Removing content from Google and the Web, the guide to getting it right
Can a piece of content be permanently removed from Google? And what is the process for removing the page and URL from the search engine? These are just some of the questions that we may face in the course of a site management activity, related to events that (unfortunately) are not sporadic and may happen in the life of a project, as a result, for example, of the presence of outdated content, changes to the structure or, for the worst cases, a desire to exercise the right to be forgotten and delete from Google or the need to delete hacked pages that are full of spam. It is Google itself that comes to our aid, with various tips and techniques for succeeding in the task of deleting a page from Google and its Index, because in the digital age, online visibility is crucial and “the Internet does not forget”- two reasons that should definitely convince us to avoid circulating information that is outdated, inaccurate, or even harmful to our site and our online reputation.
How to remove content from Google
First of all, let us define what it means to remove content from Google.
In this context, when we talk about “removal” we are referring to the action of removing a web page or a specific URL from Google’s search results: the process, which can be done through different tools, does not physically remove the page from the web, but makes it invisible to search engines, thus affecting SEO as well.