While many people believe that the internet is eternal, it is by no means the case. There are numerous reasons why people will want to remove websites that belong to them from the internet.
Whether it is because your website contains information that is no longer relevant or misleading, or you have moved to an entirely new domain, you will need to know how to remove it from google search results to avoid unwanted hassle.
How To Remove Your Website From Google
In order to remove your website from google search results, you will first need to know more about the internal workings of google’s search engine.
Prior to the existence of search engines, the internet was a place that contained numerous digital archives. Whilst it still operates like an archive, search engines are primarily used in order to access information.
Google will then file these pages within a shortlist.
Then, google will scour a shortlist in order to analyze relevant content for each individual sitting. During this time, google will also find files, text content, images and other information that it can access and analyze.
Finally, Google will rank these pages from the most to the least relevant content.
After it has identified which results are most suitable, it will then identify your location and provide you with information based on your previous browsing history, device and language.
It also will not show websites that lack mobile functionality and compatibility.
Thereafter, each time you use google to search, it will analyze and sort through numerous websites within a number of seconds. This speedy process occurs through search engine indexing/caching.
What Is Search Engine Caching And Indexing?
Indexing is known as the process that google engages in to sort though relevant information on the world wide web in order to deliver prompt search results.
Google will then index this information and sort through these websites using an inverted index, otherwise known as a reverse index. This inverted index consists of a database containing information in regard to a website’s main elements.
These inverted indexes will also use a process known as ‘tokenization’. This process can be defined as the act of summarizing content via keywords. For instance, webpages that sell sweatshirts would be tokenized using keywords like ‘black sweaters’.
Caching is an entirely separate process. Caches are more like snapshots of a website that google will use to fully interpret the contents. Google will obtain these periodically, meaning that it can take a while for these to become up-to-date.
Whilst removing your webpage is possible, deleting it isn’t enough to remove it from google if information has been cached.
Google also uses indexing and caching in order to reduce the work required to return the appropriate and accurate results. Thus, these processes allow Google to fully interpret the contents of a website without the need to analyze it intensely.
When A Website Is Removed From Google, Does It Get Removed Worldwide?
Whenever a result is removed from google’s search engines, you are only removing it from google’s search engines. This doesn’t not apply to other search engines that may be used like Yahoo, for instance.
Google may also re-index the result or retain a cache of the page itself. Google will consistently re-index webpages in order to return the utmost accurate content to its users.
Thus, if you remove your search result but fail to delete the images, URL, and web page itself, then google will potentially re-list your content by proxy of this process.
Therefore, if you wish to ensure that your website is fully removed from the internet, you will need to delete everything on it, including any images, content, URL, and search results. We will go into more detail about this process below.
Reasons Why You Should Remove A Website From Google
There are numerous reasons why someone may wish to remove their website.
The reasons for this are outlined below alongside the recommended action to be taken in each instance:
1. The Information Contained Is Wrong Or Outdated
If google is displaying inaccurate information, then it can be misleading to your audience and cause confusion.
There are three ways to alter this in this instance, firstly, you can correct the inaccurate information, then, you can either delete the website or remove it from the search engine’s results.
3. The Website Contains Information That Has Leaked
Sometimes, businesses will publish information via a web page unintentionally. This can occur when a product is leaked, for instance. Thus, you will need to unpublish this content from your website and ensure that it is removed from search results.
How To Remove Your Website From Google (Key Steps)
In order to remove your website from Google, you will need to engage in a multifaceted process that sounds harder than it is.
In order to remove your webpage from google entirely, you will need to implement the following steps:
Ensure that your website is backed up.
Rename your website and password to protect it.
Delete the website via your host. (e.g. GoDaddy.com)
Conclusion
To conclude, there are numerous reasons why you may wish to remove your website from google. Fortunately, it is entirely easy to do so, and you merely need to delete the website via your web page provider.
Most website providers will make this accessible and easy to do. You will also need to ensure that any content and images on the website are removed too.
Hi, my name is Justin Shaw, I started my career with a Masters in Computer Science but found writing to be my forte'.
I'm now the Principal Tech writer for GshiftLabs.com as well as a few other well known publications. I help make the complex world of Tech-Jargon easy to understand.
