Are you struggling to get some of your content to show up in SERP? Whatever you try Google just don't want to show it in the SERPs? It's possible that the content has been caught in Google's SafeSearch filter.
Want a quick way to check if your pages are getting filtered by Google SafeSearch?
Just drag and drop the Safe Search Check button shown above, to the browser’s bookmark bar. When you are on a Google search result page just click on that bookmark and we will show you 2 version of Google's result one with SafeSearch enabled and the other where it's off.
Google SafeSearch and SEO
If you are getting filtered by SafeSearch, the traffic impact depends on your audience. If a large chunk of them have SafeSearch turned on then they will not be seeing your page in Google's SREPs (search engine result pages) and that can have an impact on your visibility, if not you might not even feel an impact. Glenn Gabe has an excellent post on the topic which I recommend you read if you are not familiar with this topic.
What is SafeSearch and how does it work?
Google's SafeSearch is designed to help block explicit results, like pornography, from your Google search results (across images, videos, and websites). Find more info from Google's help document.
In the example when you campare safe search disabled and safe search enabled you see that the top two results from UrbanDictionary and Wikipedia gets filtered out and the 3rd result from Lithub comes up in the #1 spot when safe search is enabled.
How does Google's SafeSearch affect SEO?
Google does a fairly good job with identifying pages with content (text, images, etc) that should not be shown when SafeSearch is enabled BUT at times they get it wrong and when they do these pages get filtered out from search. They don't really give you any warnings about it on Search Console so you might miss it if you are not actively looking for it.
How do I know if SafeSearch is on?
When you are on Google search you can go into Settings and if one of the dropdown menu items says Show explicit results that means SafeSearch is on for your searches.
When SafeSearch is active they also show a lable that says SafeSearch on towards the top right as shown in this image.
How do I deactivate SafeSearch?
Follow these steps to disable Google SafeSearch on your browser.
- Go to Google Search and perform a search for any query.
- Click on the menu item called Settings on the top of the Search results page.
- Select the menu option called Show explicit results.
NOTE: this helps you deactivate SafeSearch on your browser but your potential visitors might still be looking for you with SafeSearch enabled.
Will the bookmarklet work on mobile devices?
Yes, you can install this on mobile devices as well. Check out the video for the instuctions on how to install it on an iPhone using Chrome. The steps should be quite similar for other browsers and devices.