In this story
Where: Growth → Search & SEO → What readers search → Search health
Open this page: admin.<your-site>/search/health (replace <your-site> with your site address)
Steps
- Open Growth and choose What readers search for, then Search health. See Search health.
- Read the state at the top:
- Search is working. New stories are found within moments. All is well. The missing story is likely not live. See below.
- Search is catching up with recent changes. This usually takes a minute. Wait a minute.
- Some stories could not be added to search. Rebuild search to fix this. Go to step 3.
- Look at Stories you can search, Waiting to be added and Could not be added.
- Choose Rebuild search and confirm. "Every published story is read again and added to search." Search keeps working while it runs. It can take a few minutes on a big site. You can leave the page.
- If a rebuild stops, choose Continue where it stopped, or Start again.
If the state is OK but the story is missing
- The story must be Published and not under embargo. The admin says: "This story is not in search yet (not published, embargoed, or waiting for the next update)." See My story isn't showing.
- If you have several languages, search in the language of the story.
- A story you marked "don't index" is hidden from Google, but it can still be found in your own search.
Message you may see
"A search reindex is already running for this language. Wait for it to finish." A rebuild is already in progress. Wait.
Make searches work better
- Add synonyms so readers' words match yours. See Synonyms.
- Look at the searches that found nothing. See What readers search for.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Does rebuilding search take my site offline?
No. Search keeps working while it runs.
Does search find drafts?
Search reads every published story. A draft is not published, so readers can't find it.