Pingomatic in 2026: Does Blog Pinging Still Work? (Better Alternatives Like IndexNow)
Back in 2005, every blogger used Pingomatic to “ping” search engines and blog directories the moment a new post went live. Twenty years later, is pinging still worth it? Pingomatic still exists, but most of the services it used to notify are gone, and Google stopped accepting pings in 2023. Here’s what pinging does today, and the tools that actually get your new posts discovered faster in 2026.
Quick answer: Pingomatic still works and WordPress pings it automatically, but it no longer helps much with Google. To get new posts indexed faster, keep your XML sitemap up to date, use IndexNow for Bing and other engines, and use URL Inspection → Request indexing in Google Search Console for important pages.
Table of Contents
What is Pingomatic?
Ping-O-Matic (external site) is a free service run by the WordPress Foundation. When you publish a post, your blog sends a small “ping” (an XML-RPC update notification) to Pingomatic, which passes it on to a list of blog search engines and feed services, telling them your site has new content to crawl.
In the blogging boom of the 2000s, that list was long. When we first used it in March 2005, one click on Pingomatic’s form (enter your blog name and URL, tick the services and submit) notified Weblogs.com, Blo.gs, Technorati, FeedBurner, Syndic8, NewsGator, Feedster, My Yahoo!, PubSub, Blogdigger, BlogRolling, BlogStreet, Moreover and more. Blogroll services such as BlogRolling then moved freshly updated blogs to the top of readers’ blogrolls, which brought real traffic. Pinging one service that forwarded to all the others also kept publishing fast, instead of WordPress waiting on a dozen slow servers.
Most of those services have since shut down, and Pingomatic now lists only a couple of downstream services. You can still ping manually with the form on its homepage: enter your blog name, home page and optional RSS URL, choose services and click Send Pings.
Does Pingomatic still work in 2026?
Yes, it’s still online and it’s still the default ping service in every WordPress install. You’ll find it under Settings → Writing → Update Services, where http://rpc.pingomatic.com/ is listed by default. There’s no harm in leaving it there.
But it no longer makes much difference to search rankings or indexing:
- Google ignores pings. In June 2023 Google announced it was retiring its sitemap ping endpoint, and Google Blog Search closed years earlier. Google now finds new pages through links, sitemaps and its own crawl schedule.
- Most blog directories are gone, so there are few services left to notify.
- Long ping lists can do harm. Old advice to paste dozens of ping URLs into WordPress slows down publishing and sends pings to dead or spammy servers. Keep just Pingomatic.
Pingomatic alternatives that still work
Most of the ping tools in our original list (Pingoat, King Ping, Blogflux Pinger, Ping The Empire, Pingates and Autopinger) have closed. A few remain:
- Ping.in (external site): a manual multi-ping tool where you enter your blog URL and choose services.
- Feed Shark (external site): pings services and submits blogs, feeds and podcasts to directories.
Honestly, these add little in 2026. The methods below make a much bigger difference.
Better ways to get new posts indexed fast
1. IndexNow (for Bing, Yandex and others)
IndexNow (external site) is the modern replacement for pinging. When you publish or update a page, your site instantly notifies participating search engines, including Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam and Yep. Bing’s results also power other search tools, so it reaches more people than you might expect. Google doesn’t use IndexNow.
On WordPress, Rank Math’s Instant Indexing module and the official IndexNow plugin set it up in a couple of clicks. Many hosting and CDN providers, such as Cloudflare, can also send IndexNow notifications automatically.
2. Keep your XML sitemap up to date
Google reads the last modified date in your sitemap to decide which pages to recrawl. SEO plugins like Rank Math and Yoast generate and update sitemaps automatically. Submit your sitemap once in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and they’ll keep checking it.
3. Request indexing in Google Search Console
For a new or significantly updated page, open URL Inspection in Google Search Console, paste the URL and click Request indexing. There’s a daily limit of around 10 requests per site, so save it for your most important pages. See our list of free Google SEO tools for more.
4. Link to new posts from your existing pages
Search engines find new pages faster when they’re linked from pages that already get crawled often, such as your homepage, popular posts and category pages.
Frequently asked questions
Should I remove Pingomatic from WordPress?
No need. It’s harmless and lightweight. Just don’t add long lists of extra ping URLs.
Does Google use Pingomatic or IndexNow?
No. Google doesn’t act on pings or IndexNow. Use sitemaps, internal links and Search Console instead.
Why did bloggers ping in the 2000s?
Pings told blog search engines like Technorati and blogroll services that you had a new post, so they listed you right away and moved you up readers’ blogrolls. Most of those services have closed.
How often should I ping?
Only when you publish or meaningfully update a post. WordPress does this automatically. Pinging the same unchanged page repeatedly can be treated as spam.
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Thanks you. Does anyone know of measurable results from this “pinging”? I mean, does it help people searching for the sites?
I often do a ping your blog every few days using pingomatric and the result is very good for the progress of my blog.
Thank you and success always
I have been in the industry for more than seven years, To be frank, I can’t remember those days I started using ping service but I definitely remember that first was Pingomatic, It has delivered always positive crawling. Every tool has few drawbacks and Pingomatic is one of them but, still it’s my favourite :) followed by feedshark. Anyway Thank you Chandra to provide healthy list which I’ll give a try.
I found a good free ping sevice. pingler.com. I try it and the result is not far away with pingomatic or pingoat.
Thanks
I always to ping my blog only through pingomatric but it is good to see that there are many other sites too
Hi chandra,
I have actually worked up a python script that automatically triggers ping-o-matic ping tool every 30 min. I thought it would be relevant to share this here. It is a simple python script which is running on a cloud platform called heroku. So every 30min it pings all the search engines listed on ping-o-matic. In case you are interested to know more, go to https://teckguide.blogspot.com/2016/03/ping-o-matic-python.html
I used to ping my blog only through pingomatric but it is good to see that there are many other sites too…!!
My site traffic sudden doping, After Ping its again increasing, Please tell me there is any tool for ping permanently a site ?
i have a good html design blog but not rich
My choice is pingoat
thank you for giving great list
I need it this list. I like your post. Thanks a lot.
Feed Shark is still the best. I love it!
Pingler.com is good 89 blogging services
Just an update:
“Pingoat”, “Blogflux Pinger”, “BlogBlip”, and “Ping The Empire” no longer work.
Does anyone know of measurable results from this “pinging”? I mean, does it help people searching for the sites?
I`ve used this list in wordpress. Thanks a lot.
I have found that pingoat does not seem to work at all. I now primarily use AutoPinger. It seems to work great, and it least it pretends like it’s doing something
I have asked several times in other comments and in other blogs with the same topic: What about PingThatBlog! ? Why do everybody forgot about it? It has several features that others haven’t got.
try it : http://www.pingthatblog.com
I am currently using an automated pinging service through BlogBuzzer.com and it ping my blogs on a weekly basis.
yeah i will try that things
Thanks for the Info
I found a good free ping sevice. pingler.com. I try it and the result is not far away with pingomatic or pingoat.
Thanks
Wilma – Ping only once. If you click it too often, you get that message.
Im really new to bloggingand trying to wrap my head around it. Everytime i use pingoat and pingomatic it tells me too slow down cowboy or “Oopsie!
You cant ping the ‘same blog’ so often. Give pingoat some rest!” (pingoat said this the first time i used it)
I use blogspot as my host.
If anyone can give me advice Id really appreciate it.
Found your site on google when i searching “blog service pinging”. Awesome. When i see this list, i was surprise because this is the complete big list. This list is totally what i need.
Keep up the great work, you are providing a great resource on the Internet here!”
especially about ping service. I will heck this list one by one now. Thanks for you.
You can also try my free online tool “Blog Pinger” at http://techhub.qsh.in
Finally, i found this ping service list. Thank you. I’m newbie blogging with wordpress blog. And i’ve looking for list of ping service like your article. And this ping service list is very helpfull for me.
Once again Thank you
Regard From lenitha
I think autopinger.com is not available again. I only see this messege in my firefox browser :
“This IP address cannot be used for browsing.
This hosting account is either Expired or you are browsing to an IP that is not enabled for browsing. To quickly resolve this problem, please contact our hosting support team. (Note, you must be a webhosting customer of Webhost4life.com in order to contact technical support.)”
Hey – thanks! I’ve been looking for alternatives to both pingomatic and pingoat, and these are very very helpful!!
“Ping The Empire” doesn’t seem to work anymore.
Blogflux Pinger restricted to its members.
That’s great list but also we can use the Pingshot that is inbuilt with feedburner.
If you ping too many times does it mark you as spam ?
good article, nice services, but pingoat is stupid(my blog=splog) no way.
Thanks for the ping list :) Just ran them all now.. Will see how it goes!
1 always use autopinger when pinging to search engine
thanks
blogomatic is defunct — points people to feedburner now
this service looks neat https://ping.in/
I wonder if there is any plugin to do it.
I agree with Kate. I too have been using Feedshark for quite a while now – without any problems.
lol @ disappointed. I assume you’re referring to “referer spam”, right?
FYI, referer spam is quite common. If the legitimate search engine spiders can find your site, I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard for a few spam spiders/bots to find your site as well! ;)
Read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referer_spam
Cheers!
Great post!
disappointed > I’ve been using Feed Shark for almost a year now, and haven’t experienced any problems…
http://pingates is one of ping service
Dumb question, but would it be fruitful to utilize more than one ping service? I’m just getting started and am new, but it seems like if it’s redundant, it could potentially black-ball you as a blogger (in the search engines anyway)
I am disappointed that I fell for this. I used Feedshark not knowing too much about how it would work out. Shortly afterwards I received, for the first time, my first fishing ad which appeared in my blog stats as a user visiting my page. When I checked to see where it had originated from I was taken to a dodgy page which asked for my email before I could proceed and further investigations took me to a company advertising it’s services. From where I am sitting this looks and smells like a scam.
I would like to know how to remove my details from feed shark.
I have written a simple Perl script that pings several services and can easily be extended: Ping your blog via XML-RPC to update services with Perl.
It can, for example, be called via cron.
Great tool, Vinson! I bet your autopinger would kill the rest of the ping services by offering auto pinging. I have to say it’s AWESOME!
I have launched a new free blog and podcast ping service at http://autopinger.com that auto-pings blogs and podcasts. It basically handles the ping management for bloggers and podcasters.
Hi,
Nice list
How can i utilize the list and put it in my wordpress so that it will ping everytime I post in my blog
thx
very helpfull list thank you!
is there a php script or something that could do all them automatically?
Thanks Mark for the update and your time. The post has been updated.
UPDATE:
Pingoat now pings 52 services.
PingMyBlog is now Blogflux Pinger.
Feed Shark now offers full automation. Podcast support has also been implemented.
Pingoat has turned into a real advertising trap!
thanks–this was a great public service.
Since you mentioned Pingoat, I tried that first, but it “blacklisted” my site, i guess thinking it might be spam (it’s an absolutely legit blog). But I tried another one on your list and it worked…yay! It’s so frustrating when Ping o Matic is on the fritz, so I”m glad I found your post here.
I recently released another alternative to Pingomatic called PINGQueue (http://www.pingqueue.com/). It offers services similar to Pingomatic along with a history of your pings with responses from the services that received it.
Great List and I applaude you for making it available to us..Blogs are truly changing the landscape!
Actually, if you use Feedburner you don’t need to ping anymore…they now provide a customizable automatic pinging service any time you post a new blog article. i wrote about it on my site yesterday, http://marshallk.blogspot.com
That said, my second choice is pingoat.
We’ve just released a beta version of our new service called FeedShot, that submits your blog to a number of different blog search engines for free.
We’re adding new search engines daily. Check us out at: http://www.feedshot.com.
I think pingoat is overkill. I mean do I really need to submit my english speaking blog to all of those foreign services????? lol
Pingoat can be a real pain sometimes.
Yesterday, I had to wait around 2 minutes for Pingoat to finish. Several of my friends had to wait over 5 minutes!
I myself would only recommend Pingoat to someone who happens to have lots of free time to spare.
Pingoat sometimes categorizes the regular blogs as splogs!