Important Message for Users of the Smart Update Pinger

If you have been using Wordpress for a while, you may be using a plugin called the Smart Update Pinger. Developed to save your blog from being banned because of unnecessary multiple pings, this plugin has been very useful, particularly for those who really want to get their blog out there.

I don’t want to get too technical, but basically, one thing that makes a blog very powerful is that it sends out a “ping” or a notice to search engines and blog directories saying “hey, there’s something new on my blog.” This can be useful, since you want your blog to be found when people use these search engines.

The drawback to this, is that sometimes your blog can send out too many pings. These same search engines and blog directories don’t want that, and consider it a form of spamming. And if you spam them enough times, you could get banned from these services; if you do, it means fewer people are able to search for your blog, and you don’t reach as wide an audience as you want to reach.

The Smart Update Pinger basically minimizes the number of pings your blog sends out, so that you don’t get banned. Simply put, it does this by only letting you send out pings when you really need to. And if you don’t get banned from these services, you’re able to reach as many people as you can.

It’s no surprise then that this plugin has become very popular, and very much so for serious bloggers.

However, It May No Longer Be Working for You!

There is a problem for users of this plugin, and you may not even be aware of it, specially if you have been using this plugin for a long time. As the developer of the Smart Update Pinger puts it:

As you can see, he lists the Smart Update Pinger plugin as something he no longer updates. He does state, though, that if you use Wordpress 1.5 or 2.0, you should be fine, and Smart Update Pinger should still be working fine for you. Here’s another image taken from the developer’s site, showing his last update of the Smart Update Pinger:

As you can see, he stopped development for the plugin for use with Wordpress 2.0. You can check out exactly what the developer says on his site, but the important basic information that you need to know is that Smart Update Pinger is obsolete for anyone who uses Wordpress 2.1 and above.

So, you’re a user of Smart Update Pinger, and you’re using Wordpress 2.1 or above. What do you do now? The developer’s notice means that Smart Update Pinger may no longer be working as it was intended to work. At the very least, this plugin is now wasting space on your server.

One of the most important and possibly catastrophic differences is that instead of sending a single ping to the search services I mentioned earlier, Smart Update Pinger actually now causes two pings to be sent. This could be very bad news for you, and, without you even realizing it, you could have already been banned from these very important services.

You may be asking yourself, “what do I do now?” The reason you started using Smart Update Pinger, is now the very reason why you should stop using it, but you still have a need to control the number of pings you send out.

Here’s Something You Can Use:

Thankfully, there is an option available to users of Wordpress 2.1 and above.

The MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer is a plugin inspired by the Smart Update Pinger, and does exactly what the previous plugin did, and more. More importantly, the MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer has been updated for use with the latest versions of wordpress, so you can be sure that it’s doing the work of keeping your blog from being banned by search engines and directories. So, if you’re using wordpress 2.1 and above, you can, and should, switch over to the MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer, so that you can maximize the use of your blog.

Very quickly, what the MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer does is that it keeps your blog from sending out pings when you update posts, which could lead to your blog sending the number of pings that search engines and blog directories consider as spam. At the same time, it does allow your blog to send out pings when you make a new post, which is when you want to tell those same services that there is something new on your blog.

And most importantly, by using the MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer over the Smart Update Pinger, you avoid sending the double ping which could block your blog.This will keep your blog from being banned, and will let you have access to the large audience waiting to search for your blog on the world wide web.

So, again, if you are currently using Wordpress 2.1 and above, and you’re still using the Smart Update Pinger, do switch to using the MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer.