Well, we all are aware of the fact that how much Google loves making new changes and yes you guessed it right, there’s a new change brought into place in Google Search Console. But don’t you worry because you know we at Spacemen have your back through thick & thin, and you also know how much we love seeing you all win. So here we are back with another blog discussing the new change made by Google.
According to the news, Google has updated its’ Google Search Console with yet another exciting feature which helps you in hiding specific URL’s from the search engine. The tool which goes by the name of ‘Removals’ can be found in the lying below sitemaps in the ‘Index’ section. So now this takes us to our first question, which is ‘What is Removals?’
What Is ‘Removals’?
Well, ‘Removals‘ is a tool which can be found lying down below in the Index. This new tool will help you with the following three things,
1) Helps you in temporarily hiding URLs from showing up in Google search.
2) Shows you which of your URLs were filtered by Google SafeSearch’s adult filter.
3) Show you which content is not in Google as a result of it being an ‘Outdated Content.’
Well, don’t you worry if the points as mentioned above sound complicated to you as we’ll be explaining you part by part about how they work and what to keep in mind while working with them.
1) Temporarily Remove URLs:
This feature, as its name suggests, will help you in removing specific URLs from showing up in Google search. Well, prior to this new Google update, we also had this feature in the older version of Google Search Console. As things stood, it was removed from the new version, but now we see it again, making an entry into Google’s Search Console as Google rolls out its latest update.
This form of removal will not remove the URL from Google’s Index; instead, it will help in hiding URLs from showing up in Google search for a period of six months. However, you’ll still be expected to block the URL using 404 and robots.txt permanently.
How to exclude a URL from appearing on Google Search results?
Step 1. Go to Google webmaster
Step 2. Click on Removals on the left side
Step 3: Click on New request
Temporary Removals: In this google update, it helps you in removing the URL from google search temporarily for a period of six months. It will also remove the cached copy of your page.
Clear cached URL – Removes the cached version of the URL. Helps in further updating URL with old content.
Remove this URL only – Removes the particular URL
Remove all URLs with this prefix – Removes all the URL for a particularly mentioned prefix.
Note: Be extremely careful while using this feature as it can impact your entire website. If used incorrectly, your entire website might even vanish from google search results.
SafeSearch Filtering:
This feature will help you in seeing which of your content was reported as ‘Adult Content.’ Viewers can report specific URLs as ‘Adult Only’ to Google using this SafeSearch suggestion tool. URL reported is then reviewed by Google, and if it feels the same way about your content, then it is tagged as ‘Adult Only’ content.
Earlier it was tough for SEO experts to find which of their content were removed as a result of SafeSearch filter and herein by introducing this feature Google bridges that gap.
3) Outdated Content:
Well this section provides insight to removal request made through the public Outdated Content Removal tool. This tool is not only restricted to site owners but instead it can be used by anyone to update search results showing content that is no longer available on the website.
