Pics content rating

Does it affect ranking with Google?

[subotai]

Has anyone experience with using a Pics content label with Google?
I feel it may help in getting through content blocking software, but
how about Google?

[Brett_Tabke]

I have never seen anyone mention it helps or hurts. I think Google just ignores them.

[jdMorgan]

subotai,

PICS labels do indeed help to "get through" content filters. The default setting in Internet Explorer 5.0 (and maybe other versions) was to block unrated sites if Content Advisor was enabled with no other options changed. As this browser rolled out, I received several contacts asking why our site was down. However, the site was responding normally and had it's usual level of traffic.

Looking at the logs, I saw the complainant's accesses to "index.html" but no other pages or objects - IE was not requesting them. After staring at it for awhile, and some e-mail back-and-forth to those having problems, I figured out that it had to do with IE's Content Advisor. When I enabled my own Content Advisor with default settings, I was blocked too. The default Content Advisor setting was to block display of unrated sites.

After adding the PICS label to the site, I experienced no change in traffic from search engines. The Google toolbar wasn't available back then, so I can't quote any effect on PageRank, but average traffic was unchanged.

Note that you can install PICS labels on each page, for groups of pages on a "per-directory" basis, or for all pages on a site-wide basis. If you wish to experiment cautiously, you may want to add a label to just one page and test for any change in Google.

For those site owners wishing to reach families with children who may use Content Advisor, a basic PICS label installation on the "home page" of the site is a good investment of your time. Otherwise, you may be blocked by some of your target audience.

Jim

[richlowe]

Personally, I wish that all sites used PICS. Why? Because then it would be possible to restrict access or grant access based upon it. At that point, content filters would become more useful (assuming the majority of webmasters were honest about their rating).

For example, I am not interested in visiting sites with extreme violence. At the moment, there is no easy way to filter them out except by dilligence. PICS would enable that filtering.

As far as search engines, I don't believe it has any effect - unless the "filter adult content" sections of the engines take it into account.

Richard Lowe