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Draft:IndexNow

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  • Comment: Unfortunately, the concerns are not addressed. I cannot view the book entry so not sure what it says about IndexNow. As far as this source, it is WP:CHURNALISM (see this and this). Will leave for another reviewer but do not believe this will meet notability guidelines after a quick WP:BEFORE. Also, there is content on the page that is not sourced. You will need to provide an inline citation or remove the content. CNMall41 (talk) 16:53, 3 July 2025 (UTC)
  • Comment: Thank you for your feedback on the page. 
    To address this, I have updated the references to include citations from:
    -TechRadar: A reputable general technology news publication, providing a more independent perspective on the protocol's significance.
    - Books published by major publishers like O'Reilly: These provide more in-depth, academically reviewed, and enduring information, serving as strong secondary sources for technical topics.
    - Updated Authors to show that Barry Schwartz was the reporter on a few of these sources.
    I see your point about Search Engine Land (SEL) and Search Engine Journal (SEJ) being industry-specific publications. While they are highly authoritative and primary sources for news and developments within the search engine optimization and web technology communities, particularly concerning a niche technical protocol like IndexNow, I agree that broader sourcing strengthens the page's reliability according to Wikipedia's guidelines.
    Hopefully these sources will be more useful. Crystalontheweb (talk) 11:02, 3 July 2025 (UTC)
  • Comment: I would consider something written by Barry Schwartz like this to be reliable since he is an industry expert. However, SEL and SEJ are industry publications so there needs to be something outside of those. The others are blogs or otherwise unreliable. CNMall41 (talk) 16:18, 2 July 2025 (UTC)


IndexNow
Year startedOctober 18, 2021; 3 years ago (2021-10-18)
First publishedOctober 18, 2021; 3 years ago (2021-10-18)
OrganizationMicrosoft, Yandex, Naver, Seznam.cz, Yep
AuthorsSawood Alam, Internet Archive; Martin Fiala, Seznam; Vishnevsky Gleb Yandex; Fabrice Canel Microsoft
Base standardsHTTP, JSON, URL, UTF-8
Related standardsRSS, robots.txt
DomainWeb indexing, Search engine optimization
LicenseCC-BY-SA 4.0
Websitewww.indexnow.org

IndexNow is an open protocol that allows website owners to inform participating search engines directly whenever website content is created, updated, or deleted. The system was introduced by Microsoft Bing and Yandex to accelerate the discovery and indexing of online content.

History

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IndexNow was launched in October 2021 as a collaboration between Microsoft Bing and Yandex.[1][2]. The protocol was developed to make the web more efficient by enabling faster content discovery and minimizing server load caused by repeated web crawling.[3]

Traditionally, search engines relied on periodic crawling to discover new URLs, which could delay updates appearing in search results. IndexNow addresses this delay by allowing websites to proactively notify search engines about content changes, helping reduce unnecessary crawling and improve the freshness of search indexes.

In January 2022, the Bing Webmaster team created a plugin for Wordpress.[4]

In July 2023, Naver, a prominent South Korean search engine, announced its support for the IndexNow protocol.[5]

In September 2023, Wix.com, a website builder, announced a native integration that automatically submit URL updates to IndexNow by default, as conent is published on each site.[6] [7][8]

In May 2025, native integrations with Shopify and Amazon (company) were announced as a means to manage shopping content by including Schema.orgmark up in the IndexNow feed.[9][10]

How it works

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To implement IndexNow, a website owner must generate an API key and host it in a text file at the site's root. When content changes, the website sends a simple HTTP request to a search engine endpoint, including the URL and the API key[11][12]. For example: 

https://www.bing.com/indexnow?url=https://www.example.com/page.html&key=your-api-key

Once notified, search engines can update their information and offer more accurate search results[13].

Websites can send notifications for individual pages or submit lists of up to 10,000 URLs at once[14]. Once a search engine receives a notification, it then decides whether to visit and update its index for that specific page. This process ensures that search results are fresher and more accurate, while also reducing the burden on search engine servers.

Crucially, when a search engine receives an IndexNow notification, it automatically shares that information with all other search engines that support the protocol. This collaborative approach means a single notification from a website can efficiently update multiple search engines simultaneously.[15]

Participating search engines

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As of 2025, several search engines support IndexNow, including:

Submitted URLs are shared among participating search engines, further improving content discoverability.

Adoption and tools

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As of September 2023, IndexNow was used by over 60 million websites, publishing over 1.4 billion URLs daily.[16] Since its release, IndexNow has been integrated into various platforms and services:

  • Content management systems: Microsoft has provided a WordPress plugin to enable IndexNow[17] with minimal setup. Wix.com and Shopify each feature native integrations.
  • Hosting services: Providers like Cloudflare support IndexNow via features such as Crawler Hints[18][19]
  • Major websites: Organizations including eBay, LinkedIn, MSN, GitHub, and Bizapedia use IndexNow to speed up content indexing.
  • Third-party applications: The company Majinsoft developed IndexNow Sync, a mobile and desktop application that simplifies URL submissions and automates the notification process to search engines.[20]

Google's approach

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As of 2025, Google has not officially adopted the IndexNow protocol[21]. Google representatives stated that they tested IndexNow but found it did not align with their existing crawling infrastructure at large scale.[22]

Instead, Google provides its own Indexing API, primarily intended for quickly notifying Google about changes to pages related to job postings or livestream events.[23] The Google Indexing API allows sites to directly request indexing or removal of specific URLs, but it is not yet available for general-purpose content.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "IndexNow - Instantly Index your web content in Search Engines". blogs.bing.com. 2021-10-18. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  2. ^ Schwartz, Barry (2022-01-13). "IndexNow now officially co-sharing URLs between Microsoft Bing and Yandex". Search Engine Land. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  3. ^ Enge, Eric; Spencer, Stephan; Stricchiola, Jessie (August 30, 2023). The Art of SEO. O'Reilly Media. p. 2. ISBN 9781098102562.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  4. ^ Opiah, Abigail (2022-01-06). "Microsoft unveils new IndexNow plugin for WordPress websites". TechRadar. Retrieved 2025-07-03.
  5. ^ Schwartz, Barry (2023-07-26). "Naver, Korean search engine, now supports IndexNow". Search Engine Land. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  6. ^ Schwartz, Barry (2023-09-21). "Wix adds IndexNow support for faster indexing". Search Engine Land. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  7. ^ Hines, Kristi (2023-09-21). "Microsoft Bing & Wix Announce IndexNow Integration". Search Engine Journal. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  8. ^ Schwartz, Barry (2023-09-29). "Wix Supports IndexNow". Search Engine Roundtable. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  9. ^ "IndexNow Drives Smarter and Faster Content Discovery". blogs.bing.com. 2025-05-19. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  10. ^ Schwartz, Barry (2025-05-19). "IndexNow helps with faster indexing of product updates and shopping ads". Search Engine Land. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  11. ^ "Documentation | IndexNow.org". www.indexnow.org. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  12. ^ Montti, Roger (2021-10-18). "IndexNow is a Major Change to Search Engine Indexing". Search Engine Journal. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  13. ^ Industry 6.0: Technology, Practices, Challenges, and Applications. CRC Press. October 16, 2024. p. 74. ISBN 9781040128039.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  14. ^ "Documentation | IndexNow.org". www.indexnow.org. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  15. ^ Montti, Roger (2021-10-18). "IndexNow is a Major Change to Search Engine Indexing". Search Engine Journal. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  16. ^ Hines, Kristi (2023-09-21). "Microsoft Bing & Wix Announce IndexNow Integration". Search Engine Journal. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  17. ^ Opiah, Abigail Opiah (2022-01-06). "Microsoft unveils new IndexNow plugin for WordPress websites". TechRadar. Retrieved 2025-07-03.
  18. ^ Cutler, Kelly (December 3, 2023). Search Marketing: A Strategic Approach to SEO and SEM. Kogan Page. p. 52. ISBN 9781398612815.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  19. ^ Krivit, Alex; Das, Abhi (2021-10-18). "Crawler Hints Update: Cloudflare Supports IndexNow and Announces General Availability". Retrieved 2025-07-03.
  20. ^ "IndexNow Sync". Majinsoft.
  21. ^ Beilharz, Felix (December 12, 2023). Online Marketing Manager in Handbuch für die Praxis (in German). O'Reilly. p. 207. ISBN 9783960108245.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  22. ^ Schwartz, Barry (October 29, 2021). "Google on IndexNow". Search Engine Roundtable.
  23. ^ "Google Indexing API documentation". Google Developers.
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