IndexNow and Bing Webmaster Tools: get new pages crawled faster

What IndexNow is, how to host the key file, how to ping Bing and other engines after a deploy, and how it fits next to Google Search Console.

By Sumit JhaUpdated October 16, 20267 min readFor: Developers and site owners who publish often

Short answer

IndexNow is an open protocol that tells Bing, Yandex, and other participating engines when URLs change so they can crawl sooner. Host a key file at your site root, then POST your URLs to api.indexnow.org after each deploy. It does not replace Google Search Console; use both.

Also set up Google Search Console. IndexNow does not notify Google.

What IndexNow is

IndexNow is an open protocol: when you publish or update URLs, you tell participating search engines immediately instead of waiting for them to rediscover links. Bing, Yandex, and others support it. It is a crawl hint, not a guarantee of indexing or ranking.

Set up Bing Webmaster Tools

Add your site in Bing Webmaster Tools.
Verify ownership (often you can import from Google Search Console).
Submit the same sitemap.xml you use in Google.

Host the key file

Generate an IndexNow key (a random hex string). Put a plain text file at https://yourdomain.com/<key>.txt whose body is exactly that key. Engines fetch the file to confirm you control the host before they trust your ping.

Ping after deploy

POST JSON to https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow with your host, key, keyLocation, and a list of absolute URLs. You can send the whole sitemap after a big release, or only the paths that changed. Expect HTTP 200 or 202 when the request is accepted.

Run the ping only against production after the key file and new pages are live. Pinging before deploy fails key checks or points crawlers at missing URLs.

How Shipcheck does it

This site hosts an IndexNow key under the public folder and ships a small script. After you deploy shipcheck.site, from the web/ directory run:

npm run indexnow

That reads the live sitemap and notifies IndexNow. Optional path arguments limit the ping to specific URLs. See web/scripts/indexnow.mjs in the repo.

For AI visibility beyond Bing, also check which AI crawlers your robots.txt allows and whether content is in the server HTML.

Questions

Does Google support IndexNow?

No. IndexNow is used by Bing and other participating engines. Keep submitting your sitemap in Google Search Console for Google.

Where does the key file go?

At the site root, for example https://yourdomain.com/your-key.txt, with the key string as the only content. The same key is sent in the IndexNow API body.

When should I ping IndexNow?

After each production deploy that adds or changes indexable URLs. Ping the sitemap set or the specific new paths. Do not spam unchanged URLs every minute.

Is IndexNow a ranking boost?

No. It only speeds discovery and crawl. Rankings still depend on relevance, quality, and links.