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Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Content on the Internet changes or disappears, and occasionally it's helpful to have search
results for it updated quickly. Today we launched our improved public URL removal tool to make it
easier to request updates based on changes on other people's websites. You can find it at
improved public URL removal tool
This tool is useful for removals on other peoples' websites. You could use this tool if a page has
been removed completely, or if it was just changed and you need to have the snippet and cached
page removed. If you're the webmaster of the site, then using the
Webmaster Tools URL removal feature
is faster and easier.
How to request a page be removed from search results
If the page itself was removed completely, you can request that it's removed from Google's search
results. For this, it's important that the page returns the proper
HTTP result code
(403, 404, or 410), has a
noindexrobotsmeta tag,
or is
blocked by the robots.txt
(blocking via robots.txt may not prevent indexing of the URL permanently). You can check the HTTP
result code with a
HTTP header checker.
While we attempt to recognize
soft 404
errors, having the website use a clear response code is always preferred. Here's how to submit a
page for removal:
Enter the URL of the page. As before, this needs to be the exact URL as indexed in our search
results.
Here's how to find the URL.
The analysis tool will confirm that the page is gone. Confirm the request to complete the
submission.
There's no step three!
How to request a page's cache and snippet be removed from search results
If the page wasn't removed, you can also use this tool to let us know that a text on a page (such
as a name) has been removed or changed. It'll remove the snippet and cached page in Google's
search results until our systems have been able to reprocess the page completely (it won't affect
title or ranking). In addition to the page's URL, you'll need at least one word that used to be on
the page but is now removed. You can learn more about
cache removals in our Help Center.
Enter the URL of the page which has changed. This needs to be the exact URL as indexed in our
search results.
Here's how to find the URL.
Confirm that the page has been updated or removed, and confirm that the cache and snippet are
outdated (do not match the current content).
Now, enter a word that no longer appears on the live page, but which is still visible in the
cache or snippet. See our
previous blog post on removals
for more details.
We hope these changes make it easier for you to submit removal requests! We welcome your feedback
in our
removals help forum category,
where other users may also be able to help with more complicated removal issues.
[[["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\u003eGoogle launched an improved public URL removal tool to help users request updates to search results based on content changes or removals on external websites.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThis tool allows users to request the removal of outdated pages or outdated cached content and snippets from Google Search.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eTo remove an outdated page, ensure it returns a proper HTTP result code (403, 404, or 410), has a \u003ccode\u003enoindex\u003c/code\u003e robots meta tag, or is blocked by robots.txt.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eTo remove outdated cached content and snippets, provide the URL and a word that was previously on the page but has since been removed.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebsite owners are encouraged to use Webmaster Tools for faster and easier URL removal on their own sites.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Google launched an improved public URL removal tool for requesting updates to search results based on website changes. Users can request removal if a page is completely gone (requires proper HTTP status codes or `noindex` tag) by entering the exact URL, or if a page's content has changed by providing the URL and a removed word. The tool allows removal of cached pages and snippets. Webmasters are advised to use Webmaster Tools for faster removals of their own content.\n"],null,["# Improving URL removals on third-party sites\n\nWednesday, December 18, 2013\n\n\nContent on the Internet changes or disappears, and occasionally it's helpful to have search\nresults for it updated quickly. Today we launched our improved public URL removal tool to make it\neasier to request updates based on changes on other people's websites. You can find it at\n[improved public URL removal tool](https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals)\n\n\nThis tool is useful for removals on other peoples' websites. You could use this tool if a page has\nbeen removed completely, or if it was just changed and you need to have the snippet and cached\npage removed. If you're the webmaster of the site, then using the\n[Webmaster Tools URL removal feature](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1663416)\nis faster and easier.\n\nHow to request a page be removed from search results\n----------------------------------------------------\n\n\nIf the page itself was removed completely, you can request that it's removed from Google's search\nresults. For this, it's important that the page returns the proper\n[HTTP result code](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes)\n(`403`, `404`, or `410`), has a\n[`noindex` robots `meta` tag](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/block-indexing),\nor is\n[blocked by the robots.txt](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro)\n(blocking via robots.txt may not prevent indexing of the URL permanently). You can check the HTTP\nresult code with a\n[HTTP header checker](https://www.google.com/search?q=http+header+checker).\nWhile we attempt to recognize\n[`soft 404`](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/http-network-errors#soft-404-errors)\nerrors, having the website use a clear response code is always preferred. Here's how to submit a\npage for removal:\n\n1. Enter the URL of the page. As before, this needs to be the exact URL as indexed in our search results. [Here's how to find the URL](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/63758).\n2. The analysis tool will confirm that the page is gone. Confirm the request to complete the submission.\n3. There's no step three!\n\nHow to request a page's cache and snippet be removed from search results\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\nIf the page wasn't removed, you can also use this tool to let us know that a text on a page (such\nas a name) has been removed or changed. It'll remove the snippet and cached page in Google's\nsearch results until our systems have been able to reprocess the page completely (it won't affect\ntitle or ranking). In addition to the page's URL, you'll need at least one word that used to be on\nthe page but is now removed. You can learn more about\n[cache removals in our Help Center](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/remove-information).\n\n1. Enter the URL of the page which has changed. This needs to be the exact URL as indexed in our search results. [Here's how to find the URL](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/63758).\n2. Confirm that the page has been updated or removed, and confirm that the cache and snippet are outdated (do not match the current content).\n3. Now, enter a word that no longer appears on the live page, but which is still visible in the cache or snippet. See our [previous blog post on removals](/search/blog/2010/04/url-removals-explained-part-ii-removing) for more details.\n\n\nYou can find out more about URL removals in our\n[Help Center](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9689846), as well as in our\nearlier blog posts on\n[removing URLs and directories](/search/blog/2010/03/url-removal-explained-part-i-urls),\n[removing and updating cached content](/search/blog/2010/04/url-removals-explained-part-ii-removing),\n[removing content you don't own](/search/blog/2010/04/url-removal-explained-part-iii-removing), and\n[tracking requests and what not to remove](/search/blog/2010/05/url-removal-explained-part-iv-tracking).\n\n\nWe hope these changes make it easier for you to submit removal requests! We welcome your feedback\nin our\n[removals help forum category](https://support.google.com/webmasters/threads?hl=en&thread_filter=(category:search_console)),\nwhere other users may also be able to help with more complicated removal issues.\n\n\nPosted by\n[John Mueller](https://google.me/+johnmueller?rel=author), Webmaster Trends Analyst"]]
