What is IndexNow and how do you set it up?

What is IndexNow?

IndexNow is an open protocol that lets you instantly notify participating search engines whenever you publish, update or delete a URL, instead of waiting for them to re-crawl. Microsoft Bing, Yandex, Seznam and Naver support it, and Bing and Yandex share submissions, so one ping reaches several engines. You set it up by generating a key, hosting a <key>.txt file at your site root, and sending submissions to the IndexNow API — all free. Google does not consume IndexNow but indexes the same fresh pages via your sitemap.

What IndexNow is (and isn't)

IndexNow is a lightweight push protocol: when your content changes, you tell search engines directly rather than hoping they re-crawl soon. It was proposed by Microsoft and Yandex and is now an open standard any site or SEO tool can use.

It is not a ranking tool and not a Google feature. It does not make pages rank; it removes crawl lag so engines see your changes quickly. Google has said it does not use IndexNow for indexing, but Bing, Yandex, Seznam and Naver all do.

Which search engines support IndexNow

Microsoft Bing — full support.
Yandex — full support; shares the signal with Bing.
Seznam (Czech) and Naver (Korean) — supported.
Google — does not consume IndexNow (use sitemaps + Request Indexing instead).

Set up IndexNow in three steps

Generate a key — a hex string of 8–128 characters (IndexPing does this in your browser).
Host the key file — upload <key>.txt containing only the key to https://yourdomain.com/<key>.txt.
Submit URLs — send a GET for one URL, or POST a JSON list for many, to https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow.

Automating it

Many platforms (Cloudflare, some CMS plugins) can auto-submit on every change. If yours cannot, you can submit manually with IndexPing on each publish — paste your URLs and it builds the key, key file and ready-to-run payloads. Automated sitemap-based auto-submission and ongoing index monitoring is on the IndexPing Pro roadmap.

Put it into practice

Generate your IndexNow key, build the submission payload and check index status — free, in your browser.

Open the free tool

Frequently asked questions

Is IndexNow free?+

Yes. The protocol is free and open, submissions are free and unlimited, and no account is required. You only need to host a key file on your domain.

Does IndexNow help with Google?+

Not directly, because Google does not consume IndexNow. But fast crawling on Bing/Yandex plus a clean sitemap and internal links is the practical path to Google noticing the same fresh pages, so IndexNow is still worth using.

What happens if I submit a URL that was deleted?+

IndexNow supports notifying engines of removed URLs too — submitting a now-404/410 URL prompts engines to re-crawl and drop it from their index faster.