XML sitemap
An XML file listing URLs a site wants crawled, optionally with lastmod dates, used as a discovery aid by Google, Bing and other engines.
Crawling Indexing
IndexNow
An open protocol for pushing URL change notifications to participating search engines, adopted by Microsoft Bing, Yandex, Seznam and Naver.
In full
A site hosts a key file at its root, then submits added, updated or deleted URLs by HTTP GET for a single URL or POST with a JSON array of up to 10,000 URLs. Participating engines share submissions with each other, so one call reaches all of them. Google has run an evaluation but does not use IndexNow for Google Search. The protocol is a discovery accelerator only — it does not guarantee crawling or indexing.
Example
A CMS fires an IndexNow POST containing the 12 URLs touched by a publish action immediately after deployment.
Related terms
Crawling
The process by which a search engine discovers URLs and downloads their content using automated software, before any indexing or ranking…
Bing Webmaster Tools
Microsoft's free webmaster platform for Bing, offering search performance data, index explorer, site scan, IndexNow submission and URL…
URL Inspection tool
A Search Console feature showing Google's indexed state for a URL plus a live test with rendered HTML, screenshot, and page resource…
Freshness systems (QDF)
Google's systems that boost recent content for queries where recency matters, such as breaking news, sports scores or evolving topics.
Where to read more
- Bing Webmaster Tools Help Center · Documentation · bing.com
- IndexNow Protocol Documentation · Standard · indexnow.org