Delete file completely? (and not have it come up in Google search results)

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  newmw · Member · Mar 15, 2008 at 10:21 pm

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  I had a PDF file up on my blog in support of some research. Since this is now outdated, I really want the file deleted. I simply deleted the file through the Uploads management tab, and there it is gone. Also the attachment page isn’t available anymore. So far so good… But when I do a search on Google (after 2 weeks), the PDF file still comes up AND is still downloadable!

  I found some similar questions regarding the complete removal of files:
  https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=17445&replies=11#post-130780
  https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=16622&replies=8#post-123661

  But neither topic could provide a good answer or solution on how to completely remove that file (and not have it show in Google search results). Ideas, anyone?

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  raincoaster · Member · Mar 15, 2008 at 10:24 pm

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  Contact Google. Or wait.

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  isadora · Member · Mar 16, 2008 at 9:10 am

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  If you use the google webmaster tools you can delete the content from google. See: http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2007/04/22/how-to-remove-your-blog-content-from-google/

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  newmw · Member · Mar 16, 2008 at 11:10 am

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  @raincoaster: so the file will be deleted after some time from the wordpress.com servers (because that is the issue, it’s not just Google indexing, it’s wordpress.com still storing it).

  @isadora: i thought about that, but it wouldn’t work if the file is still on the wordpress.com servers, right? it would simply crawl the website and catch the URL again? why can’t the file be directly deleted from the wordpress servers?

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  isadora · Member · Mar 16, 2008 at 7:24 pm

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  newmw, if the file is stored somewhere, but not published, it won’t be crawled anymore. Usually you can delete files stored on wordpress.com under Manage > Uploads, but google will retain a copy in its cache, which you can delete as described by lorelle (the link I gave you earlier).

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  mindtooth · Member · Mar 16, 2008 at 8:05 pm

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  Thank you so much for the link :D

  Birger :)

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  newmw · Member · Mar 16, 2008 at 9:57 pm

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  @isadora: Ahh, now I understand. Kind of weird that Google stores the actual file too…. (it’s my file right?). So the answer is: Ask Google to remove the file from their cache. And I can rest assured that the file has been removed from the wordpress.com servers :) Thanks a lot!