Everything You Need to Know about IndexNow

Since the announcement of IndexNow last October, the entire SEO community has been looking forward to how search engines would use it in their systems to speed up crawling and indexing in SEO. Microsoft Bing’s Principal Program Manager Fabrice Canel discussed the new changes on how search engines keep track of the latest SEO content on the web.

So, what is it exactly, and what do people need to know about it regarding SEO?

Here’s some insight on the matter.

The Use of IndexNow

For a long time, search engines have been discovering online content in the same manner.

In 1993, JumpStation was the first Internet discovery tool to employ bots to follow (or crawl) links from one website to another and build a content map or index.

Other search engines began employing this method to discover fresh content over the next few years.

This method was incorporated into an algorithm that also took into account content, relevance, and other variables – thus, creating what is now known as search engine optimisation.

It took little time for SEO-savvy web publishers to recognise the significance of crawling and indexing in SEO to achieve high search rankings. Indeed, a website will not create organic traffic without indexed content.

The problem is that unless a site is large and highly visited, it might take days or even weeks for a search engine to crawl and index new pages. Even for big eCommerce websites or marketplace players, it may take weeks for engines to pick up fresh arrivals or out-of-stock items — especially when relying on discoverability with simple crawls.

Meanwhile, a website may have already lost crucial traffic to other players.

To make things easier, Microsoft Bing launched a new project called IndexNow in October 2021.

What is IndexNow?

IndexNow is a free, open-source protocol that allows website owners to index their sites instantly across participating search engines, updating results based on the most recent changes in content.

Simply put, it’s a quick ping that notifies search engines on whether a URL and its content have been added, updated, or deleted.

IndexNow’s goal is to improve Internet efficiency by eliminating the need for exploratory crawls.

How Does IndexNow Operate?

Search engines acquire index data in two ways: push and pull.

When a search engine arrives at a website to look for web pages and collect information from the server, it is known as pull indexing.

This is how search engines have worked up until now.

On the other hand, when the web publisher or content management system notifies the search engine that new pages have been added, deleted, or other modifications have been made, this is known as push indexing.

IndexNow allows all URLs submitted to any IndexNow-enabled search engine to be simultaneously submitted to all the other search engines that use the protocol, which is what makes it truly innovative.

Which Search Engines Make Use of IndexNow?

As of now, Yandex and Bing are both using IndexNow.

Meanwhile, according to an unnamed expert, a few others are currently experimenting with the protocol.

DuckDuckGo has not expressed intentions to use IndexNow thus far.

However, it’s worth noting that the privacy-focused search engine has access to up to 400 sources aside from its own DuckDuckBot web crawler, which is utilised in the creation of search results.

Since Yandex and Bing are among the sources mentioned, updated SEO content could be spotted much faster in DuckDuckGo as well, thanks to IndexNow.

Google, the most popular search engine of all time, has already expressed its interest in testing the IndexNow protocol. While the search engine company hasn’t confirmed whether or not to implement it, their efforts indicate recognition of its potential.

Google’s main concerns about IndexNow appear to be related to long-term viability and efficiency.

Google is now utilising HTTP/2, an effective fundamental data transfer protocol that has been used by nearly half of all crawls, and may opt to use IndexNow instead if it proves superior.

They may also opt to create their own version if they believe an API-based approach is necessary, and it isn’t a given that they will.

However, not everyone agrees.

Several people in the SEO community don’t feel there is a need for this protocol, saying that XML sitemaps already do what IndexNow claims to achieve.

What are the Advantages of Using IndexNow?

The main advantage of IndexNow for publishers is reducing the time between updates being released and search engines recognising them.

By allowing webmasters to notify all participating URLs with a single API call, search engine content discovery becomes much more efficient.

This is beneficial to website owners since server demands are reduced. In addition, search engine spiders no longer have to execute exploratory crawls to see whether or not a website has been modified.

Without the need for a duplicate site load, servers may now operate more effectively and efficiently, resulting in lower energy consumption.

Unlike an XML sitemap, which only directs SEO crawlers to pages on a website, IndexNow notifies search engines about non-200 status code pages.

Maximise the Benefits of IndexNow for Your Page SEO

IndexNow offers many benefits for the SEO industry as a whole. One of the most important benefits is that it can help you deliver new content to users faster. At position1seo.co.uk, we can help your business make the most of IndexNow and achieve better page rankings.

Position1SEO can help you maximise your IndexNow benefits by ensuring that your site is correctly configured. We can also provide excellent advice on creating high-quality content that will be indexed quickly and accurately by search engines and explain to you how crawling and indexing affect SEO.

Our team of SEO experts can help you achieve better rankings for your pages, and you can be sure that your website will be given the best possible chance of success. Our SEO best practices combine our vast expertise with professional tools to assist companies in achieving a constant supply of organic traffic and clients.

If you’re looking for an effective way to improve your site’s SEO, please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or queries. For further information on our services, please contact us at jason@position1seo.com or call us on 0141 404 7515.