IndexNow Submission for Bing and Six More Engines

An IndexNow key is the string that ties a notification to your host. The protocol allows 8 to 128 characters, drawn from lowercase letters a to z, uppercase letters A to Z, the digits 0 to 9 and the dash. Anything outside that set or that length is not a valid key.

Valid and Invalid Keys

The Key SearchAnalysis.io Generates

SearchAnalysis.io generates a 32-character hex key for each site. Hex characters are the digits 0 to 9 and the letters a to f, so the key sits inside the allowed set and length. You never have to invent one or check it against the rules.

The key and its file go together. The file is named after the key and holds the key as its content. Change one without the other and engines answer with a 403 for a key that is not valid or a 422 for a key mismatch.

The IndexNow key belongs to the Bing side of a submission. The Google side uses Google OAuth instead, through Google Indexing API submission.

IndexNow expects the key hosted as a UTF-8 text file named {key}.txt at the site root. The file holds the key itself. An engine that receives a notification checks the key against that file, which is why a 202 response reads "received, key validation pending".

Address:  https://yourdomain/0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef.txt
Content:  0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef

File Rules

• File name: the key followed by .txt.
• Location: the site root, so the address is https://yourdomain/{key}.txt.
• Encoding: UTF-8 text.
• Content: the key, matching the file name exactly.

Keeping the File in Place

The file has to stay reachable for as long as you send notifications. A redesign, a host migration or a cleanup of old files can remove it without anyone noticing. When the key no longer checks out, engines answer 403, the code for a key that is not valid.

Add the file to whatever your team treats as permanent: the repository, the deploy folder or the server's web root. Note the key in your site documentation so the next person who touches the root knows the file belongs there.

To see what a fetch of the key file address returns, run it through the free indexability checker. It reports the HTTP status and follows up to 5 redirects, with a 10-second timeout. Test the exact address that engines will request, on the live domain.

An IndexNow request is an HTTP POST to a participating engine's /indexnow endpoint. It carries the list of URLs and the key that ties them to your host. One POST holds up to 10,000 URLs, so a large site can send a full sitemap section in a single request.

Rules Every Request Has to Meet

1. Every URL belongs to the host the key is hosted on. URLs from another host draw a 422.
2. The key in the request matches the hosted file. A mismatch draws a 422, and a key that is not valid draws a 403.
3. The request is well formed. An invalid format draws a 400.
4. The sender stays under the engine's rate limit. Too many requests draw a 429.

Batching in SearchAnalysis.io

A SearchAnalysis.io batch holds up to 10,000 URLs, the same ceiling as one IndexNow POST. SearchAnalysis.io budgets 10,000 IndexNow URLs a day per property. URLs outside the site's domain are filtered out before sending and show as Dropped, so they never reach an engine as a 422.

A URL already tracked on your account inside 30 days is skipped and reported instead of resent. Batches created through the submission REST API accept an Idempotency-Key header, and a retry with the same key returns the original batch instead of creating a duplicate.

IndexNow response codes tell you what an engine did with a POST. The protocol documents six of them. Two report success, and four report a problem you can fix.

What 200 and 202 Mean in SearchAnalysis.io

A 200 means submitted and a 202 means received. Neither code reports crawling or indexing. SearchAnalysis.io shows an accepted notification as Processing on the BING row, the label for a URL an engine accepted.

What the Error Codes Mean for You

An error that needs a person shows as Failed, with the error text on the row. The four error codes point at three areas: the request format, the key and the URL hosts, and the pace of requests. SearchAnalysis.io handles part of that before sending: it verifies the key file and drops URLs outside the site's domain.

The monitor in the SearchAnalysis.io product lists every URL with its per-channel statuses, filters by state, exports to CSV and supports bulk retry once the cause is fixed.

IndexNow engine sharing means one notification reaches more than the engine you send it to. The participating engines list at indexnow.org states that each engine will "share URLs received by its /indexnow endpoint with other search engines participating in the protocol".

What Sharing Changes for You

• You send to one engine's endpoint, and the participating engines pass the URLs among themselves.
• You host one key file at your site root, and it serves every notification.
• Your SearchAnalysis.io budget is 10,000 URLs a day per property.
• You keep one record of what was sent and when, on one BING row per URL.

Why SearchAnalysis.io Sends to Bing

SearchAnalysis.io sends IndexNow notifications to Bing and records the result on the BING row. Sharing carries the URLs on to the other participants. There is one BING row per URL and no separate row for each participating engine, because the response comes from the engine that received the POST.

The BING row sits next to two Google rows on every submitted URL. Those rows run on Google's own limits, so a long Google Indexing API queue never holds up a Bing notification.

New URLs reach IndexNow the same way whatever their source. With auto-submit turned on, sitemap monitoring scans every 6 hours and sends newly discovered URLs as a batch with the source "scheduled scan".

Search engines that support IndexNow are listed in the protocol's participating engines file, indexnow.org/searchengines.json. As verified on October 6, 2026, the list names seven participants, and a notification to any one of them is shared with the rest.

Google and IndexNow

Google is not on the list, so an IndexNow notification does not reach Google. SearchAnalysis.io sends Google its own URL_UPDATED notification through Google Indexing API submission and confirms the result through Search Console URL Inspection. That gives every URL a path to both Bing and Google from one submission.

Checking the Current List

The protocol's own file is the source to check for the current participants. The list above matches that file as it read on October 6, 2026. If you need to know whether a particular engine receives your URLs, read searchengines.json at indexnow.org.

Each participant gets the same URL list through sharing, so SearchAnalysis.io sends once and records one BING result per URL. The budget of 10,000 IndexNow URLs a day per property applies to that single send.

For Google, the answer lives in Search Console. The Google index checker inspects each URL there and turns it Indexed only on a PASS verdict.

IndexNow notifies participating engines about URLs, and its job ends there. It reports no crawl date, no coverage state and no canonical choice. For Google, SearchAnalysis.io stores the coverageState, the robotsTxtState and the Google-selected canonical from every URL Inspection. Two gaps matter for anyone who tracks index status across many sites.

No Index Confirmation

A 200 means the URLs were submitted, and a 202 means they were received with key validation pending. Neither code says whether a page was crawled or indexed. SearchAnalysis.io shows an accepted IndexNow notification as Processing and never as Indexed. Green means verified, and only the Search Console URL Inspection row can turn green.

No Google Coverage

Google is not a participating engine, so IndexNow never reports on Google. SearchAnalysis.io covers Google on separate rows: a URL_UPDATED notification to the Google Indexing API, and URL Inspection checks that start about 10 minutes after submission and follow a ladder of up to 6 checks over about 3 days.

What Does Confirm Google Indexing

• A URL Inspection verdict of PASS.
• A coverageState that says indexed.
• A recheck every 7 days after that, through deindex monitoring, which marks a dropped URL amber Not indexed.

Search engines decide what they crawl and index, and nobody can guarantee indexing. SearchAnalysis.io reports what each engine returned and what Search Console confirmed, and nothing beyond that.

Generating the IndexNow key is the first setup step, and SearchAnalysis.io does it for you. When you add a site, the product creates a 32-character hex key. Hex keys use the digits 0 to 9 and the letters a to f, which fits the protocol's rule of 8 to 128 characters from a-z, A-Z, 0-9 and dashes.

What You Get

• The key itself, 32 characters long.
• The file name to use: the key followed by .txt.
• The address the file has to load from: https://yourdomain/{key}.txt.
• A verification check that runs against that address.

Why a Generated Key Helps

A generated key removes two mistakes from setup: a key outside the allowed length or character set, and a key typed differently in two places. You copy one value into one file. That same key then covers every IndexNow notification for the site.

Keys for IndexNow are separate from the bearer API keys you create in Settings for the SearchAnalysis.io REST API. The IndexNow key shows search engines that you control the host. A bearer API key lets your scripts, CI jobs and AI agents submit URLs to SearchAnalysis.io, and the remote MCP server takes the same bearer key.

Keep the key with the site's other records. If someone rebuilds the site later, the file has to come back with the same name and content.

Hosting the IndexNow key file means placing {key}.txt at your site root so it loads at https://yourdomain/{key}.txt as plain UTF-8 text containing only the key. Where you put it depends on how the site is built.

Checks After You Upload

1. Open https://yourdomain/{key}.txt in a browser.
2. Confirm the page shows the key and nothing else: no markup, no page template, no extra lines of text.
3. Confirm the address stays on your domain and does not send you to a different page.
4. Run the verification in SearchAnalysis.io.

If your platform offers no way to place a file at the root, a route that returns the key as plain text at the same address does the same job. What matters to the check is the address and the content.

For one more look at the address, the free indexability checker reports the HTTP status a fetch returns and follows up to 5 redirects.

IndexNow verification in SearchAnalysis.io has one job: fetch https://yourdomain/{key}.txt and confirm that the contents match the key. A failure lands on one side of that check or the other, and no IndexNow notification is sent until it passes. Fix the cause, then run the check again.

The File Could Not Be Fetched

• The file is not at the site root, or its name differs from the key.
• The server returned an error status in place of the file.
• A login wall, firewall rule or maintenance page answered in place of the file.
• The site you added uses a different domain from the one hosting the file.

The Contents Did Not Match

• The file holds an old key from an earlier setup.
• Markup, a page template or extra text wraps the key.
• The key was copied with a character missing or added.

Errors After Verification

URLs outside the site's domain are dropped before sending, and the monitor shows each one as Dropped with the reason. If you are stuck after these checks, the SearchAnalysis.io contact page reaches the team behind the product.

After IndexNow verification passes, SearchAnalysis.io notifies on every URL you submit for that site. Each URL gets a BING row next to its two Google rows, and each row moves through the same status labels.

BING                   Queued > Sending > Processing
GOOGLE_INDEXING        Queued > Sending > Processing
GOOGLE_SEARCH_CONSOLE  Queued > Sending > Processing > Indexed

Budget and Sources

• SearchAnalysis.io budgets 10,000 IndexNow URLs a day per property.
• Submissions come from a single URL, a bulk paste, a CSV upload, a sitemap import, the REST API or MCP tool calls.
• With auto-submit turned on, sitemap monitoring sends newly discovered URLs as a batch with the source "scheduled scan".
• A URL tracked on your account inside 30 days is skipped and reported instead of resent.

What Processing Means Here

An accepted IndexNow notification shows as Processing and stays that way, because IndexNow does not confirm indexing. Indexed status comes from the Google index checker, which inspects the URL through Search Console about 10 minutes after submission and keeps inspecting on a ladder of up to 6 checks.

Every submission becomes a batch with its own page, listing 100 URLs per page with each URL's per-channel state. The REST API returns the same state from GET /api/v1/submissions/{batchId}, and the MCP tool check_submission gives it to an AI agent through the remote MCP server.