What is IndexNow?
When it comes to Indexing, we all know that it is an SEO’s dream to rank on the first page of a search engine results page. Microsoft Bing and Yandex, have come partnered up and created IndexNow. IndexNow is a new protocol that enables websites to effortlessly alert search engines whenever website content has been created, updated or deleted.
In a nutshell, IndexNow is a simple chime that alerts search engines of changes made to a URL and swiftly mirrors these changes in the search results. Without it, it can take days if not weeks for search engines to find content that has been improved.
IndexNow informs search engines when URLs have been changed, and therefore assist them in prioritising crawls for new/updated URLs. This helps in limiting organic crawling. Spiders no longer have to crawl for the sake of it as they will already have content to crawl.
Search Engines Implementing IndexNow
Search engines that implement IndexNow will be able to alert one another, so basically forming an integrated network. IndexNow is beginning to gain support from third-party sites from the likes of eBay, Microsoft’s LinkedIn, MSN, and GitHub. Most of them have adopted the Webmaster URL submission API and are planning a migration.
There’s hope for non-developers. If you’re not a fan of code, IndexNow has a coded system already that you can plug into your CMS, just like most popular platforms that either have it or plan on having it integrated.
Microsoft is encouraging top Web Content Management Systems such as WordPress to implement IndexNow to help their users get their most recent content indexed quickly and reduce the crawl load on their websites.
WordPress has seemed to drag its feet in accepting this API, while other CMSs like Wix and Duda have planned migrations. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) such as CloudFlare and Akamai are also working with the new IndexNow protocol alongside SEO tools like Botify and OnCrawl.
What About Google?
Well, Google is conscious of Microsoft’s initiative and were asked to participate but they haven’t responded. They are currently not active participants on IndexNow.
IndexNow protocol that can help whole industries get their content indexed a lot quicker while using less resource. It can also help companies get well-timed and relevant information to clients or customers to create a better experience for everyone.
Conclusion
IndexNow is basically striving to help search engines keep updated quicker. Google doesn’t seem like it will participate in IndexNow, in the near future but Microsoft will likely push for it. Perhaps IndexNow will become a good competitor in the years to come.
