Google Search Console Introduces Three Features In Its Updated 'Removals Tool'

Google Search Console

Google crawlers are always on the move to look for new web pages and to renew its index with new content updates.

Webmasters and web owners have a total control of their websites. For example, they can create and publish new post on a new web page, or to remove them from their website entirely.

But when the sites are launched to the internet, they need to tell search engines what to crawl and what shouldn't.

And if their content has been indexed and crawled, the one way to remove them is by using the 'Removals Tool' from Google.

Here, Google has updated the Removals Tool to allow temporary removals of indexed web pages, see outdated content and see URLs caught by Google's SafeSearch filtering requests.

Webmasters and web owners can access this tool within Google Search Console, under the “Index” menu, labeled as 'Removals.' They can also access the tool by going to https://search.google.com/search-console/removals and then select a property.

Temporary Removals

Google Search Console - Temporary Removals

A temporary removal request is a way for webmasters and web owners to remove specific content on their site from Google Search results. For example, if they have a URL that they need to take off from Google Search, they can use this tool.

Here, they have two options:

  1. Temporary remove URL will hide the URL from Google Search results for about six months and clear the cached copy of the page.
  2. Clear cache URL clears the cached page and wipes out the page description snippet in Search results until the page is crawled again.

It should be noted that temporarily removals do not actually delete the URL from Google’s index, instead, it just hides the URL for about six months from showing up in the search results, which according to Google, "should be enough for you to find a permanent solution."

To permanently remove the URL, webmasters and web owners can use a 404, tweaking the robots.txt file, or other methods.

Outdated Content

Google Search Console - Outdated Content

The outdated content section provides information on removal requests made through the public Remove Outdated Content tool, which can be used by anyone (not just site owners) to update search results showing information that is no longer present on a page, said Google.

On Google Search Console, webmasters and web owners can see a history of all requests to update or remove outdated Google Search results for their site that were made using the Remove Outdated Content tool in the past 6 months.

SafeSearch Filtering

Google Search Console - SafeSearch Filtering

This section shows you which of the webmasters' and web owners' content was reported as adult content.

Google users can report specific URLs as adult-only to Google using the SafeSearch suggestion tool. URLs that are submitted using this tool are reviewed, and if Google sees that the reported content should be filtered from SafeSearch results, these URLs are will be tagged as adult content.

Often, webmasters and web owners can have a hard time knowing which of their content was removed due to Google's SafeSearch. This SafeSearch Filtering should help them with that.

Published: 
29/01/2020