Removal request

Remove something from the index

Tell us what to take out of search results and how to reach you. We verify requests before acting on them, because a removal that anyone could trigger would be its own kind of harm.

Request details

What do you need removed? (required)

Pick the closest match. It decides which verification we ask for and how quickly we act.

A single pageRemove one URL from the index and stop it being recrawled.
A whole siteRemove every indexed page for one host and stop future crawling of it.
Sensitive personal contentPersonal or safety-critical information that should not be searchable. Read first, and does not always require proof of domain control.
A problem with our crawlerWe fetched something we should not have, fetched too often, or ignored a rule. Acted on before the indexing question.

Page or site URL (required)

The exact page for a single-page removal, or any URL on the site for a whole-site removal. Include https://.

Contact email (required)

Required, because this is where verification happens. Used only for this request and deleted with it.

Submitting sends the values above and the time of the request. We do not store your IP address.

How verification works

A removal request starts as unverified. We reply to your contact address with one step that proves you control the page or site - normally publishing a short token we name at a path on the host, or replying from an address on that same domain. Once that is done the request becomes verified and we act.

Two scopes work differently. Sensitive personal content is read by a person first and does not always need proof of domain control; tell us plainly what the content exposes. Crawler issues are treated as an operational fault on our side - we stop the behaviour before working out anything about the index.

Timelines

Crawler issues: acted on as soon as a person reads the report. If our crawler is causing load right now, block it in robots.txt as well - that takes effect on our next robots fetch without waiting for us.
Verified page and site removals: applied to results once verification completes, and the suppression also stops a queued recrawl from putting the page back.
Sensitive content: queued ahead of ordinary removals for review.
Everything else: reviewed by a person, on no published schedule. We would rather say that than quote a turnaround we cannot keep.

Worth knowing

Blocking our crawler in robots.txt stops future crawling on its own, but it does not remove pages we already indexed. That still needs this form.
We only control our own index. Removing a page here has no effect on any other search engine or archive.
A verified removal overrides every discovery path, including sitemaps and links from other approved sites.
Our user agent, crawl cadence and blocking instructions are published on the crawler page.