Tell search engines when a page changes (IndexNow)

What it is

A search engine comes back to a page when it chooses to, which can be days or weeks after you changed it. IndexNow is a free, open service of the search engines: a website announces the addresses of pages that changed, and the engines can read the new version sooner. It is used by Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, Yep, the Internet Archive and Amazon, who pass every announcement on to each other. Microsoft Copilot answers from pages Bing has read, so a fixed page reaches Copilot through Bing.

Google does not take part. For Google, open the page in Search Console's URL inspection and choose Request indexing.

Do you need it?

Many website platforms already announce changes by themselves: on WordPress an IndexNow plugin does it, and Cloudflare calls it Crawler Hints. If yours does, you do not need this card.

Set it up, once per site

On a check, under What reached your website, find Tell search engines when a page changes.

1. 1Choose Set up for my site, then Download the key file. It is a small text file that holds one line, your key.
2. 2Upload it to the top folder of your website without renaming it, so that the address the card shows opens it. If your website builder does not let you add files there, your web developer or host can.
3. 3Come back and choose Check the file. The search engines read the same file to see that the announcements really come from your site. If the address forwards to your site's other name (from example.com to www.example.com, or back) and the file opens there, that counts, and the card then shows the address under that name.

The key belongs to your site, not to one check: every later check on that website finds it set up.

Announce pages

Under Pages that changed, tick the pages you changed. The list offers the pages on your site checklist, the pages you checked one by one and the pages of your site the assistants read in this check. Add any other address of the same site under Other addresses on your site, one per line, then choose Announce these pages.

• Up to 100 addresses in one announcement, and 10 announcements a day.
• Only addresses on the site that holds the key file are sent.
• Announce a page only when it really changed. An announcement asks for a visit: it does not promise one, and it does not change how a page ranks. A site that keeps announcing pages that did not change can be ignored.

What PollyX sends and keeps

An announcement holds your site's address, your key and the page addresses you ticked, and goes to IndexNow, which shares it with the search engines above. PollyX keeps the key, the day the file was found, and how many pages you announced and when. Nothing about your visitors is involved.