What is IndexNow?
IndexNow is an open protocol that lets websites instantly notify participating search engines when URLs are created, updated, or deleted — replacing the wait for a crawler to rediscover the page. A site pings a simple API with the changed URL and a verification key file hosted at the domain root.
IndexNow is supported by Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, and Yep — notably not Google, which relies on its own crawl scheduling and the separate Indexing API for limited content types. Microsoft Bing's index feeds Copilot and several AI answer surfaces, which makes IndexNow a fast lane into AI-visible indexes.
For sites on Cloudflare, IndexNow requires zero code: enabling Crawler Hints (Speed → Crawler Hints) automatically submits change notifications on Cloudflare's edge. Self-hosted implementations post to api.indexnow.org with the URL list and key.