The webpage has been deleted but Google still shows the old title｜How to force update the snapshot

Submit “Outdated Content Removal” via Google’s Official Tool

Instead of passively waiting for Google to refresh automatically, Google Search Console offers a super effective “Temporary Removal” feature that lets you take control of what shows up in search results.

It basically sends a “force refresh” signal to Google’s servers. This is especially useful for things like delisted product pages or expired promotions—anything you need cleared quickly. Results can show up as fast as 12 hours.

Exact Steps to Access the Tool

• Log in to Google Search Console, and in the left menu, select “Removals” instead of “URL Inspection.”
• Click on “New Request” → and choose the “Temporary Removal” tab (not the permanent option).

What You Need Before Submitting

1. Make sure the page returns a 404 or 410 HTTP status code (check it using tools like httpstatus.io).
2. If the page is redirecting somewhere else, remove the redirect first.
3. Example: A deleted product page https://example.com/product-123

Pro Tips to Speed Up the Process

1. Also check the box for “Clear cached URL” (this is hidden by default—you’ll need to expand it manually).
2. Submitting lots of pages? Use the “Remove Parameters” feature to handle dynamic URLs in bulk (like ?id=123).
3. Temporary removals last around 6 months—after that, you’ll need to resubmit if needed.

Common Reasons It Doesn’t Work

• ❌ Page still returns a 200 status code (it hasn’t actually been deleted)
• ❌ Site ownership hasn’t been verified (use DNS or HTML file method to verify)
• ❌ Submitted URL includes a hash (#) anchor (you should only submit the base URL)

How to Track Progress

In the “Removals” panel, you’ll see status updates:

• ✅ Green “Approved”: The cache has been blocked from search results
• ⏳ “Pending”: Request received by Google (usually processed within 24 hours)
• ❗ “Error”: Fix the issue as directed, then resubmit

Tips to Manually Refresh Google Cache

Manually refreshing cache is one of the quickest ways to influence what shows up in Google search, especially for time-sensitive pages like press releases with wrong dates or outdated prices.

This can “trick” Google’s crawler into recrawling the page. Tests show about 50% of cases update within 3 days.

Hidden Path to the Force Refresh Button

• In Google’s search bar, type cache:your-page-URL (e.g., cache:example.com/news)
• Heads up: If the page has a refreshable snapshot, you’ll see a “Update this snapshot” button in the top right (it doesn’t always show up)
• Clicking this triggers Google’s “priority fetch queue,” which is 3–5x faster than normal crawling

Force Re-crawl via Incognito Mode

• Open the page in Chrome’s incognito mode and refresh it 5 times in a row (this mimics high user activity)
• Advanced trick: Add a random parameter at the end of the URL, like ?v=20230828
• The idea is to trigger Google’s “user behavior update algorithm,” giving a 30% boost to crawl priority

Local Cache Bypass Trick

• Press F12 to open DevTools → go to the Network panel
• Check “Disable cache” and refresh the page (forces a hard reload)
• After doing this 3 times in a row, Google might mistake the content for unstable and reindex it

Things to Keep in Mind

• ❗ For pages rendered with JavaScript, repeat the trick at least 3 times
• ❗ Use mobile incognito mode for mobile snapshots
• ✅ Use the “Check if page is indexed” tool in Search Console to monitor progress

404 Setup Is a Must for Deleted Pages

Many site owners think “deleting a page = problem solved,” but wrong 404 settings can make SEO issues worse.

Google might keep crawling “ghost pages” and show old cache, or worse, mark them as soft 404s (where the page returns 200 but has no real content), which damages your site’s credibility.

Hardcore HTTP Status Check

Use browser extensions (like HTTP Status) or run curl -I page-URL in the command line to verify

You MUST return 404 or 410, not 200 or 302 (the latter often happens when mistakenly redirecting to homepage)

• Example: In WordPress, make sure to disable plugins that “redirect deleted pages to similar content”

Block Leftover Paths with robots.txt

Add this to your robots.txt file: Disallow: /deleted-page-path/ (wildcards like * are supported)
禁止抓取同时，在Search Console提交robots.txt测试报告

• Warning: robots.txt can’t prevent already indexed pages from showing cached versions

301 Redirect Strategy

Only use 301 redirects when there’s a clear replacement (e.g. old product → new category page)

The destination page should be closely related in topic to the original (to avoid diluting page authority)

• Avoid chained redirects (e.g. old page A → old page B → new page C)

High-Risk Scenarios

• ❌ Using JavaScript to render 404 messages (bots may still treat it as a valid page)
• ❌ Custom 404 pages with nav bars or search boxes (may be seen as soft 404s)
• ✅ Best practice: keep 404 pages simple with plain text and no internal links

Recommended Tools

• Google Search Console “Coverage Report” → Filter by “Submitted but not indexed” pages
• Scan site using Screaming Frog → Filter “Client Error 4xx” pages
• Use third-party SEO tools (e.g. Ahrefs) to find broken backlinks from external sites

(Example config: Use ErrorDocument 404 /error-404.html in Apache’s .htaccess, or error_page 404 /404.html; in Nginx config)

Bulk Update Tips: XML Sitemaps

For sites with lots of outdated pages (e.g. out-of-stock products, deleted articles), updating one-by-one is inefficient.

XML sitemaps are Google-approved “bulk update passes” that let you manage indexing status more efficiently — often shortening the refresh cycle from weeks to just 72 hours.

Dynamically Generate Accurate Sitemaps

Use tools (Screaming Frog/WordPress plugins) to crawl the entire site and auto-filter out 404 pages

Keep the <lastmod> tag for valid pages (format: 2023-08-28T12:00:00+00:00)

• Common Mistake: Including deleted page URLs can cause Google to re-crawl them unnecessarily

Search Console Push Strategy

After uploading the new sitemap.xml, click “Test” to catch any errors

From the dropdown next to “Submit,” choose “Request Indexing” instead of just submitting

For high-frequency sites, split into multiple sitemaps (e.g. product-sitemap.xml, news-sitemap.xml)

Sitemap + robots.txt Integration

Add sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml to the first line of your robots.txt

Any page disallowed in robots.txt should also be removed from the sitemap (to avoid conflicting signals)

• Example: Old product category pages should be removed from sitemap and tagged with <noindex>

Speeding Up Indexing

• Use <priority>0.8</priority> in the sitemap to highlight important pages
• Automate sitemap generation daily (can be set up in panels like BaoTa/BT Panel)
• Use API push (Indexing API) for real-time updates (requires some development work)

Tracking Key Metrics

• Check “Discovered” vs “Indexed” ratios on the Search Console’s sitemap page
• Use Google Analytics to see where 404 traffic is coming from
• Run weekly DeepCrawl scans to compare sitemap vs live site content

(Example: WordPress sites using the RankMath plugin can auto-generate dynamic sitemaps and sync with DB changes every hour)

Google indexing updates usually have a 1–3 day delay. Don’t resubmit too soon. If it’s still not updated after 72 hours, check for leftover redirect code or unexpected blocks in your robots.txt.