Remove Your Website from Google Without Search Console Verification

Want to delete your website from Google search results but don't have a verified Search Console account? A recent Reddit discussion highlighted a simple solution shared by Google's John Mueller.

A user explained their struggle to remove an old Canva website from Google, even after taking it down from Canva itself:

“As a disclaimer, I am not a tech savvy person, I just use Canva for design. I’ve been reading every piece of literature I can find on how to fully remove my old website from Google search results. I took the website down from Canva’s side, but I can’t get the search result on Google to disappear. Is there a way to do this? Thank you!”

While one Redditor suggested Google's "Refresh Outdated Content" tool, Mueller offered a more direct approach for users without Search Console verification.

Google's Outdated Content Removal Tool

This tool is specifically designed for situations where:

  • You don't own the webpage listed in Google search results.
  • The page no longer exists or has significantly changed.

You can access the tool directly through this URL.

John Mueller's Advice

Mueller confirmed that using this tool is slower than using Search Console but effective nonetheless. He emphasized the importance of removing the old pages from the internet entirely before submitting the removal request.

“It requires that your old pages are removed from the internet — so you’d need to take them down from wherever you were hosting your old website.

If by “old” website you mean that you also have a “new” website, you can also check to see if your hoster allows you to redirect your old pages to your new ones. This is a bit cleaner than just removing your pages, since it forwards any “signals” that have been collected with the old web pages. This page has a bit more about site migrations (when you redirect from an old site to a new one). If you’re hosting the old site with Canva, I don’t know if they support redirects.”

Redirecting old pages to a new website is generally preferred as it preserves any SEO value accumulated by the old site.

Find the Original Discussion

Read the full Reddit discussion here.