Are you unsure what SEO Performance is and whether or not you should use it in WordPress?
IndexNow is a new SEO Performance project from Microsoft that aims to speed up the indexing of your website in search engines. This improves the discoverability of new material and speeds up your SEO results.
We’ll show you how to use IndexNow in WordPress to improve SEO results in this article.
What is IndexNow?
IndexNow is a search engine notification system that notifies search engines when a post or page (URL) on your website is added, modified, or deleted. This helps search engines to update their search results more often, which improves overall SEO results. Simply told, it’s indexing in a flash!
This is a new Microsoft project that is presently being supported by both Microsoft Bing and Yandex. A Google spokesperson also stated that the IndexNow protocol will be tested for environmental sustainability.
XML sitemaps are currently used by all search engines to locate fresh material and updates. Because search engines examine your website at random intervals, it might take days or weeks for search engines to notice fresh content changes.
Search engine bots are inefficient due to their legacy design, and they have a high carbon footprint.
When a search engine bot visits your sitemap, it attempts to visit every single link that it finds on the sitemap as well as every single link that’s inside of each page. This is a resource intensive process, and IndexNow protocol aims to solve that.
IndexNow allows your website to simply ping the search engine to let them know when you publish a new article or update an old piece of content, rather than having search engine bots randomly check every single page on your site to see what’s been updated.
This allows them to refresh their search results rapidly while also benefiting the environment.
IndexNow is a win-win situation for website owners, search engines, and the rest of the world.
As a result, let’s look at how to use IndexNow in WordPress to improve your SEO results.
Method 1. How to Add IndexNow in WordPress using AIOSEO
AIOSEO is the most popular WordPress SEO plugin, with over 3 million websites using it. On WPBeginner, we utilise AIOSEO to boost our SEO ranks.
AIOSEO is the first WordPress SEO plugin to include IndexNow support in a recent release.
The AIOSEO plugin must first be installed and activated. See our step-by-step guide on installing a WordPress plugin for more information.
We’ll be utilising the premium edition of AIOSEO for this lesson because it contains IndexNow and other useful SEO tools. AIOSEO also comes with a free trial version that you may use to get a feel for it.
To use the IndexNow function, go to AIOSEO » Feature Manager from your WordPress dashboard once it’s been activated.
IndexNow is automatically setup and ready to use once you enable it; no action is required on your part.
AIOSEO collaborated with Microsoft to create this connection, and they made it user-friendly. They provide an IndexNow API key for your website and configure it for you automatically, so you don’t have to.
Go to AIOSEO » General Settings and click on the Webmaster Tools page to confirm this. There will be an IndexNow icon there, and if you click it, your website’s IndexNow API key will be pre-configured.
AIOSEO also includes a Link Assistant, a redirection manager, and other useful features to help you enhance your WordPress SEO ranks.
We offer a step-by-step tutorial on how to set up All in One SEO effectively, as well as instructions on how to migrate from Yoast, RankMath, and other SEO tools to AIOSEO.
Method 2. How to Add IndexNow in WordPress using the IndexNow plugin
While some other WordPress SEO plugins have begun to support IndexNow, the majority still do not. You can utilise this option instead of switching to AIOSEO if you don’t want to move to AIOSEO.
The IndexNow utility plugin must first be installed and activated. See our article on how to install a WordPress plugin for more information.
You must go to Settings » IndexNow in your WordPress dashboard after activation. You’ll need to click the Get Started now button, which will generate your API key and configure everything for you.
After that, you will see a screen with IndexNow stats like successful URL submissions and more.
That’s all, you have successfully added IndexNow to WordPress.
Final Thoughts on IndexNow and Future of SEO
IndexNow is a new initiative and it has already been adapted by Microsoft Bing and Yandex. Google is said to be testing support for this, and we really hope they adapt it as well.
We expect that IndexNow connections will be introduced to all significant website builder platforms, with AIOSEO leading the way for WordPress, but other firms such as Duda, Cloudflare, and others have also implemented IndexNow integrations in recent months.
IndexNow is a fantastic solution for both small and large sites, and it’s an SEO pro’s dream come true because it finally speeds up SEO results with near-instant indexing.
It’s vital to note that IndexNow is not a substitute for sitemaps. To assist boost your SEO ranks, you should still have XML sitemaps, video sitemaps, news sitemaps, and other sophisticated sitemaps. To get a competitive advantage, you should use IndexNow in conjunction with sitemaps.
We hope you found this post useful in learning how to use IndexNow with WordPress. To increase your traffic, check out our article on how to perform keyword research and our comparison of the top push notification software.
