I use GSiteCrawler to build my sitemap.
Each time I add a new page, I just update the sitemap which is super easy to do with the program.
Each time I do that, it gives me the option of pinging the updated sitemap to google.
I always choose yes because i never really update the sitemap more than once a day, often less.
But, is there a limit to how much one should ping?
If I update my sitemap twice a day, should I ping each day or does it in some way annoy google?

Google will get annoyed if you use programs to send them queries and crawl over the results to figure out where you land. That uses up computer resources without helping their business interests. On the other hand, they make money from other products on the popularity and quality of their search, so if you ping them every time your site changes, they'd frankly like to know about those changes, to keep their index fresh. They'll still decide when to crawl, although it'll probably be more often ... but from they're eyes they benefit as much as you do from the notifications, so they won't mind at all.

just ping it everytime you got an update. maybe once a day is good.

Why not test it ???

don't ping at all for a few weeks, see how often the sitemap is read.

ping once a day for a few weeks, see how often the sitemap is read.

ping each change for a few weeks, see how often the sitemap is read.

link it using robots.txt, see how often it's read.

That way you don't have to rely on somebody else's guess work

i think there is no difference.
just add

Sitemap:http://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml

to your robots.txt file. google and the other will find your sitemap on next visit

Great, thanks. Y'all have confirmed my thoughts.

I'd just ping it whenever something is updated. Seems to me like there's no reason to risk an IP ban for pinging too much if you really have nothing new to ping.

Originally Posted by ciarac

I use GSiteCrawler to build my sitemap.
Each time I add a new page, I just update the sitemap which is super easy to do with the program.
Each time I do that, it gives me the option of pinging the updated sitemap to google.
I always choose yes because i never really update the sitemap more than once a day, often less.
But, is there a limit to how much one should ping?
If I update my sitemap twice a day, should I ping each day or does it in some way annoy google?

Well........its a good idea to ping your sitemap everytime you update it but do not over do it I mean to say ping once a day is enough......if you update your sitemap more than one or two times then ping it at the last time you update it on a prticular day and do not ping everytime you update.

But just adding a sitemap to your robots.txt file is also not a bad idea because googlebot visits a website time to time and it will easily find your updated sitemap and can index your newer pages....as it saves your time and effort too.

Thanks for all of your help.
I actually don't have a robots.txt file.
From what I understood, and it's quite likely I misunderstood, a robots.txt file is only necessary if there is a page on your site which you DON'T want the spiders to...spider.
Is that correct?
If not, then why should I have a robots file?

From what I understood, and it's quite likely I misunderstood, a robots.txt file is only necessary if there is a page on your site which you DON'T want the spiders to...spider.

that's correct.

If not, then why should I have a robots file?

No good reason at all

Other than it reduces the number of 404 errors in your site logs.