IndexNow instant pings

One POST tells Bing, Yandex, Seznam and Naver that a URL changed, with the verification key derived rather than being one more secret to manage.

What it is

An IndexNow submission carrying the host, the key, the key's location and the changed URL list. The key is derived deterministically by hashing the platform's existing encryption key, and served at its own route as a plain text file so the engines can verify it. IndexNow can be switched off from Settings, in which case the announcement records that it was skipped rather than silently doing nothing.

Also called: bing indexing · instant indexing · tell bing · indexnow

See it
IndexNow instant pings
Area
Integrations
Group
Search engine plumbing
System
Marketing Site
Solves
2 named problems
01indexNowKey() hashes 'indexnow:' plus the encryption key and takes the first 32 hex characters.
02/indexnow/<key>.txt serves the bare key and 404s on anything else.
03pingIndexNow() posts host, key, keyLocation and up to 10,000 URLs.
The Settings engines card: IndexNow on/off with the last ping result — 'accepted ✓' and the URL count. Sample data — no customer information appears here.
How it works
  1. 1indexNowKey() hashes 'indexnow:' plus the encryption key and takes the first 32 hex characters.
  2. 2/indexnow/<key>.txt serves the bare key and 404s on anything else.
  3. 3pingIndexNow() posts host, key, keyLocation and up to 10,000 URLs.
  4. 4202 is treated as success, as the protocol intends.
  5. 5The route is on the public middleware allowlist alongside the sitemap and robots, because a verification file behind auth is useless.
Why we built it

The header states the split of responsibilities: "IndexNow — instant 'this changed' pings that Bing, Yandex, Seznam and Naver all share. One POST covers them all. Google ignores IndexNow; it discovers through the sitemap + Search Console instead." Deriving the key was deliberate — "no new secret to manage" — one fewer thing to rotate, lose or forget to set in an environment.

The problem
  • New and changed pages waited for the next crawl.
  • Each engine would otherwise need its own submission.
Sound familiar?
What you get
Four engines told in one request, immediately
No new secret to manage — the key is derived
Switchable from Settings, and the skip is recorded

See it on your own jobs

Twenty minutes, your numbers, no slide deck. We’ll build one of your real buildings in front of you and send you the estimate link at the end — yours to keep either way.

or keep browsing features →