My Personal Web Tool Site
I spent a few hours today primarily optimizing the IndexNow submission feature for Bing.
Previously, the function kept returning a “429” error (indicating excessive requests), even though I was hardly submitting anything; this suggested a problem with the code itself.
I used AI to help troubleshoot and fix the issue.
I replaced the original Cloudflare Workers-based proxy relay with server-side hooks using PocketBase.
I also added support for submitting individual URLs directly from the frontend, bypassing the need for server-side processing.
Testing confirms the feature is working correctly.
Logged-in users can now view the history and status of their submitted URLs.
Future submissions include a check to see if a URL has already been successfully submitted, preventing duplicate requests.
Logged-in users can save their API keys and domain names, eliminating the need for manual entry with every submission.
Implementation Notes
The key lesson is that IndexNow should be treated as a controlled queue, not as a button that can be clicked repeatedly without state tracking. Even if a user only submits a few URLs, a bug in the frontend or proxy layer can create repeated requests and trigger rate limits.
The safer workflow is to store each submitted URL, its latest status, the submission time, and the response code. Before sending a new request, the system can check whether the same URL was already submitted successfully.
SEO Value
For Bing SEO, IndexNow is useful because it can notify supported search engines about new or updated URLs quickly. It does not guarantee ranking, but it reduces the delay between publishing and discovery.
For Google SEO, IndexNow is not a replacement for Google Search Console. The same page still needs a valid sitemap entry, a stable canonical URL, and manual inspection for important pages.