Does Google support IndexNow? No, and what to use instead

That matters because Google's index (the library it answers from) feeds Google Search and its AI answers, AI Overviews and AI Mode, so an update that only reaches IndexNow engines is half-delivered. This page shows how to verify Google's absence yourself, what Google has said about IndexNow, what Google offers instead, and how to cover both sides in one routine.

Does Google support IndexNow?

No. Google doesn't take part in IndexNow, and you can check that against the protocol's own sources. As of October 17, 2026, Google appears neither in the list of supporting engines on the IndexNow homepage nor in its machine-readable list of participants, searchengines.json, which returned this when we fetched it that day:

curl -s https://www.indexnow.org/searchengines.json

{
    "bing": "https://www.bing.com/indexnow/meta.json",
    "yandex": "https://www.yandex.com/indexnow/meta.json",
    "seznam": "https://search.seznam.cz/indexnow/meta.json",
    "naver": "https://searchadvisor.naver.com/indexnow/meta.json",
    "yep": "https://indexnow.yep.com/indexnow/meta.json",
    "internetarchive": "https://web-static.archive.org/indexnow/meta.json",
    "amazonbot": "https://indexnow.amazonbot.amazon/indexnow/meta.json"
}

Google isn't there, and the IndexNow FAQ lists no submission endpoint for Google. The list changes as engines join, so check the live file rather than a copy. When we sent a request to the path a Google endpoint would use, https://www.google.com/indexnow, it returned 404.

Participation is what decides who hears your submission. The IndexNow documentation says engines adopting the protocol "agree that submitted URLs will be automatically shared with all other participating search engines." Google isn't one of them, so nothing you send through IndexNow reaches Google.

What has Google said about IndexNow?

Google's only public statements on IndexNow date from November 2021, and we found none since. On November 10, 2021, Search Engine Roundtable reported Google's statement that "We're encouraged by work to make web crawling more efficient, and we will be testing the potential benefits of this protocol." The same day, Google's John Mueller added on Twitter: "I wouldn't assume from a limited test that this will launch broadly anytime soon. There are lots of existing ways to inform Google of new & updated content -- I'd focus on those" (both as reported by Search Engine Roundtable).

Since then, as of October 2026, Google hasn't announced support, and the Search Central pages on asking Google to recrawl, building a sitemap and the Indexing API don't mention IndexNow. Treat any plugin, app or service that says it sends "IndexNow to Google" with caution: check what it actually calls. If it reaches Google, it's doing so through one of Google's own routes below, not IndexNow.

Does sending IndexNow hurt or help your Google rankings?

Sending IndexNow neither helps nor hurts your Google rankings, because Google doesn't receive it. It's still worth sending for Bing and the other participating engines, and Bing's index matters for Microsoft Copilot and Bing's AI summaries; see IndexNow, Bing and AI answers for that side. Our IndexNow guide covers the protocol, key file and response codes.

What you can't do is substitute IndexNow for a Google step. Google says crawling "can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks" (Google Search Central), and IndexNow doesn't shorten that.

Can you ping Google about a changed page?

Not anonymously any more. On June 26, 2023, Google announced it was retiring its sitemap "ping" endpoint, explaining that "these unauthenticated sitemap submissions are not very useful" and that "in the case of Google Search, the vast majority of the submissions lead to spam" (Google Search Central Blog). The post said pings "will result in a 404 error"; the page now opens with "The sitemaps ping endpoint deprecation is complete." When we called it on October 17, 2026, it returned 404:

curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\n" \
  "https://www.google.com/ping?sitemap=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2Fsitemap.xml"
# 404

Every route to Google now goes through something you've verified (Search Console) or something Google crawls on its own schedule (your sitemap and links).

If you've been relying on IndexNow and aren't sure which of your pages Google actually has, check them free before you choose a Google route.

What does Google offer instead of IndexNow?

Google offers four routes, and which one fits depends on how many URLs changed and what kind of pages they are. As of October 2026:

Sitemaps with honest lastmod

A sitemap is Google's closest equivalent to a change feed, as long as lastmod is true. Google's 2023 post says it uses lastmod "as a signal for scheduling crawls to URLs that we previously discovered", but warns that if a page "changed 7 years ago, but you're telling us in the lastmod element that it changed yesterday, eventually we're not going to believe you anymore" (Google Search Central Blog). Update lastmod for real changes to the main text, structured data or links, not for a new footer date. Submit the sitemap in Search Console's Sitemaps report or with a Sitemap: line in robots.txt. On WordPress, see how WordPress builds your sitemap.

Request indexing in URL Inspection

Request indexing is the manual route for a handful of URLs. You need to be "an owner or full user of the Search Console property", and Google adds that "requesting a recrawl multiple times for the same URL won't get it crawled any faster" (Google Search Central). Search Console Help says "Indexing typically takes only a day or so, but can take much longer in some cases", and that a request "does not guarantee that the page will appear in the Google Index" (Search Console Help). The full walkthrough is in our URL Inspection tool guide.

The Indexing API is not a general IndexNow substitute

Google's Indexing API looks like the Google version of IndexNow, but it isn't one: it's documented only for job posting and livestream pages. Our guide to the Google Indexing API covers what it does and doesn't allow.

How do you cover Google and IndexNow engines together?

Cover both by sending each engine family its own signal from the same change. This routine takes a few minutes per update:

1. Make a real change to the page: facts, prices, steps, comparisons.
2. Update lastmod in your sitemap with the true change time.
3. Send IndexNow for the changed URLs, from your CMS, plugin or code. The steps are in how to submit URLs to Bing.
4. Take a Google step: Request indexing for one or two key URLs, or rely on the sitemap and internal links for the rest. More options are in how to submit a URL to Google.
5. Check each engine separately. URL Inspection in Search Console for Google; the IndexNow report and URL Inspection in Bing Webmaster Tools for Bing. A page can be indexed on one engine and not the other.

Where does FreshlyCited fit?

FreshlyCited's main job is the Google side, and one push covers both routes while keeping them apart. For Google, it checks which URLs Google already sees, pushes only the ones Google hasn't indexed, and re-checks on days 1, 3 and 7. For sites you verify with an IndexNow key, the same push also goes out through IndexNow as a free bonus, shown as "Sent to Bing", with a per-site off switch; only URLs on the verified host are sent. An index credit is reserved when you submit and used only if the link is indexed; if it's still not indexed after the day-7 re-check, the credit comes back automatically (exclusions apply, such as pages that return an error or carry noindex). For pages Google already has, Refresh anyway sends one and uses 1 index credit with no credit back. Nobody can guarantee Google indexes a page; the re-check shows you what it did.

IndexNow covers Bing and its partners; Google needs its own route. Check which of your pages Google has indexed, then push the ones it hasn't seen.