Overview
This page is the atomic definition. The deep-dive lives at indexnow.
Definition
IndexNow is an open push protocol that lets sites notify participating search engines the instant a URL is created, updated, or deleted. The site holds a verification key (a hexadecimal string) hosted at a known path, then POSTs JSON or hits a single-URL GET endpoint to one participating engine, which fanouts the notification to others. Bing, Yandex, Seznam, and Naver participate; Google does not. The protocol was launched in 2021 by Microsoft and Yandex.
When it applies
Use IndexNow on any site that publishes or updates frequently and wants faster discovery on participating engines. It is most useful for news, ecommerce, and high-velocity blogs.
Example
A CMS POSTs to https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow with the host, key, and a list of updated URLs after each publish. Bing recrawls the URL within minutes instead of waiting for the next scheduled fetch.
Related concepts
- indexnow - the deep-dive with payload format and key hosting rules.
- crawl-budget - IndexNow reduces wasted recrawl spend.
- technical - the technical SEO checklist that includes IndexNow.
- canonical-url - submit canonical URLs to IndexNow, not parameterized variants.
- llms-txt - the parallel agent-discovery file, served alongside.
Citing this term
See IndexNow (llmbestpractices.com/glossary/indexnow).