Have you ever hit the Publish button on your WordPress post only to realize there was a mistake? Did you fix it really quick and hit publish again?

Have you even done it more than just a few times?

I have. I’ve hit the publish button by mistake. I’ve found a typo or two after the fact more than once.

Doesn’t seem like a big deal. So what? You could be guilty of…

Innocent Ping Spamming or False Pinging

Whenever you publish a new post, your blog pings (notifies) the ping services you have listed in your WordPress Admin Settings (under Writing). This in turn notifies search engines and blog directories and services to index your new content.

WordPress pings by default, whether it’s new content, edited content, or even when you schedule future posts. Now, it may be that WordPress 3.1 has fixed this but I can’t find any evidence that it has.  So unfortunately, when you edit and republish, pings are sent out again (and again each time).

If you do that too many times you can get temporarily (or permanently) banned from the services.

In light of this, I wanted to share with you an important tip to help you avoid being tagged as a ping spammer until the core WordPress install takes care of this problem.

Get the free WordPress plugin to avoid ping spamming

cbnet Ping Optimizer

(Search for it in your “Add New” Plugin area, or get it through the link above.)

Once you install and activate the plugin, you can set it up however you want. (You’ll find it under the Admin “Settings” section.) I have mine set to ping only once within 30 minutes.

Your turn…

Did you know about this potential for being banned from ping services?

Have you even published and republished a post within a short period of time?

Don’t you think you should protect yourself from being guilty of false pinging?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments… and if you have any other tips for cool wordpress plugins!