Technical Overview: How IndexNow API Works for Instant URL Submission

The IndexNow API works by allowing websites to instantly notify participating search engines about changes to their URLs—such as additions, updates, or deletions—through a simple HTTP request. This notification triggers search engines to prioritize crawling and indexing those URLs faster than traditional discovery methods.

How IndexNow API Works for Instant URL Submission

1. API Key Generation and Verification

   • Website owners generate a unique IndexNow API key (an alphanumeric string) which acts as a signature verifying ownership.
   • This key must be hosted publicly either as a text file named after the key in the website’s root directory or as a DNS TXT record to prove domain ownership to search engines.

2. URL Submission (Ping)

   • When content changes (new page, update, or deletion) occur, the website sends an HTTP GET or POST request to the IndexNow API endpoint:

     https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow?url=https://yourdomain.com/updated-page&key=YOURKEY
     

   • This single request notifies all participating search engines simultaneously (e.g., Bing, Yandex, Seznam) without needing to ping each individually.

3. Search Engine Processing

   • Upon receiving the ping, search engines validate the URL and key, then queue the URL for crawling.
   • Crawling and indexing are subject to each engine’s internal logic, crawl budget, and quality criteria (e.g., robots.txt rules, content quality).
   • IndexNow does not guarantee immediate indexing but significantly speeds up the process compared to traditional crawling.

4. Batch Submission Support

   • The API supports submitting URLs individually or in batches (up to 10,000 URLs per request) using JSON payloads, which is efficient for sites with many updates.

5. Benefits

   • Reduces the delay between content changes and search engine crawling.
   • Saves bandwidth and server resources by reducing unnecessary crawling of unchanged pages.
   • Simplifies SEO workflows by centralizing URL notifications to one API endpoint.

Participating Search Engines

• Microsoft Bing
• Yandex
• Seznam.cz

Google has not fully adopted IndexNow but has tested it and continues to use its own indexing methods.

In summary, the IndexNow API enables websites to push URL updates instantly to multiple search engines via a single authenticated HTTP request, accelerating crawling and indexing while reducing overhead for webmasters. This push-based protocol contrasts with traditional pull-based crawling, making it a modern solution for real-time SEO indexing needs.