diff --git a/code/search/SearchIndex.php b/code/search/SearchIndex.php
index 81f5993..d62f84a 100644
--- a/code/search/SearchIndex.php
+++ b/code/search/SearchIndex.php
@@ -169,6 +169,8 @@ abstract class SearchIndex extends ViewableData {
 
 	protected $sortFields = array();
 
+	protected $excludedVariantStates = array();
+
 	/**
 	 * Add a DataObject subclass whose instances should be included in this index
 	 *
@@ -258,6 +260,23 @@ abstract class SearchIndex extends ViewableData {
 		return new MultipleArrayIterator($this->fulltextFields, $this->filterFields, $this->sortFields);
 	}
 
+	public function excludeVariantState($state) {
+		$this->excludedVariantStates[] = $state;
+	}
+
+	/** Returns true if some variant state should be ignored */
+	public function variantStateExcluded($state) {
+		foreach ($this->excludedVariantStates as $excludedstate) {
+			$matches = true;
+
+			foreach ($excludedstate as $variant => $variantstate) {
+				if (!isset($state[$variant]) || $state[$variant] != $variantstate) { $matches = false; break; }
+			}
+
+			if ($matches) return true;
+		}
+	}
+
 	public $dependancyList = array();
 
 	function buildDependancyList() {
diff --git a/code/search/SearchUpdater.php b/code/search/SearchUpdater.php
index c9de1f4..c3ff67d 100644
--- a/code/search/SearchUpdater.php
+++ b/code/search/SearchUpdater.php
@@ -250,12 +250,22 @@ class SearchUpdater extends Object {
 
 				$objs = DataObject::get($base, '"'.$base.'"."ID" IN ('.implode(',', array_keys($ids)).')');
 				if ($objs) foreach ($objs as $obj) {
-					foreach ($ids[$obj->ID] as $index) { $indexes[$index]->add($obj); $dirtyindexes[$index] = $index; }
+					foreach ($ids[$obj->ID] as $index) { 
+						if (!$indexes[$index]->variantStateExcluded($state)) { 
+							$indexes[$index]->add($obj); 
+							$dirtyindexes[$index] = $index; 
+						}
+					}
 					unset($ids[$obj->ID]);
 				}
 
 				foreach ($ids as $id => $fromindexes) {
-					foreach ($fromindexes as $index) { $indexes[$index]->delete($base, $id, $state); $dirtyindexes[$index] = $index; }
+					foreach ($fromindexes as $index) { 
+						if (!$indexes[$index]->variantStateExcluded($state)) {
+							$indexes[$index]->delete($base, $id, $state); 
+							$dirtyindexes[$index] = $index; 	
+						}
+					}
 				}
 			}
 		}
diff --git a/code/solr/Solr.php b/code/solr/Solr.php
index d52b10b..582032a 100644
--- a/code/solr/Solr.php
+++ b/code/solr/Solr.php
@@ -183,6 +183,8 @@ class Solr_Reindex extends BuildTask {
 					$includeSubclasses = $options['include_children'];
 					
 					foreach (SearchVariant::reindex_states($class, $includeSubclasses) as $state) {
+						if ($instance->variantStateExcluded($state)) continue;
+						
 						SearchVariant::activate_state($state);
 
 						$filter = $includeSubclasses ? "" : '"ClassName" = \''.$class."'";
diff --git a/docs/README.md b/docs/README.md
index ff51261..e45ef10 100644
--- a/docs/README.md
+++ b/docs/README.md
@@ -88,3 +88,24 @@ See Solr.md
 ### Sphinx
 
 Not written yet
+
+## FAQ
+
+### How do I exclude draft pages from the index?
+
+By default, the `SearchUpdater` class indexes all available "variant states",
+so in the case of the `Versioned` extension, both "draft" and "live".
+For most cases, you'll want to exclude draft content from your search results.
+
+You can either prevent the draft content from being indexed in the first place,
+by adding the following to your `SearchIndex->init()` method:
+
+	$this->excludeVariantState(array('SearchVariantVersioned' => 'Stage'));
+
+Alternatively, you can index draft content, but simply exclude it from searches. 
+This can be handy to preview search results on unpublished content, in case a CMS author is logged in.
+Before constructing your `SearchQuery`, conditionally switch to the "live" stage:
+
+	if(!Permission::check('CMS_ACCESS_CMSMain')) Versioned::reading_stage('Live');
+	$query = new SearchQuery();
+	// ...
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/SearchVariantVersionedTest.php b/tests/SearchVariantVersionedTest.php
index 3d519f3..0d59f60 100644
--- a/tests/SearchVariantVersionedTest.php
+++ b/tests/SearchVariantVersionedTest.php
@@ -14,6 +14,14 @@ class SearchVariantVersionedTest_Index extends SearchIndex_Recording {
 	}
 }
 
+class SearchVariantVersionedTest_IndexNoStage extends SearchIndex_Recording {
+	function init() {
+		$this->addClass('SearchVariantVersionedTest_Item');
+		$this->addFilterField('TestText');
+		$this->excludeVariantState(array('SearchVariantVersioned' => 'Stage'));
+	}
+}
+
 class SearchVariantVersionedTest extends SapphireTest {
 
 	private static $index = null;
@@ -68,4 +76,23 @@ class SearchVariantVersionedTest extends SapphireTest {
 			array('ID' => $item->ID, '_versionedstage' => 'Stage')
 		));
 	}
+
+	function testExcludeVariantState() {
+		$index = singleton('SearchVariantVersionedTest_IndexNoStage');
+		FullTextSearch::force_index_list($index);
+
+		// Check that write doesn't update stage
+		$item = new SearchVariantVersionedTest_Item(array('TestText' => 'Foo'));
+		$item->write();
+		SearchUpdater::flush_dirty_indexes();
+		$this->assertEquals($index->getAdded(array('ID', '_versionedstage')), array());
+
+		// Check that publish updates Live
+		$index->reset();
+		$item->publish("Stage", "Live");
+		SearchUpdater::flush_dirty_indexes();
+		$this->assertEquals($index->getAdded(array('ID', '_versionedstage')), array(
+			array('ID' => $item->ID, '_versionedstage' => 'Live')
+		));
+	}
 }