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What you can automate
You can automate the whole loop: check which URLs Google has seen, push the invisible ones, re-check them on days 1, 3 and 7 and share the result. Common setups:
- Push on publish. Your CMS or deploy pipeline sends every new or updated URL as soon as it goes live.
- Scheduled checks. A nightly job checks your key pages or a client's backlinks.
- Supplier intake. A script checks every link a vendor delivers before you pay the invoice.
- Client operations. Create a workspace per client, allocate credits and pull report links into your own reporting.
- AI assistants. On Agency Pro and Agency Scale, ask an assistant to "check these 50 links and push the ones Google can't see," and it does.
Plan | REST API | MCP server |
|---|---|---|
Free (no purchase) | Read-only | No |
Any pay-as-you-go pack | Full | No |
Agency Starter | Full | No |
Agency Pro | Full | Yes |
Agency Scale | Full, higher limits | Yes |
The full REST API comes with any pack or Agency plan; on Free without a purchase it's read-only, so you can read results but not start pushes or checks. See pricing for the plans.
REST API: pushes, checks, clients and credits
The REST API covers pushes, checks, client workspaces, credits and API keys, with JSON responses. A few of the main endpoints:
Task | Endpoint |
|---|---|
Create a push (optionally smart and dripped) | |
Get a push's status, outcome and per-link results | |
Push the invisible links from a push again | |
Run a visibility check | |
Validate and de-duplicate URLs without spending credits | |
Export a push as CSV | |
Create or revoke a client report link | |
List client workspaces, allocate credits | |
GET /api/v1/routes lists every route. Each push or check accepts up to 10,000 URLs with any pack or Agency plan (50 on Free). The API uses technical names (jobs, index checks, tenants) where the app says pushes, visibility checks and clients. Every endpoint and MCP tool is documented in the API and MCP docs.
MCP server: let AI assistants run FreshlyCited
The MCP server lets AI assistants that support the Model Context Protocol (a standard way for assistants like Claude or Cursor to use a tool directly) use FreshlyCited, authenticated with your API key. It's available on Agency Pro and Agency Scale. It exposes the same actions as the app as tools: validate URLs, submit a push, check index status, read results, push the invisible links again, share a report, manage client workspaces and credits.
So you can ask an assistant, in plain words, to check last month's backlinks for a client, push the invisible ones, drip them over a week and share the report link once the re-checks are done. The assistant can see the cost before it acts, because pricing is one of the tools.
Push on publish: CMS and CI hooks
Push on publish means calling the API from the place where content goes live, so every new or updated URL gets pushed without anyone remembering to. There's no plugin to install; it's one authenticated HTTP request.
Where teams usually hook it in:
- A CMS "after publish" webhook or hook that sends the page URL.
- A step at the end of your CI/CD deploy that sends the URLs that changed.
- A sitemap diff job that sends URLs whose
lastmodchanged since the last run.
Send URLs only when their content actually changed. Pushing unchanged pages wastes credits, and Google's own guidance lists "changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed" as a sign of search-engine-first content (Google: creating helpful content). For large page sets, see how this fits programmatic SEO.
Smart push over the API
Smart push is opt-in over the API: set "smart": true when you create a push. FreshlyCited then runs a visibility check on every URL first (1 check credit each) and sends only the ones Google can't see, so no index credit is reserved for the rest. The response includes an outcome with a plain-language headline and counts (sent, skipped, seen, invisible), the same wording the app and emails use.
You can also set a drip-feed of 1 to 30 days. Every sent link is re-checked on days 1, 3 and 7 at no extra cost, and the job's per-link results update after each re-check. For check-only workflows at volume, see bulk index checks.
Authentication and API keys
Requests are authenticated with an API key sent as a Bearer token. Keys belong to a workspace and only see that workspace and its client workspaces.
- Admins create keys in the app. The secret is shown once and stored hashed.
- Each key has a role (owner, admin, member or read-only client viewer), never higher than the role of the admin who created it.
- Keys can be renamed, revoked or deleted at any time.
API calls spend the same credits as the app. Each URL sent reserves 1 index credit, used only if the link is indexed; if it still isn't indexed after the day-7 re-check, the credit comes back automatically. A Standard check costs 1 check credit and a Live check 5. Packs start from $0.16 per indexed link and index checks from $0.004; you can start free while payments open soon.
Not Google's Indexing API: how they differ
FreshlyCited's API is not Google's Indexing API, and they do different jobs. Google's Indexing API is documented only for pages with job posting or livestream (BroadcastEvent) structured data (Google Indexing API docs). It doesn't tell you whether a page is indexed.
| Google's Indexing API | FreshlyCited's API |
|---|---|---|
Pages it's for | Job postings and livestream videos | Any public URL, including backlinks on other sites |
Needs site ownership | Yes | No |
Tells you what Google has indexed | No | Yes, per URL, before and after |
Re-checks and reports | No | Yes |
Neither guarantees indexing. A push asks Google to look; Google decides what it keeps. What FreshlyCited does guarantee is the charge: indexed or your credit back.
Who it's for: SaaS and content teams that ship often, agencies running many clients, and anyone who'd rather let a script or an assistant do the pushing. See FreshlyCited for SaaS teams, or check your own links free.
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