Confluence Search and Labels
Search and labels work together to help you find any page in seconds, even across large Confluence sites with hundreds of spaces and thousands of pages. This topic explains how search works, how to use it effectively, and how labels make your content even easier to find.
Basic Search
Press the slash key / from any page to open search instantly. Type a word or phrase and Confluence searches page titles, page content, comments, and space names across the whole site.
Search Result Structure
SEARCH: "leave policy" ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 📄 Leave Policy — HR Space › Policies › Leave Policy Last updated by Priya Sharma · 2 days ago "...annual leave entitlement for full-time employees..." 📄 Leave Policy FAQs — HR Space › Policies Last updated by Raj Mehta · 1 week ago "...frequently asked questions about the leave policy..." 📄 Q3 Project Leave Notes — Engineering Space › Notes Last updated by Sam Kapoor · 3 days ago "...team leave dates agreed in the leave policy..." ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Each result shows the page name, its full path in the hierarchy, who updated it, and a snippet of matching text. This lets you judge relevance without clicking into every result.
Advanced Search and Filters
Basic search finds everything matching your words. Advanced search narrows results using filters. Press /, type your term, then click Advanced search (or press Enter) to open the full filter view.
Available Search Filters
FILTER EXAMPLE USE ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Space Search only inside "HR Space" Contributor Find pages written or edited by Priya Date Find pages updated in the last 7 days Label Find all pages tagged "policy" Content type Restrict to Pages only, or Blog posts only
Filter Combination Example
GOAL: Find all policy pages in the HR space updated this month SEARCH: "policy" FILTER 1: Space = HR Space FILTER 2: Label = policy FILTER 3: Date = Last 30 days RESULT: A short, precise list — not 200 results to scroll through
What Are Labels
A label is a short tag you attach to a page. Labels do not appear in the page content — they live in the page metadata. They act like sticky notes on the back of a page that tell the search engine what this page is about.
Labels in Context
PAGE: "Annual Leave Policy 2025" LABELS: [policy] [hr] [leave] [2025] [approved] BENEFIT: → Search "label: policy" → finds ALL policy pages across the site → Search "label: approved" → finds only approved documents → Search "label: 2025" → finds all documents updated for 2025
Adding a Label to a Page
Open the page, click the pencil/edit icon next to Labels at the bottom of the page (below the content area), type a label word, and press Enter. Add multiple labels by typing and pressing Enter after each one.
Label Addition Steps
STEP 1 → Open a published page STEP 2 → Scroll to the bottom of the page STEP 3 → Click the label icon or "Edit labels" STEP 4 → Type a label (e.g. "policy") STEP 5 → Press Enter or comma to confirm STEP 6 → Add more labels as needed STEP 7 → Click Save
Label Naming Conventions
Labels are most useful when your whole team follows the same naming convention. If some people write "policy" and others write "policies", searching "label: policy" misses half the pages.
Label Convention Examples
CATEGORY LABEL FORMAT EXAMPLES ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Document type Single word policy, guide, template, spec Department Short code hr, eng, mkt, fin, ops Status Lowercase draft, approved, archived, review Year Four digits 2024, 2025 Project Short name alpha, launch, migration
Document your label conventions on a page in your space and link to it from the space homepage. New teammates adopt the conventions when they can find them easily.
Searching by Label
Two methods find pages by label. Use either depending on what you prefer.
Method 1: Search Filter
Press / → Type your search term → Press Enter → Click Filters → Type a label in the "Label" filter → Results update to show only labelled pages
Method 2: Label URL
Go to: your-site.atlassian.net/wiki/label/LABELNAME Example: your-site.atlassian.net/wiki/label/policy → Opens a page listing every page tagged [policy] across all spaces you have access to
Space Labels Overview Page
Every space has a built-in labels index. Go to a space and click Space Tools → Content Tools → Labels to see all labels used in that space and how many pages each label covers. This helps you audit labelling inconsistencies and find orphaned labels no one uses.
Labels Index View
LABEL PAGES TAGGED ACTION ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── policy 24 pages View all → approved 18 pages View all → draft 11 pages View all → policies 2 pages ← inconsistent! Merge into "policy" polciy 1 page ← typo! Rename to "policy"
Run a labels audit every few months to clean up misspellings and duplicates. Consistent labels make your Confluence site dramatically easier to navigate.