Tell search engines my site changed
Search engines normally find out about your changes when they get around to re-visiting — which can take weeks. IndexNow is the doorbell: the moment your changes go live, your site tells the engines directly, and they recrawl the changed pages within minutes.
How it works
- Publish your changes. Notifications only ever describe what's live — if you still have unpublished drafts, bernard will ask you to approve them first (How do I approve or undo changes?).
- Tap the button, or ask. After a publish, your site page shows Notify search engines; one tap submits exactly the pages that changed. You can also ask your AI — "tell search engines about my changes" — and it does the same thing.
- First time only: the verification file. Before the first notification, bernard adds a small text file to your site containing a unique code. That file is how the engines verify the notifications are genuinely yours. It goes into a draft like any other change — approve it, publish, and every future notification is one tap.
What it covers — and what it doesn't
One notification reaches Bing, Yandex, Seznam, Naver and other participating engines. Google is the exception — it doesn't listen to IndexNow. Google instead reads your sitemap (Does my site have a sitemap?) and your Search Console account, which is a one-time setup only you can do — Get my site into Google walks you through it.
Nothing here runs behind your back: bernard never notifies engines about drafts, and the whole feature only announces pages that are already public on your site — see Is it safe to let an AI edit my site? for how the guardrails work generally.
The prompt
“I've just published changes — notify search engines so they recrawl my updated pages.”
The [bracketed] parts are yours to fill in. First time? Connect bernard to your AI over MCP — a one-time setup in bernard → your site → Use your own AI — then paste the prompt above.
Questions people ask
- How do search engines find out my website changed?
- Normally they re-visit on their own schedule — days or weeks later. IndexNow flips that: your site sends the engines a short message the moment something changes, and they recrawl those pages within minutes. Bing, Yandex, Seznam and Naver all listen; one notification reaches them all.
- Why is there a random .txt file on my site?
- That's your IndexNow verification file — a short code at yoursite.com/yourcode.txt that proves the notifications really come from your site (only someone who can put files on the site could have placed it). It's deliberate, public by design, and harmless. Don't delete it.
- Does this notify Google too?
- No — Google doesn't take part in IndexNow. For Google you register once in Google Search Console and keep a sitemap; bernard maintains the sitemap and walks you through the Search Console step.
- When should I notify search engines?
- Right after you approve and publish. bernard shows a 'Notify search engines' button on your site page whenever there are published changes engines haven't been told about — or just ask your AI. It only ever announces what you've approved and made live, never drafts.