It's one of the first questions people ask when they discover IndexNow. The answer is straightforward — but understanding why matters for how you approach indexing across different search engines.
IndexNow is an open protocol developed by Microsoft and Yandex. Its core idea is simple: instead of search engines crawling your site to discover changes, websites push notifications directly to search engines the moment content is published or updated.
Google has its own approach to indexing and has not joined the IndexNow consortium. Google's position has been that its crawling infrastructure is sophisticated enough to discover content quickly without a push protocol — though in practice, most sites experience delays of days to weeks before new pages appear in Google search results.
There is no indication from Google that this will change. For now, IndexNow is a protocol for Bing, Yandex, and Naver — not Google.
IndexNow is currently supported by three search engines:
More search engines may join over time as the protocol gains adoption, but Google participation has not been announced.
Yes — for most websites, meaningfully so. Here's why:
Bing accounts for roughly 6–9% of global search volume. That figure understates its actual reach — Bing powers the default search in Microsoft Edge (which has over 900 million users), Cortana, and partially DuckDuckGo. In markets like the US, UK, Germany, and Australia, Bing's share is higher than the global average.
For a site getting 10,000 organic visits a month from Google, Bing at even 8% share represents meaningful traffic that's being left on the table if your pages are slow to index.
The whole point of IndexNow is reducing the gap between publishing and indexing. A page that Bing discovers via crawl in three weeks could instead be indexed within hours via IndexNow. That's three weeks of potential Bing traffic you'd otherwise miss — per page, every time you publish.
Once IndexNow is set up, it runs automatically. You publish, it submits. There's no ongoing work, no manual submissions, no checking dashboards. For HubSpot users, IndexNow Sync handles all of this inside your existing HubSpot portal.
Since IndexNow doesn't reach Google, you'll want a separate approach for Google indexing. The most effective options are:
| Method | Works with Google | Works with Bing | Automatic |
|---|---|---|---|
| IndexNow (via IndexNow Sync) | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Google Search Console URL Inspection | ✓ Yes | ✗ No | ✗ Manual |
| Sitemap submission | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✗ Passive/slow |
| Organic crawl | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✗ Slow |
The practical approach for most HubSpot sites: use IndexNow Sync for Bing (automatic, hands-off) and Google Search Console for Google (manual request on important pages, sitemap for everything else).
IndexNow Sync submits your HubSpot pages to Bing the moment they publish. Set it up once, and it runs in the background forever.
Install on HubSpotNo. Google has not joined the IndexNow protocol. IndexNow submissions are not sent to or processed by Google. For Google indexing, continue using Google Search Console's URL Inspection tool and sitemap submission.
IndexNow is currently supported by Bing, Yandex, and Naver. When you submit a URL to any one of them via IndexNow, the notification is automatically shared with all other participating search engines.
Google has not announced plans to support IndexNow. Google has its own indexing API for large publishers, but it is not open to general websites. For now, IndexNow is a Bing, Yandex, and Naver solution.
Yes. Bing accounts for roughly 6–9% of global search volume and powers search in Microsoft Edge, Cortana, and partially DuckDuckGo. Faster Bing indexing means your content can rank and drive traffic sooner — and it takes minutes to set up with no ongoing effort once running.
For Google, use Google Search Console. Submit your sitemap under Sitemaps, and use the URL Inspection tool to request indexing of individual pages after publishing. HubSpot integrates with Google Search Console natively.