Which websites should I ping?

To ping or not to ping?

What does it mean to ping a website?

Ping has historically stood for Packet InterNet Grouper.  Ping is used as a computer network tool to test whether a particular host is reachable across an IP network.  In the search field, a ping can be used to notify search engines and social bookmarking services (read about social bookmarks on our effective link building page) that your page has been updated, or that you have posted new content.

Don't spend too much time pinging

This is another aspect of SEO that fanatics tend to get over-involved in.  They'll spend hours on hours trying to collate the perfect list of sites to ping.  In fact, all you really need to do is ping one service, pingomatic.  Pingomatic will, in turn, ping services it finds most relevant.   Because the popularity and status of search engines and social network sites and services is constantly changing, it's nice to have a service take care of this work for you. 

remember - content is king

It's true that you might get an incremental benefit by pinging the perfect extended lists of services.  Do a quick Google search and you'll see that there's plenty of people working on these lists.  But remember that in that time you could have written a couple articles instead, which is a far more valuable endeavor in search than all the little SEO tricks that happen on the sidelines.  Remember, content is king.