Friday, August 06, 2010 at 4:30 AM
Webmaster level: AllChange can happen—sometimes, as we saw in our previous post on URL removals, you may completely block or remove a page from your site. Other times you might only change parts of a page, or remove certain pieces of text. Depending on how frequently a page is being crawled, it can take some time before these changes get reflected in our search results. In this blog post we'll look at the steps you can take if we're still showing old, removed content in our search results, either in the form of a "snippet" or on the cached page that's linked to from the search result. Doing this makes sense when the old content contains sensitive information that needs to be removed quickly—it's not necessary to do this when you just update a website normally.
As an example, let's look at the following fictitious search result:
| Walter E. Coyote | < Title |
| Chief Development Officer at Acme Corp 1948-2003: worked on the top secret velocitus incalculii capturing device which has shown potential ... | < Snippet ... |
| www.example.com/about/waltercoyote - Cached | < URL + link to cached page |
To change the content shown in the snippet (or on the linked cached page), you'll first need to change the content on the actual (live) page. Unless a page's publicly visible content is changed, Google's automatic processes will continue to show parts of the original content in our search results.
Once the page's content has been changed, there are several options available to make those changes visible in our search results:
- Wait for Googlebot to re-crawl and re-index the page
This is the natural method for how most content is updated at Google. Sometimes it can take a fairly long time, depending on how frequently Googlebot currently crawls the page in question. Once we've re-crawled and re-indexed the page, the old content will usually not be visible as it'll be replaced by the current content. Provided Googlebot is not blocked from crawling the page in question (either by robots.txt or by not being able to access the server properly), you don't have to do anything special for this to take place. It's generally not possible to speed up crawling and indexing, as these processes are fully automated and depend on many external factors. - Use Google's public URL removal tool to request removal of content that has been removed from someone else's webpage
Using this tool, it's necessary to enter the exact URL of the page that has been modified, select the "Content has been removed from the page" option, and then specify one or more words that have been completely removed from that page.
Note that none of the words you enter can appear on the page; even if a word has been removed from one part of the page, your request will be denied if that word still appears on another part of the page. Be sure to choose a word (or words) that no longer appear anywhere on the page. If, in the above example, you removed "top secret velocitus incalculii capturing device," you should submit those words and not something like "my project." However, if the word "top" or "device" still exists anywhere on the page, the request would be denied. To maximize your chances of success, it's often easiest to just enter one word that you're sure no longer appears anywhere on the page.
Once your request has been processed and it's found that the submitted word(s) no longer appear on the page, the search result will no longer show a snippet, nor will the cached page be available. The title and the URL of the page will still be visible, and the entry may still appear in search results for searches related to the content that has been removed (such as searches for [velocitus incalculii]), even if those words no longer appear in the snippet. However, once the page has been re-crawled and re-indexed, the new snippet and cached page can be visible in our search results.
Keep in mind that we will need to verify removal of the word(s) by viewing the page. If the page no longer exists and the server is returning a proper 404 or 410 HTTP result code, making us unable to view the page, you may be better off requesting removal of the page altogether. - Use Google Webmaster Tools URL removal tool to request removal of information on a page from your website
If you have access to the website in question and have verified ownership of it in Google Webmaster Tools, you can use the URL removal tool there (under Site Configuration > Crawler access) to request that the snippet and the cached page be removed until the page has been re-crawled. To use this tool, you only need to submit the exact URL of the page (you won't need to specify any removed words). Once your request has been processed, we'll remove the snippet and the cached page from search results. The title and the URL of the page will still be visible, and the page may also continue to rank in search results for queries related to content that has been removed. After the page has been re-crawled and re-indexed, the search result with an updated snippet and cached page (based on the new content) can be visible.
Google indexes and ranks items based not only on the content of a page, but also on other external factors, such as the inbound links to the URL. Because of this, it's possible for a URL to continue to appear in search results for content that no longer exists on the page, even after the page has been re-crawled and re-indexed. While the URL removal tool can remove the snippet and the cached page from a search result, it will not change or remove the title of the search result, change the URL that is shown, or prevent the page from being shown for searches based on any current or previous content. If this is important to you, you should make sure that the URL fulfills the requirements for a complete removal from our search results.
Removing non-HTML content
If the changed content is not in (X)HTML (for example if an image, a Flash file or a PDF file has been changed), you won't be able to use the cache removal tool. So if it's important that the old content no longer be visible in search results, the fastest solution would be to change the URL of the file so that the old URL returns a 404 HTTP result code and use the URL removal tool to remove the old URL. Otherwise, if you chose to allow Google to naturally refresh your information, know that previews of non-HTML content (such as Quick View links for PDF files) can take longer to update after recrawling than normal HTML pages would.
Proactively preventing the appearance of snippets or cached versions
As a webmaster, you have the option to use robots meta tags to proactively prevent the appearance of snippets or cached versions without using our removal tools. While we don't recommend this as a default approach (the snippet can help users recognize a relevant search result faster, and a cached page gives them the ability to view your content even in the unexpected event of your server not being available), you can use the "nosnippet" robots meta tag to prevent showing of a snippet, or the "noarchive" robots meta tag to disable caching of a page. Note that if this is changed on existing and known pages, Googlebot will need to re-crawl and re-index those pages before this change becomes visible in search results.
We hope this blog post helps to make some of the processes behind the URL removal tool for updated pages a bit clearer. In our next blog post we'll look at ways to request removal of content that you don't own; stay tuned!
As always, we welcome your feedback and questions in our Webmaster Help Forum.
Edit: Read the rest of this series:
Part I: Removing URLs & directories
Part III: Removing content you don't own
Part IV: Tracking requests, what not to remove
Companion post: Managing what information is available about you online
39 comments:
Good stuff done by Google Team.
Cheers,
Jag
The URL removal tool within Webmaster Tools still requires the user to confirm that the page is serving a 404 or 410 response ie that it has been removed.
There doesn't seem to be any way to remove snippet/cache content only using this tool.
Well, its really good updation from Google but what more matters is how much time it will take to get removed from results.
Today I use google webmaster tool to remove a link www.smsinhindi.com/p/subscribe.html , but it is still showing in search result.. hope it will be removed after sometime.
I did it.. Now my old cached is cleared as I mentioned above... it takes 1 day.
i've got the same problem .. in "not find pages", the pages removed by url are not removed ..
what can i do? is a time question?
thanks
@Tiziano:
See our FAQ: "If you want get rid of these errors faster, you can 301 redirect incorrect or outdated URLs to the current version of that content, and/or you can contact sites that link to these URLs and ask them to update their links. Note that submitting a URL removal request will not remove these errors from your report. The URL removal tool removes URLs from Google's search results, it does not remove errors from your Webmaster Tools account."
This has not helped me. I've made several requests to Google to have my minor child's name removed from a search result that was removed from the original page but it continues to stay on google. Another child (12) posted it on a page discussing sex abuse which had nothing to do with my daughter--she was mentioned as a good person/friend. Now I cannot get google to clean its cache and it has been a year of trying. The only place it stays is in google. I am at wits end--can anyone help me? I tried both the inappropriate content and personal info removal requests.
Hi there,
I am having a hard time trying to fill one of the requests... Basically, there is a page with illegal info (such as account and password details for thousands of emails and websites). So far i managed to have the admins of the website remove the page in question. And now if you click the link it comes up as a picture with message "file not found". However the actual illegal info can still be accessed through the google cache. I tried almost every method here through the webmasters tools. But they are all denied...
Can i have some help in this matter please?
@s1gnup8: You need to get the owner of the site where the name was posted to remove the content in question, and then you can request a cache removal through our tool.
@D. If you need help trouble-shooting I recommend you post in our Help Forum, which is designed for back-and-forth discussion (the blog post comments aren't the best place for such specific questions).
Thanks Sue. I posted in the help forum. The only place my child's name is on, is Google search results. No private websites has it anymore. So it is about trying to get google to clean the cached result. I have used the tools several times now...but anyway have posted on the help forum.
Just to clarify, I have tried the cache removal tool.
If you don't have access to the site anymore (I used to but I stupidly deleted my account because I thought the cached pages would go away), how do you get rid of cached urls that come up in search results? I made a new account with the same url hoping it would override the old one, but it won't.
@Diana Chung: Use the URL removal tool that doesn't require ownership of the site: http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals
Thank you Sue and team...the search results have finally cleared! best --signups....
thanks team..its really worked for me...it just took 1 day..
I have requested a page removal (after the site owner agreed to remove the sensitive content), which was granted by Google. However, only the cached page has been removed. The URL title and snippet still shows up when searching using the keywords that have been removed by the site owner as search term. How can I get the URL to be completely removed from the search result?
@Christophe: It sounds like you only requested a cache removal. In order for the URL to completely disappear, you have to request a complete URL removal (and the URL has to meet the requirements for such -- being blocked by robots.txt, a noindex meta tag, or return a 404/410).
I'm having the exact same problem as "Christophe". The Google Remove tool for reasons unknown will allow removal of pages that have been modified IF Google already has a that page cached.
Some pages have snippets, but do not have the page cached by Google. The tool is useless on such pages.
My personal information was place on a website without my knowledge and was able to get the webmaster to remove the content. The information shows up within a snippet in Google Search, but I cannot remove the search result because the page is not cached by Google.
Google needs to fix this problem! If you do a search, there are numerous of us having this same problem!
@Andrew: The tool can remove URLs from our search results regardless of whether they are cached or not, IF the URL meets the requirements for complete removal.
If a URL does not meet the requirements for complete removal (if content has been removed, but the URL is still live), we only allow removal of the Google cache, but will not remove the complete URL from search results. It sounds like both you and Christophe are in the latter situation and/or are using the tool to request cache removals. If you want a URL completely removed, you must 1) make sure it meets the requirements for complete removal, and then 2) request a complete removal (not just a cache removal).
@ Susan
I don't care if the page shows up as an entry in the search results, the personal information has been removed from originating page.
What both Christophe and I are raising concerns is about sensitive information still being available for everyone to see in Google's Snippet.
As state previously, if there is a cached page that has been changed, through page removal both the cached page and the snippet will be removed.
But, if there was no cached page, there is no way to remove the snippet if the snippet is no longer representative of the originating web page.
i am add new removal request with address ftp:// . but i cam't add this list. system is say ftp:// has been added for removal. but i can't see in the list.
please urgent reply. thank you.
Another problem with the Google cache removal tool is this case. A search result for "My Name" returns a result with cached content, which has a url like domain.com/123, but after that got cached and the owner of the website set up some redirects like eu.domain.com/123 and us.domain.com/123 when you go to domain.com, it's not possible to get that original domain.com/123 page removed anymore with this tool.
Hope this reaches anyone@google.
hi i need to remove my old delete url from the google search box..can u plz upload a video how to remove Blog or webside URL from google search result with the help of webmaster tool?????coz i face the prob now a day that google crawler cant access my blog...plz help me..??
You said - you have to request a complete URL removal (and the URL has to meet the requirements for such -- being blocked by robots.txt, a noindex meta tag, or return a 404/410).
How do we handle a public anonymous FTP site which does not have a way to return a 404 or 410, or noindex meta tag, because this is an ftp server. If robots.txt is the way to do it, where should this file be, and should we assume the directory definition in robots.txt is the same as in the ftp server. An example for this will be immensely helpful.
The URL removal request tool seems to work just fine for regular search results, but I've had no success in removing broken/removed URLs from image search results. For example, several months ago, I contacted a blogger about removing a picture that was showing up high in Google Image Search Results. The blogger was glad to comply, and removed the image (again, months ago). However, the image still appears high in image search results. When you click on the link to see the full-size image, it brings you to a 404 page, which I confirmed with web sniffer. Yet, when I submit a URL removal request, I am Denied on the grounds that "The URL you submitted no longer returns as a result for the search query you entered." Well, obviously that's true for regular search results, but not for image search results. There is currently no way to indicate this distinction when submitting a request, and it's quite frustrating. What is your advice (if any) for getting broken URLs removed from Google's image search results?
Cached content keeps on reappearing. If the original URL is gone, the cached content still appears. This is similar to the rest of the posts. Incompetent.
@asdf:
"Cached content keeps on reappearing."
A cache removal request will remove the cached version of a page until we have time to re-cache the page's new content. If you want to permanently prevent a page from being cached, you need to add a "noarchive" meta tag to the page.
"If the original URL is gone, the cached content still appears."
If a URL is "gone" in the sense that it 404s, you can request that it be completely removed from our search results (which will include removing the cache).
i already thought i wrote and published what i commented in short t the name of the person when you google their name my personal private info is still present even though the gogogle removed her name and the cached part but i am still having serious issue as this revealed myself d and i was threatened due to this
the removal has 2 remove the rest of this
i know i cannot write her name but when you google her name this of mine still appearing after i did google removal several times
please i need help 2 remove this
this what showing now
fifirose 1's journal at dailystength.org
dec 19, 2009 ...
www.dailystrength.org/people/108346/journal/1766463
when google removes something it should remove the entire thing showing- this invaded my privacy into my journal by google scan of site
i had several try 2 elp and it is down to this
ive already been hurt by this severly where legal action can be taken
Hi
When I do a name search on myself there is a snippet that contains defamatory material. I see that the page has a 404 but the search still shows I think because of the cache.
I have requested removal of the page - not my website- do you think that this will remove the snippet if approved ?
Cheers
Chris
Just a clarification.
(1) My name was removed from a URL by the owner of that URL
(2) I successfully removed the snippet and the cache from that URL's search results.
(3) The URL title still appears when searching using my name.
When Google re-crawls the URL, will that URL no longer appear when searching under my name?
Hello,
Our some ftp files indexed from Google in minutes. These pages' contents are pdf files.
We try to remove these pages via Webmaster tools. The live link has been removed but we need the cache removed.
We submitted a request yesterday,still our requests are waiting on pending.
Can' we do anything to remove it asap? al the content must be removed asap.
Here is the link of the pages. We want to remove all the results for cached data.
http://www.google.com.tr/#q=Page+1+SATI%C5%9E+S%C3%96ZLE%C5%9EMES%C4%B0+MADDE+1+-+TARAFLAR+1.1+-+SATICI+Firsat35.com+-+Gizko+Bili%C5%9Fim+ve+Pazarlama+A.+%C5%9E&hl=tr&biw=1280&bih=591&prmd=ivns&filter=0&fp=1&
Its totally ilegal!
We need waiting for "google crawling".
Google needs to remove chached pages with personal information, injury and another questions.
I have problem with a pdf, they are already removed but "google" keeps old cached and keeps using my name at titles search results.
Repeat: its totally illegal
I'll need to take a legal action against google.
Last year someone hacked our site and put some malicious code in a directory which had PHP files. Google flagged the site as dangerous/unsafe. When we found out about this, we removed the entire directory and checked every single page on the site. Now our site shows up as it should. McAfee secure search shows it as a safe site.
Some URLs which were created by the hacker are still showing in Google search, although those pages and the directory containing those pages have been removed.
We have removed that entire directory and have used Google URL removal tool to remove the 3 offending URLs. When I check under my Webmaster tools, I can see that Google has removed the 3 URLs, but not from the cache.
I don't want these URLs showing up at all. They are damaging to our business reputation.
It may be months before the site is recrawled again. Is there a faster way to ensure these non-existent URLs don't show in search results?
Thanks.
Ramesh
What if the link is dead, but it's from a social networking site, and it redirects you to a login page. Does google still think it's live?
Hi,
can any one give suggestions for following url www.experttutor.in, i have completed SEO steps for optimization, i thought of asking is there anything left for better SEO,..
kindly give me idea how i can get good traffic to this link.
Here is the question.
If the content of the page has been updated. And the cache has been updated respectively. But snippet still shows sensitive information what tool one should use?
It is wired as google already crawled the page for updated content and does not show anything on the cached page itself. But the snippet seems to be not updated and thus still showing sensitive info.
Cache removal tool fails as there is no sensitive info in cache....
someone who has the same exact name as me, owns a twitter account that is highly offensive. when you google my name this twitter is the fifth result. as twitter will not help me and the person can not be contacted or reached, i seemingly have to live with this google search result?
Hi everyone,
Since over a year has passed since we published this post, we're closing the comments to help us focus on the work ahead. If you still have a question or comment you'd like to discuss, free to visit and/or post your topic in our Webmaster Central Help Forum.
Thanks and take care,
The Webmaster Central Team
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