What is IndexNow and how does it work?

What is IndexNow?

IndexNow is an open-source protocol developed by Microsoft and Yandex that lets website owners instantly notify participating search engines when a URL is added, updated, or deleted. Instead of waiting for a search engine's crawler to discover the change, you push a simple API call that says “this URL just changed — go fetch it.”

The protocol is supported by Bing, Yandex, and several other search engines. Google has its own equivalent — the Google Indexing API — but IndexNow covers the rest of the search landscape in a single call.

How does IndexNow work?

The process is straightforward:

1. You generate a unique API key and host it at a specific URL on your domain (e.g. yourdomain.com/abc123.txt)
2. When a page is published or updated, you send a POST request to the IndexNow endpoint with the URL and your key
3. The search engine verifies your key, then queues the URL for crawling

The whole process takes seconds. Compare that to traditional crawling, where a search engine might not discover your new page for days — or weeks on lower-authority sites.

Which search engines support IndexNow?

IndexNow is currently supported by:

• Bing — Microsoft's search engine, also powers DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, and Ecosia
• Yandex — dominant search engine in Russia
• Naver — South Korea's leading search engine
• Seznam — Czech Republic search engine

Google is notably absent from the IndexNow protocol. For Google, you'll need to use the Google Indexing API separately.

Why does IndexNow matter for HubSpot users?

HubSpot is a popular CMS for marketing teams, and marketing teams publish content constantly — blog posts, landing pages, product pages. Without IndexNow, each piece of new content sits waiting for Bing's crawler to stumble across it.

With IndexNow integrated into your HubSpot portal, every publish triggers an automatic notification to Bing. Your content can appear in Bing search results within hours rather than days, which matters especially for time-sensitive content like announcements, product launches, or topical blog posts.

How to add IndexNow to HubSpot

You can set up IndexNow on HubSpot manually (generating a key file, setting up webhook triggers) or use a dedicated app that handles everything automatically. Our IndexNow for HubSpot app connects your portal in minutes and submits every page publish automatically — no code required.

For a step-by-step guide, see: How to add IndexNow to your HubSpot website.