
<p><a href="https://www.indexnow.org/">IndexNow</a> is a protocol that allows you to instantly notify participating search engines (like Bing and Yandex) about updated, added, or deleted URLs. Mysteriously, Webflow does not support this out of the box.</p>



<p>As I recently encountered this problem professionally, I&#8217;ve collected some notes regarding how we automated this to happen each time our Webflow site is published.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">This post assumes access to the following:</h3>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>A Webflow site with access to project settings</li>



<li>A Zapier account</li>



<li>A GitHub repository</li>
</ul>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Step 1: Enable Sitemap Auto-Generation in Webflow</h3>



<ol start="1" class="wp-block-list">
<li>Open your Webflow project and go to <strong>Site Settings &gt; SEO</strong>.</li>



<li>Scroll to the <strong>Sitemap</strong> section and toggle <strong>Auto-generate Sitemap</strong> to &#8220;Yes&#8221;.</li>



<li>Set a default domain to avoid redirect issues in the sitemap.</li>



<li>Publish your site. The sitemap will now be available at <code>https://your-site.com/sitemap.xml</code>.</li>
</ol>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>If your site uses Localization, Webflow will automatically include <code>hreflang</code> tags for all supported languages.</p>
</blockquote>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Step 2: Generate and Host Your IndexNow Key</h3>



<p>This is one of the more annoying hurdles encountered by Webflow users, <a href="https://wishlist.webflow.com/ideas/WEBFLOW-I-4888" data-type="link" data-id="https://wishlist.webflow.com/ideas/WEBFLOW-I-4888">as clear by the discussion in this lingering wishlist thread</a>.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="272" src="https://ravenwilde.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-02-at-3.42.30 PM-1024x272.png" alt="" class="wp-image-495" srcset="https://ravenwilde.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-02-at-3.42.30 PM-1024x272.png 1024w, https://ravenwilde.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-02-at-3.42.30 PM-300x80.png 300w, https://ravenwilde.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-02-at-3.42.30 PM-768x204.png 768w, https://ravenwilde.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Screenshot-2025-04-02-at-3.42.30 PM.png 1316w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<p>Fortunately, clever users have figured out how to utilize Webflow&#8217;s 301 redirect feature to work around this.</p>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Visit <a href="https://www.indexnow.org/">indexnow.org</a> to generate an API key.</li>



<li>Save the key to a file named <code>{your-key}.txt</code>.</li>



<li>Upload the file to a static CDN, we utilized an S3 bucket.</li>



<li>Setup a 301 redirect within Webflow to point at your static .txt file.</li>



<li>Make sure it&#8217;s accessible at <code>https://your-site.com/{your-key}.txt</code>.</li>
</ol>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="306" src="https://ravenwilde.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/image-1024x306.png" alt="" class="wp-image-496" srcset="https://ravenwilde.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/image-1024x306.png 1024w, https://ravenwilde.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/image-300x90.png 300w, https://ravenwilde.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/image-768x230.png 768w, https://ravenwilde.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/image-1536x459.png 1536w, https://ravenwilde.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/image-2048x613.png 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Step 3: Create a GitHub Action for IndexNow Submission</h3>



<p>In our GitHub repository, we created a workflow file at <code>.github/workflows/indexnow.yml</code>:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>name: IndexNow Submissions

# Controls when the workflow will run
on:

  # Allows you to run this workflow manually from the Actions tab
  workflow_dispatch:

  # Allows external webhook trigger
  repository_dispatch:
    types:
      - webhook

# A workflow run is made up of one or more jobs that can run sequentially or in parallel
jobs:
  # This workflow contains a single job called "indexNow"
  indexNow:
    # The type of runner that the job will run on
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    defaults:
      run:
        working-directory: ./scripts

    # Steps represent a sequence of tasks that will be executed as part of the job
    steps:
      # Checks-out your repository under $GITHUB_WORKSPACE, so your job can access it
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3

      # Add executable permissions to the script
      - name: Make indexNow.sh executable
        run: chmod +x ./indexNow.sh

      # Runs indexNow submission script
      - name: Run indexNow submission script
        run: ./indexNow.sh
</code></pre>



<p>In addition to the shell script created at <code>scripts/indexNow.sh</code>:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>#!/bin/bash

# Ensure xmllint is installed
if ! command -v xmllint &amp;&gt; /dev/null; then
    echo "xmllint not found. Installing..."
    sudo apt-get update &amp;&amp; sudo apt-get install -y libxml2-utils
fi

# Configuration parameters
SITEMAP_URL="https://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml"
HOST="www.yourdomain.com"  # Your domain, without http/https
KEY="6#######################d"  # The same numerical key you uploaded as a TXT file
KEY_LOCATION="https://www.yourdomain.com/${KEY}.txt"  # Full URL of the TXT file
CHUNK_SIZE=1000

# Function to parse URLs from the sitemap
get_urls_from_sitemap() {
    curl -s "$SITEMAP_URL" | xmllint --xpath '//*&#91;local-name()="loc"]/text()' -
}

# Function to notify IndexNow
notify_indexnow() {
    local urls=("$@")
    local payload=$(jq -n \
        --arg host "$HOST" \
        --arg key "$KEY" \
        --arg keyLocation "$KEY_LOCATION" \
        --argjson urlList "$(printf '%s\n' "${urls&#91;@]}" | jq -R . | jq -s .)" \
        '{host: $host, key: $key, keyLocation: $keyLocation, urlList: $urlList}')
    
    curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" -X POST "https://www.bing.com/indexnow" \
        -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
        -d "$payload"
}

# Main logic
echo "Fetching URLs from sitemap..."
all_urls=($(get_urls_from_sitemap))
echo "Found ${#all_urls&#91;@]} URLs in the sitemap."

num_notified=0
batch_number=1

for ((i = 0; i &lt; ${#all_urls&#91;@]}; i += CHUNK_SIZE)); do
    chunk=("${all_urls&#91;@]:i:CHUNK_SIZE}")
    echo "Notifying batch $batch_number with ${#chunk&#91;@]} URLs..."
    
    status_code=$(notify_indexnow "${chunk&#91;@]}")
    if &#91;&#91; "$status_code" == "200" ]]; then
        echo "Batch $batch_number: Successfully notified ${#chunk&#91;@]} URLs."
    else
        echo "Batch $batch_number: Error notifying. Status code: $status_code"
    fi
    
    num_notified=$((num_notified + ${#chunk&#91;@]}))
    batch_number=$((batch_number + 1))
done

echo "Finished! Total URLs notified: $num_notified"</code></pre>



<p>This script automates the process of fetching URLs from a sitemap, batching them, and notifying the IndexNow API to ensure search engines are updated with the latest content changes.</p>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Step 4: Set Up a Zap in Zapier</h3>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Trigger</strong>: Webflow → &#8220;Site Published&#8221; webhook
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>In Webflow, go to <code>Project Settings &gt; Integrations &gt; Webhooks</code></li>



<li>Create a webhook for the &#8220;Site publish&#8221; event and paste in a custom Zapier Webhooks trigger URL</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>Action</strong>: GitHub → &#8220;Run Workflow&#8221;
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>In Zapier, connect your GitHub account</li>



<li>Choose the repo where the GitHub Action lives</li>



<li>Select the <code>indexnow.yml</code> workflow</li>



<li>Fill in the input fields:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><code>sitemap_url</code>: <code>https://your-site.com/sitemap.xml</code></li>



<li><code>host</code>: <code>your-site.com</code></li>



<li><code>key</code>: your IndexNow API key</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Step 5: Test Your Setup</h3>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Publish your Webflow site</li>



<li>Confirm that:
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>The Zap is triggered</li>



<li>The GitHub Action runs and completes successfully</li>



<li>The IndexNow API receives your submission (check logs or use Bing Webmaster Tools)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Benefits of This Approach</h3>



<p>This setup connects Webflow publishing to IndexNow with minimal overhead. It avoids extra hosting, uses tools we already rely on, and ensures search engines stay up to date with our content automatically.</p>


jennifer.codes | development blog

Automating IndexNow Submissions from Webflow with GitHub Actions and Zapier

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