{"id":35790,"date":"2020-04-28T17:21:38","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T22:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/?p=35790"},"modified":"2024-06-16T17:15:21","modified_gmt":"2024-06-16T22:15:21","slug":"remove-urls-from-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/remove-urls-from-google\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Remove URLs From Google Search (5 Methods)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"intro-txt\">There are many ways to remove URLs from Google, but there\u2019s no one size fits all approach. It all depends on your circumstances.<\/div>\n<p>That\u2019s an important point to understand. Not only will using the wrong method sometimes lead to pages not being removed from the index as intended, but it can also have a negative effect on&nbsp;SEO.<\/p>\n<p>To help you quickly decide which method of removal is best for you, we made a flowchart so you can skip to the relevant section of the article.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1557\" class=\"wp-image-35804\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/how-to-remove-urls-from-google-search-1.png\" alt=\"how to remove urls from google search 1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/how-to-remove-urls-from-google-search-1.png 1200w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/how-to-remove-urls-from-google-search-1-328x425.png 328w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/how-to-remove-urls-from-google-search-1-768x996.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/how-to-remove-urls-from-google-search-1-1184x1536.png 1184w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><\/p>\n<p>In this post, you\u2019ll learn:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#check-url-is-indexed\">How to check if a URL is indexed<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#how-to-remove-urls\">Five ways to remove URLs from Google<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#prioritizing-removals\">How to prioritize removals<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#mistakes-to-avoid\">Common removal mistakes to&nbsp;avoid<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#what-to-do-if-its-not-your-content\">How to remove content that\u2019s not on your&nbsp;site<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#removing-images\">How to remove images<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"hub-link\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Beginner's guide to technical SEO\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/svg\/4.svg\"><div class=\"hl-title\">New to technical SEO? Check out&nbsp;our<\/div><div class=\"hl-content\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/technical-seo\/\" target=\"_blank\">Beginner\u2019s guide to technical SEO<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"How to check if a URL is indexed\" data-section=\"check-url-is-indexed\">\n<h2>How to check if a URL is indexed<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>What I typically see SEOs do to check if content is indexed is use a site: search in Google (e.g., site:https:\/\/ahrefs.com). While site: searches can be useful for identifying the pages or sections of a website that may be problematic if they show in search results, you have to be careful because they aren\u2019t normal queries and won\u2019t actually tell you if a page is indexed. They may show pages that are known to Google, but that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re eligible to show in normal search results without the site: operator.<\/p>\n<p>For example, site: searches can still show pages that redirect or are canonicalized to another page. When you ask for a specific site, Google may show a page from that domain with the content, title, and description from another domain.&nbsp;Take for example moz.com which used to be seomoz.org. Any regular user queries that lead to pages on moz.com will show moz.com in the <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/serps\/\">SERPs<\/a>, while site:seomoz.org will show seomoz.org in the search results as shown&nbsp;below.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"524\" class=\"wp-image-35803\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/seomoz-site-search-serp-1.png\" alt=\"seomoz site search serp 1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/seomoz-site-search-serp-1.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/seomoz-site-search-serp-1-680x223.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/seomoz-site-search-serp-1-768x252.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/seomoz-site-search-serp-1-1536x503.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><\/p>\n<p>The reason this is an important distinction is that it can lead SEOs to make mistakes such as actively blocking or removing URLs from the index for the old domain, which prevents consolidation of signals like <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-pagerank\/\">PageRank<\/a>. I\u2019ve seen many cases with <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/website-migration\/\">domain migrations<\/a> where people think they made a mistake during the migration because these pages still show for site:old-domain.com searches and end up actively harming their website while trying to \u201cfix\u201d the problem.<\/p>\n<p>The better method to check indexation is to use the <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/7440203?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Index Coverage report<\/a>&nbsp;in Google Search Console, or the <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/9012289?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">URL Inspection Tool<\/a>&nbsp;for an individual URL. These tools tell you if a page is indexed and provide additional information on how Google is treating the page.&nbsp;If you don\u2019t have access to this, simply search Google for the full URL of your&nbsp;page.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"711\" class=\"wp-image-35806\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/url-inspection-tool-1.png\" alt=\"url inspection tool 1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/url-inspection-tool-1.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/url-inspection-tool-1-680x302.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/url-inspection-tool-1-768x341.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/url-inspection-tool-1-1536x683.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><\/p>\n<p>In Ahrefs, if you find the page in our \u201cTop pages\u201d report or ranking for organic keywords, it usually means we saw it ranking for normal search queries&nbsp;and is a good indication that the page was indexed. Note that the pages were indexed when we saw them, but that may have changed.&nbsp;Check the date we last saw the page for a&nbsp;query.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"703\" class=\"wp-image-35800\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/keyword-update-top-pages-1.png\" alt=\"keyword update top pages 1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/keyword-update-top-pages-1.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/keyword-update-top-pages-1-680x299.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/keyword-update-top-pages-1-768x337.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/keyword-update-top-pages-1-1536x675.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><\/p>\n<p>If there is a problem with a particular URL and it needs removing from the index, follow the flowchart at the beginning of the article to find the correct removal option, then jump to the appropriate section below.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"5 ways to remove URLs from Google\" data-section=\"how-to-remove-urls\">\n<h2>Removal option 1: Delete the content<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>If you remove the page and serve either a 404 (not found) or 410 (gone) <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/http-status-codes\/\">status code<\/a>, then the page will be removed from the index shortly after the page is re-crawled. Until it is removed, the page may still show in search results. And even if the page itself is no longer available, a cached version of the page may be temporarily available.<\/p>\n<p>When you might need a different option:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>I need more immediate removal.<\/strong>&nbsp;See the URL removal tool section.<\/li>\n<li><strong>I need to consolidate signals like links.<\/strong>&nbsp;See the canonicalization section.<\/li>\n<li><strong>I need the page available for users.<\/strong>&nbsp;See if the noindex or restricting access sections fit your situation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Removal option 2: Noindex<\/h2>\n<p>A noindex <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/meta-robots\/\">meta robots tag<\/a>&nbsp;or x-robots header response will tell search engines to remove a page from the index. The meta robots tag works for pages where the x-robots response works for pages&nbsp;and additional file types like PDFs. For these tags to be seen, a search engine needs to be able to crawl the pages\u2014so make sure they aren\u2019t blocked in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/robots-txt\/\">robots.txt<\/a>. Also, note that removing pages from the index may prevent the consolidation of link and other signals.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Example of a meta robots noindex:<\/strong><\/p>\n<pre>&lt;meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex\"&gt;\n<\/pre>\n<p><strong>Example of x-robots noindex tag in the header response:<\/strong><\/p>\n<pre>HTTP\/1.1 200 OK\nX-Robots-Tag: noindex\n<\/pre>\n<p>When you might need a different option:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>I don\u2019t want users to access these pages.<\/strong>&nbsp;See the restricting access section.<\/li>\n<li><strong>I need to consolidate signals like links.<\/strong>&nbsp;See the canonicalization section.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Removal option 3: Restricting access<\/h2>\n<p>If you want the page to be accessible to some users but not search engines, then what you probably want is one of these three options:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>some kind of login system;<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/developer.mozilla.org\/en-US\/docs\/Web\/HTTP\/Authentication\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">HTTP Authentication<\/a>&nbsp;(where a password is required for access);<\/li>\n<li>IP Whitelisting (which only allows specific IP addresses to access the&nbsp;pages)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This type of setup is best for things like internal networks, member only content, or for staging, test, or development sites. It allows for a group of users to access the page, but search engines will not be able to access them and will not index the&nbsp;pages.<\/p>\n<p>When you might need a different option:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>I need more immediate removal.<\/strong>&nbsp;See the URL removal tool section. In this particular case, you may want more immediate removal if the content you are trying to hide has been cached, and you need to prevent users from seeing that content.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Removal option 4: URL Removal Tool<\/h2>\n<p>The name for this tool from Google is slightly misleading as the way it works is that it will temporarily hide the content. Google will still see and crawl this content, but the pages won\u2019t appear for users. This temporary effect lasts for six months in Google, while Bing has a similar tool that lasts for three months. These tools should be used in the most extreme cases for things like security issues, data leaks, personally identifiable information (PII), etc. For Google, use the <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/9689846?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Removals Tool<\/a>&nbsp;and for Bing, see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bing.com\/webmaster\/help\/?topicid=264e560a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">how to block URLs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You still need to apply another method along with using the removal tool in order to actually have the pages removed for a longer period (noindex or delete) or prevent users from accessing the content if they still have the links (delete or restrict access). This just gives you a faster way of hiding the pages while the removal has time to process. The request can take up to a day to process.<\/p>\n<h2>Removal option 5: Canonicalization<\/h2>\n<p>When you have multiple versions of a page and want to consolidate signals like links to a single version, what you want to do is some form of <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/canonicalization\/\">canonicalization<\/a>. This is mostly to prevent <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/duplicate-content\/\">duplicate content<\/a>&nbsp;while consolidating multiple versions of a page to a single indexed URL.<\/p>\n<p>You have several canonicalization options:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/canonical-tags\/\">Canonical tag<\/a><\/strong>.&nbsp;This specifies another URL as the canonical version or the version you want to be shown. If pages are duplicate or very similar, this should be fine. When pages are too different, the canonical may be ignored as it is a hint and not a directive.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/301-redirects\/\">Redirects<\/a><\/strong>. A redirect takes a user and a search bot from one page to another. 301 is the most commonly used redirect by SEOs, and it tells the search engines that you want the final URL to be the one shown in search results and where signals are consolidated. A 302 or temporary redirect tells search engines you want the original URL to be the one to remain in the index and to consolidate signals there.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/6080548?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">URL parameter handling<\/a> (deprecated in early 2022 and no longer useful).<\/strong> A <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/url-parameters\/\">parameter<\/a> is appended to the end of the URL and typically includes a question mark, like ahrefs.com?this=parameter. This tool from Google used to let you tell them how to treat URLs with specific parameters. For instance, you used to be able to specify if the parameter changed the page content or if it was just used to track&nbsp;usage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"How to prioritize removals\" data-section=\"prioritizing-removals\">\n<h2>How to prioritize removals<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>If you have multiple pages to remove from Google\u2019s index, then they should be prioritized accordingly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Highest priority: <\/strong>These pages are usually security-related or related to confidential data. This includes content that contains personal data (PII), customer data, or proprietary information.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Medium priority: <\/strong>This usually involves content meant for a specific group of users. Company intranets or employee portals, content meant for members only, and staging, test, or development environments.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Low priority: <\/strong>These pages usually involve <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/duplicate-content\/\">duplicate content<\/a>&nbsp;of some kind. Some examples of this would include pages served from multiple URLs, URLs with parameters, and again could include staging, test, or development environments.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"Common removal mistakes to avoid\" data-section=\"mistakes-to-avoid\">\n<h2>Common removal mistakes to&nbsp;avoid<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>I want to cover a few of the ways I usually see removals done incorrectly and what happens in each scenario to help people understand why they don\u2019t&nbsp;work.<\/p>\n<h3>Noindex in robots.txt<\/h3>\n<p>While Google used to unofficially support noindex in robots.txt, it was never an official standard and they\u2019ve now formally <a href=\"https:\/\/webmasters.googleblog.com\/2019\/07\/rep-id.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">removed support<\/a>. Many of the sites that were doing this were doing so incorrectly and harming themselves.<\/p>\n<h3>Blocking from crawling in robots.txt<\/h3>\n<p>Crawling is not the same thing as indexing. Even if Google is blocked from crawling pages, if there are any internal or external links&nbsp;to a page they can still index it. Google won\u2019t know what is on the page because they will not crawl it, but they know a page exists and will even write a title to show in search results based on signals like the <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/anchor-text\/\">anchor text<\/a>&nbsp;of links to the&nbsp;page.<\/p>\n<h3>Nofollow<\/h3>\n<p>This commonly gets confused for noindex, and some people will use it at a page level expecting the page not to be indexed. <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/nofollow-links\/\">Nofollow<\/a>&nbsp;is a hint, and while it originally stopped links on the page and individual links with the nofollow attribute from being crawled, that is no longer the case. Google can now crawl these links if they want to. Nofollow was also used on individual links to try to stop Google from crawling through to specific pages and for PageRank sculpting. Again, this no longer works since nofollow is a hint. In the past, if the page had another link to it, then Google could still discover from this alternate crawl&nbsp;path.<\/p>\n<p>Note that you can find nofollowed pages in bulk using this filter in the Page Explorer in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-audit\">Ahrefs\u2019 Site Audit<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"587\" class=\"wp-image-35802\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/nofollow-site-audit-2.png\" alt=\"nofollow site audit 2\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/nofollow-site-audit-2.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/nofollow-site-audit-2-680x249.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/nofollow-site-audit-2-768x282.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/nofollow-site-audit-2-1536x564.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><\/p>\n<p>As it rarely makes sense to nofollow all links on a page, the number of results should be zero or close to zero. If there are matching results, I&nbsp;urge you to check whether the nofollow directive was accidentally added in place of noindex and to choose a more appropriate method of removal if need&nbsp;be.<\/p>\n<p>You can also find&nbsp;individual links marked nofollow using this filter in Link Explorer.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"511\" class=\"wp-image-35805\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/nofollow-internal-links-1.png\" alt=\"nofollow internal links 1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/nofollow-internal-links-1.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/nofollow-internal-links-1-680x217.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/nofollow-internal-links-1-768x245.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/nofollow-internal-links-1-1536x491.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><\/p>\n<h3>Noindex and canonical to another URL<\/h3>\n<p>These signals are conflicting. Noindex says to remove the page from the index, and canonical says that another page is the version that should be indexed. This may actually work for consolidation as Google will typically choose to ignore the noindex and instead use the canonical as the main signal. However, this isn\u2019t an absolute behavior. There\u2019s an algorithm involved and there\u2019s a risk that the noindex tag could be the signal counted. If that\u2019s the case, then pages won\u2019t consolidate properly.<\/p>\n<p>Note that you can find noindexed pages with non-self-referential canonicals using this set of filters in the Page Explorer in Site&nbsp;Audit:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"625\" class=\"wp-image-35801\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/noindex-non-self-canonical-site-audit-1.png\" alt=\"noindex non self canonical site audit 1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/noindex-non-self-canonical-site-audit-1.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/noindex-non-self-canonical-site-audit-1-680x266.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/noindex-non-self-canonical-site-audit-1-768x300.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/noindex-non-self-canonical-site-audit-1-1536x600.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><\/p>\n<h3>Noindex, wait for Google to crawl, then block from crawling<\/h3>\n<p>There are a couple of ways this usually happens:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Pages are already blocked but are indexed, people add noindex and unblock so that Google can crawl and see the noindex, then block the pages from crawling again.<\/li>\n<li>People add noindex tags for the pages they want removed and after Google has crawled and processed the noindex tag, they block the pages from crawling.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Either way, the final state is blocked from crawling. If you remember, earlier, we talked about how crawling is not the same as indexing. Even though these pages are blocked, they can still end up in the&nbsp;index.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"What to do if you don't own the content\" data-section=\"what-to-do-if-its-not-your-content\">\n<h2>What if it\u2019s your content but not on a site you&nbsp;own?<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>If you own the content that\u2019s being used on another website, you may be able to file a claim based on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). You can use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/webmasters\/tools\/dmca-dashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Google\u2019s Copyright Removal tool<\/a>&nbsp;to do what\u2019s called a DMCA takedown, which requests the removal of any copyrighted material.<\/p>\n<h2>What if it\u2019s content about you but not on a site you&nbsp;own?<\/h2>\n<p>If you\u2019re in the EU, you can have content removed that contains information about you thanks to a court order for the right to be forgotten. You can request to have personal information removed using the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/webmasters\/tools\/legal-removal-request?complaint_type=rtbf&amp;hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">EU Privacy Removal form<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"Removing images\" data-section=\"removing-images\">\n<h2>Removing images<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>To remove images from Google, the easiest way is with robots.txt. While the unofficial support for removing pages was removed from robots.txt as we mentioned earlier, simply disallowing the crawl of images is the right way to remove images.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For a single image:<\/strong><\/p>\n<pre>User-agent: Googlebot-Image\nDisallow: \/images\/dogs.jpg \n<\/pre>\n<p><strong>For all images:<\/strong><\/p>\n<pre>User-agent: Googlebot-Image\nDisallow: \/\n<\/pre>\n<h2>Final thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>How you remove URLs is fairly situational. We\u2019ve talked about several options, but if you\u2019re still confused which is right for you, refer back to the flowchart at the&nbsp;start.<\/p>\n<p>You can also go through the <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/legal\/troubleshooter\/1114905?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">legal troubleshooter<\/a>&nbsp;provided by Google for content removal.<\/p>\n<p>Have questions? Let me know on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/patrickstox\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"further-reading\"><div class=\"reading-title\">Further reading<\/div><div class=\"reading-content\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bing.com\/webmaster\/help\/how-can-i-remove-a-url-or-page-from-the-bing-index-37c07477\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How Can I Remove a URL or Page from the Bing Index - Bing Webmaster Tools<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/93710?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Block search indexing with \u2018noindex\u2019 - Search Console Help<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/6062607?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Control what you share with Google - Search Console Help<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/6332384?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Remove information from Google - Search Console Help<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That\u2019s an important point to understand. Not only will using the wrong method sometimes lead to pages not being removed from the index as intended, but it can also have a negative effect on&nbsp;SEO. To help you quickly decide which<span class=\"ellipsis\">\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\">Read more \u203a<\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":35793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[],"coauthors":[377],"class_list":["post-35790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technical-seo","odd"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Remove URLs From Google Search (5 Methods)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Using the wrong method can backfire and lead to pages not being removed, or have a negative effect on SEO. Learn how you can get it right in this post.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/remove-urls-from-google\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Remove URLs From Google Search (5 Methods)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Follow our handy flowchart.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/remove-urls-from-google\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SEO Blog by Ahrefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Ahrefs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"patrickstox\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-28T22:21:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-06-16T22:15:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/fb-how-to-remove-urls-from-google-search.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"990\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Patrick Stox\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Follow our handy flowchart.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@patrickstox\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ahrefs\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/remove-urls-from-google\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/remove-urls-from-google\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Patrick Stox\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/14bf754248f3c561786477e4e5fd2067\"},\"headline\":\"How to Remove URLs From Google Search (5 Methods)\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-28T22:21:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-06-16T22:15:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/remove-urls-from-google\/\"},\"wordCount\":2487,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/remove-urls-from-google\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/fb-how-to-remove-urls-from-google-search.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Technical SEO\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/remove-urls-from-google\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/remove-urls-from-google\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/remove-urls-from-google\/\",\"name\":\"How to Remove URLs From Google Search (5 Methods)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/remove-urls-from-google\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/remove-urls-from-google\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/fb-how-to-remove-urls-from-google-search.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-28T22:21:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-06-16T22:15:21+00:00\",\"description\":\"Using the wrong method can backfire and lead to pages not being removed, or have a negative effect on SEO. 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