Having unappealing results when someone searches your name on Google can be detrimental to the Digital You. Fortunately, there are ways to go about removing these unwanted search results.
How to Remove Unwanted Search Results
When removing unwanted search results about yourself, it is easiest to start with results that are under your control. Some examples are web pages, social media pages, or blog pages that you have created or attributed to.
Websites and Blogs
Unfortunately, removing results connected to Google isn’t as easy as just deleting them. As you have probably heard before “once it’s out there, it’s out there”. Any site or social media page that you have created is most likely linked to numerous other sources. If you delete your content, Google will recognize it as a “missing page” which can hurt your SEO (search engine optimization).
To ensure you remove your content in the most effective manner, try using Google’s remove URL tool. It contains a comprehensive guide on how to use their tool to temporarily or permanently remove URLs. If you are running your site through WordPress you can use Robots.txt file. It is usually used as a helpful tool for SEO, but can be equally effective when used to “deny search engines access to certain files and folders”.
In the event that these solutions are not enough to remove the unwanted results, make sure that the page presenting the results is one you are in control of.
Social Media
While you can control a majority of privacy settings on your social media accounts, it won’t keep all your previous activity from showing up in search results. Fortunately, Google makes blocking your social media links pretty straightforward. Simply copy the URL to the social media profile you want to remove and go to Googles Content Removal Page. There you can paste the link in the space provided. In order to prove you are associated with the page, Google may require that you offer information only seen on the cached version and not the live version.
There isn’t a particular timeframe in which the information will be removed. If you are looking to make sure your info is removed before applying to colleges or looking for employment you may want to complete this process sooner rather than later.
Removing Content you don’t Control
There may be a fair amount of search results about you that are out of your control. Depending on how much information you have poured online or provided to other entities who have a presence online, the usual steps of removing these results may not suffice. Fortunately, there is still a way to suppress these results without directly taking them down yourself.
If you see content involving you on websites or blogs that are out of your control you can try asking the site owner to remove any content concerning you. Make sure when you contact the owner, you present your case politely and give a reason for why you would like the content removed. Within reason, this method should work most of the time.
In the event that someone has published information that can leave you compromised and are unwilling to remove it, you can reach out to Google and ask for them to remove it. Keep in mind that Google is very specific about what meets their requirements for removal. If they do decide to “remove” the page, note that the page is actually not removed but rather hidden from Googles search results.
Conclusion
Remember to stay patient during this process. Sure, having unsatisfactory results is disappointing, but it isn’t a true depiction of who you are. Make sure you continue reading our blogs at ScoresMatter to ensure that you are improving the digital you.