How AI Search works: FAQs

It works like a person browsing your site: starting from your homepage, it follows the links it finds, page by page. You can also turn on your sitemap as a backup source, so pages get picked up even if a link to them is missing.

The most common reason is that nothing else on your site links to it. If a page can only be found by typing its exact address, or by clicking a button that isn't a real link (like a "load more" button), it won't be discovered. Adding a normal link to it from another page, or turning on your sitemap, usually fixes this.

Only if there are real links to each page in the list. If moving between pages relies on "next page" style buttons rather than links, only the first page will be found. Linking to a few more pages directly, or using a sitemap, will bring the rest in.

No. AI Search reads web pages, not the files linked from them. A PDF or Word document can still appear as a link in an answer, but its contents aren't searched. If the information in a document needs to be found by AI Search, it's worth having the same information as normal text on a web page too.

A few common reasons: the page isn't linked to from anywhere else, the information only exists inside a document rather than a web page, or the page is mostly a list of links with very little actual text on it for AI Search to draw from. Pages that are mostly navigation benefit from a short paragraph of real content.

Your question is read and, if needed, clarified, for example correcting an obvious typo or expanding a shorthand phrase, before AI Search looks for an answer. It then finds the passages on your site that are the closest match in meaning to your question, not just the closest match in wording.

Every answer is generated from content already published on your own site. AI Search doesn't draw on outside knowledge or make things up, it writes the answer from the passages it finds, and links back to the pages they came from.

Yes. AI Search understands a follow-up in the context of what you asked before, so you can refine or continue a question without repeating everything.

Not automatically. AI Search doesn't have a built-in sense of how old a piece of content is, it can only go on whatever date is written in the page itself. Because of this, it's worth reviewing older news articles or time-sensitive pages (names, figures, ongoing projects) periodically, the same way you'd review any other part of your site for accuracy.

Yes. A page-level setting lets you exclude individual pages from AI Search, useful for outdated content you want to keep live on your site but don't want surfacing in answers.

AI Search checks every question for attempts to manipulate it into behaving outside its normal rules, sometimes called "prompt injection," for example someone claiming to be a developer or claiming special access. These attempts are detected and blocked.

No. AI Search is designed to decline questions asking for someone else's personal information, such as who lives at a particular address. This has been tested and confirmed on live sites.