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IndexNow: per-project key management, URL submission, and an MCP tool #101

Description

@Santofer

Problem

OpenSEO helps users find what to rank for and tracks whether they rank — but does nothing to shorten the gap in between: getting (re)indexed. Sitemaps are pull-based; Bing/Yandex discovering a change can take days. IndexNow (https://www.indexnow.org/) is push-based and free: a single POST notifies Bing + Yandex (and other participating engines) within seconds.

This matters more than it used to, because Bing's index feeds Copilot and ChatGPT search. A page invisible to Bing is invisible to a growing share of AI-mediated queries — which is exactly the audience OpenSEO's AI-visibility features target. Faster Bing indexing = faster appearance in the engines Prompt Explorer measures.

Proposal

A small IndexNow feature attached to projects (a project already has a domain):

  1. Key management — generate a 32-hex key per project, show the required key file (https://<domain>/<key>.txt) and verify it's reachable.
  2. Submit — "Submit URLs" action (paste list, or pull from the project's sitemap) that POSTs to https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow with {host, key, keyLocation, urlList}. Zero DataForSEO credits; the endpoint is free and unauthenticated beyond the key file.
  3. MCP toolsubmit_urls_indexnow(projectId, urls[]) so agents can close the publish → index → track loop autonomously.

Minimal surface: one settings field (key), one action, one MCP tool. No scheduler needed for v1 (manual/agent-triggered submits).

Precedent

Same "bring your own free Google/Bing capability" shape as #52 (free Lighthouse via PageSpeed key). We already run this flow externally (key generation + sitemap submit script) for client sites and would be glad to contribute the port as a PR if the direction gets a 👍.

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