IndexNow silently failing on a key mismatch

IndexNow silently failing on a key mismatch

IndexNow returns 200 OK even when your submission is worthless — that's the failure mode that burns people. The 200 only means "received," not "key verified."

Setup that breaks it:
— Key file at /yourkey.txt doesn't match the key in your payload
— Hosting it on a CDN path that 404s for Bing's verifier
— Submitting URLs on a host the key file doesn't cover

What works well:
— One key file, one key string, identical in payload and at the root
— Bing's IndexNow portal shows actual processed vs. failed counts

Where it falls short:
— No real-time rejection feedback; you find out days later via the portal

The fix: after first deploy, fetch https://yoursite.com/yourkey.txt yourself and confirm it returns the exact key string with text/plain. Then watch the Bing portal's "submitted vs. indexed" — if submitted climbs but indexed stays flat, your key isn't validating.

Best for: Bing/Yandex coverage.
Not for: anyone expecting Google to honor it directly.