Google Explains URL Removals Tool

Google’s John Mueller has provided clarification on how the URL Removals Tool works, particularly in cases where a website has been compromised by hackers.

In response to a query about hacked URLs still appearing in Google’s index, Mueller outlined the steps website owners can take to ensure these pages are removed from search results. He also highlighted the specific considerations that come into play when managing hacked sites, stressing that the removal process requires a careful approach to avoid further issues.

Removing Hacked Pages From Google’s SERPs

The person who raised the question had fallen victim to what’s known as a Japanese hacking attack—a type of cyberattack where hackers generate hundreds or even thousands of spam pages written in Japanese. Although the website owner had already cleaned up the problem by deleting the infected pages, the URLs were still showing as 404 errors and continued to appear in Google’s search results.

Their concern was that these outdated pages were still being linked to their site, damaging its reputation. They wanted to know how to completely remove the URLs from Google’s search index so their site would no longer be connected to those hacked pages.

They explained:

“My site was recently targeted by a Japanese attack. I’ve since moved it to a new hosting provider and deleted all existing data. However, many of the Japanese URLs remain indexed. How can I deindex these thousands of URLs from my website?”

This situation highlights a frequent issue faced by website owners after a Japanese hack attack. Even after removing the malicious content, the hacked pages can linger in Google’s index for weeks or even months. This demonstrates that recovery isn’t truly complete until Google’s search index is refreshed and those unwanted pages are fully cleared from results—a process that can often test a webmaster’s patience.

How To Remove Japanese Hack Attack Pages From Google

Google’s John Mueller advised website owners to use the URL Removals Tool available in Google Search Console to deal with such issues. However, he clarified that despite what the tool’s name suggests, it doesn’t actually delete a page from Google’s search index.

Instead, the tool simply speeds up the process of removing a URL from appearing in search results — but only if the page has already been deleted from the website or blocked from Google’s crawler.

Ordinarily, Google will automatically drop a page from search listings once it has re-crawled the site and detected that the page no longer exists or returns a 404 error. The Removals Tool just helps accelerate that process rather than replace it entirely.

Three Prerequisites For URL Removals Tool

A page can be removed from Google’s search results if it meets certain conditions — for instance, when it returns a 404 or 410 error, is blocked from indexing through a robots meta tag (<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”>), or is prevented from being crawled using a robots.txt file.

In response to a query, Google’s John Mueller explained that website owners can use the URL Removals Tool in Search Console for individual URLs, or for multiple URLs that share the same prefix. He recommended using the tool for URLs that are particularly visible in search results, as shown in the Performance Report.

Mueller added, “This doesn’t remove them from the index, but it hides them within a day. If the pages are invalid or returning a 404 error, they’ll eventually drop out naturally. However, the removal tool ensures they stop showing up almost immediately. Redirecting or returning a 404 is fine — technically, 404 is the correct response.”

His clarification highlights an important point: the URL Removals Tool doesn’t permanently delete URLs from Google’s index. Instead, it temporarily hides them from search results, giving the impression of immediate removal. The URLs are permanently cleared from the index only once Google confirms that the pages are genuinely gone or blocked from crawling or indexing.