Finding Out «How to Remove My Name from Google Search»

Privacy matters, but if we aren’t careful, it can become a thing of the past. Google has many uses, but it comes with some downsides too.

Free email and office software, Android, and so on are all great, but Google also records everything about us and catalogs it. So anyone else can quickly find all that information.

It is OK for business. The trade-off is that more people can find the company, and for many celebrities, that may be the case too. But what about someone who is not famous? They are not celebrities or businesses, and the chances are that they don’t want people to find everything out about them from a simple search. They may even have specific things that they would instead not be found by anyone.

In that position, asking Google “how to remove my name from Google search” seems sensible then, but it is not that straightforward. Many people find that they don’t always get the answer from Google itself either.

Knowing “how to remove my name from Google Search”

Searching for “removing my name from Google search results,” there is a lot of confusing information and several commercial solutions. The first choice that those looking to remove themselves from Google search have to make is whether to pay a reputation management company to do it for them or take on the challenge of doing it themselves.

Many businesses provide excellent service, but many people can’t afford the service or want an answer to the question “how to remove my name from Google search.” What is more important, many people view that they didn’t pay for data to be put there, and do not want to pay for it to be removed.

For some people, especially businesses looking to manage their history, taking on a specialized service may be right, but for the majority, taking control of privacy is empowering, and something they want to learn how to do.

Where to begin?

Anyone who wants to take control of their Google search presence is not only removing what is out there. They also need to avoid generating any more searchable data. This means they should check privacy settings on a website and social media accounts. After all, there is no point going through all the trouble of learning “how to remove my name from Google Search” without it. They would still generate more information for other sites to catalog and distribute, taking them back to square one.

It is essential that social media sites do not pass on their email or a phone number to third parties, limit where and how content is shared as much as possible, and so on. This may seem like a tedious process, but it’s worth it in the long run.

After that, they need to look at forums and other websites, repeating this process for accounts they may have. The good news is that this is only required once. When opening new accounts later, they can set the privacy settings before they start using it.

Find the problem

The next step, when anyone considers they need to know “how to remove my name from Google search,” is about collecting data. Here, people should list all the searches for different things that threw up entries and make a note of the page and the website involved.

The next thing to do is to get that information removed from the website. It is essential to get this done before speaking to Google itself. If the entries are still there, Google’s automated systems will keep finding it and continue publishing it.

This is one of the most extended steps in removing the name from Google search. Contact each site and ask them to remove any reference to the relevant name on their site. This includes text, images, or any links. It is important here not to rely on the website’s word. Double-check everything to make sure that everything is supposed to be removed is. It is not time for impatience. When learning “how to remove my name from Google search,” it is essential that this step is finished before asking Google to remove search results.

Dealing with Google

Once the articles or entries in question are entirely removed from the websites linked in the search entries, it is now time to finish the process and ask Google to remove them from the search results.

Because the articles, images, and so on have been removed from the websites that hosted them, all that is left on Google is known as a cached result. That is, Google is not linking in real-time, it has stored merely that result on its own servers and automatically brings those results up.

To stop this, use the Remove Outdated Content tool provided by Google. This is simple enough to use. Enter the URL as it appears in the Google search result entry, click request removal, and the request is made. The tool includes a handy reference that shows all requests each applicant has made, the status of each request, and so on.

Problem Search Results 

The internet being what it is, there are other situations that may lead to a desire to remove search entries from Google. Removing search entries for legal reasons is more complicated, simply because this is a manual process that is based on the Google Team’s judgment. The Content Removal Tool is used to submit the problem query. To be successful, you will need to be armed with sufficient proof that the search violates laws.

Conclusion

It can be a time-consuming business, but for those who want to remove a name from Google search, it can be done.

For businesses and brands, reputation management plays a huge role, too, and that is why removing some searches may be beneficial. For anyone asking “how to remove my name from Google search,” getting content removed from websites and then clearing those search results from Google cache is the most accessible approach.

There are options to take the opportunity to apply for a removal for legal reasons. However, that approach relies on a judgment call from Google, and they expect much more to prove the case than can be required with an individual website.

Ultimately, it is entirely possible to remove Google search results about someone, although it can be challenging and takes up significant time. With that in mind, commercial solutions may hold the answer for many people, with reputation management companies taking care of the process leaving those affected to carry on with life.