How IndexNow Works: A Guide to Faster Indexing

IndexNow is an open-source protocol that enables website owners to instantly notify participating search engines whenever content on their site is created, updated, or deleted. Instead of waiting for search engines to crawl the site on their own schedule (the traditional "pull" method), IndexNow uses a push-based approach where the website sends a simple notification (a "ping") to search engines, prompting them to crawl and index the updated URLs immediately.

How IndexNow Works

1. Generate a unique API key and place a verification file on your website server to authenticate your site.
2. When you add, update, or delete content, your CMS or SEO tool sends an HTTP POST request to the IndexNow API endpoint with the URLs that have changed.
3. The search engines that support IndexNow receive this notification and immediately crawl and index the submitted URLs.
4. Importantly, submitting a URL to one participating search engine automatically notifies all other participating search engines, enabling simultaneous multi-engine indexing with a single submission.

Benefits of IndexNow

• Faster indexing: Content changes are reflected in search results much quicker than traditional crawling, reducing the typical 3-7 day delay to near-instant updates.
• Improved SEO performance: Faster indexing can lead to quicker ranking improvements and increased organic traffic, especially important for time-sensitive content like product launches or news.
• Reduced crawl load: Search engines crawl only the URLs you notify them about, reducing unnecessary crawling and server load.
• Simplified management: You only need to submit URLs once to notify multiple search engines, easing webmaster workload.

Participating Search Engines

• Microsoft Bing
• Yandex
• Seznam.cz

Google has not fully adopted IndexNow but has tested the protocol and continues to use its own efficient crawling methods. Google may adopt or integrate similar instant indexing solutions in the future.

Practical Use

Developers can integrate IndexNow by calling its API whenever URLs change. For example, in Next.js apps, you can automate API calls to notify search engines immediately after page updates, ensuring faster SEO indexing.

In summary, IndexNow works by pushing URL change notifications to search engines, enabling near-instant crawling and indexing, which accelerates content visibility in search results and reduces crawl inefficiencies. This protocol is especially beneficial for frequently updated or large websites needing timely search engine updates.