Google Indexing API: can you use it for regular pages?
No. Google says the Indexing API only covers pages with JobPosting or BroadcastEvent markup. For other pages, use sitemaps, links and Request indexing.
LLaunchScaler·Published ·7 min read
No. Google's documentation says "the Indexing API can only be used to crawl pages with either JobPosting or BroadcastEvent embedded in a VideoObject," which means job listings and livestream video pages, not blog posts, product pages or landing pages. For regular pages, Google's supported routes are a sitemap with accurate lastmod dates, internal links, and Request indexing in URL Inspection.
Plugins and "indexer" tools that push every URL through the API are using it outside that purpose, and Google says abuse of the API can cost you access.
What is the Google Indexing API for?
Short-lived pages that need to be crawled quickly: job postings that open and close, and livestreams that start and end. Google's quickstart says the API "allows site owners to directly notify Google when their job posting or livestreaming video pages are added or removed," so that Google can "schedule pages for a fresh crawl."
For those sites, Google prefers the API to sitemaps: "we recommend using the Indexing API instead of sitemaps because the Indexing API prompts Googlebot to crawl your pages sooner than updating the sitemap." It still recommends "submitting a sitemap for coverage of your entire site."
The API does three things:
Request
Endpoint
What it tells Google
URL_UPDATED
POST https://indexing.googleapis.com/v3/urlNotifications:publish
A new URL to crawl, or new content at a known URL
URL_DELETED
Questions, answered
What people ask about this
01
Can I use the Google Indexing API for regular pages?
No. Google's documentation says the Indexing API can only be used to crawl pages with either JobPosting or BroadcastEvent embedded in a VideoObject. Blog posts, product pages and landing pages are outside its documented use.
The page was removed, so Google can drop it and stop crawling it
Get status
GET https://indexing.googleapis.com/v3/urlNotifications/metadata
When Google last received each notification for a URL
You can batch up to 100 calls in one HTTP request. Every publish call must send application/json as its Content-Type, and each request carries one URL.
How do you know if your pages qualify?
A page qualifies only if it carries valid JobPosting structured data, or BroadcastEvent markup embedded in a VideoObject for a livestream. Google's job posting guide describes the workflow: validate the markup with the Rich Results Test, check a few deployed pages with URL Inspection, then "keep Google informed by using the Indexing API and submitting a sitemap."
The same guide explains why the sitemap still matters even for job sites: "We ingest the entire sitemap and recrawl the pages with lastmod times that are more recent than the last time those pages were crawled." If your pages have neither markup type, they do not qualify, and that recrawl behaviour is the one to build on.
Can you use it for regular pages?
Not within Google's rules. The same restriction appears on the quickstart, the usage guide and the quota page: the API "can only be used to crawl pages with either JobPosting or BroadcastEvent embedded in a VideoObject." Google documents no effect for any other page type, and its usage guidelines add that "our spam policies apply to content submitted with the Indexing API."
The quickstart is direct about enforcement: "All submissions through the Indexing API undergo rigorous spam detection. Any attempts to abuse the Indexing API, including the use of multiple accounts or other means to exceed usage quotas, may result in access being revoked." Its guidelines also say "don't circumvent our submission limits, such as by using multiple accounts."
So sending a blog post through the API is at best outside the documented purpose, and at worst the kind of use Google says it detects. Even for eligible pages, the default quota exists "for API onboarding and submission testing," and Google says the API "requires additional approval for usage and resource provisioning."
What is the Indexing API quota?
200 publish requests per day per project by default. Google's quota page names it DefaultPublishRequestsPerDayPerProject and says it covers "both URL_UPDATED and URL_DELETED request types," with the daily quota resetting "at midnight Pacific Time." Two per-minute limits apply as well, and Google says the quota "may increase or decrease based on the document quality."
Quota
Default
Publish requests per day per project
200
Metadata (read-only) requests per minute per project
180
All requests per minute per project
380
Price
"Available without payment"
To go beyond the default for JobPosting or BroadcastEvent pages, Google points to an approval form. It does not offer extra quota for other page types.
What about Indexing API plugins for WordPress?
A plugin that sends every post, page or product through the Indexing API is using it for content Google says it does not cover. That applies whatever the plugin is called or how it describes itself. If your site has job listings or livestream pages with the right markup, limiting the plugin to those URLs keeps you inside the documented use.
For a WordPress site with ordinary content, the supported setup needs no API at all:
Make sure the site publishes an XML sitemap. Google says that with a CMS such as WordPress, "it's likely that your CMS has already made a sitemap available to search engines."
Submit that sitemap in Search Console and reference it in robots.txt.
Check that each post's <lastmod> changes when the post changes, not on every save or deploy.
Link new posts from your homepage, category pages or related posts.
Use Request indexing in URL Inspection for the occasional page that matters most.
If a plugin is already installed and pushing every URL through the API, turn that feature off rather than trying to stay under the 200 limit. The limit was never the problem; the page type was.
How do you get an Indexing API key?
There is no single key to paste. Google's prerequisites describe four steps: create a Google Cloud project and enable the API, create a service account and download its JSON private key, add the service account's email as an owner of your Search Console property, and exchange the key for an OAuth token on each request. The token must use the scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/indexing.
Use Google's setup tool to create a project in the Google API Console and enable the Indexing API.
On the Service accounts page, click Create Service Account, then in Create key choose JSON. Google says the downloaded file "serves as the only copy of this key."
Verify your site in Search Console as a Domain or URL-prefix property.
In the property's Verified owner list, click Add an owner and enter the service account's email, found in the client_email field of the JSON file.
Use one of Google's client libraries to exchange the private key for an access token, and send requests to the endpoints above.
Treat the JSON file like a password. Anyone holding it can send requests as your service account against your quota.
What should you use instead for regular pages?
The three methods Google documents for ordinary URLs: a sitemap, internal links, and Request indexing. Google's recrawl guide covers two of them directly, URL Inspection for "just a few URLs" and a sitemap for "many URLs at once," and its link guidance covers the third. None of them needs approval or risks access.
Method
Best for
Limit
Sitemap with accurate <lastmod>
Every page on the site, and telling Google which ones changed
50,000 URLs or 50 MB per file
Internal links from indexed pages
New pages Google has not found yet
None; Google uses links "to find new pages to crawl"
Request indexing in URL Inspection
A handful of important new or changed pages
Daily quota, number not published
Indexing API
JobPosting and BroadcastEvent pages only
200 publish requests per day by default
Google's URL Inspection help makes the same recommendation for scale: "To request indexing of many new or updated pages, your best choice is to submit a sitemap, with the updated pages marked by <lastmod>." The Request indexing guide covers the button's quota and rejections, the sitemap submission guide covers the file, and the guide to getting indexed faster puts them together.
Does IndexNow work for Google?
No. IndexNow is a separate protocol that notifies participating search engines when a URL is added, updated or deleted, and each endpoint shares submissions "across all IndexNow-enabled search engines." The endpoints listed on indexnow.org belong to Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam.cz, Yep and Amazon, plus a global endpoint. Google is not among them.
IndexNow is still worth setting up for Bing and the others, since it is simple: host a key file at your site root and send each changed URL, or up to 10,000 in one POST. The IndexNow docs say a 200 response "only indicates that the search engine has received your URL." The IndexNow setup guide walks through the key file and the request. For Google, keep the sitemap and links in order.
Check what your pages tell crawlers
Before looking for a faster channel to Google, make sure nothing on the page is turning crawlers away. Run the free scan on LaunchScaler: it takes the URL, needs no account, and runs 156 checks across 6 of its 7 categories at no cost. Its checks cover the supported routes described above: whether a sitemap is discoverable and referenced in robots.txt, whether its entries redirect or fail, whether lastmod dates are present and moving, and whether the page carries a noindex, a robots.txt block or a canonical pointing elsewhere. Fix what it flags, and the sitemap and Request indexing will do the job the Indexing API was never meant to do.
The default is 200 publish requests per day per project, covering both URL_UPDATED and URL_DELETED, and it resets at midnight Pacific Time. Google says more quota requires approval, and the API is free to use.
03
Is it safe to use an Indexing API plugin for WordPress?
A plugin that sends every post through the API uses it outside Google's documented purpose. Google says submissions undergo spam detection and that attempts to abuse the API may result in access being revoked.
04
How do I get a Google Indexing API key?
There is no simple API key. You create a Google Cloud project, enable the API, create a service account and download its JSON private key, then add the service account's email as an owner of your Search Console property.
05
What should I use instead of the Indexing API?
A sitemap with accurate lastmod dates, links from pages Google already indexes, and Request indexing in URL Inspection for a few key URLs. For Bing and other participating engines, IndexNow notifies them of changes; Google does not participate.
Google says crawling takes a few days to a few weeks, and most sites wait three days or more per new page. A sitemap and links from indexed pages help.
