Case study: an IndexNow key mistake that silently rejected everything

Case study: an IndexNow key mistake that silently rejected everything

Setup: A team fired 50k IndexNow pings for weeks and saw no Bing improvement. The key file at the root returned a 200 but with the wrong key string inside.

What it did well:
— Once corrected, Bing began accepting submissions and lag dropped to under 24h
— Bing Webmaster's IndexNow tab showed the rejection reason once we knew to look

Where it fell short:
— IndexNow returns 200 on submission even when the key later fails verification — no upfront error
— Weeks of pings were wasted with no alert; only the Bing dashboard's URL submission count (flat at zero) gave it away

Verdict: lesson, not a tool score: always verify acceptance in Bing Webmaster, never trust the 200.

Best for: anyone running IndexNow to actually check it works. Not for: set-and-forget teams — that's exactly how this hid for a month.