Is there a way to remove a deleted pdf from being accessible via Google search on a Webflow site?

Published on

September 22, 2023

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Yes, there is a way to remove a deleted PDF from being accessible via Google search on a Webflow site. When you delete a PDF from your Webflow project, it may still be visible in search engine results until it is properly removed.

Here are the steps to remove a deleted PDF from Google search:

Remove the PDF from your Webflow project: Go to your Webflow project and make sure that the PDF file you want to remove is deleted and no longer present on your website.
Block search engines from indexing the PDF file: Log in to your Webflow dashboard and go to the project settings. In the SEO tab, scroll down to the "Robots.txt" section and click on the "Add File" button. Create a new file called "robots.txt" and add the following code:

User-agent: *Disallow: /*.pdf$

This code tells search engines not to crawl any PDF files on your website.

Update your sitemap: If you have a sitemap.xml file for your website, make sure to update it by removing the URLs of the PDF files you want to remove. This will help search engines understand that these PDFs should no longer be included in search results.
Request removal from Google: Go to Google Search Console and make sure your website is added and verified. In the left sidebar, navigate to the "Index" section and click on "Coverage". Here, you will see a list of URLs that Google has indexed from your website. Find the URLs of the deleted PDF files and use the "Request Removal" tool to submit a removal request to Google.
Monitor and optimize: After the removal request is submitted, it may take some time for the PDFs to be completely removed from search results. Monitor the progress of the removal using the Search Console and keep an eye on your website's SEO performance.

By following these steps, you should be able to remove a deleted PDF from being accessible via Google search on a Webflow site.

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