Google Web Search Indexing API
Browse all Google APIs37
AI ReadinessNon-Ready (F)37/100
Official vendor OpenAPI document · agent-readyMarketingSeo Semoauth22 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Notify Google Search to crawl new or updated URLs and read the latest notification metadata. Useful for keeping job postings and live event pages current in search results.
Use for: I need to notify Google that a new job posting page is live, I want to tell Google a job listing has been removed, Check whether a URL has already been submitted to the Indexing API, Get the metadata for the last indexing notification on a page
Not supported: Does not handle sitemap submission, search analytics, or arbitrary page types - use only to push URL_UPDATED and URL_DELETED notifications for JobPosting and BroadcastEvent pages.
The Web Search Indexing API lets site owners notify Google Search when pages are added, updated, or removed so the index can be refreshed faster than crawl-based discovery. It is intended for time-sensitive page types such as job postings and live broadcast events. The API exposes two operations on URL notifications: publishing an update or removal event, and reading the metadata for the most recent notification on a URL.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the Web Search Indexing API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Web Search Indexing API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
1
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fgoogleapis.com%2Findexing" | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fgoogleapis.com%2Findexing" | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with Web Search Indexing API.
Push URL_UPDATED notifications when a job posting or BroadcastEvent page is created
Push URL_DELETED notifications when a job posting or BroadcastEvent page is taken down
Retrieve the timestamp and type of the last notification submitted for a given URL
Trigger faster recrawls of supported page types without waiting for organic discovery
Track which URLs have already been submitted to avoid duplicate publish calls
Use Cases
Patterns agents use Web Search Indexing API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Time-sensitive job posting indexing
Career sites and job boards can call the Indexing API every time a posting is created, updated, or closed so Google Search reflects the change within hours rather than waiting for the next crawl. Each change is published with a URL_UPDATED or URL_DELETED notification on the urlNotifications:publish endpoint, which keeps Google's job posting structured data current.
Submit a URL_UPDATED notification for https://example.com/jobs/123 and confirm the response includes the new notifyTime.
Live broadcast event publication
Streaming platforms publishing pages with BroadcastEvent structured data use the Indexing API to inform Google when a live event page goes up and when it ends. Publishing a notification on the v3/urlNotifications:publish endpoint reduces the lag between event start and search visibility, which matters for short-window content.
Publish a URL_UPDATED notification for a livestream page and verify the urlNotificationMetadata returns latestUpdate.type=URL_UPDATED.
Indexing audit and resubmission
SEO teams use GET /v3/urlNotifications/metadata to verify whether a URL was successfully submitted, when, and with what notification type. This supports audits of indexing pipelines and lets agents detect URLs that need to be republished after a content change.
Call GET /v3/urlNotifications/metadata?url=https://example.com/jobs/123 and report latestUpdate.type and notifyTime.
Agent-driven indexing automation via Jentic
An agent listening to a job posting database can call the Indexing API through Jentic whenever a row changes. Jentic handles the OAuth 2.0 service account flow and exposes the publish operation as a single MCP tool, so the agent only needs to pass the URL and notification type.
From a webhook indicating a new job, call google_indexing_publish_url with type=URL_UPDATED for the new posting URL.
Key Endpoints
2 endpoints — the web search indexing api lets site owners notify google search when pages are added, updated, or removed so the index can be refreshed faster than crawl-based discovery.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
POST
/v3/urlNotifications:publish
Publish an update or removal notification for a URL
GET
/v3/urlNotifications/metadata
Retrieve metadata for the latest notification on a URL
POST
/v3/urlNotifications:publish
Publish an update or removal notification for a URL
GET
/v3/urlNotifications/metadata
Retrieve metadata for the latest notification on a URL
Jentic AI Readiness Score
This API is usable in Jentic One now. Its AI-readiness score against Jentic's framework shows where it stands today and where improvements would make it even easier for agents to use.
W
Web Search Indexing API
- Non-Ready (F)37/100
74
Foundational Compliance56
Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility15
AI-Readiness & Agent Experience94
Agent Usability63
Security63
AI DiscoverabilityPowered by JenticScoring Framework 1.0.0 | Scoring Engine 0.4.0
Show dimension breakdown
74
Foundational Compliance
Base layer of spec validity and structural soundness.
Grade: A-Signals: 4
95%
Lint Results
Aggregated quality score from linter diagnostics, weighted by severity.
100%
Resolution Completeness
Percentage of `$ref` references that resolve successfully.
0%
Specification Validity
Checks whether the API description parses successfully and conforms to its declared specification (e.g., OpenAPI).
100%
Structural Integrity
Structural correctness score based on schema issues using logarithmic dampening.
56
Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility
Clarity, completeness, and ingestion readiness for developers and tooling.
Grade: CSignals: 4
0%
Example Density
How richly the API is illustrated with examples.
100%
Example Validity
Percentage of examples that conform to their schemas.
25%
Response Coverage
Percentage of operations with complete response definitions (success, client error, server error).
100%
Tooling Readiness
Health of API ingestion, bundling, and resolution within Jentic pipelines.
15
AI-Readiness & Agent Experience
Semantic breadth, depth, and agent comprehension for AI systems.
Grade: FSignals: 4
59%
Description Coverage
Coverage of descriptions across API elements.
0%
Error Standardization
Coverage of RFC 9457 Problem Details for error responses.
0%
OperationId Quality
Coverage, uniqueness, and casing consistency of operationIds for AI inference.
0%
Summary Coverage
Coverage of summaries across operations/tags/info.
94
Agent Usability
Functional utility, complexity comfort, and AI orchestration readiness.
Grade: A+Signals: 1
94%
Complexity Comfort
Agent comfort level based on API operational and structural complexity.
63
Security
Trust, risk posture, and security compliance.
Grade: B-Signals: 1
62%
Authentication Strength
Average quality of security schemes based on authentication method strength (weakest link for OAuth2).
63
AI Discoverability
Findability, semantic richness, and reasoning readiness.
Grade: B-Signals: 1
62%
Descriptive Richness
Clarity and depth of descriptions across API elements.
Score it yourself
Every API in the directory is allowlisted, so you can re-score it with no key required.
npx @jentic/api-scorecard-cli score <openapi-url>Why Jentic?
What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.
Setup
Wiring the Web Search Indexing API by hand means configuring service-account OAuth2, narrowing to the indexing scope, refreshing tokens, and building its urlNotifications payloads yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the Web Search Indexing API from the API Directory, store the credential once, and your agent calls it.
Permission scoping
The indexing API carries the target URL in the request body rather than a resource in the URL path, so scope the agent to the operations it needs, such as publishing a URL_UPDATED notification or reading notification metadata. You choose the allowed set, so if you grant only the metadata read the agent can check status without ever publishing changes.
Credential isolation
Your Indexing service-account credential is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time as a short-lived access token scoped to indexing. The private key never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'notify google of a url change' or 'check url notification status', and Jentic returns the matching urlNotifications operation with its input schema so the agent builds the request without browsing Google's docs.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using Web Search Indexing API through Jentic.
What authentication does the Web Search Indexing API use?
The API uses OAuth 2.0 with the https://www.googleapis.com/auth/indexing scope, typically issued to a Google service account that has been granted Owner permission for the property in Search Console. Through Jentic the OAuth credentials live in the encrypted vault and the agent receives a scoped access token at call time only.
Which page types are supported by the Web Search Indexing API?
Google currently supports the API for pages with JobPosting structured data and pages with BroadcastEvent embedded in a VideoObject. Submitting other page types is allowed but will not trigger faster crawling, and Google may ignore those notifications.
What are the rate limits for the Web Search Indexing API?
Google enforces a default daily quota of 200 publish requests and 180 metadata requests per project, with a burst limit of around 600 requests per minute. Quota increases can be requested via the Google Cloud console for high-volume careers sites.
How do I submit a URL update through Jentic?
Run jentic search 'notify google to recrawl a url' to find the publish operation, jentic load to fetch its input schema, then jentic execute with body {"url": "https://example.com/jobs/123", "type": "URL_UPDATED"} which calls POST /v3/urlNotifications:publish.
Can I check whether a URL was already submitted?
Yes. Call GET /v3/urlNotifications/metadata with the url query parameter and the response includes latestUpdate and latestRemove timestamps, so an agent can decide whether to resubmit.
Is the Web Search Indexing API free to use?
The API itself has no per-call charge - costs are governed only by the Google Cloud project quotas. The service account and Search Console verification are also free.
Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Web Search Indexing API?
Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which Indexing API operations the agent may call and which credentials it may use. This API only exposes two operations: publishing a URL_UPDATED or URL_DELETED notification and reading the latest notification metadata, so you can grant just the metadata read and the agent can check submission status without ever publishing changes. Since the target URL travels in the request body rather than the path, you scope the agent to the operations it needs and it never gets access beyond the set you allow.
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