Search Engine Submission: Website Promotion: Ping Content

'I am often asked....'

Don't you just hate it when a celebrity says that just before endorsing (selling) a product?

No they're never asked . They're lying!

But, I was asked recently by sciencestudent whether I had considered a Wizer on 'how to promote your articles and target them for .... wider audience'. Yes I had. But on further consideration I thought I would write about something that comes before regular promotion, and fits into the next slot after 'What is the right time to publish?'.

That is, search engine submission.

OK we've published our page at the right time. Now all we have to do is wait for the search engines (Google) to find it and all will be hunky dory.

Is this what you think?

If it is, then think again.

Just because you write something does not mean that it has a God-given right to be found and indexed. You have to be pro-active in this game.

Who else is going to do a better job than you promoting your work?

Lack of promotion is the single most common failing in the online writing community.

The majority think that writing on a free site like Wizzley automatically gives the best chance for high search rankings. That's true: in part. 

Each of us must do our part to make it happen though.

We cannot rely on Wizzley, or HP or Squidoo, to do our work for us.

The first thing I do after publishing a web page (blog, article, web-site page) is to submit it to search engines.

We've all done it, I hope. Typed those search strings into Google to find out how and where we can submit our articles so that they are indexed:

• 'Google website submission'
• 'add your website to Google'
• 'Bing search engine submission'
• 'add url'
• 'submit url'
• 'add your website'

Whichever search string you use will get you the information you need, won't it? You will add your URL to one or two search engines manually, or you will find a paid search engine submission service.

Whatever you do don't pay!

Website submission services are a waste of time and money. That is especially the case for those that want your money to register website with search engines of all shapes and sizes. You know the ones: 500,000 search engines and directories guaranteed submission. Yeah, right!

You may find one or two services that are free and you can submit your URL semi-automatically.

I use none of these.

I use a single service that is free, quick and easy to use. It is called Ping-o-Matic, and I use it every time I create new content, and every time I amend content.

You should, too.

There is nothing easier than using the free online URL submission service Ping-o-Matic.

It is better to use it each time you publish a piece of online content because:

• the content is promoted to the most relevant search engines
• it is promoted at the right time, immediately after publishing
• it is a boring process if you decide to enter lots of URL's at one time.

All you will need to promote your content through this service is:

• the title of your piece
• the URL for the page

And this is where you stick them:

Don't worry that it says 'Blog Name' and 'Blog Home Page'.

All you need do is enter the title of your content page in 'Blog Name', and the URL in 'Blog Home Page'.

Don't worry about the 'RSS URL' either, that is for another article.

Then scroll down to 'Services to Ping'.

Don't worry about what the services are.

Just click 'check all' and you are ready to go. Only check 'Specialized Services' for those that are relevant to your content. 

Click 'Send Pings'.

Now that was painless wasn't it!

But what have you actually done?

What you have done is pinged all other relevant pinging sites.

But what is a ping in this context?

In simple terms, and in this context, a ping is an automatic notification telling subscribers when new content is posted to a website or blog. A pinging service is a conduit between a publisher and consumers. Consumers could be individuals, if they subscribe to the service, but more importantly, search engines are also consumers of pinged content.

How did you think the majority of search engine bots find new content?

By being told that it exists - by you!

Ping-o-Matic is the best consolidating service for pings. What I mean by this is that Ping-o-Matic sits above all the ping services that are listed in its services section. It distributes the information that you enter, to all the ping services:

• weblogs.com
• blo.gs
• Feed Burner (Google)
• NewsGator
• My Yahoo!
• PubSub.com
• Blogdigger
• Weblogalot
• News is Free
• Topic Exchange
• Google Blog Search
• Spinn3r
• PostRank
• SkyGrid
• Collecta
• Superfeedr

and the search engines pick the ping up, as they are consumers of that information. It works pretty much like RSS feeds without having to create an RSS feed. But in this case the information is not sorted into categories or submitters, it is just a string of URL's and titles, flowing through constantly.

There are several benefits to pinging your content:

• By sending a notification when new content is published, consumers of web-copy, like search engines, don't have to poll websites checking for new content. 
• Pinging sites create a more efficient interchange between publishers and consumers. 
• Search engines access ping services and use the ping streams to update search indexes. Search engine indexing of your content is therefore more efficient and speedier.
• Distribution of content is more efficient.
• Visibility throughout the web is improved. 
• Search engines are not the only consumer services that track pinged content. Blogging platforms, social networks, ISP's, content aggregators, web services, to name a few, all utilise ping streams to obtain up-to-the-second information about new content.

If you do not use these services through Ping-o-Matic you are missing out on the majority of opportunities to have your content seen on more than just Google.There are other games in town you know!

I guarantee you will see an increase in traffic, and a wider range of sites from which visitors arrive, when you use this service!