Having your LinkedIn profile picture show up in Google search results can be concerning for privacy reasons. Fortunately, there are a few steps you can take to request removal of your LinkedIn photo from Google search.
Understand How Google Indexes LinkedIn Profile Photos
First, it’s helpful to understand how your LinkedIn profile picture ends up in Google’s search results in the first place. Here’s a quick overview:
- You upload a profile photo to your LinkedIn account.
- Google’s web crawlers index the pages of LinkedIn, including profile pages.
- When indexing your profile page, Google records all the data on the page, including your name, job title, location and profile photo.
- When someone searches for your name on Google, it can display your name, job info and LinkedIn profile photo in the search results.
So your LinkedIn profile picture appears in Google search because Google has indexed and cached a copy of your profile page, including the photo.
Request Removal Through LinkedIn’s Profile Settings
The easiest way to get your LinkedIn photo removed from Google search is to request removal directly through LinkedIn’s profile settings. Here are the steps:
- Go to your LinkedIn profile page and click on your profile photo.
- In the dropdown menu, click “Change profile photo.”
- Scroll down and toggle the “Show my profile photo in search results” option to “No.”
- Click “Save.”
This tells LinkedIn not to show your profile photo to search engines like Google. However, it can take some time for Google to recrawl LinkedIn and update its search results.
Request Removal Through Google Search Console
You can also request removal of your LinkedIn profile picture directly through Google. Here’s how:
- Go to the Google Search Console at https://search.google.com/search-console/about.
- Sign in with your Google account.
- Click on the URL Removal request option.
- Enter the complete URLs of the Google search result pages you want removed. These will likely be results for searches on your name.
- Select “Remove entire page” and check the box confirming you own this site.
- Click Submit request.
Google will review your request and remove the web pages from search results if they violate Google’s policies. Removing the pages also removes your LinkedIn profile photo.
Consider Changing Photo Visibility Settings
In addition to requesting removal, you can prevent your LinkedIn profile photo from appearing in Google search in the first place by adjusting your LinkedIn visibility settings:
- Profile photo visibility: Set to “Only visible to connections” or “Only visible to me.”
- Profile visibility: Set to “Private mode” so your profile only appears in search results for signed-in LinkedIn members.
Making these changes prevents Google and other search engines from indexing and caching your profile photo in the first place.
Other Ways to Request Removal
If the above options don’t work, there are a few other removal request options:
- Use Google’s Remove Outdated Content tool to request removal of dated or irrelevant results.
- Submit a personal information removal request through Google’s webform.
- Submit a removal request to Google under the EU’s Right to be Forgotten law if applicable.
- Contact LinkedIn support to report outdated or irrelevant information on your profile.
Why You May Still See Your Photo
Even after requesting removal, there are a few reasons you may still see your LinkedIn profile photo in Google search results:
- Caching – It takes some time for Google to re-crawl LinkedIn and update its search results.
- Different Google domains – Google.com removes it but Google.co.uk still shows it.
- Not completely removed from source – Your profile photo might still display on your LinkedIn profile.
- Google disagrees it violates policy – Google may determine the result is relevant and should remain.
So you may need to submit multiple removal requests and follow up regularly to get your photo removed from all locations. Or refresh Google’s index of your LinkedIn profile by making minor edits to your profile over time.
Conclusion
Having your LinkedIn profile photo appear in Google search results can be annoying or raise privacy concerns. Fortunately, you can request removal through tools provided by both LinkedIn and Google. Adjusting your profile settings can also prevent your photo from being indexed in the future. With some patience for caching delays, and diligence in submitting removal requests, you should be able to get your LinkedIn profile picture removed from Google search results.