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Amol Ghemud Published: October 21, 2021
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It’s important that searchers have access to up-to-date information. However, one of the most significant issues for website owners is having search engines promptly detect and assess their most recent website improvements.
New URLs might take days, if not weeks, to be discovered and indexed by search engines, resulting in a loss of potential traffic, consumers, and sales.
Microsoft has unveiled a new index, which marks a fundamental shift in how search engines discover and index material. Search Engines IndexNow is open-source and accessible to all search engines that participate. Index Now tells all participating search engines when the material is published or changed on a website, significantly reducing indexing time.
Because search engines don’t scan every URL every day, it can take days or weeks for search engines to notice that the content has changed if you don’t use IndexNow. With IndexNow, search engines can quickly identify “URLs that have changed,” allowing them to prioritise crawling for these URLs and limiting organic crawling for new content discovery.
IndexNow is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License and is supported by Microsoft Bing and Yandex.
SEO is the Conversion Booster
Our SEO checklist lays out the essentials of optimizing a website, thus aiding in driving more traffic and enhancing conversions.
When a search engine has finished crawling a page, what happens next? The technique by which search engines organise material prior to a search in order to provide super-fast responses to queries is known as indexing.
Search engines would have to filter through individual sites for keywords and themes to find relevant material, which would take a long time. Inverted indexes, also known as reverse indexes, are used by search engines like Google.
The technique by which search engines organize material prior to a search in order to provide super-fast responses to queries is known as indexing. Search engines would have to comb through individual sites for keywords and themes to find relevant material, which would take a long time.
What is IndexNow?
Microsoft has introduced a new index that represents a significant change in the way search engines discover and index content. IndexNow is open source and available to all participating search engines.
An index is updated when a website’s material is published or altered. Webmasters and website owners can use IndexNow to notify search engines about content changes on their sites.
IndexNow converts content discovery into a push technique, informing CMS search engines like WordPress when new or updated content has been uploaded.
Microsoft and Yandex collaborated to produce IndexNow. All search engines can use the protocol because it is open source.
All participating search engines will be notified when a search engine receives the notification of a new or changed web page.
Search engines can get data from web pages in two ways: pull and push.
When a search engine crawler visits a site to request web pages, the data is “pulled” from the server by the crawler. This is how search engines functioned in the past.
Reducing server load improves server performance without adding to the already heavy load of redundant web pages that search engines have.
Search Engines IndexNow shifts content discovery to a push mechanism, in which a CMS such as WordPress notifies search engines when the material is uploaded or modified. Publishers get an added advantage here since they don’t have to wait for search engines to crawl and discover their content.
Search engines are alerted and immediately visit the site to retrieve the new or updated pages.
This is what Microsoft had to say about the IndexNew Launch:
“…historically one of the biggest pain points for website owners has been to have search engines quickly discover and consider their latest website changes.
It can take days or even weeks for new URLs to be discovered and indexed in search engines, resulting in loss of potential traffic, customers and even sales.
…once search engines are notified of updates they quickly crawl and reflect website changes in their index and search results.”
The Brains Behind Index Now
Microsoft and Yandex have launched IndexNow, a new protocol that any search engine can use to allow site owners to have their pages and content indexed by the search engine in real-time.
Presently, Microsoft Bing and Yandex are the only two search engines that are fully committed to the initiative, but others are invited to join.
Furthermore, every search engine that adopts this protocol should acknowledge that submitted URLs would be immediately shared with all other participating search engines, removing the need to submit to both Bing and Yandex, as well as other search engines if this protocol becomes more generally accepted.
Benefits Of IndexNow
Because the expanding demands on the server are decreased by IndexNow, search engines no longer need to undertake exploratory crawls to see if website pages have been updated.
Also, you can enter up to 10,000 URLs per post, alternating between http and https if necessary.
Reduced server load allows the server to operate more efficiently without introducing redundant web-site load. It eventually benefits the entire world by reducing the energy demands of crawling and indexing, as well as assisting in the reduction of global warming.
“IndexNow is an initiative towards a more efficient Internet,” says Bing. Website owners send a clear signal to search engines, indicating that certain URLs should be crawled first, reducing the need for exploratory crawls to see if the content has changed… Search engines plan to limit the crawling of websites that use IndexNow in the future.
Even large corporations have adopted the new protocol. Microsoft has stated that it plans to migrate large companies such as eBay, Linkedin, MSN, GitHub, and Bizapedia to IndexNow from the Bing URL submission API. The benefits of the new approach are evident, so the other larger corporations are expected to follow.
Smaller businesses may be enticed to adopt the new standard in order to stay competitive and improve their rankings.
How does it work?
Three ways to send URLs are recommended:
1. IndexNow SEO Integration
IndexNow, OnCrawl, and Botify are the first three options.
2. API-based direct submission
Another option is to submit an API request directly. Developers can use APIs to submit IndexNow URLs automatically. According to the announcement,
Using our online key generation tool, generate a protocol-compliant key.
Store the key in a text file at the root of your website titled after the key’s value.
When your URLs are added, modified, or deleted, start submitting them. Per API call, you can submit a single URL or a group of URLs.
Sending a simple HTTP request with the URL modified and your key is all it takes to submit one URL.
3. Integration with content management systems (CMS) and content delivery networks (CDNs)
However, the third option involves interacting with IndexNow via a function that is built into the core of any CMS used by a publisher. The third option is to go the traditional route.
Wix and Duda are already aware of the benefits that their users enjoy, and they plan to provide them with the new feature. Cloudflare and Akamai both support the new IndexNow protocol.
In Conclusion
The way search engines identify newly published or updated information has changed dramatically, and IndexNow is a major concern. Because bots visit their online pages regularly, publishers benefit from faster indexing and lower server loads.
The use of major search engines has changed the way publishers and consumers interact. Even though major search engines have adopted IndexNow, it remains unclear whether Google will be participating in this initiative.
In the end, it benefits the world by lowering the energy requirements for crawling and indexing while also contributing to the reduction of global warming pressures.
FAQ
What would happen after I submit my URL to IndexNow?
If search engines approve your URL, search engines will attempt crawling it to get the latest content quickly based on their crawl scheduling logic and crawl quota for your site.
What is the maximum URL request per day one can submit to IndexNow?
You can submit up to 10,000 URLs per post, mixing http and https URLs if needed.
I submitted an URL, but I don’t see the URL indexed?
Using IndexNow ensures that search engines are aware of your website changes. Using IndexNow does not guarantee that web pages will be crawled or indexed by search engines. It may take time for the change to reflect in search engines.
I have a small website that has few web pages. Should I use IndexNow?
Yes, if you want search engines to discover content as soon as it’s changed then you should use IndexNow. You will not have to wait many hours or worse weeks to see your changes on search engines.
Can I submit the same URL multiple times a day?
Avoid submitting the same URL many times a day. If pages are edited often, then it is advised to wait 10 minutes between edits before notifying search engines. If pages are updated constantly (examples: time in Waimea, Weather in Tokyo), it’s preferable to not use IndexNow for every change.
I have a sitemap, do I need IndexNow?
Yes, when sitemaps are an easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about all pages on their sites that are available for crawling, sitemaps are visited by Search Engines infrequently. With IndexNow, webmasters ”don’t” have to wait for search engines to discover and crawl sitemaps but can directly notify search engines of new content.
For Curious Minds
The delay you are experiencing stems from the traditional 'pull' method of content discovery. In this model, search engines must proactively send crawlers to your site to check for updates, a process that does not happen daily for every URL, leading to significant indexing lag. The core of this is search engine indexing, which is how platforms like Microsoft Bing organize information into a reverse index to provide fast answers to queries. Without it, they would have to sift through sites in real-time. The traditional 'pull' system involves search bots visiting sites on a schedule they determine, requesting pages, and analyzing them. This creates a bottleneck because crawlers cannot scan every page on the internet constantly. This resource-intensive process means your latest improvements and critical updates are not immediately visible, impacting your ability to attract consumers and sales. Understanding this foundation reveals why new protocols are necessary for a more dynamic web. For a deeper look at optimizing this process, explore the full guide.
The IndexNow protocol fundamentally shifts content discovery from a 'pull' to a 'push' model, allowing you to instantly notify search engines of changes. Its open-source design means any search engine can adopt it, creating a more unified and efficient standard for the entire web. Instead of waiting for crawlers, your website or CMS actively sends a signal to an API the moment a URL is published or updated. This signal is then shared among all participating search engines, like Microsoft Bing and Yandex. The primary benefit is the dramatic reduction in indexing time, from potential weeks to mere minutes. This approach offers:
Immediate discovery: Your content is crawled on-demand, not on a search engine's schedule.
Improved efficiency: It limits the need for exploratory crawls, reducing server load.
Greater control: You gain more agency over when your content is indexed.
The open-source license promotes wide adoption, which could reshape SEO best practices. Discover how to integrate this protocol in our complete analysis.
The IndexNow 'push' method offers superior speed and efficiency, making it ideal for time-sensitive content, whereas the traditional 'pull' system is passive and can cause costly delays. For publishers, the key difference is moving from waiting for discovery to actively triggering it. The 'pull' model relies on search engine crawlers visiting your site on their own schedule, which can take days or weeks. This is a significant disadvantage for promotions or breaking news. The 'push' model flips this dynamic: your site instantly notifies participating search engines like Microsoft Bing and Yandex about a change. Consider these factors:
Speed to Index: 'Push' provides near-instant crawl requests versus unpredictable delays with 'pull'.
Server Load: 'Push' reduces redundant crawling, lowering the strain on your server.
SEO Control:You dictate the discovery timeline, giving you a competitive edge.
By adopting IndexNow, you prioritize your most important updates. Learn more about the strategic advantages by reading the full article.
The collaboration between Microsoft and Yandex signals a major industry shift toward a more efficient, sustainable, and publisher-friendly web. Their joint support provides strong evidence that IndexNow is a viable solution to the long-standing problem of indexing delays. This partnership validates the protocol's core premise: that a 'push' system is more effective than the legacy 'pull' method. Search engines benefit by reducing wasteful, exploratory crawls, which consume immense computational resources and put a strain on web servers. For website owners, the backing of these tech giants means:
Reliability: The protocol is built and supported by established players, ensuring stability.
Interoperability: A notification sent to one participating search engine is shared with all others.
Strategic Advantage: Early adoption gives you a lead in getting content seen on platforms like Microsoft Bing.
This move suggests a future where publishers and search engines work more cooperatively. Explore the full implications of this trend in our detailed analysis.
A WordPress integration with IndexNow automates the notification process, giving small business owners a powerful tool for instant indexing without any manual effort. It turns content updates into immediate signals for search engines to crawl your site. When you publish or update a page on your WordPress site, a plugin or the core CMS can automatically generate and send a notification to the IndexNow API. This simple action informs all participating search engines, including Microsoft Bing, that new content is ready for review. For a small business, this offers clear advantages:
Effortless SEO: The system works in the background, requiring no technical expertise after initial setup.
Faster Visibility for Sales: New product pages or promotions get indexed quickly, reaching customers sooner.
Competitive Edge: Your site can react to market changes faster than competitors still relying on traditional crawling.
This direct line of communication ensures your most current information is always available to searchers. To see how this impacts conversions, read our complete guide.
Implementing IndexNow is a straightforward technical process that involves generating a key and configuring your server or CMS to send notifications upon content changes. This ensures search engines like Microsoft Bing are immediately alerted to your new URLs. To get started, you will need to follow a clear stepwise plan. First, you generate an API key and host it in a text file in your site's root directory to verify ownership. After verification, you can submit URLs individually or in bulk to the API endpoint. The steps are:
Generate your unique IndexNow API key.
Host the key file on your server for verification by search engines.
Configure your system to send a POST request to the API whenever a page is added, updated, or removed.
You can submit a single URL or a list of up to 10,000 URLs per API call.
Many CMS platforms are developing plugins to automate this, simplifying the process even further. Discover the full technical specifications and best practices in our complete article.
IndexNow directly solves the problem of indexing latency by replacing passive waiting with active notification. It empowers you to tell search engines about new content instantly, closing the gap between publishing and discovery that causes lost traffic and sales. The core issue is that traditional crawlers operate on their own schedule, which may not align with your business needs. A new product launch or critical update could go unnoticed for days or weeks. IndexNow provides a simple yet powerful solution:
It creates a direct line of communication to search engines like Microsoft Bing and Yandex.
It allows you to 'push' URLs for immediate crawling consideration, rather than waiting to be 'pulled'.
It ensures time-sensitive content gets prioritized, maximizing its visibility and commercial impact.
By eliminating the guesswork and delays, you can better synchronize your marketing efforts with search engine visibility. See how this can boost your conversion rates in our full report.
The IndexNow protocol mitigates server strain by making crawling more intelligent and efficient, reducing the need for search engines to perform constant, resource-intensive exploratory crawls. It shifts the dynamic so that bots only visit when there is a confirmed content change. Under the old 'pull' model, search engines repeatedly crawl your entire site, including unchanged pages, just to check for updates. This generates unnecessary server requests and can slow down your website for actual users. IndexNow offers a smarter solution:
Targeted Crawling: Bots are directed only to URLs that you have confirmed are new or updated.
Reduced Bot Traffic: It eliminates the redundant 'check-in' crawls that waste server resources.
Improved Server Performance: A lighter server load means a faster, more reliable experience for your visitors.
By telling search engines exactly where to look, you help them conserve their resources and, in turn, protect your own. Dive deeper into the technical efficiencies in our complete guide.
The rise of protocols like IndexNow points to a more collaborative and symbiotic future between publishers and search engines, moving away from a one-sided discovery process. This evolution gives you more direct control and responsibility in the indexing pipeline. In the past, the relationship was passive, you would publish content and hope search engines found it. IndexNow, supported by Microsoft and Yandex, transforms this into an active partnership. To prepare, you should:
Adopt a 'push' mindset: Start thinking of content indexing as an active notification process you control.
Prioritize technical SEO: Ensure your site is technically capable of integrating with new APIs and protocols.
Monitor industry trends: Stay informed as more search engines potentially join this open standard.
This shift empowers publishers to ensure their content is discovered efficiently, while search engines get cleaner signals. To understand the full strategic implications, explore our complete analysis.
Widespread adoption of IndexNow could lead to a greener, more efficient web by significantly reducing the redundant crawling that consumes vast amounts of energy and server resources. This shift from 'pull' to 'push' has profound long-term implications for digital sustainability. Every day, search engine bots perform trillions of crawls, many of which are unnecessary because the content has not changed. This process requires massive data centers and electricity. By allowing websites to notify search engines like Microsoft Bing and Yandex about changes, IndexNow creates a more intelligent system:
It minimizes wasteful exploratory crawls, directly lowering server load across the internet.
It reduces the computational power and energy needed for content discovery.
It promotes a more sustainable model for how the internet is indexed.
This could be a critical step toward reducing the web's carbon footprint. Explore the full scope of this environmental impact in our detailed report.
For a small business, implementing IndexNow ensures your time-sensitive sales information gets indexed rapidly, directly connecting your promotions with customer searches. This requires a one-time setup that automates notifications for all future updates. The goal is to make sure that when a customer searches for your new offer, search engines like Microsoft Bing have already indexed it. Here is a simple plan:
Check for a Plugin: If you use a CMS like WordPress, search for an IndexNow plugin to handle the integration automatically.
Manual Setup: If a plugin is not available, have a developer generate an API key, place it on your server, and configure your site to send a POST request to the API with the new URL each time a sale page is published.
Integrate with Your Workflow: Make this notification a standard part of your process for launching new products or promotions.
This proactive approach guarantees your most valuable updates are not lost in indexing queues. See the full implementation guide for more technical details.
The backing from industry giants like Microsoft and Yandex provides powerful evidence of IndexNow's effectiveness, as they would not invest in a protocol that does not deliver on its promise of faster indexing. Their participation validates its ability to solve a real-world problem for both search engines and publishers. These companies operate at a massive scale and have a vested interest in making the web more efficient. By co-developing and supporting IndexNow, they are effectively stating that the 'push' model is superior for modern content discovery. This support demonstrates:
A commitment to improving the crawling process.
Confidence that the protocol can reduce indexing time from days or weeks to much shorter intervals.
A strategic decision that this approach benefits their own search products, like Microsoft Bing, by providing users with fresher results.
Their involvement is a strong market signal that this is a proven and forward-looking strategy. To see more data on its impact, read the full analysis.
Amol has helped catalyse business growth with his strategic & data-driven methodologies. With a decade of experience in the field of marketing, he has donned multiple hats, from channel optimization, data analytics and creative brand positioning to growth engineering and sales.
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