Fixing an article missing from navigation or search

Find out why a published article is missing from your docs sidebar, category list, or search results, then correct the cause without creating a duplicate.

Start by opening the article’s normal public address. That separates an article that is unavailable from one that is available but hard to find. This guide focuses on documentation articles; blog posts and FAQs belong to their own collections.

Identify where the article is missing

What you see	Start here
The public address shows a not-found page	Check the saved address and publication status.
The address works, but the docs sidebar has no link	Check navigation visibility, section, parent, and entry type.
The article appears in the sidebar but not docs search	Clear search filters and check docs-search exclusion.
The article appears in search but in the wrong category	Check Category separately from its sidebar section.
The article works in Cedros but is missing from Google	Check search-engine visibility and Google’s indexing status.
The mobile docs menu will not open	Check the menu interaction before changing the article.

The admin library, public docs search, and Google are different places to search. Finding an article in Site → Docs only proves that a saved entry exists; it does not prove that visitors can read or discover it.

Check the address and published version first

1. Open Site → Docs. Set Status to All states, then find the existing article by title or slug. If it is a blog post, use Site → Blogs instead.
2. Record the article’s current address. Compare it with the link that failed, including the domain and every part of a nested path.
3. Open that normal address while signed out or in a private browser window. Do not use an admin URL or a draft-preview link for this check.
4. If the article is a draft, review its complete saved content before publishing. If it is scheduled, confirm whether it has ever been published and whether its release time has arrived.
5. If it is already published, open its editor and check whether the changes you expect are only saved in the draft. Navigation settings and content can differ between the saved draft and published revision.
6. Save and preview any necessary correction, resolve the release requirements, and choose Publish or Publish changes when it is ready. Reopen the public address to verify the result.

An article can have an existing live version while a newer version is scheduled. A scheduled status alone does not tell you which content is currently available. Check the public page and coordinate any scheduled release before changing it.

Use Unpublishing or restoring content if the article was taken offline or an earlier version needs recovery. Do not publish unfinished work just to make an entry appear in search.

If the public address still fails

• The address changed: test the current address and repair old links with an alias or redirect as appropriate. Do not assume a sidebar rename changed the URL. See Changing a page address without breaking links.
• A holding page or sign-in screen appears: check the site’s access mode and the intended reader’s access. See Controlling when your site is public.
• A different article opens: record both the requested address and the destination. Ask your administrator to check redirects and aliases before changing slugs.
• A saved preview works but the normal URL fails: confirm publication. A preview is not evidence that the article is live.

Restore a missing docs-sidebar link

If the public article works, inspect the sidebar on that article and on the docs home page. Expand the expected product, section, and parent. A short navigation label may differ from the full article title.

Check these settings with your docs administrator or a site assistant that can manage documentation:

• Navigation visibility: the article must not be hidden from docs navigation. Ask for it to be shown in navigation if readers should find it there.
• Product and section: use the same product and section identifiers as a known article in the intended group. A mismatched identifier can put the article somewhere unexpected even when the readable names look similar.
• Parent and nesting: check whether the article is under another entry. A parent setting or nested slug can affect its position.
• Entry type: a normal article should be a Page entry. A Group is a navigation container; an External link sends readers elsewhere. Neither behaves like an ordinary searchable article.
• Published settings: confirm that the intended navigation settings belong to the published version, not only the draft.

The basic article editor’s Taxonomy tab exposes Category and Tags. It does not provide every product, section, parent, ordering, or visibility setting. Use the targeted request below rather than searching for controls that are not present.

For the full organization workflow, see Organizing your documentation navigation.

Category and section are separate

The docs home page groups articles by Category. The sidebar uses product and section settings. Changing Category does not override an explicit sidebar section.

If the article appears under the wrong category, open Taxonomy, correct Category, save the draft, review, and publish the change. If the category is correct but the sidebar placement is wrong, correct the product or section instead.

Also check what the docs home page is showing. Start here is a selected set of introductory guides, not a list of every article. An article can be correctly published without appearing in that short list. Browse its category or search for it.

Find an article in Cedros docs search

1. Open the public docs home page. If you arrived from a category or tag, use Clear on the results page or return to the docs home page to start without those filters.
2. Enter a distinctive word from the article’s published title in Search docs and press Enter. Where the results form is shown, its Search docs button also submits the search.
3. Check the results page, including any additional result pages. Typing in the sidebar field alone does not submit the search.
4. If no result appears, shorten the query. Try one distinctive word or a phrase copied directly from the published title, instead of a long question or a synonym.
5. Check that Category and Topic are not restricting the results. The Topic filter uses the article’s tags. If your docs have product or section filters, check those too.
6. If the address works but the article still cannot be found, ask your administrator to inspect its docs-search exclusion and entry type, then compare the published settings with the draft.

Docs search matches text in the documentation collection. It is not the same as an assistant answering a question, and it may not match a synonym or a differently worded sentence. A successful search for one term does not mean every natural-language question will find the article.

Excluding a doc from docs search removes it from the searchable docs collection. It can still have a sidebar link if navigation visibility is enabled. Conversely, a doc hidden from the sidebar can still appear in docs search.

For an ordinary customer guide intended to appear in both places, both exclusions should be off. Do not turn an intentional exclusion off until you have confirmed the intended audience.

Request a focused correction

Give your site assistant or administrator the exact article path, a known-good neighboring article, and the failed check. For example, replace these paths with articles on your own site:

/docs/billing/download-invoice opens publicly but is missing from the docs sidebar and docs search. It should appear in the same product and section as /docs/billing/update-payment. Inspect the published version and draft for navigation visibility, docs-search exclusion, entry type, and parent placement. Explain the cause and save only the necessary correction as a draft. Preserve the title, address, body, aliases, and search-engine visibility. Do not create a duplicate or publish yet; show me any unpublished content changes that would be released with the fix.

Then complete the release deliberately:

1. Review the diagnosis and confirm that it explains the observed problem.
2. Check the proposed settings and the entire current draft. Publishing a metadata correction can also release other saved article changes.
3. Reopen the editor if someone else changed the draft, so you are reviewing the latest version.
4. Save and preview the final article. Resolve any release blocker, then publish the correction.
5. Repeat the direct-address, sidebar, and submitted-search checks as a reader.

If several articles share inconsistent section settings, coordinate the correction across all affected entries. Do not repeatedly move one article between categories to compensate for a broken sidebar or theme.

If the article is missing from Google

Only use this section when the normal public page works. Appearing in Cedros’s own docs search does not mean Google has indexed it.

First, ask your administrator to check whether the page is intended for public search. Search-engine exclusion and a page’s noindex setting are separate from docs-search exclusion. Site-wide search visibility or access restrictions can also affect discovery. Keep deliberate privacy and launch restrictions in place.

For a page that should be indexed, use Google Search Console:

1. Open the property for the correct site and inspect the article’s complete public URL.
2. Read the indexing result and its reason. Check whether Google saw an access error, indexing restriction, or a different canonical URL—the address Google treats as the main version.
3. If the page has changed since Google last checked it, run Test live URL. The indexed report describes Google’s recorded version; the live test checks the current page.
4. Ask your site administrator to fix the specific issue. If another address is the intended canonical version, inspect that destination instead of creating another copy of the article.
5. After the issue is fixed, an owner or full user of the Search Console property can request indexing. Monitor the result rather than repeatedly resubmitting the same URL.

Google’s URL Inspection guide explains the reports and live test. A successful live test does not guarantee that the page will appear for a particular search.

Google says crawling can take days to weeks, and a request does not guarantee inclusion. Repeated requests for the same URL do not make crawling faster. See Ask Google to recrawl your URLs.

Changing a title, description, or tag is not a substitute for fixing publication, access, or indexing restrictions. Neither a Cedros publication confirmation nor an SEO score guarantees a search ranking.

When the page is correct but the interface fails

The mobile docs menu does not open

If the menu button does nothing, test the article’s direct URL and the docs home page separately. A failed menu interaction does not prove that the article’s navigation settings are wrong.

Share the direct article link as a temporary way for readers to reach it. Report the affected page, device, browser, and what happens when the menu is opened. Avoid reclassifying or duplicating the article to work around a menu problem.

Search works, but a sidebar or category link opens the wrong place

Copy the link address and compare it with the article’s current public address. Check custom menu links, aliases, redirects, and external-link entries. If the correct saved settings still produce the wrong link, ask your theme or site maintainer to inspect that navigation.

Only one page has an outdated sidebar

Reload that page and compare it with the docs home page and another article. Check whether its layout uses a custom sidebar or different product view. An article-level outline setting controls On this page, not whether the article is listed in the collection sidebar. See Customizing your blog and docs appearance.

The missing item is a blog post or FAQ

Docs search is for documentation articles. Find blog posts through the blog and its filters; check FAQ visibility and the page that displays the answers separately. Publishing one content type does not automatically add it to another collection or to your main site menu.

Use Organizing posts with categories and tags, Writing useful FAQs and publishing them, or Editing desktop and mobile navigation for the relevant workflow.

Confirm the fix or report what remains

A successful correction should pass the checks that match your intended visibility:

• The normal public URL opens the expected published article for its intended reader.
• The sidebar shows the intended label in the correct product, section, and parent.
• A submitted docs search finds the article using a distinctive title word, with unrelated filters cleared.
• The category view contains the article where expected.
• Old links reach the intended destination if its address changed.
• Desktop and mobile navigation work, or any remaining interface failure is reported separately.

For an unresolved issue, send support the article title, public URL, expected location, exact search term and filters, publication time, and the result of opening the direct URL. Include whether the problem occurs while signed out and on which device. Do not share a private preview link when an ordinary public URL is enough.

See Getting help and reporting a problem for the support route. Keep the existing article and its history while the issue is investigated.