How to Remove Outdated Content Using Google Tools

When you remove or update content from your website, it’s not guaranteed that Google will pick this information up right away.

That means the outdated content may still appear in search results for weeks—even months.

But you can use Google’s tools to help make sure your potential website visitors are getting the right information in the search engine results page (SERP).

Let’s get started with the basics first.

What Is Outdated Content?

Outdated content is any content on your website that’s no longer relevant, accurate, or up to date.

Here are some examples of outdated content:

• Closed job ads
• Information about a law that changed after the content was published
• Discontinued products and features
• Former employee pages
• Medical information that was changed due to new research like this guide that heavily features the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food pyramid (it was later replaced with MyPlate)

Let’s learn how outdated content impacts your online reputation.

How Does Outdated Content Impact Rankings and User Experience?

When a user searches for something online, Google intends to give them the most useful and relevant answer to their query.

And you’ll end up providing a bad user experience if your page doesn’t answer what the reader is looking for, misleads them, or gives them false or outdated information.

Google doesn’t want that to happen. So, they’ll attempt to show a website withhigh-quality, accurate information instead of your content. Which could negatively...