What Is IndexNow and Why Is It Important?

If you’ve ever felt like it takes forever for search engines to pick up on major changes to your website, there’s good news. IndexNow is an invaluable search engine optimization (SEO) protocol that enables sites to instantly notify search engines any time content is added, updated, or deleted. This improves indexing speed and can help enhance site visibility by promoting fast, accurate search engine results.

As artificial intelligence plays a bigger role in search and digital spaces become more competitive, IndexNow will become increasingly important for maintaining digital relevance. Below, we provide a primer to IndexNow for SEO and marketing teams, breaking down how it’s changing SEO, the benefits it can offer, and best practices for implementation.

Understanding IndexNow

IndexNow was launched in October 2021 as a joint venture of Microsoft Bing and Yandex. It was developed as an open-source protocol, meaning it’s free for anyone to use, and designed to address inefficiencies in traditional web crawling¹. Early adopters of the new protocol include WordPress, Wix, and Cloudflare².

Within three years, IndexNow reached 2.5 billion URL submissions, a testament to its widespread implementation³. There is one notable holdout: Google. As of June 2025, the search engine giant has not yet joined the protocol, although it has previously expressed interest in its benefits⁴.

This exception aside, IndexNow has proven popular. Instantaneous indexing SEO benefits website owners, search engine users, and search engines alike. IndexNow benefits include:

• Eliminate indexing delays: Instead of waiting for search engines to discover new or updated content, IndexNow alerts them instantaneously. A single notification informs all participating search engines of updates.
• Optimize crawl resources: Search engines have limited crawling resources. IndexNow helps them conserve resources by providing proactive updates rather than relying on crawlers to repeatedly check unchanged pages.
• Ensure real-time accuracy: Up-to-date search results reflect the current state of a website, so users don’t encounter outdated information or broken links. This also enables brands to achieve search visibility for new products, price changes, or time-sensitive content faster than competitors using traditional indexing methods.

How IndexNow Changes SEO Strategy

A real-time indexing strategy allows for immediate search visibility. Picture your new content appearing in search results in minutes rather than the days or weeks required by traditional crawling cycles. Faster feedback loops enable SEO teams to quickly assess the impact of content changes. Instead of a “wait and see” approach, teams can iterate and adapt immediately.

From a competitive standpoint, the immediacy of real-time indexing is critical for time-sensitive content, such as seasonal promotions. For e-commerce brands, real-time updates ensure accurate inventory displays online, so product availability changes, pricing updates, and new arrivals announcements are available to consumers right away.

IndexNow also has implications for nontraditional SEO, notably AI-powered search environments. With real-time indexing, tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT can access and reference up-to-date content. Since AI tools often pull from the most current data they can find, real-time indexing means a higher likelihood of a site being cited in AI-generated responses.

Benefits of Implementing IndexNow

When new content is picked up by search engines more quickly, users can discover it sooner. This can help drive organic web traffic and clicks. More generally, real-time content synchronization ensures that search engine and AI search results correctly reflect your current content. Depending on the business model, it can also translate to business impact.

Take e-commerce brands as an example. New product pages that are instantly indexed are not only searchable; they are also purchasable. By allowing consumers to discover these pages as soon as they’re updated, there is potential for a faster return on investment.

Instant indexing SEO’s benefits become even more pronounced when you think about how traditional search engines function. Normally, limited crawl budgets are focused on pages with meaningful changes. Bots aren’t going to crawl static content repeatedly. IndexNow ensures nothing slips through the cracks.

Fewer unnecessary bot visits to your site can also reduce bandwidth usage, alleviating server strain. Having the potential to improve site performance, even on high-traffic sites, creates a better experience for the users that matter the most: consumers.

How to Implement IndexNow on Your Site

Many platforms support IndexNow, including Microsoft Bing, Yandex, content delivery networks like Cloudflare, and CMS platforms like WordPress and Wix. If you haven’t yet implemented IndexNow on your site, it’s a good idea to do so.

Here’s a quick guide to IndexNow implementation⁵:

• Generate your API key: Visit the IndexNow key generator or create a unique alphanumeric string (32–128 characters) to serve as your site’s identifier.
• Host the verification file: Create a text file containing only the key value. The file should be named after your API key. Upload the file to your website’s root directory.
• Choose your implementation method: Select from plugin installation, manual API integration, CDN-level activation, or CMS built-in features.
• Configure automatic submissions: Set up your system to trigger IndexNow notifications whenever you make a content update.
• Test the integration: Submit a test URL manually to verify the API key is properly hosted and so search engines can access your verification file.
• Monitor submission status: Use Bing Webmaster Tools’ IndexNow Insights report to track submissions. Regularly check submission logs, monitor IndexNow Insights reports, and keep your API key file accessible and up to date.
• Integrate into existing workflows: Implementing IndexNow is not a one-and-done job. Incorporate IndexNow submissions into your existing content publishing workflows.

As you get set up, there are a few SEO indexing best practices to keep in mind. First, use separate API keys for different domains or subdomains to maintain proper tracking. Second, for security reasons, you want to ensure your API key file is accessible via HTTPS and that your submission endpoints use secure connections.

Timing is another consideration. You want to submit a notification as soon as content changes instead of batching submissions, which would defeat the entire purpose of a real-time indexing strategy. However, avoid submitting minor changes like fixing a typo or formatting. Focus on substantial content updates that would genuinely impact search relevance or user experience.

This is critical because you want to avoid over-submission: Only ping URLs that have genuinely changed content and monitor for HTTP 429 responses. This is a response code that search engines send when you’re submitting URLs to IndexNow too frequently, exceeding rate limits.

Why Brands of All Sizes Need IndexNow

Timely and accurate indexing can help businesses and brands stay competitive in search results across both traditional search engines and AI-driven tools. Sites with high volumes of content, like massive e-commerce shops, may find IndexNow especially useful, helping to reduce indexing delays that might otherwise cost conversions.

Socium’s SEO team is staying on top of the latest updates in search, combining technical expertise with strategic insight to help our clients stay competitive. Get your free consultation to find out how we can improve your brand’s SERP visibility.

IndexNow FAQ

What exactly is IndexNow?

IndexNow is an indexing protocol allowing websites to instantly notify participating search engines whenever content is created, updated, or deleted, ensuring quicker indexing and better search visibility.

Which search engines support IndexNow?

Currently, Bing and Yandex fully support IndexNow, with growing interest from other major search engines due to its efficiency and accuracy benefits.

How does IndexNow impact my website’s SEO?

By speeding up the indexing process, IndexNow helps your new or updated content appear in search results faster, improving your site’s overall visibility and potentially boosting organic traffic.

Do I need technical skills to implement IndexNow?

Basic technical knowledge or assistance from your SEO or web team is beneficial. However, many CMS platforms and plugins, such as Yoast SEO, simplify implementation significantly.

Sources

1. (18 October 2021). IndexNow – Instantly Index Your Web Content in Search Engines. Microsoft Bing Blogs. Retrieved June 23, 2025, from https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/october-2021/IndexNow-Instantly-Index-your-web-content-in-Search-Engines
2. Baker, L. (18 October 2021). Everything We Know About IndexNow So Far. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved June 23, 2025, from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/indexnow-what-we-know/439679/ 
3. Schwartz, B. (5 March 2024). Bing Webmaster Tools Gains New IndexNow Insights & Top SEO Insights Report. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved June 23, 2025, from https://searchengineland.com/bing-webmaster-tools-gains-new-indexnow-insights-top-seo-insights-report-438100 
4. Rijo, L. (30 December 2024). Google’s Absence from IndexNow Raises Questions About Web Indexing Standards. PPC Land. Retrieved June 23, 2025, from https://ppc.land/googles-absence-from-indexnow-raises-questions-about-web-indexing-standards/ 
5. (8 May 2025). What Is IndexNow? How To Boost Your SEO With Instant Indexing. Unchartified. Retrieved June 23, 2025, from https://www.unchartified.com/blog/what-is-indexnow-how-to-boost-your-seo-with-instant-indexing