The IndexNow protocol is an open-source initiative developed by Microsoft Bing in collaboration with Yandex, designed to help website owners notify search engines about changes made to their site instantly. This includes updates such as newly published content, modifications, or deletions of web pages. By using IndexNow, website owners can send a notification (or 'ping') to participating search engines, prompting them to crawl and update their indexes more efficiently, thereby reducing the time it takes for new content to appear in search results[1][3][5][6].
Traditionally, search engines rely on crawlers to discover new content, which can be a slow process, sometimes taking days or weeks. IndexNow changes this by introducing a 'push' model in contrast to the traditional 'pull' model, allowing website publishers to proactively alert search engines about changes, thus speeding up indexing and improving overall search engine efficiency[2][4].
Current participating search engines include Microsoft Bing, Yandex, and Seznam, with Google testing the protocol but not fully implementing it yet. The protocol is particularly beneficial for sites with frequent updates, as it minimizes unnecessary crawls and reduces server load[3][5][6]. Overall, IndexNow aims to create a more efficient web by ensuring that changes are promptly reflected in search engine results, helping improve visibility and potentially enhancing SEO performance[1][2][6].
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