Fast Index for Google Indexing API

Only the address (URL) of a post and the kind of notification: URL_UPDATED when a post is published or changed, URL_DELETED when it is removed. Titles, content, visitors and your database are not sent. To prove who is asking, Fast Index also sends a signed request that contains the email address and key ID of your service account; the private key itself never leaves your site. The requests go to oauth2.googleapis.com and indexing.googleapis.com. If IndexNow is turned on, the same addresses, the host name of your site and the IndexNow key also go to api.indexnow.org. Your own History keeps the title, address and each answer in your database. See also Google's privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

No, and Fast Index cannot promise it. Google says: "The Indexing API can only be used to crawl pages with either JobPosting or BroadcastEvent embedded in a VideoObject." For other pages, such as ordinary posts or products, Google may accept the notification and answer 200, but its documentation does not promise that the page will be crawled or indexed, or that this happens sooner. A 200 only means that, in Google's words, it "may try to recrawl this URL soon". Google also checks every submission for spam and may revoke access for abuse. Keep your sitemap and Search Console as they are. Details: https://developers.google.com/search/apis/indexing-api/v3/using-api

Fast Index looks at the saved content of each post for structured data of the types JobPosting or BroadcastEvent (JSON-LD or microdata), and at the job listings of WP Job Manager, without any outside request. History marks such entries with Eligible for Google Indexing API. If you check Send to Google only pages with JobPosting or BroadcastEvent data in the settings, only those pages go to Google; the others still go to IndexNow when it is on. Data that a theme or another plugin adds only when the page is shown, and not in the saved content, is not seen; developers can add it with the fast_index_is_eligible filter.

Fast Index sends published content of the post types checked in the settings; drafts, pending and private posts are not sent. Every public post type of the site can be checked: Posts (checked by default), Pages, and custom post types such as products or job listings. Media attachments are not offered.

If Trash is checked in the settings, a published post that is moved to the trash, or deleted without the trash, is reported as URL_DELETED with the address it had before. Deleting it later from the trash sends nothing more. Changing a published post to draft or private is not reported. Google asks that the address returns 404 or 410, or carries a noindex tag, when you send a removal.

Yes. In the list of posts, pages or another post type that Fast Index sends, hover over a published item and click Notify search engines, or select up to 100 items, choose Notify search engines under Bulk actions and click Apply. Fast Index sends them to Google right away, and to IndexNow when it is on, and shows the result on the same screen; History lists each answer. You need permission to edit each item and the items of other users, as Editors and Administrators have, and Status must be Active. Password-protected items are not sent. Every address counts against Google's daily quota.

Yes. Set a daily limit under Daily Limit for Old Posts. Every hour Fast Index sends a small random batch of published posts that Google has not accepted yet, newest first, until the daily limit is reached. The limit counts all successful notifications of the last 24 hours. Send Old Posts Now runs one batch immediately, and History shows how many posts are still waiting. Keep the limit within Google's daily quota. This setting is part of the premium plan, a separate package.

Google's default is 200 publish requests per day for each Google Cloud project; notifications of both kinds, updated and removed, count. Google says larger usage needs its approval and that quota may increase or decrease based on document quality. Fast Index does not know your quota in advance: when Google answers 429 it pauses every key until the quota resets at midnight Pacific Time, and the notifications that could not be sent wait until then. Quota page: https://developers.google.com/search/apis/indexing-api/v3/quota-pricing

With the premium plan you can upload backup keys. Fast Index always sends with the main key, the first one in the list. Only when Google rejects it (401 or 403, or the key is refused) is that key paused for six hours and the next key tried. A 429 answer means the daily quota is used up: every key is then paused until the quota resets at midnight Pacific Time, and no other key is tried. Other errors (such as 400, 5xx or no answer) end the attempt without pausing a key. Google counts quota for each project, not for each key, and writes that attempts to abuse the API, including the use of multiple accounts or other means to exceed usage quotas, may result in access being revoked: https://developers.google.com/search/apis/indexing-api/v3/quickstart Ask Google for more quota if you need it.

The key is kept in your WordPress database (an option that is not loaded on every request). It is never written to the uploads folder or any other file, and the screens show only the email address and key ID. Because the service account is an Owner of your Search Console property, treat the key like a password. If it may have leaked, delete the key in Google Cloud and remove the service account from the users of your Search Console property.

Deactivating removes the scheduled tasks and keeps everything else. Deleting the plugin removes temporary data (queued tasks, caches, locks) and, by default, keeps your settings, keys and history, so a reinstall continues where you left off. If Delete data on uninstall was checked before you deleted the plugin, settings, keys and history are removed too, on every site of a network. Records kept by Freemius are not touched, and the key stays valid in Google Cloud until you delete it there.

On the first page load after the update, Fast Index reads each key file that version 2.x saved in the uploads folder, checks it, stores it in the database and deletes the file. Your settings and history are kept, and the old ten-minute scheduled task is replaced by an hourly one. Earlier versions kept the files in a folder that anyone could reach, so a notice recommends creating new keys and deleting the old ones in Google Cloud. If a file cannot be moved, a notice names it, and you can upload that key again.

Yes. You can activate it for the whole network or for single sites; sites created later are set up automatically after a network activation. Settings, keys, history and the schedule belong to each site, so upload a key on every site that should send. There is no network admin screen.

Fast Index does not read language plugins. It sends the address that WordPress gives for the post that was saved, so a translation that is stored as its own post is sent when that post changes. The service account must be an Owner of a Search Console property that covers the addresses of every language, for example a Domain property. The plugin's own screens follow the language of your site or user profile.

Yes, through IndexNow, which is off by default. Turn it on with Also send to IndexNow on the settings screen. Fast Index then also sends each address to api.indexnow.org, which shares it with Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam.cz, Yep and the other search engines that take part. Unlike the Google Indexing API, IndexNow accepts every kind of page and needs no account: Fast Index creates a key for your site and answers it at /{key}.txt. The request contains the host name of your site, the key, the address of the key file and the changed addresses. History lists the answers in the IndexNow channel. Fast Index does not use the Bing Webmaster API. See the IndexNow terms: https://www.indexnow.org/terms

The free version is not limited in time or in the number of notifications. It notifies Google when content of any public post type is published, updated, trashed or deleted, keeps a History of Google's answers and includes Help & FAQ. The premium plan adds the index status of every address from Search Console, a weekly email report, hourly batches of old posts within a daily limit you set, excluded categories and backup service account keys. The premium plan is a separate package, sold through Freemius. The Premium box on the settings screen compares both versions, and Upgrade in the Fast Index menu shows the plans and prices.

It asks the URL Inspection API of Google Search Console with the service account key you already use, and shows the answer in the Index Status column of History: Indexed; Crawled, not indexed; Discovered, not indexed; or Unknown to Google, with the date of the last crawl. Each address Google accepted is checked automatically 24 hours after sending, and once more after 72 hours if it was not indexed yet; the Check button checks one address now. A card above History counts the addresses accepted in the last 30 days, the checked ones and the indexed ones. Enable the Google Search Console API in your Google Cloud project first. Google allows 2,000 checks per day for each property; the automatic checks use at most half of them. The address and the property go to searchconsole.googleapis.com.

Open Upgrade in the Fast Index menu, or click Upgrade to Premium on the settings screen, and buy a plan there; Freemius handles the payment. Freemius then emails you the premium package (a .zip file) and a license key; both are also in your account at https://customers.freemius.com/. In WordPress go to Plugins, add a new plugin, click Upload Plugin and choose that .zip file, then activate it and enter the license key when you are asked. If both versions are installed, Freemius deactivates the free one. Your settings, keys and history are kept. The free version from WordPress.org never contains the premium code.

No. Fast Index includes the Freemius SDK, which sells the premium plan and manages its licenses. The free version has no license screen. The first time you open Fast Index, Freemius shows an opt-in screen. If you choose Skip, nothing is sent to Freemius and Fast Index works the same. If you choose Allow & Continue, your browser sends what that screen lists to Freemius: your name and email address, the site address and title, the language, the WordPress, PHP, plugin and SDK versions, and later the list of your plugins and themes. Opening Upgrade loads the plans from Freemius without any site data, and choosing a plan opens the Freemius checkout. See the Freemius privacy policy: https://freemius.com/privacy/

No. Saving a post only queues a scheduled task. The request to Google is made later by WP-Cron, with a time limit of 15 seconds, and a batch of old posts stops after about 20 seconds.