IndexNow is a feature provided by Bing, Microsoft’s search engine. It enables website owners and publishers to instantly notify Bing’s search index about new or updated content on their websites in real-time or near real-time.

IndexNow is a free, open-source protocol empowering website owners with unprecedented control over how quickly their content is discovered and displayed in search results—giving consumers access to the most current information at the time of search.

Integrating IndexNow into your existing workflow is easy. With just a simple API or plug-in, you’re on your way to faster content indexing and enhanced SEO, all without disrupting your current processes. Many content management systems and cloud delivery networks also already offer built-in support.

Follow the four-step process to integrate IndexNow.

Generate API Key

An API key is needed to match the ownership of the domain with submitted URLs. Use the API generator at https://www.bing.com/indexnow/getstarted.

API key example

ae16248c9a224373ab3341f7bfetyui

Host your API key

Host your UTF-8 key file at the root of your website:

https://domain/<API_key>.txt

with the <API_key> in the content of the text file.

Example

https://www.example.com/ae16248c9a224373ab3341f7bfetyui.txt

with the key ae16248c9a224373ab3341f7bfetyui in the content of the text file.

Submit URLs

Submit individual or bulk URLs with your key location as your URL parameter: Send one URL via an HTTP request

Request example

POST /IndexNow HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Host: api.indexnow.org
{
"host": "www.example.org",
"key": "9c16251c9a224373ab3341f7bfebfe1f",
"keyLocation": "https://www.example.org/9c16251c9a224373ab3341f7bfebfe1f.txt",
"urlList": [
"https://www.example.org/url1",
"https://www.example.org/folder/url2",
"https://www.example.org/url3"
]
}

Response

HTTP Code  Response            Reasons
200        Ok                  URL submitted successfully
400        Bad request         Invalid format
403        Forbidden           In case of key not valid
422        Unprocessable       Entity In case of URLs don’t belong 
                               to the host or the key is not matching
                               the schema in the protocol
429        Too Many Requests   Too Many Requests (potential Spam)

Verify URLs

Use Bing Webmaster Tools to verify if your URLs are received by search engines.

For further details, please visit https://www.bing.com/indexnow/.