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.
The prompt
“I’ve just published changes - notify search engines so they recrawl my updated pages.”
Signed in, Get my prompt fills in your site for you. Otherwise press Copy and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard once: Use your own AI (opens in a new tab).
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 Notifications only ever describe what’s live - if you still have unpublished drafts, bernard will ask you to approve them first (How do I approve or undo changes?).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 bernard registers your site with Google for you when your address goes live - no setup on your part. Get my site into Google explains what happens and how long it takes.
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.
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?
- Not through IndexNow - Google doesn’t take part in it. Google reads your sitemap instead, and bernard handles that side too: it registers your site with Google for you when your address goes live, and with measuring on it hands Google your refreshed sitemap each time you publish. There’s nothing for you to set up.
- 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.