November 18, 2007
Why You Need Regular Blog Posts
I know my clients must be fed up of hearing this, but I thought that if people understood just a little about how blogs work, it would encourage them to write more regular blog posts.
I took the view that if I just tell my daugther that she is not to do something or that she should do something, the response is often negative. If I explain to her why it's in her best interest to do or not to do something, her response is always higher.
So, this is just a quick tip, but I hope you gain some value from it …
This is what happens when you blog:
Once you publish your blog, a 'ping' message is sent to the blog update services telling them that your site has been updated. Search engines like Google as well as RSS specific services like, Technorati, and Feedster periodically asks the Update Services - sometimes referred to as Aggregation Ping Servers - to let them know which sites have been updated. The search engine spiders can then visit your blog to find out if there is any relevant content and if there is, they will index your site.
But, you don't have to rely on the Update Services to notify the search engines that you've updated your blog, just by adding fresh new content on a regular basis, you will attract the search engine spiders. Perhaps in a later post I'll go through the nitty gritty of how this happens. For now, I want you to think of the pinging services like this …
Whenever you publish your blog post, a bell rings at a "messenger's" house. The "messengers" job is simply to tell the regular callers (the search engines) who they should consider visiting on their next round. And, it could be YOU! :-)
Now I suppose you want to know how to ensure the Update Services are being pinged from your blog? Well first of all, ensure the "Allow Pings" is selected in the "discussion" tab on the right of your blog post writing area and then you need to go to "Options" and then "writing" sub tab to ensure you have a list of the most up-to-date ping or update services in that box. If not, click on one of the links above and find our more about where you can get a list of these.
All the best,
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About the Author
Trish Jones, MBA, is an online marketing consultant and has created and managed her own Internet business, since 2004. Trish teaches entrepreneurs, independent professionals and small business owners how to attract more clients and make more money using a simple blog. For more blogging tips, go to www.trishjones.comShare This Post
Filed under Blog Marketing Articles, Blogging by Trish Jones
Comments on Why You Need Regular Blog Posts »
After reading your post on pinging, I went into the last 8 posts I had written and none of them allowed pings. All that hard work and the search engines never knew!!
Very important information. Thanks
Do you know the crazy thing Mary? I had deactivated all of my comments because I was getting too much spam comments so, my last two posts were not pinged either! Still, in your case Mary, you must have enticed the search engines some how because your home page was cached on Nov 13th. Keep up the good work!
Trish
Hi Trish
so the question is why do we not blog more often? Nobody forces us to have a blog. We mostly start them on issues we are passionate about…I have a business blog and a climate change blog and yet weeks can go by without me blogging.
I even quite like writing and I have enough opinions to fill several libraries!
Puzzling!
BTW I found your comment at Stephan Pierce's blog
All The Best
Alex
I'm shamefully guilty Alex!
But there are a whole host of reasons including the fact that we get busy and forget that a blog can be our main marketing tool or we see it as a chore but for the most part Alex, I really put it down to laziness… People are still struggling with this phenominon that you have to regularly update your website which is why a whopping 95% of websites and blogs are stagnent.
Also, I still think people busy themselves doing other "important" things and updating the blog isn't on that list of "important." BTW, not saying you're lazy, you could have another reason but perhaps you might want to chunk your writing so you do series - forces people to come back for more.
I like the concept of your website though Alex. You could add a blog and membership to that and do well since there will always be "newbies" to teach! Best, Trish
Hey - so this is great - but please HOW do you get the titles to be unique on a post by post basis?
Hi,
If you use the date and named based permalink structure, you're okay. People have argued that if you use the custom permalink of url/postname, you could create duplicate titles but I've checked it out and wordpress adds a number to the end of the post title - of the one that is duplicated that is.
Hope this helps …
Trish
[...] your ping list is up together so that you get the maximum benefit from publishing your blog posts. [...]