Google has published guidelines on what to do if your rankings are affected after being incorrectly flagged by Google’s SafeSearch filter. The new documentation offers three actions to take to resolve the issues.
The new documentation provides guidance on three steps to take:
- How to check if Google’s Safe Search is filtering out a website.
- Guide to how to fix common mistakes
- Troubleshooting steps
SafeSearch Filtering
Google’s SafeSearch is a filtering system that removes explicit content from the search results. But there may be times when it fails and mistakenly removes the wrong content.
These are Google’s official steps for verifying if a site is being filtered:
“Confirm that SafeSearch is set to Off.
Search for a term where you can find that page in search results.
Set SafeSearch to Filter. If you don’t see your page in the results anymore, it is likely being affected by SafeSearch filtering on this query.”
To check if the entire site is being filtered by SafeSearch, Google recommends doing a site: search for your domain, then set the SafeSearch setting to “Filter” and if the site doesn’t appear in a site: search that means that Google is filtering out the entire website.
If the site is indeed being filtered Google recommends their checklist for common mistakes.
If mistakes were found and fixed it takes Google at least two to three months for the algorithmic classifiers to clear the site. Only after three months have passed does Google recommend requesting a manual review.
Read Google’s guidance on recovering a site from incorrect flagging:
What to do if your site is incorrectly flagged as explicit in Google Search results
Featured Image by Shutterstock/FGC
