IndexNow: instant indexing for Bing and others

IndexNow is an open protocol that lets a site tell search engines "this URL changed, come and crawl it". Instead of waiting for a crawler to notice, the engines hear about a new or updated page right away. Bing, Yandex, Naver and Seznam use it and share submissions with each other. (Google does not use IndexNow; it relies on your sitemap and its own crawling.)

RankKit SEO's IndexNow module is free and off by default.

Turn it on

1. Go to RankKit SEO → Dashboard and find the Modules card.
2. Turn on IndexNow ("Tell Bing and others about new content instantly.").

That's all. There is no key to copy: RankKit SEO creates one for you and serves it at https://example.com/<key>.txt, which is how the engines verify the submissions come from your site.

What gets submitted

• Each time a post, page or other public content type is published or updated, RankKit SEO sends its URL about 60 seconds later. Several saves within that minute become one submission.
• Submissions go to api.indexnow.org, which shares them with Bing, Yandex, Naver and Seznam.
• Only URLs on your own site are sent.
• Nothing is sent on sites whose WordPress environment type is local or development, or while a WordPress import is running.

Submissions run through WP-Cron. If your site gets very little traffic or WP-Cron is disabled, they go out when cron next runs.

Submit URLs by hand

Useful after you change many pages at once, or to nudge a page you just fixed.

1. Go to RankKit SEO → Tools and find the IndexNow card.
2. Paste the URLs into URLs, one per line.
3. Click Submit.

You see "Submitted N URLs (HTTP code)". A 200 or 202 means IndexNow accepted them. Keep the module on: the engines check your key file, which is only served while IndexNow is on.

Tip An AI agent connected over MCP can do this too, with the submit_indexnow tool, or with ping_sitemap, which submits your sitemap index and your most recently updated URLs.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Fix
"IndexNow is skipped on local and development sites."	The site's WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE is local or development.	Expected on staging copies. Live sites should use production.
HTTP 403	The engine couldn't verify your key file.	Make sure the IndexNow module is on and /<key>.txt opens in a browser. Use pretty permalinks.
HTTP 422	A URL doesn't belong to your site's host.	Submit only URLs on this site, with the same www or non-www host as your site address.
HTTP 429	Too many submissions in a short time.	Wait and try again later.
"No URLs on this site to submit."	The URLs point at another domain.	Use URLs on this site only.

FAQ

Does IndexNow help with Google?

No. Google doesn't take part in IndexNow. Submit your sitemap in Google Search Console instead; Google re-reads it on its own.

Is it safe to submit every update?

Yes. IndexNow is designed for this, and RankKit SEO only sends a URL when it is published or updated, with saves in the same minute combined.

Does IndexNow guarantee faster indexing?

It tells the engines about a change immediately. Whether and when they crawl and index the page is still up to them.