IndexNow key checker
IndexNow lets your site tell search engines the moment a page is added, changed or removed, instead of waiting for them to notice. It only works if your key file is right. Enter your website — and your key, if you know it — to check the file the engines will read.
What IndexNow is
IndexNow is an open protocol supported by Bing, Yandex, Seznam, Naver and other search engines. When you publish or update a page, your site sends a short notice (a "ping") listing the changed addresses. The engines share pings with each other, so one notice reaches all of them. Google does not use IndexNow.
To prove a ping really came from you, each one carries a key, and the engines fetch a text file from your site named after that key — https://www.example.com/<your-key>.txt — that must contain exactly the key. If the file is missing or wrong, the engines reject the ping.
What it checks
- Finding the file. If you paste a key, we check that file first. We also look for any
<key>.txtaddress your homepage or robots.txt mentions — the same discovery our full scan uses. - The response. The file must answer HTTP 200, directly rather than through a redirect.
- The contents. Exactly the key, and nothing else: not an HTML page, not an empty file, not a different key.
- The format. A plain UTF-8 text file, served as
text/plain.
How to set IndexNow up
- On WordPress, install an IndexNow plugin or turn on the "instant indexing" or IndexNow option in your SEO plugin. It creates the key, serves the key file and pings on every publish.
- On other platforms, check whether your platform or CDN has an IndexNow option — some send pings for you. Otherwise, generate a key (8 to 128 letters, digits or dashes), save it in a text file named
<key>.txtin your site's top folder, and have your site send a ping toapi.indexnow.orgwhen a page changes. - Check the file with this tool, then watch the IndexNow section in Bing Webmaster Tools to confirm pings are arriving.
Questions
Does Google use IndexNow?
No. Google doesn't take part in IndexNow. For Google, keep your XML sitemap up to date and named in robots.txt, and use Search Console to request a recrawl of an important page.
Which search engines use IndexNow?
Bing, Yandex, Seznam and Naver among others. A ping sent to any one of them is shared with the rest, so you only need to notify one.
Why can't the checker find my key file on its own?
Because the file is named after your key, and nothing requires you to link to it. Unless your homepage or robots.txt mentions it, there's no way to find it from outside. Paste your key (your IndexNow or SEO plugin shows it) and we'll check that file directly.
Is my IndexNow key a secret?
Not really. The key file is public by design — the engines read it to confirm that a ping came from you. All someone else could do with it is notify the engines about your own pages, which they then crawl and judge as usual. We use the key you paste for this one check and don't store it.
My key file is valid. Does that mean IndexNow is working?
It means the engines will accept pings that use this key. Whether your site actually sends a ping when you publish or update a page happens on your server and can't be seen from outside. Bing Webmaster Tools shows the IndexNow submissions it has received.
The background, in plain English: IndexNow explained: tell Bing about new pages, and who doesn't use it