IndexNow

TL;DR — IndexNowIndexNow is an open push protocol that lets you instantly tell participating search engines (Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, and Yep) which URLs you've added, changed, or removed via a simple HTTP request — and one submission is shared across all of them. Google does not use it. is a way to tell search engines a page changed instead of waiting for them to find out. You ping it once and it reaches Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, and Yep all at once. It’s quick to set up and free. The big catch: Google doesn’t use it, so it won’t help you in Google at all.

What IndexNow is

Normally, search engines find your new and updated pages on their own schedule — they follow links and re-crawl your site whenever they get around to it. IndexNow flips that around. Instead of waiting to be re-crawled, you send the search engine a quick message: “this page just changed, come look.” It works for pages you add, update, or delete.

The clever part is what Microsoft calls the shared ping: you submit a URL to one place, and it’s automatically passed along to every search engine that supports IndexNow. Right now that’s Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, and Yep (the search engine built by Ahrefs). One submission, all of them notified.

The one thing you have to know

Google does not use IndexNow. Back in 2021 Google said it would test the idea, but it never actually adopted it. So if your goal is faster indexingStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed. in Google, IndexNow does nothing for you. It only helps on the engines that participate. A lot of people get this wrong, so it’s worth repeating: IndexNow is a Bing-and-friends tool, not a Google tool.

Does it help me rank better?

No. IndexNow speeds up discovery — how fast an engine notices your change. It doesn’t make your pages rank higher, and it doesn’t guarantee a page gets indexed. The engine still decides whether the page is worth keeping. Think of it as ringing the doorbell, not walking through the door.

Should you bother?

For most sites it’s a small, set-it-and-forget-it win — especially if you publish or update content often (news, product listings, press releases). And if you use Cloudflare, WordPress with Yoast or Rank Math, Wix, Shopify, or Ahrefs Site Audit, turning it on is basically one click — those tools ping IndexNow for you automatically. Just don’t expect it to do anything for Google, and don’t drop your XML sitemapAn XML sitemap is a UTF-8 file listing the canonical URLs on your site (with optional lastmod) so search engines can discover and prioritize them. It's a discovery and diagnostic aid, not a guarantee of indexing — and Google ignores its priority and changefreq tags., which is still how Google (and everyone else) discovers your pages at scale.

Want the protocol details — the key file, the API calls, the comparison to sitemapsA sitemap is a file that lists the pages, images, videos, and other files on your site so search engines can discover them. It helps discovery, but submitting a sitemap doesn't guarantee crawling or indexing. and the Google Indexing APIThe Google Indexing API lets site owners notify Google directly when a URL is added, updated, or removed. Google officially supports it only for pages with JobPosting or BroadcastEvent (livestream) structured data — not for general content.? Switch to the Advanced tab.

TL;DR — IndexNowIndexNow is an open push protocol that lets you instantly tell participating search engines (Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, and Yep) which URLs you've added, changed, or removed via a simple HTTP request — and one submission is shared across all of them. Google does not use it. is an open push protocol (Microsoft Bing + Yandex, launched Oct 18, 2021; joined by Seznam, Naver, and Yep). You host a {key}.txt file at your root for verification, then notify engines on add/update/delete via a GET (one URL) or a JSON POST (≤10,000 URLs). The differentiator is the shared ping — submit once, reach every participant. It accelerates discovery and recrawlCrawl frequency is how often a search engine comes back to re-fetch a page it already knows about. Popular pages that change often get refreshed many times a day; stable pages can go weeks or months between crawls — and you influence it indirectly, not by setting a dial. prioritization; it does not guarantee indexingStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed. and is not a ranking signal. Google does not use IndexNow — it said in Nov 2021 it would “be testing” the protocol and never adopted it, so it does nothing for Google. Keep your sitemapsA sitemap is a file that lists the pages, images, videos, and other files on your site so search engines can discover them. It helps discovery, but submitting a sitemap doesn't guarantee crawling or indexing.; the Google Indexing APIThe Google Indexing API lets site owners notify Google directly when a URL is added, updated, or removed. Google officially supports it only for pages with JobPosting or BroadcastEvent (livestream) structured data — not for general content. is a separate, narrow tool.

What IndexNow actually is

IndexNow is the push side of URL discoveryURL discovery is how search engines find URLs to crawl — by pull (following links and reading sitemaps) and by push (you notify them via IndexNow, the Indexing API, or WebSub). It's the find step that comes before a page is ever fetched.. Most discovery is pull — engines follow links and read your sitemapA sitemap is a file that lists the pages, images, videos, and other files on your site so search engines can discover them. It helps discovery, but submitting a sitemap doesn't guarantee crawling or indexing. on their own schedule. IndexNow lets you proactively tell participating engines that something changed so they can prioritize the (re)crawl. Bing’s own framing: “Whether you’re adding, updating, or deleting content, IndexNow notifies multiple search engines of your content changes as soon as they happen.”

It was launched October 18, 2021 by Microsoft Bing and Yandex, and it’s a free, open protocol — “a free, open-source protocol empowering website owners with unprecedented control over how quickly their content is discovered,” in Bing’s words. The protocol spec lives at indexnow.org.

Who participates (and who doesn’t)

Participating engines today: Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam.cz, and Yep (Ahrefs’ search engine) — that’s the list indexnow.org’s homepage credits as offering support. Because Bing powers a chunk of the AI-search ecosystem, feeding Bing’s index via IndexNow can also help visibility on Copilot, ChatGPT Search, and DuckDuckGo.

As of my July 2026 check, indexnow.org’s FAQ also lists a submission endpoint for Amazon (indexnow.amazonbot.amazon) alongside Bing, Naver, Seznam.cz, and Yandex — but the homepage’s own “support from” line hasn’t been updated to include it. I’d treat Amazon’s participation as newly emerging rather than fully confirmed until the site is internally consistent about it.

Participating also isn’t a promise to crawl or index what you send: indexnow.org’s own spec is explicit that engines “agree that submitted URLs will be automatically shared” with every other participant — sharing the ping, not committing to act on it.

Google is not on that list. More on that below — it’s the single most misunderstood thing about this protocol.

How it works

There are four moving parts: a key, a key file, the submission, and the shared ping.

1. Generate a key

A key is a hexadecimal string (the spec allows 8–128 characters: a–z, A–Z, 0–9, and dashes). It’s what ties your submissions to your domain. Bing: “An API key is needed to match the ownership of the domain with submitted URLs.”

2. Host the key file (verification)

Place a UTF-8 text file named {your-key}.txt, containing the key, at your site root (or another location you declare via keyLocation). Engines fetch it to confirm you control the host before they accept anything. Bing: “Host your UTF-8 key file at the root of your website.” The indexnow.org spec: the key file is how “search engines use this file to confirm domain ownership before accepting IndexNow submissions.” This is the whole authentication model — there’s no OAuth, no service account, just a file you can serve.

If you use a non-root keyLocation, its path also scopes which URLs that key can cover — this is a detail people miss. Per the indexnow.org spec: “the location of a key file determines the set of URLs that can be included with this key.” A key file at example.com/catalog/key.txt can submit URLs under /catalog/ but not under /help/. Root placement avoids this limit entirely, which is why the spec calls it the “strongly recommended” option.

3. Submit URLs — GET (single) or POST (bulk)

For one URL, a plain HTTP GET is enough:

https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow?url={url-changed}&key={your-key}

For many URLs, a single JSON POST carries up to 10,000 of them (“IndexNow supports bulk submission of up to 10,000 URLs per POST request.”):

{
  "host": "www.example.org",
  "key": "your-key",
  "keyLocation": "https://www.example.org/your-key.txt",
  "urlList": [
    "https://www.example.org/url1",
    "https://www.example.org/folder/url2"
  ]
}

Beyond the 10,000-per-POST cap, indexnow.org doesn’t publish a fixed daily URL quota — its FAQ says plainly that it “does not publicly disclose exact rate limits, as each participating search engine sets its own daily submission thresholds per site.” In practice, the only quota signal you’ll see is a 429 response, not a documented number to plan around.

The protocol’s documented response codes are worth knowing when you’re debugging: 200 OK (submitted successfully), 202 Accepted (received, but — per indexnow.org’s spec — “IndexNow key validation pending”, which the FAQ says typically shows up only on your first submission with a new key, before subsequent requests settle back to 200), 400 (bad request / invalid format), 403 Forbidden (key not valid, or the file is foundA 302 (\"Found\") is a temporary redirect: it forwards users to a new URL while telling search engines the original URL should stay in the index. It's a weak canonicalization signal, not the zero-equity dead end of SEO folklore. but the key isn’t in it), 422 (URLs don’t belong to the host, or the key schema doesn’t match), and 429 (too many requests429 Too Many Requests is an HTTP client-error status code that means a client sent too many requests in a given time window — a mechanism called rate limiting. Unlike other 4xx codes, Google treats 429 as a server-overload signal and slows crawling instead of removing content. — treated as potential spam). Bing’s own get-started page lists the same set minus 202.

TIP Submit a same-host URL list and interpret the protocol response

A successful IndexNow response acknowledges the notification; it does not guarantee crawling, indexing, or any effect in Google.

Validate the host list, submit with your own key, and translate the response with my free IndexNow Submitter Free

1. Publish the key file for the same host as every URL in the submission.
2. Submit only URLs that were actually added, updated, or deleted.
3. Treat a 403 as a key/host verification problem and any accepted response as notification only—not an indexation verdict.

Tap to enlarge

The IndexNow Submitter sample maps HTTP 200 to accepted by IndexNow with a warning that this does not guarantee indexing. It maps HTTP 403 to a key that does not match the host or could not be verified.

4. The shared ping — submit once, reach every participant

This is the feature that makes IndexNow worth the trouble. From the spec: “Each endpoint sends your submission directly to its respective search engine, and your submission will be shared across all IndexNow-enabled search engines.” You can hit the global endpoint, api.indexnow.org, or any participant’s endpoint (Bing’s, Yandex’s, etc.) — the effect is the same. One submission propagates to all of them. You don’t maintain a separate integration per engine.

Does Google use IndexNow?

No. This is the part most pages on the web get wrong or leave vague, so I want to be exact about it.

Google’s only substantive public statement came in November 2021, to Search Engine Land. A Google spokesperson said: “We’re encouraged by work to make web crawlingCrawling is how search engines use automated bots (like Googlebot and Bingbot) to discover URLs and download pages. A page has to be crawlable to be indexed, but crawling on its own isn't a ranking factor. more efficient, and we will be testing the potential benefits of this protocol.” Note the framing — it’s about crawl efficiency and testing, not a commitment to adopt. Search Engine Journal reported the same statement the same day under a “will be testing” headline.

Years later, nothing has changed. Google never adopted IndexNow. Yoast, who build an official IndexNow-capable plugin, put Google’s stance plainly: “Google is not currently participating in this initiative, citing its very efficient crawlingCrawling is how search engines use automated bots (like Googlebot and Bingbot) to discover URLs and download pages. A page has to be crawlable to be indexed, but crawling on its own isn't a ranking factor. mechanism and its continued improvement.” Wikipedia’s entry likewise notes that as of 2022 Google had not officially adopted the protocol — and it still hasn’t.

So: submitting to IndexNow does nothing for Google indexingStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed. or rankings. Don’t conflate this with Google’s separate crawl-efficiency work (Gary Illyes’ “crawl less” push) — that’s about Google crawling its own way more efficiently, not about adopting IndexNow as the mechanism. For Google, your discovery channels remain links, sitemaps (with accurate lastmod), RSS/feeds, and WebSubWebSub (formerly PubSubHubbub) is a push notification protocol for RSS/Atom feeds that lets a site instantly broadcast new or updated content to subscribing search engines instead of waiting to be re-crawled. — the push and pull mechanisms I walk through on my How Search Works deck. IndexNow simply isn’t one of them.

IndexNow vs sitemaps vs the Google Indexing API

People reach for IndexNow expecting it to replace something. It doesn’t. These are three different tools with three different jobs:

The takeaways I’d want you to leave with:

• They’re complementary, not substitutes. Keep your sitemaps — that’s how Google and everyone else discovers you at scale. Use IndexNow to accelerate discovery on Bing/Yandex/Naver/Seznam/Yep.
• The Google Indexing API is not “Google’s IndexNow.” It’s officially limited to job postings and livestream video — “Google’s Indexing API officially only supports two content types,” as CrawlWP puts it. The “instant indexing” plugins that fire it at ordinary pages are off-policy.
• For Google, there is no public push API for ordinary pages. Sitemaps plus good crawl health is the path.

Benefits and limits

The efficiency story is the honest pitch. The canonical justification is Cloudflare’s observation that “53% of this crawlerA crawler — also called a spider or bot — is an automated program that fetches web pages, extracts their links, and queues new URLs to visit. Search engines use crawlers to discover and download content for their index. traffic is wasted” — engines re-crawling pages that didn’t change. IndexNow attacks exactly that waste by telling engines when to come back instead of making them guess. Bing frames the upside as helping “drive more relevant traffic to your site, improve search engine rankings, and lower crawl costs,” and in 2025 described IndexNow as “becoming foundational to the way search engines keep pace with web changes.”

Where it genuinely helps:

• Fast-changing or time-sensitive content — news, ecommerce inventory and pricing, press releases, anything where minutes matter on Bing.
• Bing-fed AI surfaces — Copilot, ChatGPT Search, DuckDuckGo all lean on Bing’s index.

Where it doesn’t:

• Google — zero effect, full stop.
• Rankings — it speeds discovery, not position. Faster crawling ≠ higher ranking.
• Guaranteed indexing — it’s a prioritization signal; the engine still decides whether and when to index.

Adoption has grown fast — Bing reported “more than 16 million web sites… publishing over 1.2 billion URLs per day” in August 2022, and “3.5 billion URLs submitted per day” by December 2024, with adopters including Shopify, GoDaddy, the Internet Archive, and Condé Nast. (Any larger 2026 figures you see floating around are secondary-sourced; I’d treat them as estimates until Bing publishes a fresh number.)

How to set it up (you probably won’t write code)

Most people never touch the raw API — a platform does it for you:

• Cloudflare — one click. Enable Crawler Hints (Cache → Configuration) and “Cloudflare will take care of signaling to these search engines when your content has changed via the IndexNow protocol.” This was the first big one-click integration, shipped on launch day.
• WordPress — Yoast SEO Premium (it “will ping IndexNow whenever you publish or update your content”), Rank Math, All in One SEO, or Microsoft’s official IndexNow plugin.
• Wix, Duda, Shopify — built-in support.
• Bing Webmaster ToolsMicrosoft's free portal for monitoring and improving how a site appears in Bing search — the peer to Google Search Console, plus IndexNow instant indexing, richer backlink data, and keyword volumes. Because Bing's index also feeds Microsoft Copilot, it doubles as a window into AI-search visibility. — manual URL submission tied to IndexNow, plus the IndexNow Insights report.
• Ahrefs Site Audit — the integration I built (see the Tools tab). Generate a key in the crawl config, drop it in the key file, and submit the pages Site Audit flags as changed, redirected, or removed.

If you are rolling your own, see the Scripts tab for the actual GET and POST calls and the key-file setup.

Common myths

• “IndexNow gets you indexed in Google / boosts Google rankings.” False. Google doesn’t consume IndexNow.
• “Faster indexing means higher rankings.” False. IndexNow speeds discovery; ranking still depends on the usual factors.
• “Google is about to adopt it.” Not supported. It tested it in 2021 and never adopted it; its later crawl-efficiency work is unrelated.
• “IndexNow replaces sitemaps.” False. Sitemaps remain essential, especially for Google. IndexNow is additive.
• “The Indexing API is Google’s IndexNow for any page.” False — JobPosting + BroadcastEvent only.
• “It guarantees indexing.” False. It’s a prioritization signal.

Where this sits in the bigger picture

IndexNow is the cross-engine push analog of the feed mechanisms Google uses (RSS, WebSub) — same idea (“tell me what changed”), different participants. It lives in the getting-pages-discovered-faster corner of crawling, alongside the Google Indexing API. For the full pipeline — how discovery, crawling, renderingTurning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript into the final visual page and DOM., and indexing fit together — see the Crawling hubCrawling is how search engines use automated bots (like Googlebot and Bingbot) to discover URLs and download pages. A page has to be crawlable to be indexed, but crawling on its own isn't a ranking factor. and the How Search Works cluster pageSearch works in three stages — crawling, indexing, and serving (ranking). A page has to clear each one to appear in results: getting crawled doesn't mean you're indexed, and getting indexed doesn't mean you rank..

AI summary

A condensed take on the Advanced version:

• IndexNowIndexNow is an open push protocol that lets you instantly tell participating search engines (Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, and Yep) which URLs you've added, changed, or removed via a simple HTTP request — and one submission is shared across all of them. Google does not use it. = an open push protocol (Microsoft Bing + Yandex, launched Oct 18, 2021; also Seznam, Naver, Yep). You notify engines the instant a URL is added, updated, or deleted instead of waiting to be re-crawled.
• The shared ping is the differentiator: submit once (to api.indexnow.org or any participant) and it propagates to all participating engines.
• Setup: generate a key → host {key}.txt at your root for verification → GET (one URL) or JSON POST (≤10,000 URLs, no published daily cap). A non-root keyLocation also limits which URL paths that key can submit. indexnow.org’s spec documents response codes 200/202/400/403/422/429429 Too Many Requests is an HTTP client-error status code that means a client sent too many requests in a given time window — a mechanism called rate limiting. Unlike other 4xx codes, Google treats 429 as a server-overload signal and slows crawling instead of removing content. — 202 just means your first submission’s key is still verifying.
• Google does NOT use it. Google said in Nov 2021 it would “be testing the potential benefits of this protocol” and never adopted it — IndexNow does nothing for Google indexingStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed. or rankings.
• It accelerates discovery, not ranking, and doesn’t guarantee indexingStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed. — it’s a prioritization signal on participating engines (which also feed Bing-powered AI surfaces like Copilot, ChatGPT Search, DuckDuckGo).
• Complementary to sitemapsA sitemap is a file that lists the pages, images, videos, and other files on your site so search engines can discover them. It helps discovery, but submitting a sitemap doesn't guarantee crawling or indexing.; the Google Indexing APIThe Google Indexing API lets site owners notify Google directly when a URL is added, updated, or removed. Google officially supports it only for pages with JobPosting or BroadcastEvent (livestream) structured data — not for general content. is a separate, narrow tool (JobPosting + BroadcastEvent only).
• Easy to enable via Cloudflare (CrawlerA crawler — also called a spider or bot — is an automated program that fetches web pages, extracts their links, and queues new URLs to visit. Search engines use crawlers to discover and download content for their index. Hints), Yoast/Rank Math/AIOSEO, Wix/Duda/Shopify, Bing Webmaster ToolsMicrosoft's free portal for monitoring and improving how a site appears in Bing search — the peer to Google Search Console, plus IndexNow instant indexing, richer backlink data, and keyword volumes. Because Bing's index also feeds Microsoft Copilot, it doubles as a window into AI-search visibility., or Ahrefs Site Audit.

Official documentation

Primary-source documentation for the protocol and its biggest backer.

The protocol

• indexnow.org / Documentation / FAQ — the spec: key-file verification (including how a non-root keyLocation scopes submittable URLs), the GET/POST endpoints, the 10,000-URL POST limit, the full 200–429 response-code table, and the shared-ping behavior.

Bing / Microsoft

• Why IndexNow — Bing’s overview and the benefits framing.
• How to add IndexNow to your website (get started) — the technical walkthrough: key generation, hosting the key file, the POST JSON structure, and the response codes.
• IndexNow adoption gains momentum (Fabrice Canel, Aug 2022) — the 2022 adoption numbers.
• Look How Far We’ve Come: IndexNow Expands Adoption Across Industries (Dec 2024) — the 3.5B-URLs/day milestone and new adopters.
• IndexNow Drives Smarter and Faster Content Discovery (Canel & Madhavan, May 2025).
• Cloudflare Supports IndexNow via one-click Integration — the CDN one-click story.

Cloudflare

• Crawler Hints Update: Cloudflare Supports IndexNow (Oct 18, 2021) — the one-click integration and the “53% of crawlerA crawler — also called a spider or bot — is an automated program that fetches web pages, extracts their links, and queues new URLs to visit. Search engines use crawlers to discover and download content for their index. traffic is wasted” stat.

Quotes from the source

On-the-record statements from the protocol, Bing/Microsoft, Cloudflare, and Google. Each link is a deep link that jumps to the quoted passage.

The protocol — indexnowIndexNow is an open push protocol that lets you instantly tell participating search engines (Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, and Yep) which URLs you've added, changed, or removed via a simple HTTP request — and one submission is shared across all of them. Google does not use it..org

• “This key proves ownership of your domain and authenticates your submissions so search engines know they’re coming from an authorized source.” Jump to quote
• “…confirm domain ownership before accepting IndexNow submissions.” Jump to quote
• “IndexNow supports bulk submission of up to 10,000 URLs per POST request.” Jump to quote
• “…your submission will be shared across all IndexNow-enabled search engines.” Jump to quote
• “…agree that submitted URLs will be automatically shared with all other participating search engines.” — the participation requirement; sharing the ping is the commitment, not crawlingCrawling is how search engines use automated bots (like Googlebot and Bingbot) to discover URLs and download pages. A page has to be crawlable to be indexed, but crawling on its own isn't a ranking factor. or indexingStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed. it. Jump to quote
• “…the location of a key file determines the set of URLs that can be included with this key.” — why a non-root keyLocation scopes what you can submit. Jump to quote
• ”…IndexNow key validation pending.” — what a 202 on your first submission means. Jump to quote
• “…does not publicly disclose exact rate limits, as each participating search engine sets its own daily submission thresholds per site.” Jump to quote

Bing / Microsoft

• “IndexNow is a free, open-source protocol empowering website owners with unprecedented control over how quickly their content is discovered and displayed in search results.” — Bing Webmaster ToolsMicrosoft's free portal for monitoring and improving how a site appears in Bing search — the peer to Google Search Console, plus IndexNow instant indexing, richer backlink data, and keyword volumes. Because Bing's index also feeds Microsoft Copilot, it doubles as a window into AI-search visibility., Why IndexNow. Jump to quote
• “Whether you’re adding, updating, or deleting content, IndexNow notifies multiple search engines of your content changes as soon as they happen.” — Bing Webmaster ToolsThe free, first-party consoles search engines give site owners — Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools — to see how their pages are crawled, indexed, and ranked, and to fix problems. The legacy name is 'webmaster tools.', Why IndexNow.
• “An API key is needed to match the ownership of the domain with submitted URLs.” — Bing Webmaster ToolsMicrosoft's free portal for monitoring and improving how a site appears in Bing search — the peer to Google Search Console, plus IndexNow instant indexing, richer backlink data, and keyword volumes. Because Bing's index also feeds Microsoft Copilot, it doubles as a window into AI-search visibility., Get started. Jump to quote
• “By allowing websites to instantly notify search engines of new, changed, and deleted content, IndexNow accelerates indexingStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed. and reduces reliance on traditional crawl schedules.” … “IndexNow is becoming foundational to the way search engines keep pace with web changes.” — Fabrice Canel & Krishna Madhavan, Microsoft AI/Bing, May 19, 2025.

Cloudflare

• “Cloudflare will take care of signaling to these search engines when your content has changed via the IndexNow protocol.”
• “Our observation suggests that 53% of this crawlerA crawler — also called a spider or bot — is an automated program that fetches web pages, extracts their links, and queues new URLs to visit. Search engines use crawlers to discover and download content for their index. traffic is wasted.” — Cloudflare, CrawlerA crawler — also called a spider or bot — is an automated program that fetches web pages, extracts their links, and queues new URLs to visit. Search engines use crawlers to discover and download content for their index. Hints Update, Oct 18, 2021.

Google — the “testing” statement (and why it matters)

• “We’re encouraged by work to make web crawlingCrawling is how search engines use automated bots (like Googlebot and Bingbot) to discover URLs and download pages. A page has to be crawlable to be indexed, but crawling on its own isn't a ranking factor. more efficient, and we will be testing the potential benefits of this protocol.” — Google spokesperson, Nov 9, 2021, via Search Engine Land (and reported identically by Search Engine Journal). This is Google’s only substantive public statement on IndexNow — note it’s about testing, not adopting. Read the coverage
• “Google is not currently participating in this initiative, citing its very efficient crawling mechanism and its continued improvement.” — Yoast, summarizing Google’s stance. Jump to quote

Set up IndexNow — checklist

A one-time setup, then it runs on every content change:

• Generate a key — a hex string of 8–128 chars (a–z, A–Z, 0–9, dashes). Most plugins/CDNs generate one for you.
• Host the key file — upload {your-key}.txt (UTF-8, containing the key) to your site root, e.g. https://example.com/{your-key}.txt. Confirm it returns 200 and shows the key. If you host it anywhere other than the root, that path also caps which URLs the key can submit — root avoids the limit.
• Pick how you’ll submit — a platform integration (Cloudflare, Yoast, Rank Math, Wix, Shopify, Ahrefs Site Audit, Bing Webmaster ToolsMicrosoft's free portal for monitoring and improving how a site appears in Bing search — the peer to Google Search Console, plus IndexNow instant indexing, richer backlink data, and keyword volumes. Because Bing's index also feeds Microsoft Copilot, it doubles as a window into AI-search visibility.) or your own API calls.
• Submit on add — ping new URLs as you publish.
• Submit on update — ping URLs when their content meaningfully changes.
• Submit on delete / redirectA redirect sends browsers and crawlers from a requested URL to a different one. An HTTP redirect specifically is a 3xx status code paired with a Location header; meta refresh and JavaScript redirects achieve a similar navigation without being a 3xx response themselves. Permanent redirects (301/308) are Google's signal the target should be canonical; temporary ones (302/303/307) aren't. — ping removed or redirected URLs so engines drop the stale version faster.
• Verify it’s working — check the IndexNowIndexNow is an open push protocol that lets you instantly tell participating search engines (Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, and Yep) which URLs you've added, changed, or removed via a simple HTTP request — and one submission is shared across all of them. Google does not use it. / IndexNow Insights report in Bing Webmaster ToolsThe free, first-party consoles search engines give site owners — Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools — to see how their pages are crawled, indexed, and ranked, and to fix problems. The legacy name is 'webmaster tools.' and watch for non-200 responses.
• Keep your sitemapA sitemap is a file that lists the pages, images, videos, and other files on your site so search engines can discover them. It helps discovery, but submitting a sitemap doesn't guarantee crawling or indexing. — IndexNow is additive; don’t remove your XML sitemapAn XML sitemap is a UTF-8 file listing the canonical URLs on your site (with optional lastmod) so search engines can discover and prioritize them. It's a discovery and diagnostic aid, not a guarantee of indexing — and Google ignores its priority and changefreq tags. (it’s still how Google discoversGoogle Discover is a personalized, mobile-first content feed built into the Google app, Chrome's mobile New Tab page, and google.com that surfaces articles and videos based on a user's interests and activity — not a response to a search query. There's nothing to 'rank' for in the traditional sense; eligibility is governed by Discover's content policies plus the same helpful-content, image, and page-experience signals Google Search already uses. you).
• Set expectations — remember this affects Bing/Yandex/Naver/Seznam/Yep, not Google, and it speeds discovery, not rankings.

The mental models

1. Push vs pull discovery. Discovery happens two ways. Pull: engines come to you on their own schedule — links and sitemapsA sitemap is a file that lists the pages, images, videos, and other files on your site so search engines can discover them. It helps discovery, but submitting a sitemap doesn't guarantee crawling or indexing.. Push: you go to them the moment something changes — IndexNowIndexNow is an open push protocol that lets you instantly tell participating search engines (Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, and Yep) which URLs you've added, changed, or removed via a simple HTTP request — and one submission is shared across all of them. Google does not use it. (cross-engine), the Google Indexing APIThe Google Indexing API lets site owners notify Google directly when a URL is added, updated, or removed. Google officially supports it only for pages with JobPosting or BroadcastEvent (livestream) structured data — not for general content. (Google, narrow), and feed mechanisms like RSSAn RSS or Atom feed is an XML file listing a site's most recently published or updated URLs. Search engines accept it as a sitemap-style discovery signal for fresh content — not a replacement for a full XML sitemap./WebSubWebSub (formerly PubSubHubbub) is a push notification protocol for RSS/Atom feeds that lets a site instantly broadcast new or updated content to subscribing search engines instead of waiting to be re-crawled.. IndexNow is the cross-engine push channel. If a changed page isn’t being picked up fast enough on Bing, push is the lever.

2. Submit once, reach all (the shared ping). You don’t integrate per engine. One submission to any participant endpoint (or api.indexnow.org) fans out to every IndexNow-enabled engine. Build the integration once; the network does the distribution.

3. The three jobs, three tools rule.

• SitemapsA sitemap is a file that lists the pages, images, videos, and other files on your site so search engines can discover them. It helps discovery, but submitting a sitemap doesn't guarantee crawling or indexing. = baseline pull discovery for everyone, including Google. Never drop them.
• IndexNow = push acceleration for Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, Yep.
• Google IndexingStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed. API = push for Google, but only JobPosting + BroadcastEvent. Use all three for what each is actually for — none replaces another.

4. Discovery ≠ indexingStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed. ≠ ranking. IndexNow moves the discovery needle on participating engines. It doesn’t guarantee the page gets indexed, and it never affects ranking. If the goal is “rank better,” IndexNow isn’t the tool; if it’s “get my fresh contentContent freshness is how recent or up-to-date a page is — by its original publish date, its last substantive revision, or the currency of the facts inside it. It only helps rankings when the query itself benefits from recent results (Query Deserves Freshness), and cosmetic date changes with no real update don't count. noticed on Bing fast,” it is.

Submit URLs to IndexNow

Once your key file is live at the root, submitting is a single HTTP request. The shared ping means one call reaches every participating engine.

Single URL (GET)

curl "https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow?url=https://www.example.com/changed-page&key=YOUR_KEY"

A 200 OK means it was accepted. On your first submission with a new key you may see a 202 instead — the URL was received but the key is still being verified; later submissions typically return 200. Other codes: 400 (bad request), 403 (key not valid, or the file is foundA 302 (\"Found\") is a temporary redirect: it forwards users to a new URL while telling search engines the original URL should stay in the index. It's a weak canonicalization signal, not the zero-equity dead end of SEO folklore. but the key isn’t in it), 422 (URLs don’t belong to the host, or key mismatch), 429 (rate-limited / treated as spam).

Up to 10,000 URLs (JSON POST)

curl -X POST "https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
  -d '{
    "host": "www.example.com",
    "key": "YOUR_KEY",
    "keyLocation": "https://www.example.com/YOUR_KEY.txt",
    "urlList": [
      "https://www.example.com/url1",
      "https://www.example.com/folder/url2"
    ]
  }'

Submit only URLs that actually changed (added, updated, deleted/redirected) — that respects the protocol’s intent and avoids 429 spam handling.

Set up the key file (verification)

The whole auth model is a text file at your root. Generate a key, then serve it.

Generate a key (hex string)

# 32-char lowercase hex key — within the 8–128 char spec (a–z A–Z 0–9 and dashes)
openssl rand -hex 16
# → e.g. 9f8c2a1b4d6e0f37a5c9b8d2e1f04736

Create and host the key file

KEY="9f8c2a1b4d6e0f37a5c9b8d2e1f04736"
printf '%s' "$KEY" > "${KEY}.txt"
# Deploy ${KEY}.txt to your web root so it's reachable at:
#   https://www.example.com/9f8c2a1b4d6e0f37a5c9b8d2e1f04736.txt

Confirm it’s reachable

curl -i "https://www.example.com/${KEY}.txt"
# Expect: HTTP/2 200  and a body equal to the key

Engines fetch this file to confirm you control the host before accepting any submission. If you host it somewhere other than the root, point to it with keyLocation in your POST body — but note that a non-root keyLocation also scopes which URLs that key can submit (a key file at /catalog/key.txt only covers URLs under /catalog/). Root placement avoids that limit.

Tools to set up and monitor IndexNow

• Cloudflare — CrawlerA crawler — also called a spider or bot — is an automated program that fetches web pages, extracts their links, and queues new URLs to visit. Search engines use crawlers to discover and download content for their index. Hints — the simplest on-ramp. Flip it on in Cache → Configuration and Cloudflare pings IndexNowIndexNow is an open push protocol that lets you instantly tell participating search engines (Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, and Yep) which URLs you've added, changed, or removed via a simple HTTP request — and one submission is shared across all of them. Google does not use it. for you whenever your content changes. Free, no key management.
• WordPress plugins — Yoast SEO Premium (auto-pings on publish/update), Rank Math, All in One SEO, and Microsoft’s official IndexNow plugin.
• Wix / Duda / Shopify — built-in IndexNow support for hosted platforms.
• Bing Webmaster ToolsMicrosoft's free portal for monitoring and improving how a site appears in Bing search — the peer to Google Search Console, plus IndexNow instant indexing, richer backlink data, and keyword volumes. Because Bing's index also feeds Microsoft Copilot, it doubles as a window into AI-search visibility. — manual URL submission tied to IndexNow plus the IndexNow Insights report to see what’s being submitted and accepted.
• Ahrefs Site Audit — IndexNow integration — the one I built. Generate an API key in the crawl config, paste it into your root key file, then open the “Pages to submit to IndexNow” issue — it surfaces pages with content changes, redirectsA redirect sends browsers and crawlers from a requested URL to a different one. An HTTP redirect specifically is a 3xx status code paired with a Location header; meta refresh and JavaScript redirects achieve a similar navigation without being a 3xx response themselves. Permanent redirects (301/308) are Google's signal the target should be canonical; temporary ones (302/303/307) aren't., or removed URLs — and submit them (or pick your own). Because Yep is Ahrefs’ participating search engine, the same submissions also feed Ahrefs’ own indexStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed..
• Roll your own — see the Scripts tab for the GET/POST calls and key-file setup if you’d rather hit the API directly.

Resources worth your time

My related writing & work

• Ahrefs’ IndexNow integration (IndexNow, Yep & Ahrefs) — the integration I built into Site Audit, and how Yep (Ahrefs’ search engine) gets data from IndexNowIndexNow is an open push protocol that lets you instantly tell participating search engines (Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, and Yep) which URLs you've added, changed, or removed via a simple HTTP request — and one submission is shared across all of them. Google does not use it. too.
• The Beginner’s Guide to Technical SEO — where discovery and crawlingCrawling is how search engines use automated bots (like Googlebot and Bingbot) to discover URLs and download pages. A page has to be crawlable to be indexed, but crawling on its own isn't a ranking factor. fit in the bigger picture.

My speaking

• How Search Works (SlideShare) — my walkthrough of URL discoveryURL discovery is how search engines find URLs to crawl — by pull (following links and reading sitemaps) and by push (you notify them via IndexNow, the Indexing API, or WebSub). It's the find step that comes before a page is ever fetched., including the push/feed mechanisms (RSSAn RSS or Atom feed is an XML file listing a site's most recently published or updated URLs. Search engines accept it as a sitemap-style discovery signal for fresh content — not a replacement for a full XML sitemap., WebSubWebSub (formerly PubSubHubbub) is a push notification protocol for RSS/Atom feeds that lets a site instantly broadcast new or updated content to subscribing search engines instead of waiting to be re-crawled.) Google actually uses — useful context for why IndexNow is not one of them. (My standing disclaimer applies: “This is my understanding of systems… not going to be 100% complete or accurate.”)

The protocol & official backers

• indexnow.org — the spec and FAQ.
• bing.com/indexnow — Bing’s overview and getting-started guide.

From others

• Yoast — IndexNow: What it is and how it benefits you — clear, plugin-focused, and honest about Google’s non-adoption.
• SEJ — IndexNow Celebrates Two Years With 1.4 Billion URLs Submitted Daily — adoption context.
• CrawlWP — IndexNow vs Google Indexing API vs Sitemaps — the comparison, including the Indexing APIThe Google Indexing API lets site owners notify Google directly when a URL is added, updated, or removed. Google officially supports it only for pages with JobPosting or BroadcastEvent (livestream) structured data — not for general content.’s two-content-type limit.
• Wikipedia — IndexNow — history, timeline, and participants.
• Search Engine Land — Google is testing the IndexNow protocol for sustainability — the primary source for Google’s Nov 2021 “we will be testing” statement; useful for understanding the original framing.
• Search Engine Journal — Everything We Know About IndexNow So Far — comprehensive early explainer covering launch details, how the shared ping works, and integration options.
• Search Engine Land — Bing Webmaster Tools gains new IndexNow Insights report — covers the IndexNow Insights report in Bing Webmaster ToolsMicrosoft's free portal for monitoring and improving how a site appears in Bing search — the peer to Google Search Console, plus IndexNow instant indexing, richer backlink data, and keyword volumes. Because Bing's index also feeds Microsoft Copilot, it doubles as a window into AI-search visibility. and what it shows.
• Search Engine Roundtable — Fabrice Canel on Sitemaps & the next big thing in search (vlog #234) — Bing’s principal IndexNow PM discusses the protocol’s role alongside sitemapsA sitemap is a file that lists the pages, images, videos, and other files on your site so search engines can discover them. It helps discovery, but submitting a sitemap doesn't guarantee crawling or indexing..
• r/TechSEO — the community for crawl/indexStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed./discovery debugging.

Common IndexNow issues

Symptom → likely cause → fix, based on the response codes Bing documents.

Submission returns 403 Forbidden

• Cause 1: the key file isn’t reachable at the root (or the keyLocation you declared).
• Cause 2: the key file is reachable, but its contents don’t match the key you submitted.
• Fix: curl -i "https://www.example.com/{your-key}.txt" and confirm you get 200 with a body that’s exactly the key, no extra whitespace or HTML wrapper. Re-upload if the file is missing or the content is wrong.

Submission returns 422

• Cause: the URLs in urlList don’t belong to the host you declared, or the key doesn’t match the host/schema you’re submitting for. If you’re using a non-root keyLocation, this also fires when a submitted URL falls outside the key file’s own path — a key hosted at /catalog/key.txt can’t cover URLs under /help/.
• Fix: check that every URL in the payload shares the same host as host (and protocol — https://www.example.com vs example.com without www are different hosts). One key file covers one host (and, for non-root placement, one path prefix); submit each subdomain’s URLs with that subdomain’s own key.

First submission with a new key returns 202 instead of 200

• Cause: not an error. 202 means the URL was received but the search engine is still verifying the key against your key file.
• Fix: nothing to do — resend later or just wait; subsequent submissions with the same, now-verified key typically return 200.

Submission returns 400

• Cause: malformed request — bad JSON, missing required field (host, key, urlList), or a key outside the 8–128 char hex/dash spec.
• Fix: validate the JSON body and the key format before sending. For the GET form, confirm the URL is properly encoded.

Submission returns 429

• Cause: too many requests429 Too Many Requests is an HTTP client-error status code that means a client sent too many requests in a given time window — a mechanism called rate limiting. Unlike other 4xx codes, Google treats 429 as a server-overload signal and slows crawling instead of removing content. in a short window — treated as potential spam.
• Fix: only submit URLs that actually changed (added/updated/deleted), batch them into fewer POSTs instead of one GET per URL, and back off before retrying.

You submitted successfully but Google still hasn’t indexed the page

• Cause: this isn’t an IndexNowIndexNow is an open push protocol that lets you instantly tell participating search engines (Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, and Yep) which URLs you've added, changed, or removed via a simple HTTP request — and one submission is shared across all of them. Google does not use it. problem — Google doesn’t consume IndexNow at all. A 200 from IndexNow only confirms Bing/Yandex/Naver/Seznam/Yep accepted the ping.
• Fix: for Google, check your XML sitemapAn XML sitemap is a UTF-8 file listing the canonical URLs on your site (with optional lastmod) so search engines can discover and prioritize them. It's a discovery and diagnostic aid, not a guarantee of indexing — and Google ignores its priority and changefreq tags. and use GSCA free Google service that reports how a site performs in Google Search and surfaces problems with how Google crawls, indexes, and serves it. It's first-party data straight from Google — but you don't need it to appear in results.’s URL InspectionA Google Search Console feature that reports how Google sees one specific URL on a property you own. By default it shows the last-indexed snapshot; a separate \"Test live URL\" mode fetches the current version. / Sitemaps reportThe Google Search Console report where you submit sitemaps and watch how Google processes them — type, last read date, status, and how many URLs were discovered. It confirms Google read your list; it doesn't prove anything got indexed. — see the site’s Sitemap Validator and Google Search Console CSV Analyzer tools instead.

Pages aren’t showing up faster on Bing despite 200 responses

• Cause: IndexNow is a prioritization signal, not a guarantee — Bing still decides whether and when to (re)crawl and indexStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed..
• Fix: confirm the submissions are landing at all via Bing Webmaster ToolsMicrosoft's free portal for monitoring and improving how a site appears in Bing search — the peer to Google Search Console, plus IndexNow instant indexing, richer backlink data, and keyword volumes. Because Bing's index also feeds Microsoft Copilot, it doubles as a window into AI-search visibility.’ IndexNow Insights report. If they’re accepted but pages still aren’t updating, the issue is likely crawl/index eligibility (thin contentThin content is web content that provides little or no value to users. Google's spam policies name it 'thin content with little or no added value' — and it's about value per page, not word count., noindexNoindex is a directive that tells search engines to keep a page out of their index, so it won't appear in search results. It works only on pages a crawler can actually fetch — a page blocked in robots.txt can never be noindexed., blocked by robots.txtA plain-text file at the root of a host that tells crawlers which URLs they may and may not request. It controls crawling, not indexing — a blocked URL can still be indexed if it's linked from elsewhere.), not the push itself.

IndexNow quick reference

Participants

Endpoints and limits

Response codes

Who to ping vs what it does

One-click integrations: Cloudflare (CrawlerA crawler — also called a spider or bot — is an automated program that fetches web pages, extracts their links, and queues new URLs to visit. Search engines use crawlers to discover and download content for their index. Hints), Yoast SEO Premium, Rank Math, All in One SEO, Wix, Duda, Shopify, Bing Webmaster ToolsMicrosoft's free portal for monitoring and improving how a site appears in Bing search — the peer to Google Search Console, plus IndexNow instant indexing, richer backlink data, and keyword volumes. Because Bing's index also feeds Microsoft Copilot, it doubles as a window into AI-search visibility., Ahrefs Site Audit.

Verify IndexNow is actually working

Proof points for each step of the setup, from key file to confirmed submission.

Key file is live and correct

• Test to run: curl -i "https://www.example.com/{your-key}.txt"
• Expected result: HTTP/2 200 with a response body that’s exactly the key string, nothing else.
• Failure interpretation: a non-200 means the file isn’t deployed or isn’t at the declared location; a body that doesn’t match the key means the wrong file got uploaded.
• Monitoring window: immediate.
• Rollback trigger: re-upload the correct file if the check fails; don’t submit URLs until this passes, or every submission will 403.

Submission is accepted

• Test to run: submit one known URL via the GET endpoint (see the Scripts tab) and read the HTTP status returned.
• Expected result: 200 OK (or 202 Accepted if it’s your first submission with a new key — that’s normal, not a failure, and later submissions should settle to 200).
• Failure interpretation: 403 = key/key-file mismatch; 422 = URL/host mismatch (or a keyLocation whose path doesn’t cover this URL); 429 = rate-limited, back off; 400 = malformed request.
• Monitoring window: immediate — the response comes back synchronously.
• Rollback trigger: fix the specific cause per the response code (see the Common Issues tab) and resubmit.

Engine actually received and processed submissions

• Test to run: check the IndexNowIndexNow is an open push protocol that lets you instantly tell participating search engines (Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, and Yep) which URLs you've added, changed, or removed via a simple HTTP request — and one submission is shared across all of them. Google does not use it. Insights report in Bing WebmasterMicrosoft's free portal for monitoring and improving how a site appears in Bing search — the peer to Google Search Console, plus IndexNow instant indexing, richer backlink data, and keyword volumes. Because Bing's index also feeds Microsoft Copilot, it doubles as a window into AI-search visibility. Tools.
• Expected result: submitted URLs listed with an accepted status, matching what you sent.
• Failure interpretation: URLs missing from the report despite 200 responses suggests a submission you think went out didn’t (check your integration’s logs — Cloudflare, Yoast, etc.).
• Monitoring window: allow a few hours to a day for the report to reflect recent submissions.
• Rollback trigger: re-verify the key file and resend if a batch is consistently missing from the report.

Bing actually (re)crawled the changed page

• Test to run: check your server logsLog file analysis is reading a web server's raw access logs to see exactly which URLs search engine crawlers actually requested, when, how often, and what status code they got. Unlike crawl tools or Search Console, logs are the unsampled, ground-truth record of what really happened. (or a Log File Analyzer run, see the site’s Log File Analyzer) for a bingbot hit on the submitted URL after the ping.
• Expected result: a bingbotBingbot is Microsoft Bing's primary web crawler — the bot that discovers, fetches, and renders pages to build the Bing index. That index also powers Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, and Microsoft Copilot, so Bingbot's reach is far wider than Bing's own search-market share. request to the URL within hours of the accepted IndexNow submission — faster than its normal recrawlCrawl frequency is how often a search engine comes back to re-fetch a page it already knows about. Popular pages that change often get refreshed many times a day; stable pages can go weeks or months between crawls — and you influence it indirectly, not by setting a dial. cadence for that page.
• Failure interpretation: no bingbotBingbot is Microsoft Bing's primary web crawler — the bot that discovers, fetches, and renders pages to build the Bing index. That index also powers Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, and Microsoft Copilot, so Bingbot's reach is far wider than Bing's own search-market share. hit after a reasonable window means the submission was accepted but not yet prioritized, or the URL is blocked (robots.txtA plain-text file at the root of a host that tells crawlers which URLs they may and may not request. It controls crawling, not indexing — a blocked URL can still be indexed if it's linked from elsewhere., noindexNoindex is a directive that tells search engines to keep a page out of their index, so it won't appear in search results. It works only on pages a crawler can actually fetch — a page blocked in robots.txt can never be noindexed.) from being crawled at all.
• Monitoring window: hours to a couple of days.
• Rollback trigger: none — this is a discovery signal, not a lever you can force; if crawlingCrawling is how search engines use automated bots (like Googlebot and Bingbot) to discover URLs and download pages. A page has to be crawlable to be indexed, but crawling on its own isn't a ranking factor. still doesn’t follow, check for a blocking issue instead.

Confirming this changes nothing for Google (sanity check)

• Test to run: compare Google’s crawl/indexStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed. timing for a submitted URL (via GSC’s URL Inspection or Crawl Stats) against a control page you did not submit to IndexNow.
• Expected result: no measurable difference — Google’s behavior is unaffected by IndexNow submissions either way.
• Failure interpretation: if you do see a correlation, it’s coincidental (normal crawl variance), not causal — Google does not consume IndexNow.
• Monitoring window: several days to a normal crawl cycle.
• Rollback trigger: none — this test exists to confirm expectations, not to drive a change.

Test yourself: IndexNow

Five quick questions on what IndexNowIndexNow is an open push protocol that lets you instantly tell participating search engines (Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, and Yep) which URLs you've added, changed, or removed via a simple HTTP request — and one submission is shared across all of them. Google does not use it. is, how it works, and where its limits are.

IndexNow

IndexNow is an open push protocol that lets you instantly tell participating search engines (Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, and Yep) which URLs you've added, changed, or removed via a simple HTTP request — and one submission is shared across all of them. Google does not use it.

Related: Crawling, Crawl frequency

IndexNow

IndexNow is a free, open push protocol that lets a website notify participating search engines the moment URLs are added, updated, or deleted, so those engines can prioritize (re)crawlingCrawling is how search engines use automated bots (like Googlebot and Bingbot) to discover URLs and download pages. A page has to be crawlable to be indexed, but crawling on its own isn't a ranking factor. instead of waiting to rediscover the changes on their own schedule. It was launched on October 18, 2021 by Microsoft Bing and Yandex.

The headline feature is the shared ping: you submit a URL to one participating endpoint and it’s automatically propagated to every other IndexNow-enabled engine. Participating engines today are Microsoft Bing, Yandex, Seznam.cz, Naver, and Yep (Ahrefs’ search engine). Setup is deliberately simple — you generate a key, host a {key}.txt file at your site root so engines can verify you control the host, then submit URLs with a GET request (one URL) or a JSON POST (up to 10,000 URLs at once).

Two things to keep straight:

• Google does not use IndexNow. Google said in November 2021 that it would test the protocol, but it has never adopted it. Submitting to IndexNow does nothing for Google indexingStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed. or rankings — Google still discovers your pages through links, sitemapsA sitemap is a file that lists the pages, images, videos, and other files on your site so search engines can discover them. It helps discovery, but submitting a sitemap doesn't guarantee crawling or indexing., and feeds.
• IndexNow accelerates discovery, not ranking. It signals interest in crawlingCrawling is how search engines use automated bots (like Googlebot and Bingbot) to discover URLs and download pages. A page has to be crawlable to be indexed, but crawling on its own isn't a ranking factor. on participating engines; it doesn’t guarantee indexingStoring a crawled page in the search index so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed — Google selects what to keep, and indexing isn't guaranteed., and faster crawling is not a ranking lever.

IndexNow is complementary to XML sitemapsAn XML sitemap is a UTF-8 file listing the canonical URLs on your site (with optional lastmod) so search engines can discover and prioritize them. It's a discovery and diagnostic aid, not a guarantee of indexing — and Google ignores its priority and changefreq tags. (which every engine, including Google, reads) and is a different thing from Google’s Indexing APIThe Google Indexing API lets site owners notify Google directly when a URL is added, updated, or removed. Google officially supports it only for pages with JobPosting or BroadcastEvent (livestream) structured data — not for general content. (Google-only, and officially limited to JobPosting and BroadcastEvent content).

Related: Crawling, Crawl frequency

Changelog