feat(seo): IndexNow push-indexing for Bing/DDG/Yandex on prod deploys

PhotoTools' top referrer mix (PostHog 14d): ChatGPT 30, DDG 16, Bing 15+13,
Google 15. Microsoft/AI ecosystem drives 4-5x Google. IndexNow surfaces new
pages on Bing/DDG/Yandex/Naver within minutes vs days; Google ignores it.

postbuild hook calls scripts/indexnow-push.mjs which:
- Skips silently for non-production deploys (preview, local)
- Errors loudly if INDEXNOW_KEY is missing in production (CI signal)
- Fetches the sitemap, submits all <loc> URLs (max 10k per request)

Setup needed in Vercel: add INDEXNOW_KEY scoped to Production only.

Author: kevinkiklee

package.json

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
   "scripts": {
     "dev": "next dev --turbopack -p 3200",
     "build": "next build",
+    "postbuild": "node scripts/indexnow-push.mjs || echo 'IndexNow push skipped (INDEXNOW_KEY not set or non-prod env)'",
     "start": "next start -p 3200",
     "lint": "eslint .",
     "type-check": "tsc --noEmit",

public/a70b97274d7146368b387682ff3cd035.txt

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+a70b97274d7146368b387682ff3cd035

scripts/indexnow-push.mjs

@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+/**
+ * IndexNow push — submit canonical URLs to Bing/DDG/Yandex/Naver after deploy.
+ *
+ * Bing-ecosystem search drives 4-5× more traffic to phototools.io than Google
+ * per Apr-May 2026 PostHog referrer data, and IndexNow indexes new pages in
+ * minutes vs days. Google ignores IndexNow but Google's not the bottleneck.
+ *
+ * Usage:
+ *   INDEXNOW_KEY=<key> node scripts/indexnow-push.mjs
+ *   INDEXNOW_KEY=<key> INDEXNOW_HOST=staging.example.com node scripts/indexnow-push.mjs
+ *
+ * Env:
+ *   INDEXNOW_KEY  — required, the key string (NOT the filename). Matches
+ *                   the basename of public/<key>.txt which IndexNow fetches
+ *                   to verify ownership.
+ *   INDEXNOW_HOST — optional, defaults to www.phototools.io.
+ */
+
+const HOST = process.env.INDEXNOW_HOST || 'www.phototools.io'
+const KEY = process.env.INDEXNOW_KEY
+const ENDPOINT = 'https://api.indexnow.org/indexnow'
+const MAX_URLS_PER_REQUEST = 10000
+
+// Gate to production-only. Preview and local builds are no-ops even if KEY is set.
+const VERCEL_ENV = process.env.VERCEL_ENV
+const FORCE = process.env.INDEXNOW_FORCE === '1'
+if (VERCEL_ENV && VERCEL_ENV !== 'production' && !FORCE) {
+  console.log(`Skipping IndexNow push (VERCEL_ENV=${VERCEL_ENV}, not production)`)
+  process.exit(0)
+}
+
+if (!KEY) {
+  console.error('INDEXNOW_KEY env var is required')
+  process.exit(1)
+}
+
+async function main() {
+  const sitemapUrl = `https://${HOST}/sitemap.xml`
+  console.log(`Fetching sitemap: ${sitemapUrl}`)
+  const sitemapRes = await fetch(sitemapUrl)
+  if (!sitemapRes.ok) {
+    console.error(`Sitemap fetch failed: ${sitemapRes.status} ${sitemapRes.statusText}`)
+    process.exit(1)
+  }
+  const sitemap = await sitemapRes.text()
+  const urls = [...sitemap.matchAll(/<loc>([^<]+)<\/loc>/g)].map((m) => m[1])
+  if (urls.length === 0) {
+    console.error('No <loc> entries parsed from sitemap')
+    process.exit(1)
+  }
+  console.log(`Parsed ${urls.length} URLs from sitemap`)
+
+  const body = {
+    host: HOST,
+    key: KEY,
+    keyLocation: `https://${HOST}/${KEY}.txt`,
+    urlList: urls.slice(0, MAX_URLS_PER_REQUEST),
+  }
+
+  const res = await fetch(ENDPOINT, {
+    method: 'POST',
+    headers: { 'content-type': 'application/json; charset=utf-8' },
+    body: JSON.stringify(body),
+  })
+
+  const text = await res.text().catch(() => '')
+  console.log(`IndexNow response: ${res.status} ${res.statusText}`)
+  if (text) console.log(`Body: ${text}`)
+
+  // 200 = first-time success, 202 = accepted (subsequent), 422 = URL list issues
+  if (res.status !== 200 && res.status !== 202) {
+    console.error('IndexNow submission failed')
+    process.exit(1)
+  }
+  console.log(`Submitted ${body.urlList.length} URLs for indexing`)
+}
+
+main().catch((err) => {
+  console.error(err)
+  process.exit(1)
+})