Traditional search engines find out about your changes by crawling: they revisit pages on their own schedule and hope to spot what is new, updated or gone. On a large or fast-moving site that can mean days of lag between publishing a page and a search engine noticing it, and plenty of wasted requests on pages that have not changed at all.
IndexNow flips that model. Instead of waiting to be crawled, your site tells participating search engines the moment a URL is added, updated or deleted. It is free, open and simple enough that many content management systems, CDNs and SEO plugins already support it out of the box.
This guide explains what IndexNow is, which search engines use it (and where Google stands), how to set it up manually or with a plugin, and the mistakes that cause submissions to fail.
Key Takeaways
- IndexNow is an open protocol that lets you notify participating search engines when URLs are added, updated or deleted.
- Participating engines include Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam.cz, Yep and Amazon, and a submission to one is shared with the others.
- Google is not listed as a participating engine, so you still need XML sitemaps and good internal linking for Google.
- Setup takes three parts: a key, a key file hosted on your domain, and a request (single GET or bulk POST of up to 10,000 URLs).
- Submitting a URL makes faster discovery more likely but does not guarantee crawling or indexing.
What Is IndexNow?
IndexNow is a protocol for pushing URL change notifications to search engines. Bing describes it simply:
“IndexNow is a free, open-source protocol”
— Microsoft Bing, IndexNow
When you publish, update or delete a page, your site (or your CMS, CDN or plugin) sends a lightweight request containing the URL and a key that proves you own the domain. The search engine can then prioritise crawling that URL. According to the protocol documentation, participating search engines agree that submitted URLs are automatically shared with all other participating engines, so one ping reaches all of them.
Bing's case for the protocol is efficiency on both sides: fresher results for searchers, and fewer exploratory crawls hitting your server. That is especially valuable for sites where timing matters, such as news, ecommerce stock and pricing, job listings and events.
Which Search Engines Support IndexNow?
| Search engine / endpoint | Supports IndexNow? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Bing | Yes | Co-created the protocol; check submissions in Bing Webmaster Tools |
| Yandex | Yes | Listed endpoint |
| Naver | Yes | Listed endpoint |
| Seznam.cz | Yes | Listed endpoint |
| Yep | Yes | Listed endpoint |
| Amazon | Yes | Listed endpoint |
| api.indexnow.org | Yes | Global endpoint that passes submissions to participants |
| Not listed | Rely on sitemaps, internal links and Search Console |
For Google, the main discovery tools remain crawlable links and your XML sitemap. Google retired its own sitemap "ping" endpoint, announced in June 2023, and relies on accurate lastmod dates in sitemaps instead. If Google is not picking up your pages, check the Page Indexing report rather than looking for a push protocol.
Bing still matters beyond Bing.com itself. It powers results for several other search products, and being quickly and accurately indexed in Bing is a sensible part of any plan to appear in AI-assisted search. Our guide to getting your brand mentioned in ChatGPT search covers that wider picture.
IndexNow vs Sitemaps vs Manual Submission
| Method | How it works | Speed | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| IndexNow | Push notification of specific changed URLs | Near-instant notification | Frequent changes, deletions, large sites, Bing and partners |
| XML sitemap | Search engines periodically fetch a list of URLs with optional lastmod | Depends on how often the sitemap is fetched | Complete inventory for all engines, including Google |
| URL Inspection "Request indexing" (Google) | Manual request for one URL in Search Console | Fast for single URLs, quota-limited | A few important new or updated pages |
| Bing URL Submission | Submit URLs in Bing Webmaster Tools | Fast, quota-limited | Ad hoc submissions without IndexNow |
IndexNow does not replace sitemaps. Use both: sitemaps for a full, canonical inventory and IndexNow for real-time change notifications.
How to Set Up IndexNow: Step by Step
If you use a supported platform, setup may be a single toggle (see the next section). Here is how the protocol works if you are implementing it yourself.
- Generate a key. The key must be 8 to 128 characters and can contain lowercase letters, uppercase letters, digits and dashes. Bing's get-started page can generate one for you.
- Host the key file. Save a UTF-8 text file named
{your-key}.txtcontaining only the key, and place it in your site's root, for examplehttps://www.example.com/{your-key}.txt. Alternatively host it elsewhere on the same host and pass its location with thekeyLocationparameter; a key file in a subfolder only covers URLs inside that folder. - Submit a single URL. Send a GET request to an IndexNow endpoint:
https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow?url=https://www.example.com/new-page/&key=YOUR_KEY - Submit URLs in bulk. Send a POST with a JSON body. Each request can include up to 10,000 URLs:
POST /indexnow HTTP/1.1 Host: api.indexnow.org Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8 { "host": "www.example.com", "key": "YOUR_KEY", "keyLocation": "https://www.example.com/YOUR_KEY.txt", "urlList": [ "https://www.example.com/page-1/", "https://www.example.com/page-2/" ] } - Automate it. Trigger submissions from your CMS or deployment pipeline whenever a page is published, materially updated or deleted.
- Check the response code and verify. Log responses (see the table below) and use Bing Webmaster Tools to confirm that your URLs are being received.
IndexNow response codes
| Code | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | OK, URL submitted successfully | Nothing; this only confirms receipt |
| 202 | Accepted, key validation pending | Make sure the key file is reachable |
| 400 | Bad request, invalid format | Check URL encoding and JSON syntax |
| 403 | Forbidden, key not valid | Key file missing, wrong content or wrong location |
| 422 | Unprocessable entity | URLs do not belong to the host, or key does not match |
| 429 | Too many requests | Slow down; repeated submissions may be treated as spam |
Using IndexNow Without Code
Bing's get-started page lists a wide range of integrations, so check what your platform already does before building anything:
- Built-in CMS support: platforms including Wix Studio, Duda, GoDaddy Website Builder and Shopify are listed as supporting IndexNow natively.
- CDN: Cloudflare can send IndexNow signals through its Crawler Hints setting.
- WordPress: the official IndexNow plugin, plus SEO plugins such as Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO and SEOPress, are listed. Feature availability can depend on plugin version or tier, so check your settings. Our WordPress SEO guide covers the rest of a solid setup.
- Other platforms: modules exist for Drupal, Joomla, PrestaShop, OpenCart, Typo3, Umbraco and more.
Avoid running two integrations at once (for example a CDN and a plugin), which can send duplicate notifications.
When to Submit, and When Not To
The IndexNow FAQ says sites should notify IndexNow whenever content is added, updated or removed. Good triggers include:
- New pages and posts going live.
- Meaningful updates such as price, stock, availability, dates or substantial content changes.
- Deleted pages, such as discontinued products or expired events, so engines can drop them sooner. Make sure they return 404 or 410 first; see our guide to fixing 404 errors.
- URL changes after a site migration, submitting both the old redirecting URLs and the new ones.
Do not resubmit the same URL many times a day without meaningful changes; the FAQ advises against it and suggests waiting between resubmissions.
Common Mistakes
- Expecting guaranteed indexing. The IndexNow FAQ is clear that submitting a URL does not guarantee immediate indexing. Quality still decides.
- Key file problems. The file is missing, blocked by robots.txt or a firewall, returns a redirect, or contains extra whitespace or HTML.
- Submitting non-canonical URLs. Send the final, canonical URLs, not parameter or redirecting versions.
- Submitting for other hosts. All URLs in a bulk request must belong to the host you specify.
- Spamming trivial updates. Pinging on every minor template change can trigger 429 responses.
- Forgetting Google. IndexNow does nothing for Google, so keep your sitemaps and internal linking in good shape.
Related Guides
- Faceted Navigation SEO: How to Handle Filters
- Website Accessibility and SEO: Where They Overlap
- Breadcrumb Navigation and SEO: A Complete Guide
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Google support IndexNow?
Google is not listed among the participating IndexNow search engines. For Google, use XML sitemaps with accurate lastmod dates, strong internal linking and the URL Inspection tool.
Is IndexNow free?
Yes. IndexNow is a free, open protocol and there is no charge to submit URLs.
Do I need to submit to every search engine separately?
No. Participating search engines share submitted URLs with each other, so submitting to one endpoint is enough.
How many URLs can I submit at once?
A single bulk POST request can contain up to 10,000 URLs.
Can IndexNow help remove deleted pages from search?
Yes. You can submit deleted URLs so participating engines recrawl them and see the 404 or 410 status sooner.
Conclusion
IndexNow is one of the easiest technical wins available in 2026: a small setup that gets your changes in front of Bing and other participating engines quickly, while reducing unnecessary crawling. Enable it through your CMS, CDN or plugin if you can, keep your sitemaps and internal links strong for Google, and monitor results in Bing Webmaster Tools. If you want a full technical review of how search engines discover your site, our SEO services team can help, or you can request a free quote.
