Technical Seo
IndexNow
An open protocol that lets website owners instantly notify participating search engines (Bing, Yandex, and others) when content is created, updated, or deleted. Google does not currently support IndexNow.
Why IndexNow Matters for SEO
IndexNow gets your content changes reflected in Bing and other participating engines within minutes instead of waiting for the next crawl cycle. For time-sensitive content like news or product updates, this speed matters. It also reduces unnecessary crawling since engines don't need to re-check pages that haven't changed.
How IndexNow Works
You generate an API key, host it on your site for verification, and send HTTP requests to the IndexNow API with the URLs that changed. Participating search engines share the notification, so one ping reaches all of them. Many CMS plugins handle this automatically.
Common Mistakes
- Assuming IndexNow works with Google (it doesn't as of 2026)
- Pinging IndexNow for URLs that haven't actually changed
- Not setting it up because Google doesn't support it, ignoring Bing's growing share
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