IndexNow for verified site owners

Direct answer

IndexNow is a notification protocol for URLs on a host you control. The site owner must publish a key file on that host so participating search engines can verify the notification. An accepted response means receipt, not an indexing guarantee, and it is not a Google submission method.

What to check

1. Prove control of the submitted host. Generate an IndexNow key and publish the required text file on the exact host. If the file is placed in a subdirectory, its location limits the URL paths the key can cover.
2. Send only changed URLs on that host. Notify a participating endpoint when a page is added, updated, or removed. Record the submitted URL, host, key location, response code, and time without treating a 200 or 202 as proof of indexing.
3. Monitor independently. Keep a current sitemap and review the task report, server logs, and search results later. When IndexNow is enabled, RankMeOff submits only URLs covered by a verified domain key file; the report records whether the endpoint accepted the request.

Example

Example: to notify https://example.com/new-page, host the key file on example.com and submit only URLs covered by that key. A key hosted on rankmeoff.com cannot authorize an unrelated example.com URL.

What this does not establish

When IndexNow is enabled, RankMeOff submits only URLs covered by a verified domain key file, never arbitrary or third-party host URLs. Participating engines decide whether and when to crawl or index a notified URL.

Sources and next step

• IndexNow: protocol and ownership verification
• Google: ask for a recrawl of owned URLs

Read the RankMeOff measurement methodology or open the related tool page.