Google Outdated Content Removal: How to Use the Remove Outdated Content Tool
The tool only works once the source page has changed. Scan your name below to see which sites are still publishing you, get those listings removed first, then clear the leftover results in Google.
No account needed. Adding a city and state is what lets us tell your record apart from everyone who shares your name.
The short answer
Refresh Outdated Content fixes results that no longer match the live page. It is a cleanup tool, not a takedown tool.
Google's outdated content removal tool takes a URL whose page has already been deleted or edited, re-checks it, and then either drops the result or refreshes the stale snippet and cached image. It works on sites you do not own, which is exactly what you need after a data broker honors your opt-out but the old profile keeps showing under your name. If the page is unchanged and still publishes your address, the request gets denied, and the right move is a personal information removal request instead.
Last updated July 2026. Checked against Google's Refresh Outdated Content documentation.
Eligibility
When the remove outdated content tool works, and when it gets denied
Every denial comes down to the same test: has the live page actually changed? Google checks the URL before it touches the result, so the answer decides your request before you submit it.
| Your situation | Tool applies | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| The page is gone (404 or 410) | Yes | Google drops the result once it confirms the page no longer exists |
| The page still exists but your details were deleted from it | Yes | Google re-crawls and updates the snippet, so the old text stops showing under your name |
| An image was removed from the source page | Yes | The image result is dropped or refreshed in Google Images |
| The page is unchanged and still publishes your address | No | Denied. Nothing is outdated yet. Use the personal information removal request instead |
| You want a live, lawful news article taken down | No | Outside the tool entirely. Google does not remove accurate published journalism on request |
| You own the site and already updated the page | Not needed | Google re-crawls on its own. The form exists for pages you do not control |
Rows four and five are where most people land, and both mean the same thing: the work has to happen at the source first. If a people-search site is still publishing your record, start with the opt-out for that site, then come back here to clear what Google is still showing.
The process
How to delete outdated content from Google, step by step
Get the source page changed first
This is the requirement everything else depends on. Either the page has to be deleted, or the personal details on it have to be edited out. On a people-search site that means submitting the opt-out and waiting for the profile to actually disappear. Check the URL in a private window before you go any further.
Copy the exact URL Google is still showing
Search the query that surfaces the stale result, then copy the URL from the result itself rather than from your browser bar after a redirect. If it is an image, use the direct image URL. The tool matches on the URL, and a redirect or a tracking parameter is enough to make a request miss.
Submit it to Refresh Outdated Content
Open the Refresh Outdated Content tool, paste the URL, and say whether the page is gone or has changed. If it changed, Google asks for a word or phrase that used to be on the page and is no longer there. Pick something distinctive such as your street address, not a common word.
Track the status and re-check the search
Requests show a status you can follow. Removals of dead pages usually process quickly; snippet refreshes wait for a re-crawl. Search the query again after a few days. If the result is still there and the page really has changed, submit again with a different removed phrase.
The phrase you give Google in step three does more work than people expect. It is how Google verifies the page really changed, so a distinctive string such as your old street address or phone number produces a clean confirmation, while a generic word may still appear somewhere on the page and get the request rejected as inaccurate.
Sequencing
Where this tool fits in an actual removal
Removing your information is three separate jobs, and the outdated content tool is the last one. First the record comes down at the site that publishes it, which is the opt-out. Then, if a live page still exposes your contact details, a personal information removal request asks Google to stop showing it. Only after the page is gone or edited does Refresh Outdated Content have anything to do.
Run in that order, results disappear and stay gone. Run backwards, you spend a week filing requests that get denied because the page never changed. The other half of the job is repetition: brokers refresh their records and relist people, so a search that is clean today can surface a new profile URL next month. The per-site removal guides cover the opt-out that has to come first.
FAQ
Questions people ask about outdated content removal
It is a free Google tool that updates or removes search results whose source page has already changed or been deleted. You submit the URL, Google re-checks the live page, and it either drops the result or refreshes the outdated snippet and cached image. It works on pages you do not own, which is what makes it useful after a data broker opt-out.
Make sure the source page is deleted or edited first, then submit the exact URL to the Refresh Outdated Content tool and tell Google whether the page is gone or changed. If it changed, give a distinctive phrase that used to appear on the page. Google re-crawls, then drops or updates the result.
No. If the page is unchanged and still publishes your information, the request will be denied because nothing is outdated. That situation calls for a personal information removal request, which asks Google to take down a live result under its privacy policy, or an opt-out with the site publishing the data.
Google does not publish a fixed turnaround. Requests for pages that are fully gone tend to process fastest, because Google only has to confirm the URL returns an error. A snippet refresh waits for the next crawl of that page, which can take days. You can watch the status of each request in the tool.
Refresh Outdated Content fixes results that no longer match the live page, and requires the page to have changed already. Personal information removal asks Google to take down a live result that exposes your address, phone, ID numbers or similar, under its privacy policy. Use the first after a successful opt-out, and the second when the page is still publishing you.
Yes, and that is the point of it. The tool is designed for pages you do not control, which covers almost every people-search profile and background-check listing. If you own the page, you do not need the form at all; Google re-crawls your own site and updates the result without a request.
Keep reading
Related pages
Remove personal information from Google
The request to file when the page is live and still publishing your details.
Remove your name from Google search
What surfaces under your full name, and how to clear each result.
Outdated content removal guide
The short reference version, with the form link and processing time.
Data broker opt out list
Get the source page removed first. Every site, with its real opt-out link.
Remove my information from the internet
The full sequence across every site republishing your records.
Best data removal service
An honest comparison if you would rather not run the loop yourself.