---
title: "Google Indexing API with Node.js: Send One Notification"
description: "Use GoogleAuth and googleapis to send an eligible URL_UPDATED notification, inspect failures, and distinguish notification metadata from indexing status."
canonical_url: "https://requestindexing.com/google-indexing-api-node-js"
last_updated: "2026-10-08"
---

> Index of every page on this site: [llms.txt](https://requestindexing.com/llms.txt)

Use Google's `googleapis` client to send one `URL_UPDATED` notification from a server-side Node.js script. The example uses Node.js 24 and `googleapis` 181.0.0.

Before running it against Google, complete the [service-account setup](https://requestindexing.com/google-indexing-api-tutorial), including delegated property ownership and approval. Google supports only eligible `JobPosting` pages, or `BroadcastEvent` embedded in `VideoObject`; see [Google's quickstart](https://developers.google.com/search/apis/indexing-api/v3/quickstart).

## Install and run

Keep the service-account JSON key outside Git and public directories. In a new local directory:

```bash
npm init -y
npm install googleapis@181.0.0
export GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS="/absolute/path/to/service-account.json"
```

Save the following as `notify.mjs`:

```js
import { google } from 'googleapis'

const url = process.argv[2]
if (!url) {
  throw new Error('Pass one eligible URL: node notify.mjs URL')
}

const auth = new google.auth.GoogleAuth({
  scopes: ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/indexing'],
})
const indexing = google.indexing({ version: 'v3', auth })

await indexing.urlNotifications.publish({
  requestBody: { url, type: 'URL_UPDATED' },
}, { retry: false }).then(({ data }) => {
  console.log(JSON.stringify({ status: 'notification-accepted', url, metadata: data }))
}).catch((error) => {
  const details = error.response?.data?.error
  console.error(JSON.stringify({
    status: 'request-failed',
    url,
    httpStatus: error.response?.status,
    reasons: details?.errors?.map(item => item.reason),
    message: details?.message ?? error.message,
  }))
  process.exitCode = 1
})
```

```bash
node notify.mjs 'https://example.com/jobs/42'
```

The library reads the credential file through `GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS`. `GoogleAuth` supplies the scoped authentication to the Indexing API client. The current [Google client](https://github.com/googleapis/google-api-nodejs-client) and [authentication documentation](https://github.com/googleapis/google-auth-library-nodejs) describe this pattern.

## What the output means

A successful response produces `notification-accepted`. That label reports receipt only. It says nothing about a crawl or an indexed page, so if you store the result, keep the receipt apart from indexing status.

[Google Search timelines](https://nuxtseo.com/learn-seo/google-search-timelines) explains why an accepted notification does not set an indexing deadline.

The failure path prints the HTTP status and, when Google returns them, its structured reasons. It also sets a nonzero exit code so a calling job can detect the failure. This small example disables automatic retries: find the cause first, then decide what to retry.

A `429` does not identify the exhausted limit by itself, and a `403` is not always an ownership error. Compare the reason and message with [Google's error reference](https://developers.google.com/search/apis/indexing-api/v3/core-errors) and the [quota guide](https://requestindexing.com/google-indexing-api-quota).

## Read notification metadata separately

In a script with the same `indexing` client and `url`, you can read the notification record:

```js
const { data } = await indexing.urlNotifications.getMetadata({ url })
console.log(data)
```

The snippet depends on that client and `url`, so it will not run on its own. Metadata describes the last notification Google received for that URL. It does not establish index status. [Google's usage guide](https://developers.google.com/search/apis/indexing-api/v3/using-api) documents the distinction.

For index information, use the separate [URL Inspection API](https://developers.google.com/webmaster-tools/v1/urlInspection.index/inspect) and its [Search Console authorization scope](https://gscdump.com/learn-google-search-console/api/authentication). For a one-off check without code, the [Google index checker](https://requestindexing.com/tools/google-indexing-checker) runs a `site:` search for a single URL and reports whether it returns a result.

## When you have several URLs

For a list of eligible URLs, start with [sequential submission](https://requestindexing.com/bulk-submit-urls-google-indexing-api). It is easier to inspect each result before adding multipart batching or a shared queue.

Verification here used Node.js 24.18.0 and the actual installed client with a mocked credential provider and intercepted HTTP transport. It checked request construction and success/failure output. It did not establish valid credentials, property ownership, or a live indexing outcome.

## Sitemap

See the full [sitemap](https://requestindexing.com/sitemap.md) for all pages.