© GDPR EU 2025. All rights reserved.
A guide to removing content from Google
Removing content from Google - Why is it important for a business or individual might want to remove inaccurate information or a negative reviews.
Removing content from Google: When legendary US showman PT Barnum said: “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” he didn’t bank on the Internet. Or Google search results.
In a world where most customers habitually use Google search or alternative search engines to check out a business before parting with their cash, there absolutely can be such a thing as bad publicity.
Before we look at how a request for online content to be removed could be made, let’s identify the reasons why businesses and individuals want to have more control over Google search results.
Whether it’s a business or an individual, reputations in 2025 are largely shaped online—and just as easily, they can be damaged there too.
Google search results are at the heart of how most businesses communicate with their customers. This is why so much effort goes into maintaining a strong online presence—whether through websites, social media, blogs, or other digital channels.
However, when it comes to certain types of online content, such as customer reviews, media coverage, inaccurate blog posts, or even a negative viral tweet, control can slip away quickly.
Since all these factors influence online search results, it’s clear why a business or individual might want to remove harmful content from Google.
A business working to build its reputation can be hindered by outdated content or negative pages appearing in Google search results.
Search engine rankings shape how customers perceive a business, influencing opinions through everything from media coverage to web page content. If negative or outdated results dominate the first page, customers are far more likely to form an unfavourable impression.
The longer such content remains visible, the greater the risk of damage to the brand’s reputation. It also creates a barrier for customers seeking accurate and relevant information about the business.
Right now, a third of business owners say that negative content showing up on high-ranking sites is impacting search engine results. And this is having a negative impact on their reputation and the bottom line.
There’s also the emotional toll negative or outdated content can take on the business owner or individual concerned. Therefore, attempts are made to remove personal information or other details that could negatively sway customers, clients, or the general public.
Now we’ve established why the first page of a Google search is so important for the brand or brand concerned, let’s go through some ways that businesses can request removal from a website owner or from Google.
Here are some ways to influence what shows up around your brand or organisation via search engines.
The reasons behind negative content or personal information appearing in Google search results can vary. Taking the time to understand why it was written in the first place can help you decide the best way to approach the content owner to have it removed.
It’s always a good idea to involve professionals when requesting URL removals and to deal directly with individuals rather than organisations. A request made the wrong way could be poorly received by the website owner and make the situation worse—sometimes even resulting in more negative content being added.
This approach carries risks, and there’s no guarantee it will work.
For instance, requesting the removal of a URL could backfire if the owner uses your request to create additional negative content. Updating the old version can also attract more comments, refreshing the content and making it more likely to rank higher in search results.
Google’s algorithm prioritises fresh content, so any updates—especially with new information about your brand—are considered highly relevant and may boost the page’s visibility. This could make the situation worse, as the content becomes even easier to find.
Here we’re assuming that the person who created the content has refused to take it down from the web site in question. Or you might, having done your research, decide it will be more effective to go to the publisher level with your request to remove content or delete a URL from a website.
If it’s on a personal blog this isn’t applicable as the content creator is likely to be the same person as the publisher or webmaster. But if we are looking at a local news website, for example, or medium sized sites that publish opinions and news, it can work.
First, find out who the site owner is. Access to this information can be found using a tool such as DomainTools, or you can usually just find it by reviewing the site itself.
The Contact Us page is a good start, or if you have no access to the information you need through that route, you could try other sites like Crunchbase.
When you have the details, follow the steps above and ask the owner or publisher whether they will remove the link or pages in question.
If the process of removal is unlikely to go ahead, it is a good plan to ask the webmaster or site owner to amend or change the content so that it’s no longer damaging.
This could mean requesting that the key search phrases that are picked up by search engines are removed. The rest of the content can just stay up on the website, as it won’t be picked up by Google’s index.
For example, if the company name is found in the HTML description of the page that’s concerning you, the webmaster could alter the words. This would mean your company no longer shows up in the page description.
Or you could ask the webmaster to strip out all mentions of the company itself, without taking down to the whole piece. If they agree to do this, the page visibility would be side-lined by Google search results and would drop down the rankings.
This is a good option if the page or site has had the article up for a long time. If it’s not generating any traffic for the publisher or website itself, then they’re less likely to outright refuse.
Again, some form of compensation could be used at this point. There is a few ways to phrase this, kind of request.
A NOINDEX tag can be added to the HTML page header. If the webmaster agrees to do so, then the name of your brand will still be on the page but search engines will stop crawling for it.
A few weeks later, it’s likely that the page will automatically be removed from search results.
Otherwise known as a Google removal request, we touched on this strategy above. It involves the total removal of search results from Google due to violations of the terms of service.
Google lays out the kinds of things it will consider removing. These include a page that contains personal information such as credit card details, bank account information or anything else that could feasibly lead to identity theft or financial fraud.
If you’ve found negative content about your brand on a website, you can request its removal. If the site charges a fee to take down the content, Google may remove it from search results, as this is considered exploitative.
In such cases, the content remains on the website but no longer appears in Google’s search results. To make this request, you’ll need to fill out a form and select the option for “exploitative removal practices.”
However, this does not apply to reviews of your brand. Google states:
“Our mission to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful means that Google very rarely removes links from search results. However, under some circumstances, we may agree to the removal of links to pages that have content about you and are hosted on sites with exploitative removal practices.”
This is one of the most distressing reasons that someone may want to remove content from web pages. Google has a clear stance on this kind of removal. The search engine says that this kind of content posted without consent of the person that it is linked to will be removed from the Google index provided certain criteria are fulfilled.
These criteria are:
There are some other legal reasons that search engines will take information down. For example, if the content is deemed a copyright infringement. This comes under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and concerns the following types of content:
When these are deemed a copyright infringement legally, then Google and other search engines such as Bing, will remove them from the site in question.
The DMCA protects users from copyright infringement and Google tends to respect it. Indeed, they have a formal removal process in order to process this kind of request for removal.
The Right to be Forgotten is part of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Since 2013, the EU Court of Justice has considered the right to be forgotten a fundamental human right.
However, it only applies in some cases even under the data protection regulation . It was introduced for users to exercise their right to remove any private or personal information from Internet search results and, in certain circumstances, other pages and directories.
The Court says that for information to be included in the Right to be Forgotten it must be inadequate, irrelevant, and inaccurate. The information would be something along the lines of a government id number, bank account info or personally identifiable information.
While these criteria are vague, this is likely to be purposeful. The Court of Justice states that every single case should be looked at individually. It’s a balancing act and in other parts of the world, simply doesn’t exist.
For example, in the US there is no law to protect individual users in this way. The Right to be Forgotten means that Google has to comply with the removal of the specific data under specific circumstances from Google’s index.
If you’ve exhausted all options—asking the author or publisher to remove or amend the content, requesting an invisibility meta tag, and even appealing to Google—there are still other tactics to consider.
One effective strategy is content suppression. This involves taking control of your own content to manage and improve your online reputation. For example, you could launch a new website or create high-quality, engaging content to populate existing platforms.
Rather than simply pushing negative content down the rankings, this approach focuses on promoting positive, relevant content as part of a broader marketing and PR campaign.
If you’re unsure where to start or need expert guidance, contact a reputation management professional for a free consultation. They can provide tailored advice and strategies to help regain control of your online presence.
Using content to build and manage an online reputation absolutely improves the web for everyone – if it’s done well. Google and other search engines want reliably good content in order to increase the value of their service.
And the best search results are those that are relevant. By creating superior content and promoting it effectively, negative search results drop down the page. So, if it’s not possible to remove the negative or damaging content from the source (ie, by asking the webmaster or content author as outlined above), then this is a good option.
By creating strong pages of relevant content and ensuring a high authority score on those pages, the positive content will show up on the search results.
The simple answer is ‘maybe’ and ‘sometimes’ depending on the host. Google can and does sometimes remove reviews if they are considered to violate their terms of service.
The kinds of reviews that may be removed include content that is considering threatening or harassment, if it’s inappropriate, if it’s fake, if it’s not on topic, if its illegal, if it’s explicit or if it is a conflict of interest.
As you can see, removing content from Google that you don’t want the world to see is not straightforward.
There are legalities to consider, and various approaches to take. We’d always advise working with a reputation management professional firm to ensure that every step is taken without any detrimental repercussions to your brand.
Whether you need professional reputation management depends on the scale of the issue. There are steps you can take yourself, particularly with regards to data protection and copyright infringement. However, if you find that certain historic content is impacting your brand negatively, devising a reputation management strategy along with a company like Igniyte is your best bet.
They have all of the necessary technical know-how to come up with a plan that works for the specific needs of your brand.
The important thing is that there are steps you can take to either remove or supress content that is negatively impacting you and your brand. It’s just about finding the right approach.
