IndexNow? More Like IndexNo — The Zero Impact of Microsoft’s SEO Stunt

• IndexNow launched publicly in October 2021 by Microsoft and Yandex.
• Google officially stated in March 2023 they do not use IndexNow signals.
• Public crawl data shows no improvement in indexing speed or crawl budget on Bing.

IndexNow was sold as a revolutionary protocol that would eliminate crawl inefficiencies and instantaneously notify search engines about content changes. Microsoft and Yandex co-launched it in late 2021, pushing the narrative that this protocol would disrupt SEO fundamentals. But the harsh reality? It’s a fundamentally lazy solution baked by lazy engineers relying on site-owners to manually ping URLs instead of fixing core crawling architecture.

Google quickly dispelled the hype by publicly confirming in March 2023 that it doesn’t use IndexNow data at all. This was a critical blow to the myth that IndexNow was becoming an industry standard. Microsoft’s own Bing has been suspiciously mum about any concrete improvements in crawl efficiency or indexing speed from IndexNow signals. Crawl and index logs from multiple SEO databases show no measurable uplift compared to pre-IndexNow baselines.

The SEO industry has been eerily quiet on this because, unlike the endless parade of snake-oil SEO tools and “10x agencies” selling magic AI, IndexNow is a pure tech grift masquerading as infrastructure innovation. Instead of investing in smarter crawling, Microsoft and Yandex outsourced indexing responsibility to webmasters, a model that broke down the moment you realized most sites won’t even bother pinging URLs reliably. Meanwhile, the protocol’s API is simplistic, lacks robust verification, and is vulnerable to gaming. Google’s refusal to adopt it is a tacit endorsement of its uselessness.

The final insult is plugins and CMS vendors like Yoast and Rank Math hastily slapped on IndexNow integrations to appear cutting-edge — another example of plugin bloat pushing features nobody uses. The entire industry would be better served by dumping this dead-end protocol and focusing on genuine crawl budget improvements like HTTP/2 adoption, server log analysis, and smarter crawl prioritization. Stop pretending IndexNow is a breakthrough when it’s peak nothingburger and a textbook case of product PR over substance.

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Does IndexNow improve Google indexing speed?

No. Google has explicitly stated it does not use IndexNow signals to update its search index. Therefore, pinging URLs with IndexNow has no impact on Google’s indexing or crawl speed.

Can IndexNow reduce Bing’s crawl budget usage?

Data from third-party crawl logs indicates no significant reduction in Bing’s crawl budget or faster indexing due to IndexNow usage. Bing has not published evidence showing improvements tied to the protocol.

Should SEO professionals prioritize implementing IndexNow?

Given the lack of measurable benefits and Google’s non-participation, SEO professionals should not waste resources on IndexNow. Focus instead on server performance, content quality, and proven technical SEO practices.