New URL
Notify participating search engines when a genuinely new public page is published.
IndexNow Explained
What Is IndexNow and Does My Website Need It?
IndexNow is not a ranking trick. It is a protocol for notifying participating search engines when website URLs are added, updated or deleted.
Faster change notification
IndexNow tells participating search engines when a URL has changed.
Traditional crawling waits for a search-engine bot to discover that something is new, updated or deleted. IndexNow provides a direct notification route so participating search engines can learn about the change sooner.
Bing describes IndexNow as its strongly recommended URL-submission method.
Updated URL
Notify them when an existing page has changed meaningfully and should be revisited.
Deleted URL
Notify them when a URL has been removed or its permanent state has changed.
How does the key work?
The website proves that it is authorised to submit its own URLs.
A manual IndexNow setup can generate a key, place a matching text file on the website and include that key when URL notifications are sent. The official protocol recommends placing the key file at the root of the host.
What does an HTTP response mean?
The IndexNow protocol documents 200 as a successful URL submission and 202 as accepted with key validation pending. A response confirms receipt or acceptance of the notification—it does not mean the URL has been indexed or ranked.
Does it replace my sitemap?
No. Use IndexNow alongside normal crawl and sitemap foundations.
Your sitemap remains a structured list of important indexable URLs. Internal links remain essential for users and crawlers. Google Search Console remains the place to monitor Google indexing. IndexNow adds a change-notification route for participating search engines; it does not replace those other pieces.
Sitemap
Provides a durable list of important URLs that search engines can revisit.
IndexNow
Sends notifications when specific URLs are added, updated or deleted.
Real Vantora example
Vantora implemented IndexNow manually.
On 17 August 2026, Vantora placed its verification key file at the website root and submitted the 31 URLs then present in its sitemap through the IndexNow API. The request returned HTTP 202 Accepted, meaning the URLs were received with key validation pending at submission time.
The site was also submitted separately to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. That combination keeps the roles clear: sitemap discovery, webmaster-tool monitoring and IndexNow notifications each do a different job.