How to Remove Unwanted Search Results from Google

Need unwanted results removed right away? Hit up BetterReputation–they’re our favorite content removal experts.

If you Google yourself and find results that are inaccurate, outdated, defamatory, illegal, or publicizing your personal information, there’s no doubt others will see the same thing.

Fortunately, there are several easy ways to remove unwanted content from Google. Especially if it breaks a law or their content policies. Even if you can’t get it removed the easy way, there are other strategies you can deploy to lessen their impact.

6 Steps to Remove Unwanted Google Search Results

Straight up–the best way to remove unwanted search results for good is hiring a reputation management company. They’ll take a holistic look at your situation and do all of the work we’re about to talk about (and then some) for you. All you have to do is wait.

With that said, you can absolutely take steps on your own.

1. Start With the Content You Control
2. Identify the Content You Can’t Control
3. Contact the Webmaster to Remove the Content
4. Ask Google to Remove the Search Result
5. Check If the Removal Was Successful
6. Hire an Online Reputation Management Company

None of the work is particularly hard, but it can take weeks or even months to work. You may even spend all that time and find out you can’t remove the results in question.

It can be frustrating and time-consuming. We’re not saying that to scare you off–we just want you know what you’re getting into.

If you have hit a dead end (or the limits of your patience), you always have the option of hiring a professional online reputation management company to take over.

The Easy Parts of Removing Unwanted Google Search Results

Removing content from a Google search result CAN be a lot easier than it sounds. If the content you want to remove is against the law, exposes your personal information, breaks Google’s content policies, no longer exists, or leads to something else when you click on, the process is fairly straightforward.

In these cases, it can take just a few clicks and less than ten minutes of your time.

The Difficult Parts of Removing Unwanted Google Search Results

Some types of content are difficult or impossible to remove. For example, content like Sex Offender Registry Listings, public records, and telephone numbers may present a significant challenge.

Other types of content that can be removed may require extra steps.

For example, you may need a takedown notice, legal request, or court order in some cases. You may also need to prove that the unwanted content infringes upon Google Policies, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or other such regulations.

At the very least, you may need to contact the site owner or webmaster with a request to remove the content.

This process always requires a lot of patience and back-and-forth with the site owner. Many times, all of that patience leads to nothing.

Overall, removing unwanted search results takes time and effort. It could take a few days, weeks, or even months of diligent effort before you start to see positive results.

Step 1 – Start with the Content You Control

Content you control is the easiest thing to remove from search results. This includes your social media accounts, website, blogs, YouTube channel, and other online assets.

Deleting Unwanted Web Pages

The first place to look is your own website. Start by deleting any unwanted pages and posts. The process may look slightly different depending on your content management system (CMS). WordPress is a popular option, so we’ll use it for this example.

• Log into your WordPress dashboard.
• Hover on the web page or blog you’d like to delete.
• Select Trash.

The deleted web page will be stored in the Trash folder and can be recovered if you change your mind. You can also delete the page permanently from the trash if you wish.

Block the URL from Google Search Results

Deleting the unwanted web page is only the first step. The web page was already indexed by Google and probably linked to other pages on your site or externally. This fact can come back to bite you.

Crawl bots, including Google, will tag the page as missing once you delete it. This could harm your SEO efforts and overall rankings for other pages. A quick way to get around this issue is to use the Google Remove URLs Tool.

This tool will help you remove the web page from Google search results.

To do this:

• Go to your Google Search Console.
• Click the Temporary Removals tab.
• Select New Request.
• Select Temporarily remove URL.
• Click Next to complete the process.

This method permanently removes the URL from Google search results since you have already deleted it. You can also skip deleting the web page if you only want to remove it from search results temporarily.

This option removes your pages from Google search results for six months.

Stop Google from Indexing Your Content

There is also a way to stop Google from indexing your website in the first place. This means content can remain live without showing up in Google. This is a good option if the content is still helpful, but you don’t want people seeing it in search.

You’ll need to use the noindex meta tag. To do this:

Go to the <head> section of the unwanted page’s HTML markup

Insert the metatag: <meta name=”robots” content=noindex”>  

Please note that some CMS like WordPress doesn’t give you access to the source code. In this case, you can use a third-party plugin like Yoast SEO to instruct web crawlers not to index your content.

It’s also worth noting that this method is not foolproof. It is better to delete and block anything you don’t want to appear in search results.

Don’t Forget to Remove Related Social Media Posts

If you have any social media, YouTube, or LinkedIn posts that mention the content you removed, we recommend removing or updating the corresponding social content. These can also show up in search results–especially YouTube videos–so it’s best to clear everything from all angles.

You also may want to delete any related posts on Facebook or Twitter, as Google sometimes archives those, too.

Step 2 – Identify Content You Can’t Control

Whether you know what you want to remove or not, there could be negative content about you or your business that you don’t even know about—that’s why this step is so important.

Even if it feels redundant, don’t skip it.

Run a Google Search

Since most people searching for you or your brand will be using Google, it makes sense for you to start here as well. This will also help you prioritize which pages, URLs, or pieces of content to start with.

For example, let’s say one particular piece of content could be perceived is more damaging to your reputation than something else. But it’s buried deep on the 10th page of the SERPs for all related keywords. You’d be much better off starting with something that’s the second or third result of a given search.

While you’ll ultimately get to both, it’s important to start with what the majority of people will discover first.

Get Organized

If there’s just one culprit that you’re trying to get removed, then you can just move on to the next step. But if you’re discovering multiple results that you want removed from Google, you should start to compile a list of everything.

Here’s why.

First, search results change. Just because a few URLs are top hits today, they may be harder to find next week. While it’s good news if unwanted search results drop in the rankings, you’ll still want to get those removed. And if you’re not organized now, certain things might slip through the cracks.

The easiest way to approach this is with a simple list. Use Excel or Google Sheets and just copy and paste each unique URL for the content you want gone. This will allow you to keep notes during your outreach to the webmasters and ultimately verify that the content has been removed.

Check Multiple Sources and Content Types

Google can ultimately index content from tons of different sources. So you’ll want to be thorough here as you’re making the list.

Unwanted search results can present themselves in a wide array of formats, including:

• Blogs
• News articles
• Google Images
• YouTube videos
• Forum comments
• Social media posts and comments
• Customer reviews

Continue adding these to your spreadsheet whenever you come across something that you don’t want to appear on Google.

Step 3 – Contact the Webmaster to Remove the Content

Now that you know everything you want to get rid of, now it’s time to take action.

Request for Content Removal

We want to give you a fair warning. This strategy requires a bit of work, and your efforts may not always pay off. With that said, it’s still worth trying. 

Start by looking for the webmaster/site owner’s contact information on the website. It might be on the About or Contact page or buried in the footer. Alternatively, you can use tools like DomainTools or Whois.net to find the webmaster’s contact information.

Always be friendly and professional when you’re contacting a site’s webmaster. Threats and confrontations likely won’t get you anywhere and will just make matters worse. The site could publish more negative information about you or your brand, which Google would recognize as fresh content and elevate it even higher in the search results.

So, keep your emotions out of this interaction. We find it easier to speak with people on the phone, especially when it comes to something like this.

Here’s why: If the webmaster has a vendetta against you, anything you put in writing might be published and used against you. They could screenshot your texts or emails and publish them, which just adds more fuel to the fire that you’re trying to extinguish.

We also prefer phone calls because it’s harder for your tone to be lost in translation. Emails and texts may be interpreted incorrectly and harm your chances of getting the content removed. 

If the webmaster is willing to cooperate with your request, the content will disappear from search results a few days or weeks after they delete it. 

It’s worth noting that many site owners use WHOIS privacy settings to hide their contact information. If this happens, you may not be able to contact them directly. 

Working with a reputation management company can help remedy this situation. They have the tools and experience required to track down site owners easier than you can do on your own. Reputation management companies also have plenty of tricks up their sleeves to track down even the more elusive webmasters.

Ask The Web Admin to Add a No-Index Tag

Asking the site owner to remove the unwanted content might be a tall order. There’s likely a good reason why they created the content in the first place. You can compromise and ask for a no-index tag to keep it from being indexed by Google.

Here, the webmaster will add the <meta name=”robots” content= “noindex”> to the header of the HTML page. This metatag instructs crawl bots not to index the content so it won’t appear on Google search results. Before the content disappears from Google search results, it might take a few weeks.

You can also ask the webmaster to remove identifying search phrases from the page. For example, your brand name may appear in the page description or title of the HTML page. However, simply removing the brand name from the page means people won’t find it in the search results when they Google your brand.

Step 4 – Ask Google to Remove the Search Result

There are limited instances where it is possible to remove content directly from Google. You can ask Google to de-index the unwanted content. This effectively removes the content from Google’s search engine. If this step is successful, Google doesn’t need to contact the site owner or publisher to de-index the content.

Find Out If You Qualify for De-Indexing

De-Indexing isn’t a silver bullet. But it can be a great option if you qualify. Some of the types of content that can Google is quick to de-index include:

• Sexually explicit information
• Identity theft or financial harm
• Legal issues
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act violations
• Right to be forgotten

It’s worth talking to an attorney or reputation management company about your options. For instance, an attorney may be able to spot copyright violations or other legal grounds to substantiate your removal request.

Submit a Removal Request to Google

Google offers a few removal scenarios on its support page. Simply scroll through the options and click the relevant link to your application. You’ll be redirected to a new page with the application steps and more details about submitting your request.

Then click on the Start removal request button to proceed.

This process isn’t really designed for negative publicity or unfavorable news articles. But it tends to work if you’re trying to remove personal information from Google, including:

• Social security numbers
• Bank account information
• Credit card numbers
• Images of driver’s licenses, passports, and identification docs
• Images of handwritten signatures
• Medical records
• Confidential login credentials

Google may also consider the removal of doxxing information if your contact information is present on the same link as something explicit or calls to action for harm or harassment.

You’ll receive an automated email from Google to confirm that they’ve received your request. From there, they’ll evaluate the situation to see if it qualifies for removal.

Depending on the request type, it’s possible that Google may ask you for additional information. If this happens, they’ll send you more detailed instructions on what’s missing and how to submit it.

Google will send you a notification on the decision, which typically contains one of three messages:

• The URLs will be removed from all queries
• The URLs will be removed from queries containing personal identifying information (like names and aliases)
• The request did not meet the requirements for a removal

If the request is denied, Google will include a brief explanation of why.

Step 5 – Check If the Removal Was Successful

This is the last step–seeing if your efforts paid off. Removal can take quite a while no matter the method you use, so we recommend doing this regularly if it’s not gone the first time you look.

Enter the URL into the Search Bar

Type in or copy/paste the exact URL you attempted to remove in the search bar. Next, check if the unwanted content still appears on the search engine results.

Remember that it can take up to two weeks for the content to disappear from the search results. After that, you’ll have to wait for Google to re-crawl the pages before the result disappears.

Lastly, the URL is case-sensitive. So Google identifies different cases as different pages. Therefore, you may need to repeat the removal process for all the URL versions you’re attempting to remove. Be sure to check in every few days to see if the removal was successful.

Wait it out

It’s not always possible to remove unwanted content from search results. We mentioned suppressing the unwanted content. But, you’ll have to wait for Google to index and rank your new content.

The process can take a few months or up to a year. Eventually, the unwanted content will be pushed down to the second or third page or beyond, where people are less likely to see it.

Step 6 – Hire an Online Reputation Management Company 

If you’ve made it this far and nothing seems to be working, a reputation management service (BetterReputation is the best) may be able to get deeper into the trenches for you. You can also check out our shortlist of the best reputation management companies to see more options.