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* [Visual Elements gallery](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/visual-elements-gallery)
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* SEO fundamentals
* [SEO Starter Guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide)
* [How Google Search works](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/how-search-works)
* [Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content)
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* [Optimizing for generative AI](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide)
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* [Do you need an SEO?](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/do-i-need-seo)
* Crawling and indexing
* [Overview](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing)
* [File types Google can index](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/indexable-file-types)
* [URL structure](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/url-structure)
* [Links](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable)
* Sitemaps
* [Learn about sitemaps](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview)
* [Build and submit a sitemap](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/build-sitemap)
* [Manage sitemaps with sitemap index file](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/large-sitemaps)
* Sitemap extensions
* [Image sitemaps](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/image-sitemaps)
* [News sitemaps](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/news-sitemap)
* [Video sitemaps and alternatives](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/video-sitemaps)
* [Combining sitemap extensions](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/combine-sitemap-extensions)
* Crawler management
* [Ask Google to recrawl your URLs](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/ask-google-to-recrawl)
* [Troubleshoot crawl errors](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/troubleshoot-crawling-errors)
* Google crawlers
* [List of Google crawlers](https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/overview-google-crawlers)
* [Googlebot](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/googlebot)
* [Reduce the Google crawl rate](https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/reduce-crawl-rate)
* [Verifying Googlebot and other Google crawlers](https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/crawlers-fetchers/verifying-googlebot)
* robots.txt
* [Introduction to robots.txt](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro)
* [How Google interprets the robots.txt specification](https://developers.google.com/crawling/docs/robots-txt/robots-txt-spec)
* Canonicalization
* [What is URL canonicalization](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/canonicalization)
* [How to specify a canonical URL with rel="canonical" and other methods](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls)
* [Fix canonicalization issues](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/canonicalization-troubleshooting)
* [Mobile site and mobile-first indexing](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/mobile/mobile-sites-mobile-first-indexing)
* AMP
* [AMP on Google Search guidelines](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/amp)
* [Understand how AMP works in search results](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/amp/about-amp)
* [Enhance AMP content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/amp/enhance-amp)
* [Validate AMP content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/amp/validate-amp)
* [Remove AMP content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/amp/remove-amp)
* JavaScript
* [Understand the JavaScript SEO basics](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/javascript/javascript-seo-basics)
* [Fix search-related JavaScript problems](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/javascript/fix-search-javascript)
* [Fix lazy-loaded content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/javascript/lazy-loading)
* [Dynamic rendering as a workaround](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/javascript/dynamic-rendering)
* Page and content metadata
* [Page metadata](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/valid-page-metadata)
* Meta tags
* [Meta tags and HTML attributes that Google supports](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/special-tags)
* [Robots meta tag, data-nosnippet, and X-Robots-Tag](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots-meta-tag)
* [noindex](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/block-indexing)
* [rel attributes](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/qualify-outbound-links)
* Removals
* [Control what you share with Google](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/control-what-you-share)
* [Page removals](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/remove-information)
* [Image removals](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/prevent-images-on-your-page)
* [Redacted information](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/keep-redacted-information-out)
* Site moves and changes
* [Redirects and Google Search](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/301-redirects)
* Site moves
* [Changing your hosting](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/site-move-no-url-changes)
* [Move a site with URL changes](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/site-move-with-url-changes)
* [A/B testing](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/website-testing)
* [Temporarily pause or disable a website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/pause-online-business)
* Ranking and search appearance
* [Overview](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance)
* [AI features](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features)
* [Byline dates](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/publication-dates)
* [Favicons](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/favicon-in-search)
* [Featured snippets](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/featured-snippets)
* [Flexible Sampling](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/flexible-sampling)
* [Google Discover](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/google-discover)
* [Images](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/google-images)
* Local features
* [Business details](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/establish-business-details)
* [Top Places List](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/top-places-list)
* [Opting out of local search results](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/3035947)
* Page experience
* [Understanding page experience](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/page-experience)
* [Core Web Vitals](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/core-web-vitals)
* [Interstitials and dialogs](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/avoid-intrusive-interstitials)
* [Get started with signed exchanges on Google Search](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/signed-exchange)
* [Preferred sources](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/preferred-sources)
* Ranking systems
* [A guide to Google Search ranking systems](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ranking-systems-guide)
* [Reviews system](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/reviews-system)
* Ranking updates
* [List of ranking updates](https://status.search.google.com/products/rGHU1u87FJnkP6W2GwMi/history)
* [Core updates](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/core-updates)
* [Spam updates](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/spam-updates)
* [Site names](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/site-names)
* [Sitelinks](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/sitelinks)
* [Snippets](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/snippet)
* Structured data
* [Understand how structured data works](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/intro-structured-data)
* [Structured data general guidelines](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/sd-policies)
* [Enriched search results](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/enriched-search-results)
* [Generate structured data with JavaScript](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/generate-structured-data-with-javascript)
* Feature guides
* [All structured data features](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/search-gallery)
* [Article](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/article)
* [Book actions](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/book)
* [Breadcrumb](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/breadcrumb)
* [Carousel](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/carousel)
* [Course list](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/course)
* [Dataset](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/dataset)
* [Discussion forum](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/discussion-forum)
* [Education Q&A](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/education-qa)
* [Employer aggregate rating](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/employer-rating)
* [Fact check](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/factcheck)
* [Event](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/event)
* [FAQ](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/faqpage)
* [Image metadata](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/image-license-metadata)
* [Job posting](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/job-posting)
* [Local business](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/local-business)
* [Math solver](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/math-solvers)
* [Movie carousel](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/movie)
* [Organization](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/organization)
* Shopping
* [Overview](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/product)
* [Product snippet](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/product-snippet)
* [Merchant listing](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/merchant-listing)
* [Variants](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/product-variants)
* [Loyalty program](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/loyalty-program)
* [Merchant return policy](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/return-policy)
* [Merchant shipping policy](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/shipping-policy)
* [Profile page](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/profile-page)
* [Q&A](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/qapage)
* [Recipe](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/recipe)
* [Review snippet](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/review-snippet)
* [Software app](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/software-app)
* [Speakable](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/speakable)
* [Subscription and paywalled content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/paywalled-content)
* [Vacation rental](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/vacation-rental)
* [Video](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/video)
* [Title links](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/title-link)
* Translated features
* [Translated results](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/translated-results)
* [Ad networks and translation-related Google Search features](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ad-network-and-translation)
* [Videos](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/video)
* [Visual Elements gallery](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/visual-elements-gallery)
* Web Stories
* [Enable Web Stories on Google](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/enable-web-stories)
* [Best practices for creating Web Stories](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/web-stories-creation-best-practices)
* [Web Story content policy](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/web-stories-content-policy)
* Early Adopters Program
* [Package tracking](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/package-tracking)
* [Structured data carousels (beta)](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/carousels-beta)
* Monitoring and debugging
* [Debug drops in Search traffic](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/debugging-search-traffic-drops)
* Monitor with Search Console
* [Get started with Search Console](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-console-start)
* [Improve SEO with a bubble chart](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/bubble-chart-analysis)
* [Using Search Console and Google Analytics data for SEO](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/google-analytics-search-console)
* Debug with search operators
* [Overview](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-operators)
* [site: search operator](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-operators/all-search-site)
* [Google Images search operators](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-operators/image-search)
* Preventing and monitoring abuse
* [Overview](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/security)
* [Prevent user-generated spam](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/prevent-abuse)
* [Malware and unwanted software](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/security/malware)
* [Prevent a malware infection](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/security/prevent-malware)
* [Social engineering (phishing and deceptive sites)](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/security/social-engineering)
* [Google Safe Browsing Repeat Offenders Policy](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/security/safe-browsing-repeat-offenders)
* [Get started with Google Trends](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/trends-start)
* Site-specific guides
* Ecommerce
* [Overview](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce)
* [Where content can appear](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/where-ecommerce-data-can-appear-on-google)
* [Share product data](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/share-your-product-data-with-google)
* [Include structured data](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/include-structured-data-relevant-to-ecommerce)
* [Launch a new website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/how-to-launch-an-ecommerce-website)
* [Write high quality reviews](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/write-high-quality-reviews)
* [Design a URL structure](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/designing-a-url-structure-for-ecommerce-sites)
* [Ecommerce site structure](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/help-google-understand-your-ecommerce-site-structure)
* [Pagination, incremental page loading, and Search](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/pagination-and-incremental-page-loading)
* International and multilingual
* [Overview](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international)
* [Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international/managing-multi-regional-sites)
* [Tell Google about localized versions of your page](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international/localized-versions)
* [How Google crawls locale-adaptive pages](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international/locale-adaptive-pages)
* Explicit content
* [Guidelines for sites with explicit content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/explicit/guidelines)
* [What to do if your site is incorrectly flagged as explicit](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/explicit/troubleshooting)
* SEO fundamentals
* [Introduction](https://developers.google.com/search/docs)
* [Search Essentials](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials)
* [SEO Starter Guide](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide)
* [Optimizing for generative AI search](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide)
* [How Google Search Works](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/how-search-works)
* [Do you need an SEO?](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/do-i-need-seo)
* Crawling and indexing
* [Sitemaps](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview)
* [robots.txt](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro)
* [Meta tags](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/special-tags)
* [Crawler management](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/ask-google-to-recrawl)
* [Removals](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/control-what-you-share)
* [Canonicalization](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls)
* [Redirects](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/301-redirects)
* [JavaScript SEO](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/javascript/javascript-seo-basics)
* Ranking and search appearance
* [Visual Elements gallery](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/visual-elements-gallery)
* [Title links](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/title-link)
* [Snippets](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/snippet)
* [Images](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/google-images)
* [Videos](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/video)
* [Structured data](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/search-gallery)
* [Favicons](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/favicon-in-search)
* Site-specific guides
* [Ecommerce](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce)
* [International and multilingual sites](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international)
* Data analysis
* [Get started with Search Console](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-console-start)
* [Debug traffic drops](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/debugging-search-traffic-drops)
* [Using Search Console and Google Analytics data for SEO](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/google-analytics-search-console)
* [Get started with Google Trends](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/monitor-debug/trends-start)
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Control what you share with Google
==================================
Google supports a variety of ways that allows site owners control what shows up in Google's search results. While most people focus on getting their pages indexed, sometimes it's important to do the opposite: prevent content from appearing in Search. There are a few reasons you might want to hide content from Google:
* **To restrict data**: You might have data hosted on your site that you want to show only to users who are already on your site. You can block Google from crawling such data so it doesn't show up in search results.
Also keep in mind that certain files published on your site may have metadata that can show up in Search. [Learn more about keeping redacted information out of Search](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/keep-redacted-information-out)
.
* **To hide content of less value to your audience**: Your website might have low quality content that shouldn't show up in Search. For example, if your website allows users to create content, some of that content might be [low quality or even spam](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies#user-generated-spam)
. Allowing indexing of such content may have a negative effect on your site's ranking in Google's search results.
* **To have Google focus on your important content**: If you have a very large site (over hundreds of thousands of URLs) and pages with less important content, or if you have a lot of duplicate content, you might want to prevent Google from crawling the duplicate or less important pages in order to focus on your more important content.
How to block content
--------------------
Here are the main ways to block content from appearing in Google:
| Methods | |
| --- | --- |
| ### Remove the content from your site | **Applicable: all content types**
Removing content from your site is the best way to ensure that it won't appear in Google Search and anywhere else on the Internet. |
| ### Password-protect your files | **Applicable: all content types**
If you have confidential or private content on your site, you need to password protect it to ensure only authorized users can access it. This will also prevent that content from appearing in Google Search, or if it already appears, it will eventually remove that content from our search results. |
| [`noindex` rule](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/block-indexing) | **Applicable: all content types**
The `noindex` robots `meta` tag is a rule that tells Google not to index your content or let it appear in Google search results. Your content can still be linked to and visited through other web pages, or directly visited by users with a link, but the content will not appear in Google search results. |
| ### Disallow crawling with [robots.txt](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/prevent-images-on-your-page#for-non-emergency-image-removal) | **Applicable: images and video**
Google only indexes images and videos that Googlebot is allowed to crawl. To prevent Googlebot from accessing your media files, use [robots.txt rules to block the files](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/prevent-images-on-your-page#for-non-emergency-image-removal)
. |
| [Opt out of specific Google properties](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/3035947) | **Applicable: web pages**
You can tell Google not to include content from your site in specific Google properties, such as [Google Shopping](https://www.google.com/shopping)
, [Google Hotels](https://www.google.com/travel/hotels)
, and vacation rentals. |
Remove existing content from Google
-----------------------------------
If the content hosted on your site is already appearing in Google, you can request the removal of those search results. Learn how to [remove a page hosted on your site from Google](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/remove-information)
.
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. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2025-12-10 UTC.
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