=== IndexBeacon – Instant Indexing for Google, Bing & IndexNow ===
Contributors: metafy
Tags: indexnow, instant indexing, search console, sitemap, seo
Requires at least: 6.2
Tested up to: 7.1
Requires PHP: 7.4
Stable tag: 2.3.0
License: GPLv2 or later
License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Tell search engines about new and updated posts the moment you publish: IndexNow, Google Search Console sitemaps, WebSub and ping services.

== Description ==

Publishing posts that take days or weeks to show up in search? IndexBeacon notifies search engines automatically every time you publish, update or remove a post. You don't need to click "Request indexing" or wait for crawlers to come back.

**What it does**

* **IndexNow:** one instant notification reaches Bing, Yandex, Naver, Seznam, Yep and every other IndexNow partner. The key file is created and served for you.
* **Google Search Console:** connect your Google account and IndexBeacon submits your sitemaps automatically after you publish.
* **WebSub hubs:** feed readers and aggregators get new items in real time.
* **Ping services:** optional XML-RPC pings to blog and news aggregators.
* **Removal notices:** when a post is unpublished or trashed, engines are told too.
* **Site verification:** add Google, Bing and Yandex verification meta tags or HTML files without FTP.
* **"Ping now" link:** on every post in the Posts list.
* **Safety sweep:** re-sends anything that was published another way, such as imports, WP-CLI or a failed background task.
* **Status & logs:** see exactly what was sent, when, and what each engine answered.

**Light and safe**

Nothing runs while visitors load your pages. Work is queued in the background with WP-Cron, retried on failure, and de-duplicated when you save the same post several times.

Works alongside Yoast SEO, Rank Math, AIOSEO and SEOPress. IndexBeacon does not replace your SEO plugin; it just makes engines find your content faster.

**Optional Pro add-on**

A separate, paid add-on is available for news sites and AI search. It adds a Google News sitemap, Article and FAQ schema, llms.txt and AI-crawler rules, and GA4 publish tracking. Everything in this free plugin works fully without it.

== Installation ==

1. Go to Plugins → Add New, search for "IndexBeacon", then install and activate it.
2. Click IndexBeacon in the admin menu.
3. IndexNow, WebSub and pings work immediately with no setup.
4. Optional: to use Google Search Console, create an OAuth client in Google Cloud Console. Paste the Client ID and Secret into the Settings tab, then click "Connect Google Account".

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= Do I need a Google account? =
No. IndexNow, WebSub and ping services work without any account. Google Search Console is optional.

= Does Google support IndexNow? =
No, Google does not use IndexNow. That is why IndexBeacon also submits your sitemaps to Google Search Console when you connect your account.

= Will it slow down my site? =
No. Notifications are sent in the background after you publish, never during a visitor's page load.

= Does it work with my SEO plugin? =
Yes. It works alongside Yoast SEO, Rank Math, AIOSEO and SEOPress, and it does not output any meta tags apart from the verification tags you enter.

= Does it work on multisite? =
Yes. Activate it per site; each site has its own settings and IndexNow key.

== External services ==

This plugin connects to the services below only to notify them about your public posts. It sends no personal data about your visitors.

**IndexNow** (api.indexnow.org)
When you publish, update or remove a post, the post's public URL, your site's host name and your IndexNow key are sent so that participating search engines can crawl it. You can turn this off in IndexBeacon → Engines.
Terms: https://www.indexnow.org/terms , Bing privacy statement: https://privacy.microsoft.com/privacystatement

**Google OAuth and Google Search Console API** (accounts.google.com, oauth2.googleapis.com, www.googleapis.com)
This is used only if you connect a Google account. Your OAuth client ID and secret, plus the access tokens Google returns, are used to submit your sitemap URLs to your own Search Console property.
Terms: https://policies.google.com/terms , Privacy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

**WebSub hubs** (by default pubsubhubbub.appspot.com and pubsubhubbub.superfeedr.com)
When you publish, your feed URL is sent so subscribers receive the update. You can edit the hub list or turn this off in the Engines tab.
Google terms: https://policies.google.com/terms , Superfeedr terms: https://superfeedr.com/terms

**Blog ping services** (by default rpc.pingomatic.com, ping.feedburner.com, rpc.twingly.com)
When you publish, your site name and site URL are sent through the standard weblogUpdates XML-RPC ping. You can edit the list or turn this off in the Engines tab.
Ping-O-Matic: https://pingomatic.com/ , Twingly: https://www.twingly.com/privacy-policy/ , Google (FeedBurner): https://policies.google.com/privacy

== Screenshots ==

1. Dashboard: today's activity and all tools at a glance.
2. Settings: Google Search Console connection and safety-sweep schedule.
3. Engines: IndexNow, WebSub, ping services and site verification.
4. Status & logs: every notification with the engine's answer.

== Changelog ==

= 2.3.0 =
* New: IndexBeacon has its own menu with a dashboard showing today's activity and every tool at a glance.

= 2.2.0 =
* First release on WordPress.org.
* IndexNow, Google Search Console sitemap submission, WebSub, ping services, removal notices, site verification, safety sweep and logs.

== Upgrade Notice ==

= 2.2.0 =
First WordPress.org release.
