Google’s John Mueller explained on Reddit how to remove unwanted content from search results.
This came up when someone asked about getting rid of an old article about their arrest that kept showing up in Google searches.
The person was arrested for a minor offense in 2018, but a news article appears in Google searches years later.
Even though the case was settled, the article is still on the first page of results, and the person wants it removed.
What can they do? Here’s what Mueller advised.
Mueller’s Guidance On Getting Content Removed
Mueller explained that even though the news outlet said they “de-indexed” the article, this process isn’t always quick or simple.
He suggested a few ways to tackle the issue:
- Complete Takedown: The news outlet said no to removing the article, but this is the most effective way, showing the page as a 404 error.
- Noindex Tag: This is probably what the news outlet did. It keeps the article on its site but tells search engines to ignore it. Mueller advised checking the page’s code for this tag.
- Name Swap: Mueller suggested asking the news outlet to replace the person’s name with something generic like “John Doe” as a workaround. This could make the article harder to find in name searches.
- Right to be Forgotten: For folks in some areas, especially Europe, this legal option might help.
About the article still showing up in searches, Mueller said that even after de-indexing, it can take up to six months for a page to disappear from results:
“Regarding how long it takes to “see” a noindex, there’s no specific time, but it’s usually less than a few months. I think I’ve seen it take up to 6 months. They’re not kept in the index forever without being refreshed. If you use the public removal tool (for non-site-owners), Google will check the page fairly quickly (within a few days) and use that to confirm that the page has a noindex.”