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How to Have Unwanted Search Engine Results Removed

Get Unwanted Information Off Google, Bing and Yahoo Search Results

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Google Content Removal Resources

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How to Remove Content that’s on a Website You Own from Google Search Results

Follow the 7 Steps below to completely remove an entire web page from Google Search Results:

  • On the Webmaster Tools home page, click the site you want.
  • On the Dashboard, click Google Index on the left-hand menu.
  • Click Remove URLs.
  • Click New removal request.
  • Type the URL of the page you want removed from search results (not the Google search results URL or cached page URL), and then click Continue. How to find the right URL. The URL is case-sensitive—use exactly the same characters and capitalization that the site uses.
  • Click Yes, remove this page.
  • Click Submit Request.

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Removing Your Own Content from Google Continued

Important: To ensure your content is permanently removed, you need to do one of the following within 90 days of requesting removal. Otherwise, your content may later reappear in search results. (More information about blocking Google.)

  • If the page no longer exists, make sure that the server returns a 404 (Not Found) or 410 (Gone) HTTP status code. Non-HTML file (like PDFs) should be completely removed from your server.
  • If the page still exists, use robots.txt to prevent Google from crawling it. Even if a URL is disallowed by robots.txt we may still index the page if we find its URL on another site. However, we won't index the page if it's blocked in robots.txt and there is an active URL removal request for the page.

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How to Submit a Court Order to Google

To submit a court order to Google requesting that a content on third-party website be removed from Google Search Results follow the steps below.

  • Obtain a court order from a United States Judge.
  • Make sure the court order contains the URL of the content you’re concerned about. If it doesn’t, make sure that you specify the URL when submitting the court order to Google in the following steps.
  • Complete all the required fields on web form here.
  • You will need to attach a copy of the court order in .PDF or .DOC format.
  • Make sure to specify which section of the court order that you attach mandates the removal of content from a third-party website.
  • Enter the URL of each web page (1 URL per line) that the court order mandates content be removed from.
  • Press the Submit button to send the court order to Google.

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When will Google Remove Reviews from a Google My Business Listing?

  • Advertising: Don’t use reviews for advertising, such as adding links to other websites or phone numbers. Reviews should be a genuine reflection of your experience with a place - don't post reviews just to manipulate a place's ratings.
  • Spam: Don’t spam. Write a genuine report of your experience with the place. Don't include promotional / commercial content, don't post the same content multiple times and don't write reviews for the same place from multiple accounts.
  • Phone numbers, email addresses, or URLs: To help prevent advertising and spammy reviews, we don’t allow phone numbers, email addresses, or links to other websites in reviews. If you want to add an updated number, email address, or URL for the business you’re reviewing, use the Report a problem link to report that information instead.
  • Off-topic reviews: Don’t post reviews based on someone else’s experience, or that are not about the specific place you’re reviewing. Reviews aren’t meant to be a forum for general political or social commentary or personal rants. Wrong location or the place is closed? Use the Report a problem link to report that information instead of writing a review.

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When will Google Remove Reviews from a Google My Business Listing? (Continued)

  • Keep it clean: Don’t use obscene, profane, or offensive language. We’ll also remove reviews that represent personal attacks on others.
  • Conflict of interest: Reviews are most valuable when they are honest and unbiased. If you own or work at a place, please don’t review your own business or employer. Don’t offer or accept money, products, or services to write reviews for a business or to write negative reviews about a competitor. If you're a business owner, don't set up review stations or kiosks at your place of business just to ask for reviews written at your place of business.
  • Illegal content: Don’t post reviews that contain or link to unlawful content, like links that facilitate the sale of prescription drugs without a prescription.
  • Copyrighted content: Don't post reviews that infringe others' rights - including copyright. For more information or to file a DMCA request, review our copyright procedures.

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When will Google Remove Reviews from a Google My Business Listing? (Continued)

  • Sexually Explicit Material: We don't allow reviews that contain sexually explicit material. Also, we absolutely don’t allow reviews that sexually exploit children or present them in a sexual manner. For this type of content, we'll remove the review, shut down the account, and send a report to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and law enforcement.
  • Impersonation: Don’t post reviews on behalf of others or misrepresent your identity or connection with the place you’re reviewing.
  • Personal and confidential information: Don’t post reviews that contain another person’s personal and confidential information, including credit card information, government identification number, driver’s license information, etc.
  • Hate Speech: We don't allow reviews that advocate against groups of people based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

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Source: https://support.google.com/business/answer/2622994?hl=en

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Removing Search Results Under Europe Data Protection Law (part 1)

About Search Removal Under EU Data Protection Law

In May 2014, a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (C-131/12, 13 May 2014) found that certain people can ask search engines to remove specific results for queries that include their name, where the interests in those results appearing are outweighed by the person’s privacy rights.

When you make such a request, we will balance the privacy rights of the individual with the public’s interest to know and the right to distribute information. When evaluating your request, we will look at whether the results include outdated information about you, as well as whether there’s a public interest in the information — for example, we may decline to remove certain information about financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions, or public conduct of government officials.

You will need a digital copy of a form of identification to complete this form. If you are submitting this request on behalf of someone else, you will need to supply identification for them. Fields marked with an asterisk * must be completed for your request to be submitted.

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How to Remove Search Results Under EU Data Protection Law (part 2)

To use EU data protection law to have a web page removed from search engine results follow the following instructions:

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  • Visit support.google.com/legal/contact/lr_eudpa?product=websearch
  • Fill out the form, completing all required fields.
  • Sign the form digitally and click submit to send the request to Google

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Bing Search Results Removal

Steps to Submit a Bing Search Removal Request

You can submit a page removal request for a page that is no longer live on the web (404) by doing the following:

  • Go to http://www.bing.com/webmaster/tools/content-removal and sign in with your Microsoft account (formerly known as Windows Live ID)
  • In the Content URL input box, enter the exact URL you found in the Bing web results (for example, by using Copy Shortcut/Copy Link Address functionality in your browser)
  • In the Removal Type drop-down menu select Page Removal
  • Click Submit

When you click submit, Bing will run a check whether the page is actually no longer available on the web. If that is the case, Bing will submit the request and add it the Submission History table. However, if Bing detects that the page is still live on the web we will prompt that you can only submit an outdated cache removal.

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Yahoo Search Results Removal

Yahoo United States

  • Remove search results from Yahoo Search | Yahoo Help - help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN4530.html

Yahoo United Kingdom & Ireland

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What are the Top Services to Remove Unwanted Information from Search Results?

  • Defamation Defenders

If you’re looking to change search results for your name, the name of your company, or some other phrase, there is no better company to call on than Colorado online reputation repair company Defamation Defenders.

As a leader in removing private information, public records and negative defamatory content from websites and search engines, Remove Online Information has developed techniques to remove unwanted information from hundreds of websites and all the leading search engine providers, including Google, Bing, AOL, Yahoo, Ask and others.

DMCA Takedowns provide a Legal route to remove Copyrighted material from websites and search engines. DMCA Takedowns can often utilize Copyright Infringement laws to have defamatory content and private information from the internet.

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Continued: Top Services to Remove Unwanted Information from Search Results

4. ContentRemovalService.com

A full service internet information removal firm offering advanced solutions to remove and/or displace unwanted online information, such as personal information, public records, false accusations, leaked and pirated content, and more.

5. DeleteMe by abine

Data broker removal service that automates the opt-opt process to remove personal details from public record and personal information aggregate websites.