Remove Your Website from Google Without Search Console Verification

Want to delete your website from Google search results but don't have a verified Google Search Console account? Google's John Mueller offers a solution.

A recent Reddit discussion highlighted a user's challenge in removing an old Canva website from Google. They had taken down the site on Canva but it persisted in search results.

“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!”

Mueller pointed to Google's Outdated Content Removal tool as a solution. This tool is designed for removing content that no longer exists or has significantly changed, even if you don't own the site.

The tool is accessible via this URL. While slower than using Search Console, it's effective for non-verified site owners.

Key Considerations for Website Removal

  • Ensure your pages are offline: Before submitting a removal request, make sure your website is completely removed from its hosting platform.
  • Consider redirects for site migrations: If migrating to a new website, redirecting old pages to new ones is preferable. This preserves any existing SEO value. Check if your hosting provider (including Canva) supports redirects.

“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. Learn more about site migrations. If you’re hosting the old site with Canva, I don’t know if they support redirects.”

For more details, see the original Reddit discussion.