Settings: RSS Pinging
This is a key feature of WPI that attracts a great deal of spider activity.
How WP normally works (if you’ve got pinging enabled) is that when you make a new post, WP will run through each ping service in your list and let them know a new post has been made.
You’re only meant to ping when a URL has changed content, and that’s exactly what WPI does here.
There are a selection of other URLs that also change content when you make a new post...
- The post category
- Post tag pages
- Archive page for this month
- Author page of post
Each of these can be pinged as well, resulting in dramatically more bot activity on your site.
Recommended Setting:
This should be checked on all blogs. However, this is the main feature that’s brought dedicated servers to their knees from extreme bot traffic.