CONTENT MARKETING
Removal Outdated Content Page
Discover why the removal outdated content page is important and how to remove outdated content from Google the right way without damaging your website SERPs ranking.
There are a couple of ways to remove outdated content from Google. Below I’ll dive into a few that I use from time to time. It might not work for every case scenario, but it can be a handy guide to keep bookmarked when you need it.
How to Remove Outdated Content from Google?
Google Search Console’s removal tool is meant to be used for legitimate purposes, so don’t abuse it. Submissions are manually checked. As Google states:
* The request form only works only for pages/images that have already been modified or removed from the web.
* If you need to remove personal information or content with legal issues, you should submit this request. They also have some guidelines on how to remove personal information. With GDPR and concerns with personally identifiable information (PII) these days, you can usually get a website owner to remove content if needed.
ith that being said, this tool can come in very handy for a variety of reasons. Perhaps there is a page that has been taken down on a third-party website, but the information is still showing in SERPs. Cached snippets can sometimes take weeks to go away, depending on the crawl rate on the site.
Using this tool can be an easy way to speed up that process. And if you’re working with clients, usually their patience is pretty thin.
If you’re trying to get content out of SERPs from a website you own and control in Google Search Console, you can force recrawl it. I recommend the following steps for content and pages you don’t have control over.
1) Option 1: Outdated page removal.
Go to the removal tool in Google Search Console. Enter the URL of the outdated content (page) you need to remove and click “Request Removal.”
2) Option 2: Changed content.
They’ll analyze the page (URL), and if they detect it has already been taken down, it’s a quick and easy process. Click “Request Removal.”
In this case, I had a phone number for an old business on a Pinterest page that I could no longer access. Pinterest worked with me to deactivate the page.
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