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Recommendations review your organization’s current GoGuardian Admin configuration and surface a suggestion when a gap exists in filtering policy coverage, category blocking, or Smart Alerts coverage. Each recommendation names the gap, the users or organizational units affected, and the impact of resolving it, so you can act without having to track down the gap yourself. Recommendations follow three rules:
  • Recommendations do not change your settings automatically. Every recommendation requires you to accept it before any configuration change is applied. Dismissing a recommendation never changes your configuration.
  • Recommendation access is limited to Full Access administrators and Filter & Monitor administrators who have access to all organizational units. Administrators with partial organizational unit access or read-only access cannot view or apply recommendations.
  • Recommendation actions apply to the whole organization. If you accept, dismiss, or restore a recommendation, that change applies for every eligible administrator in your organization, not just for you.

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Review Recommendation Types

GoGuardian Admin covers three recommendation types.

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Extend Filtering Coverage

This recommendation appears as Assign Policy to Unfiltered OUs when an organizational unit has users with no local or inherited filtering policy. The Finding names how many OUs are unfiltered and why, with a View Unfiltered OUs link to review them directly. Clicking Auto-Apply Default Policy applies a policy, either your organization’s existing default policy or a newly created standard default policy, to extend filtering coverage to those users. See Filtering Policies to review how policies apply to organizational units.

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Block Additional Categories

This recommendation appears as Block [N] Website Categories when the policy assigned to your root OU does not block a recommended critical category, such as pornography, weapons, or nudity. The Finding lists the specific missing categories, with a View Affected Policies link that opens your Policy List so you can review each affected policy’s Website Categories. Clicking Auto-Block Categories adds the missing category blocks to the policy. See Website Categories for the full list of filtering categories.

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Close Smart Alerts Gaps

This recommendation appears as a separate card for each missing trigger category, such as Create Trigger for Explicit Content, Create Trigger for Proxies, or Create Trigger for Games, when root organizational unit users are not covered by that Smart Alerts trigger. Applying the recommendation creates the missing trigger using Root OU, High Confidence, and Block Content settings. See Configure Smart Alert Triggers for the full range of confidence thresholds and trigger options.

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Open Recommendations

  1. Go to GoGuardian Admin. If active recommendations exist, the top navigation shows a Recommendations button with a badge showing the number of active recommendations. GoGuardian Admin top navigation showing the Recommendations button with a badge count of 1, next to the GoGuardian Support organization name
  2. Click Recommendations in the top navigation on the page.
  3. Click a recommendation to expand it. Each recommendation shows a Finding section (what was identified and why), a Recommendation section (the suggested fix), and an Impact section (the value of applying it). Assign Policy to Unfiltered OUs recommendation expanded, showing the Finding section listing 392 unfiltered OUs, a View Unfiltered OUs link, the Recommendation section, an Impact section estimating coverage for 167 students, and the Dismiss and Auto-Apply Default Policy buttons
  4. In the Finding section, click the View link, such as View Unfiltered OUs or View Affected Policies, to open the affected configuration in a new tab and review the specific OUs, policies, or triggers involved.
  5. Each active recommendation shows its Finding, Recommendation, and Impact sections, along with an action button and a Dismiss option.

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Accept, Dismiss, or Restore a Recommendation

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Accept a Recommendation

  1. In Recommendations, find the recommendation you want to apply and expand it.
  2. Review the Finding, Recommendation, and Impact sections to confirm the change is what you want.
  3. Click the recommendation’s action button. The button names the exact change it applies, such as Auto-Apply Default Policy for a filtering coverage recommendation or Auto-Block Categories for a category blocking recommendation.
  4. A confirmation banner names the change that was applied, such as “Default policy assigned to unfiltered OUs,” and the recommendation moves out of your active list. The action appears in the audit log.
Configuration changes from an accepted recommendation, and any related setting you change manually, can take up to 15 minutes to be reflected in Recommendations.

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Dismiss a Recommendation

  1. In Recommendations, find the recommendation you want to dismiss and expand it.
  2. Click Dismiss. Assign Policy to Unfiltered OUs recommendation's Impact section and action buttons, with Dismiss and Auto-Apply Default Policy shown side by side
  3. In the confirmation prompt, click Dismiss Recommendation to confirm, or Cancel to keep the recommendation active. The prompt warns that dismissing may let users continue browsing inappropriate content. Dismiss Recommendation confirmation prompt with Cancel and Dismiss Recommendation buttons
  4. The recommendation moves out of your active list, and no configuration change is applied. The action appears in the audit log.

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Restore a Dismissed Recommendation

  1. In Recommendations, click Show Dismissed. The link changes to Hide once dismissed recommendations are shown. Recommendations list with Show Dismissed selected, showing the dismissed Assign Policy to Unfiltered OUs recommendation grayed out with a Restore button
  2. Find the dismissed recommendation you want to restore.
  3. Click Restore.
  4. The recommendation moves back to your active list. The action appears in the audit log.

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FAQ

Can I undo a recommendation after I accept it? Recommendations do not include a dedicated undo option after you accept one. Review or change the resulting configuration through the existing Filtering Policies or Smart Alerts pages instead. For example, you can change or remove a policy assignment, update category blocks, or edit or remove a Smart Alerts trigger. Will dismissing a recommendation affect other administrators? Yes. Recommendation status applies to the whole organization. If you dismiss a recommendation, other eligible administrators in your organization stop seeing it as active until someone restores it. Why don’t I see the Recommendations button? The Recommendations button only appears for Full Access administrators and Filter & Monitor administrators with access to all organizational units, and only when at least one active recommendation exists for your organization. How long does it take for a recommendation to update after I make a change? Up to 15 minutes. If you accept a recommendation or manually update a related filtering policy, category block, or Smart Alerts trigger, allow up to 15 minutes for Recommendations to reflect the change.
Last modified on August 10, 2026