How to remove pictures from google images

As a company with our entire focus on repairing and elevating a brand’s online reputation, we have come across this particular scenario often enough.

Maybe you posted an unflattering photo a long time ago which appeared to be harmless at that time.

However, the existence of that very image online is what is causing your personal brand’s image to be tarnished, posing real problems for your business. Fortunately, we know the knicks and knacks of how to remove images from google search and we’re more than happy to teach you!

Here’s the thing about the images you upload online - what might initially seem like a normal picture can take a life on its own and damage your reputation later.

As the image stays online, it gains even more traction in the search world, solidifying its visibility. If someone searches your name, be it your friend, colleague, a potential customer, they could leave with a brand impression of your personal brand.

So, that brings us to the question of, how do I get something removed from google search?

How to Remove an Image From Google?

The first step to removing images from the search results on Google is to find out which websites are sharing the image and who the content belongs to.

Once you have gathered the website link and the contact information of the owner, you can ask them to get rid of the photo.

If your request is approved by the content owner, the crawlers of Google search would be unable to find your image.

It’s not always that simple, though. A lot of sites basically take out content and then repost them to their site from various sources.

Most of the time, the contact information of the website owner isn’t available at all or even if it is, you have to dig really deep.

This means to remove images from google search, you have to go through a number of challenges. The alternative of suppressing the results on search engines appears to be a much more better option in that case.

How To Get Rid Of Images Posted By Someone Else?

Getting rid of pictures and info you might have on a third-party site and thereby, on the search result of Google images is no easy task. Oftentimes, site administrators tend to not answer your plea to remove your info at all.

If they do answer, they might still decide to keep your info and image despite your valid reasoning on why it should be removed. This might be a tricky business but there’s also the barest chance that your appeal could work.

If your request is persuasive enough, the site owner could agree and have your google search result become squeaky clean again. If a site has your image without your permission, the process might be more long-winded. You will have to come down with a bit of force.

Sometimes, it is Google itself that can come to your rescue. Even if you can’t delete the picture or get rid of it permanently, you can decrease the exposure level of the picture and stop it from affecting your online reputation. You can make the image so hard to find that any malicious lurker gives up.

So, how to remove an image from Google if all the other methods don't work?

Google has certain removal policies, a comprehensive list of guidelines on what kind of content it deems removable.

Articles, blogs, anything that can have a significant impact and risk an individual’s safety falls under it.

Google might remove all personal information available on search results in this case.

Google’s term suggests that images that would be approved for search result removal has to have a person’s financial, medical or national ID information.

Other than that, Google frownes upon fake ponography made of a person without their consent along with any kind of nude photograph that was uploaded without a person’s information.

If the image has information that could hurt an individual or if the image exists on a mugshot site, it can be removed.

Google can also be moved to remove content for certain legal reasons, such as images containing abuse or those that violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

In the case of DMCA takedown, you will have to be the photographer and hold the copyright to it.

How to Remove Images You Posted?

To remove images from Google search that you posted requires nothing more than for you to log in to your account or the website you have posted your image on and delete the picture.

Google might take some time to stop indexing the photo but it will do so eventually, and it shouldn’t have any lasting impact on your reputation online.

Another easy way to remove a picture is to tweak the privacy setting. Instead of public, toggle the privacy setting to private and Google will get the notice that only you or a select few people should be able to access the image.

If you still see the photo on search results after some time has passed, you can ask Google directly to remove it.

Visit the Remove outdated content page on Google and paste the link of the deleted content threat and tap on request removal.

If you see Google say that the content is no longer live, you can go ahead and click on the submit button.

If Google says that the site owner hasn’t removed the image, tap the button that asks you to provide more info to Google.

Final Thoughts

When you are posting any kind of image on Google, remember to assess whether the image can be twisted negatively.

Even if you post more professional photos later on, search engine crawlers might still not be satisfied with it and will continue to show the damaging photo.

So, you should be extremely careful about what you post online to protect your reputation.