A: When something is de-indexed, the content still exists, but it has been completely removed from a search engine. It will not be findable on any search term—not on page 1, not on page 41. Even if you were to copy and paste the link of the negative article that you wish to remove from the search engine, it would still not show up anywhere. Generally, de-indexing is as good a solution as deletion because the only way to find the de-indexed article is to go directly to the website and search for it (which generally never happens in practice).
Our first goal is to outright delete negative content from existence on the offending website, but some news organizations or websites have a policy of never removing content. In these situations, sometimes the website is willing to compromise and deindex the offending page.
