IndexNow: notify Bing and other engines when pages change

Set up an IndexNow key, publish its key file, and push new, updated or removed URLs to Bing, Yandex, Naver and other engines, with every response logged.

Property → Indexing → IndexNow4 min read

IndexNow is an open protocol for telling search engines that a URL was added, changed or removed, so they can crawl it soon instead of waiting to rediscover it. One submission is shared with every participating engine (IndexNow documentation), including Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam.cz and Yep (IndexNow FAQ). Google is not among them: for Google, keep sitemaps current and use URL Inspection, as its recrawl guidance describes.

Set up your key

IndexNow proves you control a site with a key: a string you send with each submission and also publish as a text file on the site.

Under IndexNow API key, press Generate for a random 32-character key, or type your own: 8 to 128 characters, using letters, digits and dashes. Press Save key.
Press Download key file. You get a file named <key>.txt that contains only the key.
Upload it to the root of your site, so it answers at https://<your host>/<key>.txt. Copy URL gives you the exact address.
Press Verify key file. AutoPSEO fetches the address and checks that the body is exactly the key.

The badge next to the heading tells you where you stand: No key yet, Key saved, not verified, Key file verified or Key file unreachable, with the reason when a check fails (not found, wrong contents, timed out after 8 seconds). A verification is remembered for seven days; check again after moving or redeploying your site.

Keep the key file in place permanently. The engines fetch it to confirm that you own the site; when the file is missing or its contents differ, the key counts as invalid (the 403 response below).

Submit URLs

Under Submit URLs to IndexNow, pick a source:

Paste URLs, one per line.
File upload: TXT, CSV with a url column, or a sitemap XML file.
From a GSC sitemap or Sitemap URL: every URL of the sitemap, index files followed.

Press Submit to IndexNow. Up to 10,000 URLs go in one submission, which is the protocol's limit per request. Before sending, AutoPSEO:

drops addresses that are not valid URLs or do not belong to the property;
skips URLs already submitted in the last 10 minutes, to avoid being throttled as spam;
groups the rest by host, because each request may only cover one host.

The result lists each batch with its response, and how many URLs were skipped and why.

What the response codes mean

Code	Label	Meaning
200	OK	Received, and the key was already validated.
202	Accepted	Received; the key is still to be validated by fetching your key file.
400	Bad request	The request was not in a valid format.
403	Key rejected	No key file at the expected place, or its contents differ from the key.
422	Rejected	The URLs do not belong to the host, or the key does not match the protocol's format.
429	Rate limited	Too many requests, treated as potential spam. Wait before resubmitting.
5xx	Server error	The endpoint failed; try again later.
-	Failed	The request did not complete.

A 200 or 202 only means the endpoint received your URLs. It does not confirm that any engine crawled or indexed them; check that in Bing Webmaster Tools or the engine's own console.

Submission history

Submission history keeps the last 200 batches sent from the property with the time, host, number of URLs, response and its meaning. The cards count Submissions, URLs submitted, Accepted (200 / 202) and Rejected or failed. Open a batch to see every URL it contained.

When to submit

Submit when a page is published, when its content changes meaningfully, and when it is removed or redirected. Resubmitting unchanged URLs adds nothing and can get you throttled. For a large backlog, sending the sitemap once is enough.

How AutoPSEO helps

For articles written by the content engine you do not need this page at all. If your site receives articles through the webhook and serves an IndexNow key, it declares the key in its answer to AutoPSEO's ping. AutoPSEO then notifies IndexNow after every delivery your site accepts, with the addresses your site reports for the article in every language (or the ones it stopped serving after a takedown), once per delivery run and only on your own host. A ping that is throttled or cannot be delivered is retried after an hour, doubling up to a day; one rejected with 403 or 422 is not retried. The latest result is shown on the content page. Articles AutoPSEO hosts for you are submitted with the hosted renderer's own key. See delivery and hosting.