Understand delisting: causes, consequences and clean countermeasures
What delisting means, why content disappears from search results and which checks are important first.
The strongest effect usually arises when the topic is not only theoretically understood, but directly checked on real URLs, page types and search intentions.
What delisting means, why content disappears from search results and which checks are important first. This wiki page arranges the topic practically and shows, When priority arises, which mistakes are often and how you derive concrete measures from them.
Example: A URL is suddenly missing in the search results
A search for the exact title no longer shows the previously found page. Check the URL in Search Console and compare status code, canonical, noindex, and recent changes. A single unsuccessful search query is not enough to determine a complete removal of the domain.
Separate technical exclusions, modified canonical assignment, and manual measures. They demand different reactions. Temporary masking via a removal tool does not replace a permanent correction of the cause.
Delisting as a penalty
The removal of a website from the index by the search engine operator is the most severe penalty for very serious and/or persistent violations of the Webmaster Guidelines. It is usually done manually. Google, for example, employs around 10,000 people worldwide who deal with such processes and also review requests from webmasters for re-entering the index. Penalties can also be done algorithmically, i.e. automatically without human intervention.
This happens in the case of less serious infringements. The Penalty Then there is a reduction in the number of SERPs (search result listings), usually below position 60. If, however, the page is removed from the index — the most severe penalty, known as delisting — it can no longer be found. In cases of very serious violations, the penalty may be permanent; otherwise, exclusion periods run until a specified date.
Webmasters may have such penalties in the Google Search Console (or similar tools from other search engines). You can also request Google to lift the penalty early. This is then – see above – manually checked by a Google employee. The process is called Reconsideration Request. Against algorithmic Penalties Those affected cannot defend themselves. They are downgraded in the ranking and can only laboriously work their way back forward.
Why is delisting taking place?
This most serious penalty is imposed on search engine operators only for truly serious violations of their policies. These include, inter alia:
- Dissemination of prohibited hate speech, child pornography, incitement to violence, arms trade, etc.
- Mass spam
- Mass purchase of links
- Cloaking
- other methods of Black hat SEO on a large scale such as keyword stuffing or hidden links and text
Before the deindexation, the webmaster is warned. The first warnings and possibly already small algorithmic Penalties are in the Google Search Console visible. So webmasters are not helplessly exposed to a penalty of the overpowering search engine, they can detect their own misconduct and end it in time.
Deindexation at your own request
If a webmaster does not want his website to be found in the search results, he can request the deindexation on his own initiative on Google. This exclusion can also be temporary or permanent. The effect is just as strong as a delisting penalty: the page is then no longer visible in the search results. Temporary deindexation is relatively easy to accomplish; more extensive steps are required for permanent deindexation.
This possibility is always important for webmasters, for example, if they give up a business, if some of their content has become obsolete and the change of the website would be more complicated than a recreation, or if they are exposed to harassment.