To get a new article found quickly, keep an accurate sitemap that Google can read and ping IndexNow for Bing and the other engines that support it. The old trick of pinging Google with your sitemap address no longer works: Google announced the "deprecation of the sitemaps 'ping' endpoint" and says requests to it "will result in a 404 error" (Google Search Central).
For Google: a sitemap with honest dates
Your sitemap is a list of your pages that search engines read. Google's announcement on retiring the ping also gave "additional recommendations for the use of the lastmod element" (Google Search Central), the date in your sitemap that says when a page last changed.
What that means in practice:
- Add every new article to the sitemap the moment it is published. Most blogging tools do this for you.
- Only change the date when the content really changes. Bumping every date on every deploy teaches search engines to ignore your dates.
- List the sitemap in robots.txt with a line like
Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml, so crawlers find it. - Submit it once in Search Console, under Sitemaps, so you can see whether Google reads it.
For Bing and others: IndexNow
IndexNow describes itself as "an easy way for websites owners to instantly inform search engines" about content changes, "a simple ping so that search engines know that a URL and its content has been added, updated, or deleted" (IndexNow). Its FAQ says it is meant for "recently added, updated, or deleted URLs" rather than your whole site at once (IndexNow FAQ).
The search engines registered on IndexNow's own list include Bing, Yandex, Seznam, Naver and Yep (IndexNow search engines). Google is not on that list.
Setting it up takes two parts: a key file hosted on your site, which proves you own it, and a request sent each time a page changes. Many site platforms and SEO plugins can do this for you; IndexNow's FAQ suggests checking whether yours already supports it (IndexNow FAQ).
A simple checklist for each new article
| Step | Who it helps |
|---|---|
| Article appears in the sitemap with today's date | Google and all engines |
| Sitemap is listed in robots.txt and submitted in Search Console | |
| IndexNow ping sent for the new address | Bing, Yandex, Seznam, Naver, Yep |
| The article links to related articles on your site, and they link back | Every crawler, and readers |
Where Paperboy fits
Full disclosure: we make Paperboy, so weigh this accordingly. When Paperboy publishes to its hosted blog, the new article goes into the blog's sitemap and RSS feed at once, and Paperboy sends the IndexNow ping and serves the key file for you. When it publishes to your own WordPress, Ghost or other site, your platform's sitemap takes care of the first two rows.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still ping Google with my sitemap?
No. Google deprecated the sitemaps ping endpoint, and requests to it return a 404 error (Google Search Central). Keep your sitemap accurate and submit it in Search Console instead.
Does Google use IndexNow?
Google is not among the search engines listed on IndexNow's own registry, which includes Bing, Yandex, Seznam, Naver and Yep (IndexNow search engines).
Should I submit every page with IndexNow?
No. IndexNow is meant for recently added, updated or deleted URLs (IndexNow FAQ). Send a ping when something changes.