IndexNow
What we check
IndexNow is a way for a site to tell search engines “this page changed” the moment it happens, instead of waiting to be crawled. To use it, a site publishes a key: a short string of letters, digits, and dashes, in a text file at /{key}.txt whose contents are the key itself.
We look for that key file. We find the key wherever a site might name it: a line in robots.txt, a text file the sitemap or robots.txt points to, /indexnow.txt, or a link in the home page’s head. If a key file is there and says what it should, the check passes; if there isn’t one, it fails. We can’t see whether you actually send the pings, so the published key stands in for them.
Why it matters
AI assistants answer from search indexes, and Bing’s is one of the biggest they draw on. Without IndexNow, a new or changed page waits until a crawler happens to come back, which can take weeks. With it, Bing, Yandex, and the engines that read their indexes hear about the change in minutes.
That gap matters most when something is new: a launch, a price change, a correction. Until the index catches up, an assistant answers from the old page, or doesn’t know the new one exists.
How to pass
- Make up a key: 8 to 128 letters, digits, and dashes. A random 32-character string is typical.
- Publish it at the root of your site as a text file named after the key, containing only the key:
https://example.com/d58ee676b99b84276c9b696522921b79.txtd58ee676b99b84276c9b696522921b79 - Say where it is, so a checker can find it. A line in robots.txt is simplest:
IndexNow-Key: d58ee676b99b84276c9b696522921b79 - Ping when a page changes. One request does it, and the engines that take part share what they get:
https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow?url=https://example.com/new-page&key=d58ee676b99b84276c9b696522921b79
Many platforms and plugins (WordPress, Cloudflare, Wix, and others) can publish the key and send the pings for you; look for an IndexNow setting before building it yourself.