How to Make Yourself Unsearchable on Google

When someone Googles your name, they shouldn't find your home address, phone number, and relatives. But they probably do. Google doesn't create this data. It indexes pages from data broker sites and public records. To become unsearchable, you need to remove the source pages and then clean up Google's index. Here is how.

Last updated March 18, 2026

> What to do

  1. 1

    Google yourself and document everything

    Search your full name in quotes, then try variations with your city, state, or middle initial. Go through at least five pages of results. Screenshot or save every result that shows your personal information. These are the pages you need to remove or de-index.

  2. 2

    Remove the source pages first

    Google results come from actual web pages. The pages showing your info are almost always data broker sites. Submit opt-out requests to each one. Once the source page is deleted or returns a 404 error, Google will drop it from search results during its next crawl, usually within 1 to 4 weeks.

  3. 3

    Use Google's personal info removal tool

    Google lets you request removal of search results that contain your personal contact information, home address, phone number, or email. This removes the result from Google search while you work on getting the source page taken down. You can submit multiple requests at once.

    Google removal request tool →
  4. 4

    Disable search engine indexing on social media

    Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram all have settings that control whether search engines can index your profile. Turn this off on every platform. It won't remove existing cached results immediately, but it prevents new indexing going forward.

  5. 5

    Set up a Google Alert for your name

    Create a Google Alert for your full name in quotes. Google will email you whenever a new page mentioning your name gets indexed. This gives you early warning when a data broker re-lists your profile or a new source publishes your information.

    Google Alerts →

> How Google decides what to show about you

Google indexes billions of web pages and ranks them by relevance. Data broker sites rank well for name searches because they have pages for millions of people, they are frequently updated, and they contain structured data that Google can easily parse. When someone searches your name, Google surfaces these broker pages alongside social media profiles, news mentions, and any other public web pages associated with you. Google itself is not the problem. The data broker pages are the problem. Remove those pages, and Google has nothing to show.

> SCAN_NOW

Find every Google result that exposes your info

EXPOSE identifies the data broker sites and public records that show up when someone Googles your name.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take Google to remove a result?▼
Google's removal request tool processes requests within a few days. But the result can reappear if the source page is still live. The permanent fix is removing the data from the source site. Once that page returns a 404, Google drops it within 1 to 4 weeks.
Can I remove cached versions of pages about me?▼
Yes. Google's removal tool also lets you request removal of cached copies. If a data broker page was recently deleted but Google is still showing an old cached version, submit a cache removal request for that specific URL.
Will this work for Bing and other search engines too?▼
Each search engine has its own removal process. Bing has a content removal tool. DuckDuckGo pulls results from Bing, so removing from Bing covers both. But the best approach is removing the source pages, which removes results from all search engines at once.
My LinkedIn profile shows up. Can I prevent that?▼
Yes. Go to LinkedIn Settings, then Visibility, then "Edit your public profile." You can limit what is shown or turn off public profile visibility entirely. This stops search engines from indexing your LinkedIn page.
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