Initiative introduces a new way for website owners to instantly drive higher quality search engine results, and helps improve efficiency of the web

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the security, performance, and reliability company helping to build a better Internet, announced it will work with Microsoft, Yandex, and other leading search engines to help businesses get the most timely and relevant search results to their customers. By participating in the IndexNow.org initiative, Cloudflare will allow websites to automatically notify search engines whenever content is created, updated, or deleted so they can be more efficiently crawled. Now, all Cloudflare customers can ensure users see the most up-to-date version of their content, all with a single click.

Search engines use a complex network of bots to crawl the ever-changing content on the Internet so people can find relevant, timely content. Today, approximately 45% of Internet traffic comes from web crawlers and bots. To help improve the efficiency of crawlers on the web, Cloudflare launched Crawler Hints–an easy way to signal to bot developers when content has been changed or added to a site, so they can make more efficient choices about what to crawl. What’s more, website owners will be able to improve site performance by reducing unnecessary bot traffic and to provide timely content, which ultimately helps improve search rankings. Now, Cloudflare is using the IndexNow standard to bring Crawler Hints to major search engines.

“A fast, reliable website and timely search results are at the heart of any growing business, whether it’s a startup or Fortune 500 company. Since the beginning, we’ve worked to help our customers to give them the speed, reliability, and security they need to do business,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. “Today, we're taking that one step further by working with Microsoft and other major search engines to help any website owner reduce inefficiencies while also delivering their users reliable, relevant and timely online experiences.”

Cloudflare’s global network spans more than 250 cities in over 100 countries and powers millions of Internet properties. Now any Cloudflare customer can opt into Crawler Hints–for free–with a single click in their dashboard to automatically begin sending hints to search engines when content has been changed on their site.

“The cache data from CDNs is a really valuable signal for content freshness. Cloudflare, as one of the top CDNs, is key in the adoption of IndexNow to become an industry-wide standard with a large portion of the internet actually using it,” said Fabrice Canel, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft Bing. “Cloudflare has built a really easy 1-click button for their users to start using it right away. Cloudflare’s mission of helping build a better internet resonates well with why we started IndexNow, that being to build a more efficient and effective search.”

“Yandex is excited to join IndexNow as part of our long-term focus on sustainability,” said Maxim Zagrebin, Head of Yandex Search. “We have been working with the Cloudflare team in early testing to incorporate their caching signals in our crawling mechanism via the IndexNow API. The results are great so far.”

To learn more about Cloudflare Crawler Hints and the Microsoft Bing IndexNow program, check out these resources:

• Cloudflare Blog: Cloudflare Crawler Hints Update
• About IndexNow
• Microsoft Bing Blog

About Cloudflare

Cloudflare, Inc. (www.cloudflare.com / @cloudflare) is on a mission to help build a better Internet. Cloudflare’s suite of products protect and accelerate any Internet application online without adding hardware, installing software, or changing a line of code. Internet properties powered by Cloudflare have all web traffic routed through its intelligent global network, which gets smarter with every request. As a result, they see significant improvement in performance and a decrease in spam and other attacks. Cloudflare was named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s Top Company Cultures 2018 list and ranked among the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company in 2019. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Cloudflare has offices in Austin, TX, Champaign, IL, New York, NY, San Jose, CA, Seattle, WA, Washington, D.C., Toronto, Lisbon, London, Munich, Paris, Beijing, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “explore,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these words, or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the benefits to our customers from using Cloudflare Crawler Hints, our other products and technology and the IndexNow standard, the expected functionality and performance of Cloudflare Crawler Hints and our other products and technology, our technological development, future operations, growth, initiatives, or strategies, and comments made by our CEO and others. Actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to, risks detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including our Annual Report on Form 10-Q filed on May 7, 2021, as well as other filings that we may make from time to time with the SEC.

The forward-looking statements made in this press release relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements.

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