IndexNow is an open protocol that lets websites tell search engines about new and updated content instantly — instead of waiting days or weeks to be crawled. Here's what it means for your HubSpot site.
Traditionally, search engines like Bing discover your content by crawling — their bots periodically visit your site, follow links, and add pages to their index. This process is slow. For most sites, it can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks before a new or updated page shows up in search results.
For HubSpot users publishing blog posts, landing pages, or time-sensitive content, that delay has a real cost. A blog post that takes two weeks to appear in Bing search results is missing two weeks of potential organic traffic.
IndexNow is an open API standard, originally developed by Microsoft and Yandex, that allows any website to push URL change notifications directly to participating search engines. When you publish or update a page, your site sends a simple HTTP request to the IndexNow endpoint with the URL that changed. Search engines receive that notification immediately and can prioritise crawling and indexing that URL.
You create a free key at bing.com/indexnow and upload a small verification file to your site to prove ownership.
When a page is published or updated, a request is sent to the IndexNow API with the page URL and your key. This can be done manually or — better — automatically by a tool like IndexNow Sync.
Bing, Yandex, and other participating search engines receive the notification and can index the page significantly faster than via crawl discovery alone.
IndexNow is an open standard with growing adoption. Current participating search engines include:
Notably, Google does not currently participate in IndexNow. For Google indexing, you'd still use Google Search Console. But Bing alone accounts for over 6% of global search volume — and a higher share in markets like the US, UK, and Germany — making it well worth optimising for.
| Method | How search engines find content | Typical indexing time | Requires action on publish |
|---|---|---|---|
| IndexNow | You notify them instantly | Minutes to hours | Automatic (with a tool) |
| Sitemap submission | Search engine reads your sitemap | Days to weeks | Manual or scheduled |
| Organic crawl | Bots follow links to find content | Days to weeks | None — you wait |
No — and it's important to be clear about this. IndexNow notifies search engines that a URL exists and has changed. Whether they choose to index it, and how quickly, is still at the search engine's discretion. Factors like page quality, domain authority, and content freshness all play a role.
What IndexNow does is remove the discovery delay. Your pages get into the queue faster. In practice, most pages submitted via IndexNow are indexed by Bing significantly faster than pages discovered through crawling.
HubSpot is one of the most popular CMS and marketing platforms in the world, but it does not natively support IndexNow. There is no built-in setting to enable it, no plugin to install from the HubSpot marketplace, and no code-free way to connect your portal to the protocol.
That's the gap IndexNow Sync fills. It's a native HubSpot app that connects your portal to IndexNow automatically — so every page you publish is submitted to Bing without any manual work.
IndexNow Sync installs in minutes and handles all submissions automatically from day one.
Install on HubSpotThe IndexNow protocol itself is free. You generate an API key at no cost and there are no per-submission fees. Tools that automate IndexNow submissions for you — like IndexNow Sync — may charge a subscription fee for the automation and dashboard features.
Not currently. Google has not joined the IndexNow protocol. For Google indexing, you should continue using Google Search Console's URL inspection and sitemap tools. IndexNow is primarily beneficial for Bing, Yandex, and Naver.
If you're on HubSpot, yes — with IndexNow Sync. The app handles all API calls automatically. You just need to generate a free key and upload a small verification file to HubSpot File Manager, which takes about 10 minutes.
The IndexNow API supports both individual URL submissions and batch submissions of up to 10,000 URLs at once. IndexNow Sync submits pages individually as they're published, and includes a bulk submit tool for pushing all existing pages at once.
No — they serve different purposes. A sitemap tells search engines what pages exist on your site. IndexNow tells them when a specific page has changed. Used together, they give search engines the most complete picture of your content.