Blocking or removing a page from appearing on the search results in Google may or may not be the option for all of us. Sometimes, we just need to remove certain section of the existing content, and not the entire page. But we can’t predict when that particular section will go off from the search results. Until, search engine bots re-index that page, it is highly unlikely that your problem will come to a sudden halt. Now, there are several options that you can try to make these changes visible in the search result:
To remove the word ‘sexual addiction’ shown in the snippet, you definitely need to change your content on the actual page first. Now you need to make these changes in search results.
1. Wait for search engines bot and Watch
Provided that you have enough patience, you can wait day after day until Google crawler visits that particular page and re-indexes it. However, if the website is regularly visited by Google bot, it might not take such painfully long time. Make sure that the page is not blocked by robots.txt file.
2. Google’s Public URL Removal Tool
In case, if you are not the owner of the website that has been modified, you can use Google’s public URL removal tool. You need to submit the exact URL of the page that has been modified lately. Then select the option “Content has been removed from the page”, and do not forget to specify some words (e.g. ‘sexual addiction’) that have been removed from that particular page altogether. But be sure to choose a word or some words that does not appear anywhere in the page, otherwise your request will be liable for cancellation.
However, if the page is returning a 404 or 410 HTTP result code or if the entire page goes missing, it is better off to request to remove the page altogether.
3. Use Google Webmaster Tools URL
If you are a verified owner of a website in Google Webmaster Tools account, you can use URL removal tool to request removal of a page that has been modified. Go to “Site Configuration > Crawler access“, and then submit your request.
Proactive Measures
To prevent search engines from showing snippet of a particular page, you can use “nosnippet” in the robots meta tag section. You can disable caching of a page by using “noarchive” robots meta tag. However, search engines have to re-index and re-crawl a particular page otherwise these things will never come into effect.
<meta name=”robots” content=”nosnippet,noarchive” />