Duda Supports Proactive Web Crawling with IndexNow Adoption

October 18, 2021
0 minute read

There is often a lag time between when you publish content and when search engines discover it and enable searchers to find that content. In a world where many businesses depend on providing timely, relevant, and useful information to their audiences online, crawling and indexing delays are costly. This article describes the new proactive IndexNow crawling approach and Duda’s support of this exciting new initiative.

Crawling and Indexing Time Lags

Traditionally, the discovery, crawling, and indexing of your web pages is a passive process managed by web crawlers. These web crawlers are bots operated by search engines, such as Google or Bing. Web crawlers use software to find, download, and index web content. 

When you publish new content on your site, search engines don’t crawl and index that content straight away. There is a delay between publishing and indexing influenced by how search engines operate. Google cites in its documentation that the main method for finding new web pages is, “following links from pages that we already know about.” 

Furthermore, updating existing content also doesn’t result in the most up-to-date version of those pages being crawled and indexed straight away. Search engines have queues and crawling schedules that can result in lag times similar to new pages. 

A 2021 episode of AskGoogleBot featuring John Mueller further clarified this time lag in getting your new or updated indexed. According to Mueller, it can take “several hours to several weeks” for Google to index new content or updated content. 

Aside from news publishers, which search engines treat differently, the current state of crawling and indexing is that you can expect to wait an unknown duration of up to several weeks before the content you work hard to produce and refine even gets indexed. For many businesses, this time lag results in missed opportunities to engage with their online audience or even to attract prospective new customers. It’s clear that the web needs a better approach to keep it as relevant as possible. ï»¿

A Brief Overview of IndexNow

What if there was a way for search engines to immediately crawl and index your new or updated content as soon as you click the Publish or Update button? This immediate approach would make crawling and indexing a much more efficient and proactive process for all website owners; not just news publishers. 

IndexNow provides a new, easy way for website owners to let search engines know about content changes on their web pages. The new open protocol uses an Application Programming Interface (API) to ping search engines and notify them immediately about any content changes. Both Microsoft Bing and Yandex are behind the IndexNow initiative. 

IndexNow uses a collaborative approach. When you notify just one search engine that has adopted IndexNow about new or updated content, all other search engines with IndexNow enabled will also get notified about this content. The result is much more relevance and freshness in search results uniformly across the Internet. The more that different search engines adopt IndexNow, the more its impact will become evident in terms of online user experience. 

It’s worth concluding this description with an important point about IndexNow: getting indexed faster doesn’t mean you’ll rank better in search results. You still need to create original, high-quality, SEO-optimized content and follow webmaster content guidelines if you want to get the top positions in search engine results pages.

Duda Supports IndexNow for a Fresher Internet

If you wanted to use IndexNow on your own, you’d need some development knowledge and manual work to interact with the API. You’d either need to submit individual or bulk URLs when those web pages were created or received updates. This additional work takes away valuable time better spent designing attractive, valuable websites for clients or for your own business. 

At Duda, we want to ensure as many website owners can benefit from this new protocol as possible. We’re proud to support out-of-the-box adoption for IndexNow at Duda, rolling out later this month. In practice, this means that whenever the content changes on your site, we’ll automatically and immediately notify supported search engines of those changes. We’ll make sure that you can benefit from this new approach to crawling and indexing without even needing to do anything.

Closing Thoughts

IndexNow promises to evolve the landscape of search in the following three ways:

Providing users with the freshest content and most relevant results for their searches rather than outdated content. 

Website owners can ensure their hard work in creating original content and refining their existing content assets pays off faster by being crawled and indexed swiftly.

From the perspective of search engines, IndexNow enables more efficient use of computing resources by reducing the need for exploratory crawls. A byproduct of this improved efficiency is also a greener Internet with lower environmental impact. 

Hopefully, more search engines and platforms will follow the lead of Bing, Yandex, and Duda in pushing for an Internet that works better. 



Did you find this article interesting?


Thanks for the feedback!
A screenshot of a plumber's website with a
By Renana Dar May 5, 2025
Many SMBs still hesitate to embrace eCommerce. As the agency partner, you have the opportunity to tear down the perceived walls of eCommerce and show clients how eCommerce can make their business more efficient, accessible, and profitable. Read all about it!
A computer screen with a graph on it and a purple background.
By Santi Clarke April 24, 2025
Learn how platform ecosystems drive revenue and why they are essential for the growth of SaaS businesses.
By Santi Clarke April 24, 2025
One of the greatest challenges for SaaS platforms is keeping users engaged long-term. The term “stickiness” refers to a product's ability to retain users and make them want to return. In the context of SaaS platforms, creating a sticky product means that users consistently find value, experience seamless interactions, and continue using the product over time. The following are 7 practical strategies you can take to improve the stickiness of your SaaS solution. 1. Offer websites that help customers build their digital presence One of the most effective ways to make your SaaS platform sticky is by offering websites to your users. Many businesses today need an online presence, and by providing a platform where your customers can easily build and manage their websites, you increase their reliance on your product. When you offer users a website-building solution, you’re helping them create something foundational to their business. Websites, in this case, aren’t just a tool—they become a part of their identity and brand. This deepens their engagement with your platform, as they need your product to maintain and update their site, ultimately making them less likely to churn. Plus, websites naturally encourage frequent updates, content creation, and customer interactions, which means your users will return to your platform regularly. When you can give your users the tools to create something so essential to their business, you make them more dependent on your platform. This creates a higher barrier to exit, as migrating a fully built website to another service is no small task. In fact, websites are some of the stickiest products you can sell, so adding them to your product portfolio can be one of the best decisions you can to keep your customers using your technology for the long haul. 2. Deliver continuous value through product innovation The key to keeping users coming back to your SaaS platform is ensuring that they consistently see value in it. This means not only meeting their immediate needs but also evolving to address their growing demands. Constant product innovation is essential for keeping your users satisfied and invested in your platform. One way to achieve this is through regular updates that add new features or improvements based on user feedback. A SaaS platform that evolves with its users will keep them engaged longer, making it harder for competitors to steal their attention. Encourage user feedback and prioritize updates that create tangible improvements. This creates an ongoing relationship with your users, which boosts stickiness. 3. Offer a multi-product solution Another powerful way to increase your platform’s stickiness is by offering a suite of products or features that integrate well together. When your users adopt multiple products, they are more likely to stay because they become embedded in your ecosystem. The benefits of this strategy are clear. Research shows that once users adopt more than one product, especially when they integrate >4 tools into their workflow, their likelihood of churn decreases significantly. This happens because the more a user integrates into your suite of products, the harder it is for them to switch to a competitor. These users have invested time in learning your ecosystem and rely on it for their day-to-day operations, making it much harder for them to make the switch. 4. Create a personal connection with your users Human connection is one of the most powerful drivers of user retention. People don’t want to feel like they’re using a cold, faceless platform. By offering exceptional customer support, personalized communication, and community engagement, you build a relationship with your users that goes beyond the product itself. Make sure your support team is responsive, knowledgeable, and empathetic. You can also consider offering tailored onboarding experiences to ensure users understand how to make the most of your platform. When users feel like their success matters to you, they are more likely to remain loyal. 5. Leverage data to personalize the user experience Using data to drive personalization is another strategy that can significantly increase the stickiness of your platform. By tracking user behavior and usage patterns, you can tailor the experience to each individual user’s needs. This could mean recommending features they haven’t yet explored or sending them reminders about tools they may not be fully utilizing. Personalization gives users the feeling that the platform was designed specifically for them, making it harder to walk away from. By demonstrating that you understand their unique needs, you can build a stronger connection and ultimately increase retention rates. 6. Focus on seamless integrations and API capabilities To further increase stickiness, consider expanding your product’s ability to integrate with other tools your users already rely on. Whether it’s email marketing software, CRM systems, or social media management tools, seamless integrations add tremendous value by making it easier for users to incorporate your platform into their existing workflows. The more your product can work in tandem with other popular tools, the more indispensable it becomes. In fact, users who depend on integrations are less likely to churn since their entire ecosystem is tied to your platform’s functionality. 7. Encourage user advocacy and community building User advocacy is another powerful tool in building a sticky product. When users feel a sense of community or even ownership over the platform, they become your most passionate promoters. Encourage your users to share their success stories, join community forums, or contribute to product development through beta testing or feedback loops. A thriving user community not only increases user engagement but also creates a sense of loyalty. When users are part of something larger than themselves, they are more likely to remain committed to your platform, reducing churn and increasing lifetime value. Create deep, lasting customer relationships Making your SaaS platform sticky is all about creating a deep, lasting connection with your users. This requires building a platform that continuously delivers value, creating a seamless and personalized experience, and integrating features that keep users coming back. By focusing on product innovation, offering a multi-product ecosystem, and fostering strong user relationships, you’ll be well on your way to reducing churn and boosting user retention. Stickiness isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s essential for long-term success. Focus on creating a platform that users can’t imagine living without, and you’ll see them stick around for the long haul.
Show More

Latest posts