What is IndexNow?

By the Variask team · Updated

Definition

IndexNow is an open protocol that lets a website tell participating search engines, such as Bing, that a page was added, changed or removed, so it can be crawled sooner. Faster indexing in Bing also helps Copilot and other features that use Bing's index.

How it works

  • The site hosts a key file to prove ownership.
  • When a page changes, the site sends its address to IndexNow.
  • Participating search engines share the notification.
  • Many CMS platforms and plugins support it.

What it means for brands

  • Turn on IndexNow if your CMS supports it. It is free.
  • It speeds up discovery but does not guarantee ranking.

Questions

IndexNow:
common questions

Google has not adopted IndexNow. Use sitemaps and Search Console for Google.

Bing and several others, including Yandex, Seznam and Naver.

Related terms

Keep exploring

Technical

Sitemap

A sitemap is an XML file that lists the pages on your site you want crawled, often with last modified dates. It helps search engines and other crawlers find your important pages.

Read

Technical

AI crawlers

AI crawlers are bots run by AI companies that visit websites to collect content, either to train models or to fetch pages live when an assistant answers a question.

Read

Engines and surfaces

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot is Microsoft's AI assistant, built into Windows, Edge, Bing and Microsoft 365. It grounds its answers in Bing search results, so Bing visibility matters for appearing in Copilot.

Read
Full glossary