How to Block Advertisements in Safari Browser on Mac?

Nowadays, online publishers can make handsome money with the help of displaying advertising on their site. In addition, if you can sell products and do affiliate marketing especially if you have a large network of friends. This leads to millions and millions of blogs on different niches. You can notice, each single search query in Google will show multi-million results. Well, all is not good. Some publishers show lot of advertisements and annoy the readers. If you are using Safari browser on Mac then you are covered to get away from these advertisements.

Why People Block Advertisements?

Frankly, many publishers, including us, lives with the income made through advertisement programs like Google AdSense. Initially, Google has the policy to show maximum three ads on a single page regardless of the content’s length. However, later they removed the rule and allow publishers to display unlimited ads on any single page. There are lots of spammy and greedy publishers show annoying ads forcing users to block.

Below are some of the reasons you should block ads in Safari.

• Irrelevant ads like dating and not safe for work on kids websites.
• Too many ads slow down the webpage loading.
• Indistinguishable ads that confuse the reader with the content.
• Pop-ups show advertisements without reader’s permission.

In our earlier articles, we have explained how to block pop-ups and push notifications in Safari. Here you will find how to block ads in Safari browser on Mac.

Block Ads in Safari Browser on Mac

Safari allows three different ways to block advertisements and unrelated content on a website.

• Reader mode
• Block display ads and irrelevant content
• Stop auto-playing video ads
• Use ad blocker extensions

1. Using Reader Mode in Safari

Reader mode in Safari allows you to remove all clutters from webpages. You can either use reader mode on the spot for the particular webpage or setup this as your default to view all websites in reader mode.

• Go to “Safari > Preferences…” menu.
• Click on the “Websites” option and go to “Reader” section.
• You can view the currently opened websites along with the list of previously configured websites.
• Choose “On” from the dropdown against the websites you want to block ads.

This will remove all the advertisements and only show text / image content. However, most of the websites may not work or look properly when using the reader mode. We recommend you to use this option for distraction free reading on few websites that you read frequently.

Setup Reader Mode Permanently

If you like the reader mode and want to setup for all the websites, Safari has an option for that.

• When you are in “Reader” preferences section, click on the “When visiting other websites” dropdown.
• Choose “On” to permanently setup reader mode for all websites.

This will allow Safari to open all supported websites to open in reader mode. You can see the reader mode icon on the address bar (smart search field) and toggle as per your preference.

2. Using Content Blockers in Safari

Reader mode though helpful is not supported by many of the websites. In this case, you can try next “Content Blockers” option. This will remove the advertisements and irrelevant content on the websites you visit.

• Go to Safari preferences by pressing “Command + ,” keys when you are working in Safari.
• Navigate to “Websites” tab and go to “Content Blocker” section.
• Similar to reader mode, enable content blocker for specific websites you are currently viewing.

Setup Content Blocker Permanently for All Websites

When are in “Content Blockers” preferences section, click on “When visiting other websites” option and choose “On”. This will permanently setup content blockers when you are viewing any other websites other than those you have setup specific preference.

Using Reader Mode and Content Blockers from Address Bar

Instead of going to preferences section, you can also enable or disable reader mode and content blockers directly from the address bar.

• When visiting the website, right click on the address bar and choose “Setting for This Website”. Alternatively, go to “Safari > Settings for This Website”.
• It will show a slide out with options to enable or disable reader mode and content blockers instantly.

Safari will save your preferences in the corresponding section.

3. Blocking Auto-Playing Videos

Some websites show videos that will play automatically with sound. This is extremely annoying for visitors to suddenly see the floating video.

• Similar to “Reader” and “Content Blockers” option, go to “Auto-Play” section and block the auto-playing videos for specific websites.
• You have also an option to permanently block auto-playing videos from the “When visiting other websites” option.
• You have three options to choose – Stop Media with Sound, Allow All Auto-Play and Never Auto-Play.
• We recommend you to select “Never Auto-Play” option to permanently block auto-playing videos.  

Related: How to block advertisements in Google Chrome?

4. Using Ad Blocker Extensions for Safari

We have tested “Reader Mode” and “Content Blockers” options with latest Safari browser on Mac. Unfortunately, both of these options are not working effectively, and we can see advertisements on almost all the websites. The auto-play option works fine, however not many websites show advertisements in the videos. Therefore, the best option is to use ad blocker extension to get rid of advertisements in Safari on Mac. This also helps to block ads on video streaming websites like YouTube and allow to see the videos freely without ads.

• Open Safari and go to “Safari > Safari Extensions” menu.
• This will open Mac App Store and take you to the Safari extensions section.
• Unlike Chrome Web Store, you can find hardly few ad blocking extensions for Safari.
• Search and install “AdBlock for Safari” extension.

• Launch the app after installation and click on “Set up Ad Block in Safari” button.

• This will take you to the “Extensions” section of Safari preferences. Select “AdBlock Engine” and “AdBlock Icon” to give permission.

• Hereafter, you can use the AdBlock icon next to the address bar to block advertisements on websites.

As you can see the warning, AdBlocker can get all information including your credit card and password details. Therefore, use the extension only if it is necessary for you to browse without advertisements.

Final Words

We are used to see advertisements in newspapers and televisions and accept them as part of the live. Not many people complains about the TV or newspaper advertisements. Time is changing and we are moving on to the digital era. With the mobile on everyone hand, companies are spending big for online advertisements. Online publishers spend lots of time to create content, hence we need to change our mindset to accept the online advertisements. Yet, you have the above explained options to block ads if you feel it Is necessary.