Help Center

Why is my Twitter profile in Google search?

Your Twitter profile shows up in Google searches because Twitter has a high Google search rank. Keep in mind that the words you write in your Twitter profile or public Tweets may be indexed by Google and other search engines, and cause your profile or Tweets to come up in a search for those terms.

Depending on the degree to which this concerns you, you can try one or more of the steps below to prevent certain information from displaying in third party search results:

Note: Third party search engines like Google use many factors to generate search results, like the content of public Tweets and Twitter profiles, or blogs and other websites that link to Tweets or Twitter profiles. Twitter does not control search results on third party search engines.

Why are my Tweets appearing on Google after deleting or protecting them?

Protected Tweets:

  • Public Tweets posted before you select the account setting "protect my Tweets" may still be indexed in a third-party search engine. Once you have saved your account settings to protect your Tweets, the Tweets you post thereafter will be protected. If you later change your account settings to no longer protect your Tweets, Tweets that were previously protected will become public and may be indexed by third-party search engines.

Deleted Tweets:

  • Even if you delete Tweets, Google and other search engines cache search results, which means that occasionally old information is still searchable. Although Twitter changes your settings immediately and deletes Tweets immediately, these changes don't automatically erase old information in Google's search index.
  • Any old links appearing in a Google search will lead to Twitter's truth-telling error page: "That page doesn't exist!" The old links still appear because Google and other search engines may not have the current information updated in their search index.
  • Until Google updates the new information and indexes your current status, links to the profile or updates posted prior to removal/protection remain online.

How and when to send Google a request to remove the information:

Google will eventually index updated Twitter information, but if you'd like to request Google to do it sooner, follow the steps below.

  1. Copy the Twitter URL you'd like removed from Google's index (for example: twitter.com/#!/[username here]/status/12345678)
  2. Navigate to this page.
  3. Paste in the Twitter URL that you'd like removed.
  4. Submit your request.
Note: You may be required to log in to your Google account to complete the steps above. If you don't have one, you may need to create one. More information about removing your content from Google's search index can be found here.