GSC "Request Indexing" vs IndexNow: pick by intent

GSC "Request Indexing" vs IndexNow: pick by intent

Two buttons, two jobs. I ran both on the same 40-URL batch.

GSC URL Inspection "Request Indexing" is a polite nudge to Googlebot only, rate-limited to roughly a dozen manual pulls a day before it greys out.

IndexNow pings Bing/Yandex/Seznam instantly and at scale, but Google still does not consume it.

Pros (IndexNow): unlimited URLs, sub-minute Bing pickup, dead-simple key file.
Cons (IndexNow): zero Google effect, no per-URL status feedback.
Pros (GSC): authoritative Google signal, shows the actual verdict.
Cons (GSC): manual, slow, one domain at a time.

Best for: use IndexNow as your default firehose for Bing/Yandex, and save GSC's manual button for the 5-10 URLs you genuinely need Google to recrawl today.

Score: complementary, not competitors. 4/5 each in their lane.