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I've found this: http://codecanyon.net/item/hreflang-manager/6543147 but note that I haven't used it personally, so I can't comment on how good it is!

That's how I remember doing it so I hope so This seems to suggest so too: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en

Good luck!

Rank tracker is updated weekly and it is generally accurate but as the results shift constantly it may sometimes be different to a 'live' check.  As an average figure however, especially when there's lots of keywords, it's still pretty useful.

No problem

That link allows you to submit websites other than your own, so you could use it to submit the page that links to you.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by pinging them.

Have you tried this tool to submit them to Google: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url

Hope that helps!