Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • SEO Q&A
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • Case Studies
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • Case Studies

        Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. Research & Trends
    3. White Hat / Black Hat SEO
    4. Why have bots (including googlebot) categorized my website as adult?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Why have bots (including googlebot) categorized my website as adult?

    White Hat / Black Hat SEO
    3
    4
    2042
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • rahulkan
      rahulkan last edited by

      How do bots decide whether a website is adult? For example, I have a gifting portal, but strangely here, it is categorized as 'Adult'.

      Also, my google adsense application to run ads on my site got rejected - I have a feeling this is because googlebot categorized my site as adult. And there are good chances that other bots also consider it an adult website, rather than a gifting website.

      Can anyone please go through the site and tell me why this is happening? Thanks in advance.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • rahulkan
        rahulkan last edited by

        Thanks for your responses!

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • CleverPhD
          CleverPhD last edited by

          I think you have a good question, but may be making too many assumptions.  Similarweb.com has its own algo to drop sites in a given category.  (Here is the list they use)  http://www.similarweb.com/category    When I look at your site in similarweb - they have an options for you to change the category and so I would suggest you do that (no algo is perfect).

          The assumption you have is that if similarweb.com categorized you as "adult" then maybe Google did, but that may not be the case.  Few references on what you should do when you apply to adsense plus the adsense guidelines

          http://allbloggingtips.com/2012/08/27/applying-for-google-adsense-program/

          http://www.techrez.com/2013/09/how-to-get-approved-google-adsense-account.html

          https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/48182?hl=en

          It mentioned some other things besides adult content, you need a privacy policy, an about us page.  You have those things at the bottom of your page, but because you have infinite scrolling that loads more products on many of your pages (http://www.wishpicker.com/gifts-for/boyfriend), I can't get to the bottom of the page to click on them.

          It just seems like you may be focusing on the wrong thing IMHO.   Are there any other reasons that you would see that someone might categorize your site as adult?  Does not look that way to me when I visited.  Also, I ran your site through OSE and from your top 100 domains, did not see any adult sites linking to you.

          Good luck!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • KeriMorgret
            KeriMorgret last edited by

            Have you checked Google Webmaster Tools for any notices about your site, such as making sure that it isn't hacked with porn terms?

            For AdSense, what reason was given? In looking at a couple of your pages, it looks like it's a site that mainly redirects to other sites for people to buy, likely with an affiliate ID or something. What value does your site add to users? In the content guidelines, Google states to create sites with unique and relevant content. https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/23921?hl=en

            How many people are webmasters for this site? Could there be too many cooks in the kitchen? I've seen at least four different Moz accounts ask about this domain in the past year. You want to make sure you're all communicating with each other about the site (and if it's just one person, feel free to reach out to us for any account issues, so we can help you with using just one account and you can have the benefit of your account history over time).

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • 1 / 1
            • First post
              Last post

            Got a burning SEO question?

            Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


            Start my free trial


            Browse Questions

            Explore more categories

            • Moz Tools

              Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

            • SEO Tactics

              Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

            • Community

              Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

            • Digital Marketing

              Chat about tactics outside of SEO

            • Research & Trends

              Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

            • Support

              Connect on product support and feature requests.

            • See all categories

            Related Questions

            • HuptechWebseo

              Posting same content multiple blogs or multiple website - 2018

              Submitting same content on multiple site or blog using original source Links. Its good or bad in term on Ranking and SEO. Can we post same content on multiple website with orginal post reference same like Press release site technique.

              White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | HuptechWebseo
              0
            • maxcarnage

              Hosting Multiple Websites Within The Same Server Space

              Hi, So, I have a client who wants to host two websites (which you could refer to as sister sites) on the same hosting account. For some reason, I was under the impression that doing as much may be detrimental (for SEO purposes). Am I correct in thinking this? Can I get some back-up documentation or comments here? I look forward to hearing what you all have to say. Thanks for reading!

              White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | maxcarnage
              0
            • 2mlab

              Pages mirrored on unknown websites (not just content, all the HTML)... blackhat I've never seen before.

              Someone more expert than me could help... I am not a pro, just doing research on a website... Google Search Console shows many backlinks in pages under unknown domains... this pages are mirroring the pages of the linked website... clicking on a link on the mirror page leads to a spam page with link spam... The homepage of these unknown domain appear just fine... looks like that the domain is partially hijacked... WTF?! Have you ever seen something likes this? Can it be an outcome of a previous blackhat activity?

              White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | 2mlab
              0
            • David-Kley

              Should You Link Back from Client's Website?

              We had a discussion in the office today, about if it can help or hurt you to link back to your site from one that you optimize, host, or manage. A few ideas that were mentioned: HURT:
              1. The website is not directly related to your niche, therefore Google will treat it as a link exchange or spammy link.
              2. Links back to you are often not surrounded by related text about your services, and looks out of place to users and Search Engines. HELP:
              1. On good (higher PR, reputable domain) domains, a link back can add authority, even if the site is not directly related to your services.
              2. Allows high ranking sites to show users who the provider is, potentially creating a new client, and a followed incoming link on anchor text you can choose. So, what do you think? Test results would be appreciated, as we are trying to get real data. Benefits and cons if you have an opinion.

              White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | David-Kley
              2
            • kymodo

              Why website isn't showing on results?

              Hello Moz! Just got a quick question - we have a clientcalled and for some reason they just aren't showing up in the search results. It's not a new domain and hasn't been penalised (or has reason for penalty). All the content is fresh and has no bad back links to the site. It is a new website and has been indexed by Google but for even for branded search terms, it just doesn't show up anywhere on page 1 (i think page 4). Any help or advise is great appreciated is it's doing my head in. We are using www.google.com.au. Kindest Regards

              White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | kymodo
              0
            • Heehaw

              Website not listing in google - screaming frog shows 500 error? What could the issue be?

              Hey, http://www.interconnect.org.uk/ - the site seems to load fine, but for some reason the site is not getting indexed.   I tried running the site on screaming frog, and it gives a 500 error code, which suggests it can't access the site?  I'm guessing this is the same problem google is having, do you have any ideas as to why this may be and how I can rectify this? Thanks, Andrew

              White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Heehaw
              0
            • mywebshop

              Is it negative to put a backlink into the footer's website of our clients ?

              Hello there ! Everything is in the subject of this post but here is the context : we are a web agency and we, among others, build websites for our clients (most of them are shops). Until now, we put a link in their footer, like "developped by MyWebShop". But we don't know if it is bad or not. With only one website we can have like hundred of backlinks at once, but is it good for SEO or not ? Will Google penalize us thinking that is blackhat practices ? Is it better to put our link in the "legal notices" or "disclaimer" part of the websites ? What is the best practice for a lasting SEO ? I hope you understand my question, Thnak you in advance !

              White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | mywebshop
              0
            • ConversionChamp

              How Is Your Approach Towards Adult SEO?

              I would like to know how SEOMoz community members approach adult SEO. How do you approach a project when you get one (if you do it that is). If you dont do adult SEO, why do you not do it? Is it because it's much more difficult than normal SEO or do you not want to associate yourself with that industry?

              White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | ConversionChamp
              0

            Get started with Moz Pro!

            Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

            Start my free trial
            Products
            • Moz Pro
            • Moz Local
            • Moz API
            • Moz Data
            • STAT
            • Product Updates
            Moz Solutions
            • SMB Solutions
            • Agency Solutions
            • Enterprise Solutions
            Free SEO Tools
            • Domain Authority Checker
            • Link Explorer
            • Keyword Explorer
            • Competitive Research
            • Brand Authority Checker
            • Local Citation Checker
            • MozBar Extension
            • MozCast
            Resources
            • Blog
            • SEO Learning Center
            • Help Hub
            • Beginner's Guide to SEO
            • How-to Guides
            • Moz Academy
            • API Docs
            About Moz
            • About
            • Team
            • Careers
            • Contact
            Why Moz
            • Case Studies
            • Testimonials
            Get Involved
            • Become an Affiliate
            • MozCon
            • Webinars
            • Practical Marketer Series
            • MozPod
            Connect with us

            Contact the Help team

            Join our newsletter
            Moz logo
            © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
            • Accessibility
            • Terms of Use
            • Privacy

            Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.