Fed up with Google search results showing you links to online forums like Reddit? If so, you are not alone. An increasing number of users have come across this situation where many of the links in the search results are from Reddit. While the platform can be quite helpful in helping you find what you are looking for, more often than not, you simply end up browsing through useless comments that do not offer any value but result in a waste of time and effort.

The good news is that you can prevent Google from showing links to Reddit in the search results, helping you search for information more quickly. And there are multiple ways to do so, which I'm going to share here.

Why Reddit links are dominating Google search results? As you may already know, Google frequently updates its search algorithm through both major updates and smaller ones that continuously happen in the background. Because of these updates, the SERPs or Search Engine Results Pages are always changing, which is visible in how website rankings keep changing in the results.

If a website offers more value to users and better caters to their needs than others, it will move up in the search results. In case it does not meet users' requirements, it is ranked lower. At the same time, Google is trying to enhance its search experience to counter the growing number of AI-powered search services.

One way the company is doing this is by promoting platforms where users share their personal experiences – something AI-powered bots cannot do right now. Websites like Reddit often provide unique solutions and practical information not present anywhere else. Thus, they can be useful in situations where you cannot find answers on other websites.

That is why, since 2021, Google has been promoting such forums in its SERPs and since last year, it has been putting an even greater emphasis on this. So, websites like Reddit are appearing more and more frequently in search results. If you're like me, you may find this to be quite annoying.

Thankfully, it is quite simple to remove Reddit from your search results and you don't need to have a lot of technical knowledge to get rid of websites like Reddit from your search results.

Use a negative search operator

Negative search operators allow to you easily exclude search results from any website just by adding a suffix to your query.

  1. Open the Google search page and type in your query.
  2. After the query, type -site:reddit.com.
  1. Press the 'Enter' key and you will see that Reddit will not appear in the search results.
Note: You can use this to exclude search results from more than one website. Simply add the negative search operator after the name of the websites you want to exclude. For instance, to exclude both Reddit and Quora, you can add -site:reddit.com -site:quora.com after your query.

Create a custom search engine

You can also use Google's Programmable Search Engine feature to create a custom search engine if you want to avoid results from a particular website, like Reddit. While this is more complicated than using a negative site operator, you only need to set it up once, unlike the previous method.

  1. Go to the Google CSE Page and sign in to your Google account.
  2. Click on the 'Create your first search engine!' option.
  1. Next, provide a name for your search engine by typing it in the provided box.
  1. In the 'What To Search' section, click on the 'Search The Entire Web' option.
  1. Click on the 'Create' button after verifying the captcha.
  1. You will see the message 'Your new search engine has been created'. Click on the 'Customize' button.
  1. On the next page, scroll down to the 'Search Features' section and click on the 'Add' button on the right of the 'Sites to Exclude' option.
  1. In the pop-up that appears, type 'www.reddit.com' and click on the save button.
  1. Now, when you use this search engine, Reddit will not appear in the results, even if you purposely search for Reddit results. Similarly, you can add other websites and domains you want to exclude.
Note: You can save the newly created search engine as your homepage or add it as a bookmark for quick access. With this, you do not need to add search operators every time you want to search for something.

Use the uBlacklist extension

Another way to prevent Reddit results from appearing in your Google search is to use the uBlacklist extension, available for Firefox and Chrome. It also works on the Edge browser.

  1. Visit the Chrome Web Store and install the uBlacklist extension.
  1. Once it is installed, tap on the Extensions button in the browser and then on the uBlacklist extension to open it.
  1. Click on 'Options' in the pop-up that appears.
  1. A new page will open where you can enter the names of the websites you want to block. Type www.reddit.com or reddit.com and click on the 'Save' button.
  1. The extension will filter out Reddit and any other website that you add to it when showing the search results. There are also other extensions that work in the same manner, so you can choose the one you prefer.

While Google may be trying to improve the search experience by promoting forums like Reddit, this is not something users are finding very beneficial. Fortunately, the methods I've shared above can help you exclude Reddit from your search results without going through a lot of hassle. You can also simply avoid the Reddit links and scroll to the ones you want to check out if you do not want to permanently get rid of Reddit, though this gets tedious if there are too many Reddit links.