Relying only on passive XML sitemaps to signal content changes isn't enough for high-velocity publishing. Two push-based protocols exist to close that gap: Google's Indexing API, and the open IndexNow protocol backed by Bing, Yandex, and others.
How they differ
| Google Indexing API | IndexNow | |
|---|---|---|
| Search engines covered | Bing, Yandex, Seznam, Naver | |
| Official scope | JobPosting/BroadcastEvent (used more broadly in practice) | Any URL type |
| Typical rate limits | Low daily quota, negotiable increases | High daily quota per key |
| Implementation | Service-account OAuth 2.0 | API key hosted in a root text file |
Recommended setup
For a fast-publishing CMS, wire both protocols into the publish/update/delete event: fire a push to IndexNow and the Google Indexing API whenever a page is created or updated, and fire a deletion signal immediately when a page is removed, so it clears from the index rather than lingering as a soft-404. IndexNow-supporting engines tend to pick up pushed URLs noticeably faster than passive sitemap discovery; Google's Indexing API sits somewhere in between, and neither replaces a correct sitemap — they supplement it.
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Written by
Paul Lovell
International SEO Consultant & Founder of Always Evolving SEO. 15+ years running technical audits, log-file analysis, and root-cause fixes for multimillion-dollar businesses — speaker at SMX London, Search & Content Summit, and SEMrush events.