Deleting domain on a free account
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Hi WordPress
I had a free account with you and set up a basic website for a year. I don’t need the website any more and deleted the pages last week. But I can’t find how to cancel the domain name on a free account. I looked up the Cancel Domain instructions but the steps on that info page are for purchased domains only. Can you please tell me how to delete the free one as it doesn’t appear in the ‘Manage Purchases’ menu. I don’t want my unused domain name showing up in internet search results from now on.
Many thanks
Jessica Debrodt
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Hi Jessica
Probably the information you are looking for is how to Delete a Site, instead of Cancel a Domain
Caution:
Deleting a site permanently removes it and you’ll never be able to re-use its WordPress.com address (such as yourgroovysite.wordpress.com).
You can find all the info you need at https://en.support.wordpress.com/delete-site/
Alternatively, , you can make your site private, so it will not be indexed for internet search engines.
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Hi Pedger
Thanks for replying to my problem.
I have already deleted the site but the website address keeps appearing in the internet searches. That was why I thought cancelling the domain was the way to fix it.
I tried your advice with the Privacy Settings but as my site no longer exists that option wasn’t available to hide the URL’s visibility.
So I went into my Account Settings and deleted the web address in there. I saved that change and then tried another online search in Google and the URL is still appearing.
Am not sure what to do next. Will I have to map the WordPress domain to my new website provider?
Many thanks
Jessica
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Hi Jessica
This now is a Google’s issue instead of WordPress, since google had indexed your site in the past, it still knows its address even if the site no longer exists.
You may try to follow instructions found at this Google support page: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1663419?hl=en to remove a link from search results.
About map the domain, you only will be able to do this if it was a custom domain. Can you write here the URL you don’t want anymore at the Google results so we can check?
Regards
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Hi Pedger
Okay, I get it now – thank you! Will try that link you sent me.
The URL I set up on WordPress was debrodt.wordpress.com
Many thanks
Jessica
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Hi Pedger
I think I meant Site Redirect. I was just looking around the Help questions and I think that Site Redirecting is what I want, instead of mapping the domain. Would that be right for debrodt.wordpress.com?
Many thanks
Jessica
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Hi Pedger
I’m trying to follow the Remove URLs Tool you sent me yesterday.
In order to create a new removal request, I have to Verify that I own debrodt.wordpress.com.
I can’t find anywhere in my WordPress account to Verify that I own that URL. Because I deleted the site does that mean that URL is no longer assigned to my account? Do I need to set the site up again in order to access the address and then block the search results?
Many thanks
Jessica
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Hi Jessica
Indeed to verify ownership you needed to have the site still on. It is not possible to set it up again because a deleted site can never be used again (check this support page again).
I’m out of solutions for this, so I’ll tag this topic as ‘modlook’ so WordPress.com staff can help you.
best,
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Hi Pedger
Thanks so much for all of your help and for referring me directly to WordPress. I really appreciate it.
All the best
Jessica
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It can take some time for Google to update its index, and WordPress.com doesn’t have any control over this. Over time, Google’s crawlers will realize that your site is gone and Google will update its listings. You can read more about how this works here:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/search-engines/
You can try to speed things up by requesting a site removal from Google search results by following the instructions here:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=92865
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