Howdy, do curse words on your content article hurt SEO in any way or form?

[david305]

howdy, do curse words on your content article hurt SEO in any way or form?

and if so is there a "list" of registered curse keywords that should be avoided?

[Netlogiq]

Hey,

That would be impossible. Google does not censor.

[BryanCasson]

Curse words will not affect your ranking, however Google may indeed filter you with their "safe search" filter if you use too many words that they do not consider family friendly. As to what these words are I cannot tell you however I think we all have an idea of what is considered family friendly.

[Netlogiq]

Safe Search filter is user activated - parents can activate the filter to protect their kids when searching the internet. I doubt his target audience is formed by kids, and I doubt a parent would make a search with the option activated, on their private PC. Here you can find more on Safe search.

The important thing is: think at your audience and how an article that contains courses could help - for example such an article could be more interactive for certain public - there are journalistic styles (can't remember the name now) that contain dirty language.

[BryanCasson]

Yes Google claims that the default "moderate filtering" is only image based and does not include "curse keywords", however, I have a site that I manage which I cannot see unless I turn safesearch to "no filtering" . There are no images on the website that would trigger the safe search however there is some very foul language on the site which in my opinion is the cause of the filter. The site does not link to any adult sites either so I always presumed it was the language.

[A_Q]

Are the "curse" words necessary for your website? Although the site may pass through Google's safe search - it could still offend some visitors.

Obviously, if it is integral to your site then fine but I would steer away from using any foul language on a user rather than Google bot level. You wouldn't walk into a shop and tolerate the attendant to use abusive language whether it is targeted at you or not.

Hope this helps!

[david305]

thanks guys