Keep a page out of Google

Before you start

• Decide what you want: not shown in Google (noindex), not accessible to anyone (protect or delete), or gone fast (Removals tool, plus one of the others).
• Find every URL variant that serves the content (with and without parameters, different cases).

1. Use noindex, not robots.txt

noindex can be set with a <meta> tag or an HTTP response header, and both have the same effect. When Googlebot sees it, “Google will drop that page entirely from Google Search results, regardless of whether other sites link to it.”

Officially documented · Google Search Central

<meta name="robots" content="noindex">

X-Robots-Tag: noindex

2. Leave the page crawlable

“For the noindex rule to be effective, the page or resource must not be blocked by a robots.txt file.” If robots.txt blocks the page, the crawler never sees the noindex rule. Google does not support specifying noindex in robots.txt.

Officially documented · Google Search Central

A page blocked by robots.txt can still appear in search results without a description if other pages link to it.

Officially documented · Google Search Central

3. Need it gone quickly?

The Removals tool can remove a page hosted on your site from Google’s results “within a day”. Requests last for only about six months, though. To make removal permanent, remove or update the content, password-protect it, or add noindex.

Officially documented · Google Search Central

Verify

• Use Search Console’s URL Inspection tool to confirm Google sees the noindex and is not blocked by robots.txt.
• Re-check after Google recrawls the page; until then the old result may still show.

Rollback

Remove the noindex rule and request indexing in URL Inspection.

Common mistakes

• Adding noindex and disallowing the page in robots.txt — the disallow hides the noindex.
• Relying on the Removals tool alone — the page returns after about six months.
• Using noindex to limit AI Overviews while wanting to stay in Search. For that, use snippet controls instead (Snippet controls for AI Overviews and AI Mode).