202 error codes on Instant Index

Hello,

We apologize for the issue you are facing with the 202 error codes on your submitted URLs in Instant Indexing. A 202 response code indicates that the IndexNow API has accepted your URL submission, but it still needs to validate the API key to confirm that the URL belongs to your site.

If you are also encountering a 404 error when checking the API key, it may indicate that there is an issue with how the API key is configured or that the URL you are using to check it is incorrect.

Here are a few steps you can take to troubleshoot this issue:

1. Verify Your API Key: Ensure that the API key you are using is correct and properly configured in your Rank Math settings.
2. Check Your Site URL: Make sure that the site URL associated with your API key matches the URL of your website.
3. Review Instant Indexing Settings: Navigate to Rank Math SEO → Instant Indexing → Settings in your WordPress dashboard and ensure everything is set up correctly.
4. Consult Documentation: You can refer to our documentation on how to use IndexNow for more detailed guidance.

If the problem persists, please reply to this ticket with your site URL so that a human agent from our support team can assist you further. Thank you for raising this concern!

Sources:
How to Use IndexNow With Rank Math » Rank Math
How to Fix 429 Error with IndexNow API » Rank Math

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us. We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused.

If you are referring to the Google Fast indexing API, and you are getting the 404 error, it means that the URLs are not in the Indexing API. Since the API is only for two types of websites (job postings and live streams) and goes through rigorous spam detection due to recent changes in Google, it’s much more difficult to get URLs into the API.

So, unless you have one of the website types we mentioned and the content is unique, you won’t be able to use this feature consistently and you shouldn’t as the API was never intended for it as mentioned in our own documentation.

The bottom line is that our submissions to the API are working fine, but if the pages are not accepted into it because of guidelines issues, there’s nothing we can do.

The Instant Indexing plugin was put through rigorous testing and we can see the submissions are working, but we cannot force Google to accept them.

Thank you.

Hello,

Could you please share the screenshot of the issue so we can check properly?

You can upload screenshots using this tool and add the link here.

Looking forward to helping you.

Hello,

Concerning the Check Key returning a 404 page it means the API key file is not accessible. First try changing the API key by clicking the Change Key button to generate a new API key.

After changing the key, clear your cache and check if your API key is accessible to search engines by clicking on the Check Key button. This will open a new tab where you can see if the API key is served correctly.

If it still redirects to a 404 page, it means the API key file was not created automatically. You may need to create a txt file in the root directory of your website manually and enter just the API key in the txt file.

2. The 202 status code means that the URL has been accepted by the IndexNow API, but the site is yet to get verified by the API. For more details on response codes, you can check this URL: https://rankmath.com/kb/how-to-use-indexnow/#history

Hope that helps and please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any other questions.

Thank you.