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Tuesday, May 17, 2011
We recently made a change to the
Remove URL
tool in
Webmaster Tools
to eliminate the requirement that the webpage's URL must first be blocked by a site owner before
the page can be removed from Google's search results. Because you've already verified ownership of
the site, we can eliminate this requirement to make it easier for you, as the site owner, to
remove unwanted pages (for example, pages accidentally made public) from Google's search results.
Removals persist for at least 90 days
When a page's URL is requested for removal, the request is temporary and persists for at least
90 days. We may continue to crawl the page during the 90-day period but we will not display it in
the search results. You can still revoke the removal request at any time during those 90 days.
After the 90-day period, the page can reappear in our search results, assuming you haven't made
any other changes that could impact the page's availability.
Permanent removal
In order to permanently remove a URL, you must ensure that one of the following page blocking
methods is implemented for the URL of the page that you want removed:
This will ensure that the page is permanently removed from Google's search results for as long as
the page is blocked. If at any time in the future you remove the previously implemented page
blocking method, we may potentially re-crawl and index the page. For immediate and permanent
removal, you can request that a page be removed using the Remove URL tool and then permanently
block the page's URL before the 90-day expiration of the removal request.
For more information about URL removals, see our
URL removal explained blog
series covering this topic. If you still have questions about this change or about URL removal
requests in general, please post in our
Webmaster Help Forum.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eVerified site owners can now directly remove unwanted pages from Google Search results using the updated Remove URL tool in Webmaster Tools.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eRemoval requests are temporary and last for at least 90 days, during which the page won't appear in search results but may still be crawled.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor permanent removal, site owners need to implement methods such as returning a 404/410 HTTP status code, blocking via robots.txt, or using a noindex meta tag.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eCombining a removal request with permanent blocking ensures the page is immediately and permanently removed from Google Search results.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["The Webmaster Tools' Remove URL feature was updated, removing the prior requirement for site owners to block a webpage before removal from Google's search results. Temporary removal requests last at least 90 days, during which the page won't appear in search results but may still be crawled. For permanent removal, site owners must use 404/410 HTTP status codes, robots.txt files, or `noindex` meta tags to block the page. If blocking methods are removed, Google may re-crawl and re-index the page.\n"],null,["# Easier URL removals for site owners\n\nTuesday, May 17, 2011\n\n\nWe recently made a change to the\n[Remove URL](https://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=164734)\ntool in\n[Webmaster Tools](https://search.google.com/search-console)\nto eliminate the requirement that the webpage's URL must first be blocked by a site owner before\nthe page can be removed from Google's search results. Because you've already verified ownership of\nthe site, we can eliminate this requirement to make it easier for you, as the site owner, to\nremove unwanted pages (for example, pages accidentally made public) from Google's search results.\n\nRemovals persist for at least 90 days\n-------------------------------------\n\n\nWhen a page's URL is requested for removal, the request is temporary and persists for at least\n90 days. We may continue to crawl the page during the 90-day period but we will not display it in\nthe search results. You can still revoke the removal request at any time during those 90 days.\nAfter the 90-day period, the page can reappear in our search results, assuming you haven't made\nany other changes that could impact the page's availability.\n\nPermanent removal\n-----------------\n\n\nIn order to permanently remove a URL, you must ensure that one of the following page blocking\nmethods is implemented for the URL of the page that you want removed:\n\n- indicate that the page no longer exists by returning a [`404` or `410` HTTP status code](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes)\n- block the page from crawling via a [robots.txt file](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro)\n- block the page from indexing via a [`noindex` `meta` tag](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/block-indexing)\n\n\nThis will ensure that the page is permanently removed from Google's search results for as long as\nthe page is blocked. If at any time in the future you remove the previously implemented page\nblocking method, we may potentially re-crawl and index the page. For immediate and permanent\nremoval, you can request that a page be removed using the Remove URL tool and then permanently\nblock the page's URL before the 90-day expiration of the removal request.\n\n\nFor more information about URL removals, see our\n[URL removal explained](/search/blog/2010/03/url-removal-explained-part-i-urls) blog\nseries covering this topic. If you still have questions about this change or about URL removal\nrequests in general, please post in our\n[Webmaster Help Forum](https://support.google.com/webmasters/community/label?lid=5489e59697a233d7).\n\n\nWritten by\n[Jonathan Simon](/search/blog/authors/jonathan-simon),\nWebmaster Trends Analyst"]]
