Submitting URLs via IndexNow

IndexNow is a protocol that lets you ping search engines the moment a URL is published or updated. Bing, Yandex, Naver and Seznam all support it. Google doesn't. This page documents the setup and per-engine quirks.

How the protocol works

1. You host a text file at your domain root containing a unique 32-character key.
2. You POST URLs (with your key) to the IndexNow endpoint.
3. The receiving engine fetches your key file to verify ownership.
4. On match, the engine queues your URLs for immediate crawl.

Key file setup

1. Console → IndexNow → Setup → Generate key.
2. Download the file we generate (filename = key.txt; contents = the key).
3. Upload to your domain root: https://yourdomain.com/abc123.txt.
4. Click Verify. We fetch the file to confirm.

Submit URLs

Three input methods:

• Dashboard: Console → IndexNow → Submit. Paste up to 10,000 URLs.
• API: POST /v1/indexnow with a urls array. See API example below.
• Webhook from your CMS: WordPress plugin and Shopify app auto-submit on publish.

API equivalent

bash
curl -X POST https://api.semoptimiser.com/v1/indexnow \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "urls": [
      "https://example.com/new-post",
      "https://example.com/updated-page"
    ]
  }'

We forward to all four supported engines in parallel and return the per-engine response.

Per-engine behaviour

When NOT to submit

• Don't resubmit the same URL multiple times per day. It can flag your domain as spammy.
• Don't submit URLs that aren't actually new or updated.
• Don't submit URLs that aren't reachable (404, 403, behind auth).
• Don't submit URLs with noindex tags – they'll be ignored after the engine crawls them.

History and audit

Console → IndexNow → History shows every URL ever submitted, the engine response, and (if you have GSC connected for Bing) whether the URL is now indexed.