Technical SEO
IndexNow Explained: What It Does and How to Set It Up
IndexNow lets you tell participating search engines about changed URLs straight away, instead of waiting to be recrawled.
IndexNow is an open protocol for notifying participating search engines when URLs are added, updated or deleted. Bing’s Webmaster Guidelines recommend it for keeping Bing and Copilot up to date.
Submitting a URL tells the search engine about the change; it doesn’t guarantee indexing.
Short answer: IndexNow is a protocol for notifying participating search engines, including Bing, that URLs have been added, updated or removed. You create a key, host it in a text file on your site to prove ownership, and send the changed URLs (one by GET request or up to 10,000 per POST). A 200 response only means the URLs were received. Some CMS plugins and CDNs can submit changes automatically.
Key Takeaways
- Notifies participating engines about added, updated or deleted URLs.
- Recommended by Bing for Bing and Copilot freshness.
- Ownership is proved with a key file on your host.
- Up to 10,000 URLs per POST request.
- HTTP 200 means received, not indexed.
How it works
- Generate a key (8-128 characters: letters, numbers and dashes).
- Host a UTF-8 text file named after the key, containing the key, at your site root (or specify keyLocation).
- Send changed URLs to a participating engine’s IndexNow endpoint.
- The engine fetches your key file to verify ownership.
Submission options
| Method | Use for |
|---|---|
| GET request with url and key | A single changed URL |
| POST JSON with host, key and urlList | Batches up to 10,000 URLs |
| CMS plugin or CDN integration | Automatic submission on publish, update or delete |
Bing suggests streaming submissions as changes happen rather than large batches.
Does Google use it?
For Google, keep using XML sitemaps and Search Console; Google discovers pages mainly through links and sitemaps (how search engines work).
Frequently asked questions
Is IndexNow required?
No, but Bing recommends it to keep its index and Copilot answers current.
Can IndexNow get my pages ranked faster?
It speeds up notification; ranking still depends on the page.
What if I submit the same URL too often?
IndexNow’s documentation says to check you aren’t submitting too often if requests fail.
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Sources
Last reviewed October 14, 2026.
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