Definition

IndexNow

A protocol that pings search engines (Bing, Yandex) the moment a URL is published or updated.

Full definition

IndexNow is a lightweight HTTP API for telling participating search engines (currently Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam — Google declined to participate) that a URL has been added, updated, or deleted. It cuts the time from publish to index from days to minutes.

Why it matters

Freshness is a major ranking signal in AI search — especially for Perplexity and Bing-based engines (Copilot). IndexNow is the simplest way to ensure your fresh content is in the index when AI engines come asking.

Example

POST https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow with { 'host': 'example.com', 'key': 'xxx', 'urlList': ['https://example.com/new-page'] }

Related terms

robots.txt

A file at the root of your domain that tells crawlers which paths they're allowed to fetch.

Schema Markup

Structured data (usually JSON-LD) that describes a page's content in a machine-readable way.

Put it into practice

Run a free OptimAIze scan to see how your site handles IndexNow and the rest of the GEO checklist.

Run free scan

Frequently asked questions

Is IndexNow the same as SEO?

No. IndexNow is one piece of the broader GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) program that sits on top of classical SEO. The two work together — classical SEO gets you crawled and indexed; IndexNow is part of what gets you cited by AI engines.

Do I need a tool to implement IndexNow?

For most teams, a free scanner like OptimAIze is enough to identify what's missing. Implementation is usually a copy-paste of generated markup or a small code change — no specialist tool required.