# IndexNow Integration

Let your AI agent tell search engines about changed pages on your own site with IndexNow, after you approve the change. You create and host your own key.

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Connect your own site to IndexNow so your Chipp AI can tell search engines that pages changed, right after you approved and published the change.

This is part of Chipp's SEO and AEO (answer engine optimization) toolkit. The agent only submits pages you approved, and only on the one site you connected. Nothing is published or submitted automatically.

## How IndexNow works

IndexNow is an open protocol. You make up a key, host it on your site as a small text file, and then send a list of changed URLs. The search engines that support IndexNow (Bing and others) share what they receive with each other. There is no account to create.

## Whose credentials are used

The key is **yours**. You create it and host it on your own site. Chipp never makes or holds a key for you.

- The key proves the site is yours. IndexNow looks for the key file on your site.
- Chipp stores your key encrypted, and never shows it again or sends it to the AI model.
- The key file on your site is public by design, because search engines read it.
- To stop access, disconnect the integration in **Brain > Integrations**. Chipp deletes the stored key. You can also delete the key file from your site, which makes the key stop working. To change the key, add a new key file, then disconnect and connect again.

## What the AI Can Do

| Tool | What it does |
|------|--------------|
| **indexnow_check_setup** | Checks that your key file is live on your site and holds the key. It never shows the key. |
| **indexnow_submit_urls** | Tells search engines that up to 200 pages were added, changed or removed (needs your approval) |

## Connecting IndexNow


  **1.** 
    <strong>Make up a key</strong>

    Use 8 to 128 letters, digits or dashes. A good key is 32 random hex characters, for example from the command `openssl rand -hex 16`.
  


  **2.** 
    <strong>Host the key file</strong>

    Add a text file named with your key plus `.txt` to the root of your site, for example `a1b2c3d4e5f60718293a4b5c6d7e8f90.txt`. The file contains only the key. Publish it, and open `https://your-host/<key>.txt` to check. If you built your site in Chipp, ask your site editor to add it. It must open directly, without a redirect.
  


  **3.** 
    <strong>Open Integrations</strong>

    In your app's builder, go to **Brain > Integrations** and find **IndexNow** (under **SEO & AEO**).
  


  **4.** 
    <strong>Paste the key and the host</strong>

    Paste the key into **IndexNow key**, type your site's host (for example `www.example.com`) into **Site host**, and click **Connect**. Chipp reads the key file on your site before saving anything. Use the exact host people visit: `www.example.com` and `example.com` are different hosts and each needs its own key file and connection.
  


## Approval and safety

- **You approve every submission.** Your AI shows the URLs it would send and waits for your approval.
- **Only your site.** Chipp only sends URLs on the host you connected. If one URL is invalid, on another host, or uses a different port, **nothing** is sent.
- **Limits.** Up to 200 URLs per request, sent in groups of 100, and up to 10 approved submissions per hour for a site. If a later group fails, your AI tells you how many URLs were accepted and how many were not sent.
- **Audit log.** Every submission is written to your audit log with the site, how many URLs, the result and your stated reason. The log never holds the key or the list of URLs.
- **Nothing on your site changes.** Submitting does not edit or publish anything.

## Submitting a URL is not indexing

IndexNow only confirms that search engines **received** the URLs. It does **not** mean the pages were crawled or indexed, and it does not guarantee any ranking. Each search engine decides when. IndexNow has no status report. Not every search engine uses IndexNow. If you also connect Bing Webmaster Tools, ask your AI to check a page there a few days later.

## Re-checking

After an approved change goes live, ask your AI to submit the changed pages. If a submission is refused, ask it to run **indexnow_check_setup**. It tells you whether the key file is missing, has the wrong content, or cannot be reached, and hands the fix to your site editor.

## Limits

- **One host per connection.** Connect each site separately and give each connection a name.
- **Root key file only.** Chipp does not use keys hosted in other folders.
- **HTTPS site.** Chipp reads the key file over HTTPS.
- **Recommendations only.** The integration never edits or publishes your site.

## Troubleshooting

| Message | What to do |
|---------|-----------|
| No key file at the key's address (404) | Add the text file at your site root, publish, and connect again |
| The file's content is not exactly the key | Put only the key in the file |
| The key file redirects | Serve it directly at the host you connected, for example the `www` host |
| IndexNow could not validate the key (403) | Run **indexnow_check_setup**, fix the file, then disconnect and connect again |
| Too many requests (429) | Wait, and submit only pages that really changed |
| Hourly limit reached | Wait an hour and submit only pages that changed |

## Billing

IndexNow tool calls use your standard Chipp LLM token billing. IndexNow itself is free.