Sarah Gooding
In July 2020, Bing released its first official plugin for WordPress that allowed site owners to submit URLS and get their content indexed immediately, instead of waiting for the search engine to crawl the site. The IndexNow API, which debuted in October 2021, is the next evolution of the Bing URL submissions API, created by Microsoft Bing and Yandex.
Bing Webmasters has released a new IndexNow plugin for WordPress sites to take advantage of this new protocol. It makes it possible for websites to notify participating search engines whenever content is created, updated, or deleted, so that the site is indexed faster for updated search results. The Microsoft Bing Webmaster Tools team anticipates that it will minimize the need for crawling:
IndexNow is an initiative for a more efficient Internet: By telling search engines whether an URL has been changed, website owners provide a clear signal helping search engines to prioritize crawl for these URLs, thereby limiting the need for exploratory crawl to test if the content has changed. In the future, search engines intend to limit crawling of websites adopting IndexNow.
IndexNow is also an initiative for a more open Internet: By notifying one search engine you will notify all search engines that have adopted IndexNow.
The IndexNow WordPress plugin tracks changes in content and automatically submits the URLS in the background. It comes with a few basic features and configuration options:
The IndexNow protocol is supported by Microsoft Bing and Yandex. Google is testing the protocol to see if it makes sense for a more sustainable approach to indexing the web.
Bing Principal Program Manager Fabrice Canel proposed WordPress core integrate the IndexNow protocol but contributors suggested Microsoft keep it as a plugin until it’s more widely adopted by major search engines and proves that it has a positive effect on reducing the need for crawling.
“By releasing this plugin, we aim not only to benefit right away WordPress websites adopting it, but also learn, tweak as needed to someday release IndexNow in WordPress core to benefit all websites and all existing and upcoming search engines adopting IndexNow,” Canel said on the ticket.
The IndexNow plugin already has 800 active installs but it’s a long road for Microsoft to prove that its API is effective at streamlining indexing for search engines. If Google agrees to support it after testing, the protocol may gain enough momentum to attract other search engines’ support.
Unfortunately it is at the moment least powerful than the existing “Mihdan: Index Now”. It is amazing how an individual was able to create a better result than Microsoft.
Anyway if interested, you can find the Bing one at its Github repo: https://github.com/microsoft/indexnow-wordpress-plugin
I can see Google being reluctant about something like this as it would create a set of problems on its own. Such as having to restructure their crawling model to compensate for instant submissions.
Search Console has gotten a lot better over the years, and I think they will stick with that.
Google will not adopt it because they were playing politics with their search engine. I wish that Bing wins more of the search engine shares.
Google monopolistic pride must Crumble
Hi.
I am using the plugin on several sites and it seems to work well.
However at the moment I have discovered that it doesn’t work with custom post types and it doesn’t notify when comments are added to a post – both of these options need adding.
It would also be very handy to have a bulk submit / batch operation to get all your current posts and pages submitted for sites where the plugin is added after posts have been created.
Dale.
This plugin would have some use if Bing wasn’t trigger happy to deindex entire sites without any reason or warning whatsoever.
That is a Great one, But sometimes I am afraid to use this kind of plugin in my blog. This plugin should not affect google indexing.
As a side note, is Bing popular in any region at all? I don’t think I know a single person who uses it as a default search engine.
And still, Bing will remain irrelevant.
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