Recently, on February 26, 2022, the Rank Math SEO plugin integrated the “Index Now” feature to provide customers with an additional choice. With this integration, websites using this plugin will automatically handle their own Index Now API. This integration aims to shorten the process of updating and changing the website’s content on search engines such as Google, Bing, Yandex.
As you may know, Rank Math SEO is currently a popular SEO plugin with over a million active installations on WordPress websites. In addition to basic SEO support, it offers many advanced features and options, including SEO-optimized structured data (Schema structure), which is a paid feature in other SEO plugins like Yoast SEO.
With this integration of Index Now, the Rank Math plugin promises to be an optimal and excellent choice for website developers.
Now, let’s explore the integration of Index Now in Rank Math SEO with AZDIGI.
What is Index Now?
Index Now was developed by Microsoft Bing in 2021 when they recognized the challenges faced by websites in updating their content on search engines. Typically, for search engines to update the changes on a website, they have to wait for their bots to revisit the modified pages, which can take several days up to two weeks. This significantly affects the search experience of users as well as the SEO process. That’s why Index Now was developed as an optimized solution to shorten the update process by easily sending signals to search engines’ indexing machines to request content indexing.
Index Now is an efficient information gathering and indexing protocol that allows you to notify search engines about changes on your website, such as newly added content, deleted content, or content redirection, through an HTTP request. This enables search engines to quickly update their search results with the latest information.
Integration of Index Now into the Rank Math SEO plugin
As you may know, Rank Math SEO is one of the popular and renowned SEO plugins known for its exceptional free features. Therefore, integrating Index Now into Rank Math can be considered a significant and widespread development for website administrators.
The integration of Index Now into Rank Math will help:
- Save time: Index Now ensures that your content and changes reach the audience as quickly as possible, eliminating the need to wait for several days as before.
- Increase chances of ranking higher than competitors: Slow information gathering and indexing can result in missed opportunities to be the first to write about a specific content. Therefore, integrating Index Now will prioritize your content in search rankings.
- User-friendly: Compared to Google’s Indexing API, Index Now is more user-friendly for all types of content and users. It doesn’t require expertise in API coding, making it easy and convenient for users.
- Publish or update posts: Whether you are publishing a new post or updating an existing one, Index Now will swiftly index or reindex the content.
- Compatibility with all WordPress plugins: Regardless of whether you are using Rank Math SEO or any other SEO plugin, Index Now is compatible and can work with ANY WordPress plugin.
How Index Now Works on Rank Math SEO
The Index Now protocol operates by allowing websites to send their URLs to the Index Now API once and then redistributing them to all search engines such as Google, Bing, or Yandex. Instead of sending multiple requests as before, with Index Now, you only need to send your website’s changes and URL once, and all participating search engines will be aware of the latest updates on your website. It will then gather information, index, and reflect these changes in search results as soon as possible.
As you start submitting your URLs, search engines verify the legitimacy and origin of the content to avoid malicious elements. To do this, search engines require websites to create a unique API (Application Programming Interface) key for verification purposes.
However, with Rank Math, it automates the process of creating an API key for your website and shares it with search engines. This eliminates the hassle for you, allowing you to focus more on creating and managing content on your website.
How to use Index Now on Rank Math SEO
Conclusion:
AZDIGI hopes this article has helped you understand more about Index Now, its new updates, and the role of integrating Index Now into Rank Math for websites.