What IndexNow does
IndexNow is an open protocol for notifying participating search engines about added, updated or deleted URLs. A valid request identifies the host, changed URLs and a key that the engine can verify on the host.
The protocol documentation explicitly separates notification from indexing. Engines remain responsible for deciding whether and when to crawl or index a submitted URL.
Controls worth implementing
- Serve important content in crawlable HTML with stable canonical URLs.
- Keep XML sitemaps current and submit changed URLs through IndexNow when the publishing system supports it.
- Use Bing Webmaster Tools to inspect crawl and indexation evidence instead of inferring success from a successful HTTP submission alone.
- Separate Bing indexation evidence from observations made in Microsoft Copilot; one does not prove the other.
Claims to avoid
- Do not claim that Microsoft Clarity improves rankings; no such benefit is documented in Bing Webmaster Guidelines.
- Do not present an IndexNow 200 response as proof of indexation.
- Do not generalise a Copilot citation observed once into a durable ranking factor.