I deleted all my PDF files from Webflow 2mo ago, but can still Google it out

I saw my old CV on Google, so I deleted all my PDF files from Webflow 2mo ago, but Google result still shows it, from website-files.com

How can I delete it completely? Thanks

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Hi there!

When files are deleted but still appear in Google search results, you’ll need to take two steps for complete removal:

First, use Google’s removals tool to request removal of the outdated pages from Google search results. This will help expedite the removal process rather than waiting for Google to naturally detect the changes.

Second, verify that the file has been completely removed from our CDN. When accessing the file URL, it should return a 404 error. This ensures that when search engines recrawl the URL, they’ll recognize the content no longer exists and eventually remove it from their index.

Hopefully this helps! If you still need assistance, please reply here so somebody from the community can help.

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Hi Akah, contact support on this, I believe they can help you flush unused files from the CDN.

Worst case, you could;

  • Clone the site
  • Transfer the plan, domain and hosting settings
  • And republish

Verify everything, then unpublish or archive delete the old site.

This changes the siteID which is in the CDN urls, and should eventually make all of the old asset urls invalid.

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A couple of years back, someone copied one of my business sites and used all of my assets and code, which were sourced from the Webflow URLs. It was a real PITA not being able to deal with it myself immediately, but Webflow support was very helpful in removing access to the URLs within around 72 hours.

Now I host my own assets, giving me full (and instant) control.

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