Old address, price or service on Google and in AI: how to fix it

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To remove outdated content from Google, fix the source page first and then ask Google to update the result. On your own site, use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console. On a third-party site, use the Remove Outdated Content tool after the page changes or goes offline. AI answers, however, have no guaranteed timeline.

What is the Google Remove Outdated Content tool, and when does it work?

The Remove Outdated Content tool asks Google to update a result that still shows something the page no longer has. Google says to use it when you don’t own the page. But Google only accepts the request if the page is gone or has changed significantly. If the old data is still live, the request won’t work.

In Search Console Help, this Google tool appears under two names: Remove Outdated Content and Refresh Outdated Content. The tool’s own help page uses the second name, while the page on removals uses both. You don’t need to own the site, but you do need to sign in with a Google Account. According to Google, this rule helps prevent abuse.

The request takes four steps:

1. Open the tool and sign in with your Google Account.
2. Paste the page URL, copied from the link in the search result, not from the browser bar.
3. If the page still exists and the tool asks, enter one or two words the result shows but the page no longer has.
4. Finally, track the status in the tool’s own request list.

While a request is Pending, processing can take a few days. When Google approves it, a page that is gone drops out of search. If the page only changed, however, Google removes the old description from the result and builds a new one at the next crawl. In the request list, an approved request shows as Expired after 180 days, or sooner if the URL stops existing.

Which Google tool should you use to remove outdated content?

The right tool depends on who owns the page and where the old data appears, so check the table below. When the same text appears at several URLs, each one needs its own request. You can also request a refresh without opening the tool, through the three-dot menu next to each result. Since February 2025, Google has accepted this request right from the result, then recrawls the page for the latest version. According to Olhar Digital, a Brazilian tech news site, Brazil was among the first countries to get the feature.

Situation	Where to ask	What happens
Third-party page already fixed or offline	Remove Outdated Content, from Google	The result changes or drops out
Third-party page with the old data still live	Site owner	Nothing changes until the page does
Your own page, already fixed	URL Inspection, in Search Console	Google crawls it again
Your own page that must disappear now	Removals tool in Search Console	Gone from search for about six months
Third-party page already fixed, with an old result in Bing or Copilot	Content Removal Tool, from Bing	Bing updates after it recrawls

How long does it take to remove outdated content from Google and AI?

There is no guaranteed timeline. According to Google, a recrawl can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Requesting a crawl also doesn’t guarantee that the new version will appear in results. AI answers depend on search engine crawling or on what the model learned in training. So the fix arrives in stages, not all at once.

Where	Timeline in official documentation
New crawl on Google	A few days to a few weeks
Removals tool in Search Console	Up to a day to process, usually
Outdated content request on Google	Can take a few days
Site details on Google, after a markup change	One week
Temporary block on Bing, by the site owner	Under 12 hours, in most cases
ChatGPT answers	No timeline in OpenAI’s documentation

In AI Overviews and AI Mode, the answer cites pages from the search index. So until Google recrawls the fixed page, the answer may rely on the old version. The guide to Google AI Mode and AI Overviews explains how these features choose their sources.

How does the fix reach Bing, Copilot and ChatGPT?

Bing and Copilot follow the same logic. According to Bing, both only update or remove a page after recrawling it. So it pays to notify Bing through IndexNow, which reports the change right away and helps both update faster.

In ChatGPT, according to OpenAI, web search may kick in automatically when a question benefits from current information. In that search, ChatGPT sometimes partners with other providers, and the help page points to the privacy statement of Microsoft, which owns Bing. So it pays to look after your Bing index too, as the guide on how to show up in ChatGPT explains. Outside of search, however, the answer comes from what the model learned in training. That is how outdated information in ChatGPT can outlive the fix on your site. OpenAI itself warns that search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated or wrong.

How do you remove outdated content from your own site’s pages?

Fix the data on every page where it appears, not just the main one. When everything is right, tell Google and Bing that those pages changed. After all, a forgotten page with the old address or price stays available to search engines and AI.

On your own site, in fact, the Remove Outdated Content tool from Google is not the right path. Instead, Google points owners to a recrawl or to the Removals tool in Search Console.

Prioritize the data that changes most, because that is where AI makes the most mistakes. In the report Searchable published on July 30, 2026, for example, pricing was the fact type AI got wrong most often. Of the pricing facts brands reviewed, 13.5% were wrong. Products and services came in at 8.6%, while location and coverage came in at 4.8%. The data comes from 1,704 brands in several countries that use Searchable, which sells AI monitoring. On ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews, the company sums it up:

“What none of them has is a single authoritative record of your business. They choose between whatever is publicly available about you.”

Searchable (2026)

During the review, start with your About us page, which usually covers founding, headquarters, services and partners. An FAQ with price, timing and service area gives AI an official answer to the most common questions. Old blog posts with the wrong data, for example, also go on the list. The guide to content marketing in the AI era shows why these pages work as the company’s official source.

In what order should you fix your site?

Follow this order so no page gets left behind:

1. List where the old data appears. Search Google for your domain and the old term, as in site:yourcompany.com "100 Old Street". Check footers, contact pages, FAQs and PDFs, including old ones.
2. Fix the text and the structured data. According to the Google guide on AI features, it is worth checking that structured data matches the visible text. Google doesn’t require special markup, but any markup you have must carry the new data.
3. Give the discontinued service somewhere to go. If there is a replacement service, redirect the old page to it. Otherwise, let the page return a 404 or 410, which Google advises for permanent removal. When customers still ask about the service, say in the FAQ that it has ended.
4. Request a recrawl. Use URL Inspection in Search Console for the main pages, and submit a sitemap when there are many. According to Google, however, requesting the same URL several times won’t speed up crawling.
5. Notify Bing. Turn on IndexNow, which alerts Bing and other participating search engines when a page changes. WordPress, Shopify and Wix support it natively or through a plugin.
6. Update your business address on Google. With a verified Business Profile, the owner can edit the address and contact details. According to Google, this data shows up in Google Maps and the knowledge panel. The AI features guide also recommends keeping the profile up to date. The guide to GEO for local business shows how Gemini uses that profile.
7. Use temporary removal only when it’s urgent. If Google accepts the request, the Removals tool hides the page from search for about six months. It can also clear just the page description in the result until the next indexing.

What if the wrong information is on a third-party site?

Ask whoever published it to fix it, because search engines don’t change third-party pages. The Remove Outdated Content tool only helps when the page has already changed or gone offline. Once the page is fixed, ask Google and, if needed, Bing to update the result.

1. Find the source page. It shows up in the Google result or among the sources AI cites.
2. Ask the site owner to fix it. Send the correct data, as well as a link to the official page that proves it.
3. Fix it yourself where the company has an account, such as social profiles, directories and industry guides.
4. After the change, request the update. On Google, use the Remove Outdated Content tool or the three-dot menu. On Bing, use the Content Removal Tool, which Bing recommends when the page changed but the result is still old.
5. If the owner doesn’t respond, publish the correct data on your own channels. The old result stays, but AI may find a current version to compare.

After all, reporting the error in the AI itself doesn’t change the page it cites. Wikipedia, Reddit, Reclame Aqui (a Brazilian consumer complaints site) and the press, on the other hand, have their own correction rules. The step-by-step guide for these sources is in how to correct wrong information that AI repeats.

How do you check whether the AI answer changed after the fix?

Repeat the same questions in the same AI tools, several times, for a few weeks, and note the source each answer cites. A single check is misleading because the answer can change with every run. So the fix has landed when the new data shows up often and the answer cites the fixed page, not the old one.

Searchable’s data shows the risk of checking only a few facts. Among brands that reviewed at least 20 facts, 75% found at least one that was wrong. According to the company, brands that check only two or three facts often find nothing wrong.

1. Write the questions about each corrected fact the way customers ask them, for example: “does company X still do Y?”.
2. Run each question in a new chat in ChatGPT with search, Gemini, AI Mode, Copilot and Perplexity.
3. Log the date, AI tool, answer and cited source in a spreadsheet.
4. Repeat every week until the new data shows up consistently.
5. Go back to the source whenever an answer cites a page with the old data.

In ChatGPT, if an answer looks wrong, OpenAI suggests asking for a new search with a specific source, date or location. That way, the test shows whether search already finds your fixed site. The full protocol, with runs and margin of error, is in the guide on how to measure brand visibility in AI.

Frequently asked questions

Main sources

• Google, Refresh Outdated Content tool, also called Remove Outdated Content (2026).
• Google, Removals tool in Search Console (2026).
• Google Search Central, how to ask Google to recrawl your URLs (2025).
• Google Search Central, AI features and your website (2025).
• Bing, how to remove content from Bing and Copilot (2026).
• OpenAI, how ChatGPT searches the web (2026).
• Searchable, report on the false facts AI states about brands (2026).
• IndexNow, FAQ about the change notification protocol (2026).