://xping.pubsub.com/ping">http://xping.pubsub.com/ping</a>
• <a href="http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping" mce_href="http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping">http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping</a>

Notice the google ping second from top - you allways want to include that one!