Google Sandbox
December 06, 2005
What is the Sandbox?
Before we get too far into an explanation as to what Google's sandbox is, it
must be noted that not everyone even agrees that the sandbox exists. The sandbox
is actually nothing more than a theory developed to explain what many different
SEO experts have witnessed with their listings. Whether or not the sandbox really
exists is actually irrelevant when we know that the effects of the sandbox exist.
Google's sandbox is a relatively new filter that appeared to be put in place
back in March of 2004. This happened after the widely publicized updates of
Austin and Florida, and the implementation of what is known as the Austin update.
If you are not sure what those are, there is no need to worry as those updates
are now for the most part in the past. The sandbox filter seems to affect nearly
all new websites placing them on an initial "probation" status. The
effect of this is that new websites may get into Google's SERP's (search engine
results pages) relatively quickly and may even perform well for a couple of
weeks. When the filter is applied to the new website it is referred to as being
put in the "sandbox". The new website will still show in the result
pages, but it will not rank well regardless of how much original, well optimized
content and regardless of how many quality inbound links the site may have.
The filter restrains new websites from having immediate success in the search
engine result pages.
The sandbox filter seems to affect almost all new websites, with very few exceptions.
It is important to note that the filter is not a punishment for anything the
webmaster did with their new website. The filter is merely an initiation period
for new websites.
The sandbox filter also affects more competitive keyword driven sites more than
sites that key in on less competitive keywords. If your website focuses on very
competitive keywords, you are likely to remain in the sandbox for a longer period
of time than if you focus on keywords that are relatively non-competitive keywords.
Why Does the Sandbox Exist?
There is a lot of debate as to whether the sandbox filter is a good thing for
Google to implement or not. Obviously webmasters who are trying to get their
sites well positioned in Google do not like the sandbox filter as it prevents
them from receiving the huge levels of traffic that a top listing in Google
can bring. The filter was not implemented at random, however, and there is some
good reasoning for the filter existing.
As the SEO community figured out the basic elements of Google's ranking algorithm,
inbound links, original content rich with keywords, and the proper use of anchor
text, search engine spammers began to take advantage of these elements. Search
engine spammers would setup websites that were in clear violation of Google's
policies with the knowledge that eventually their website would be banned from
the listings. This, however, did not matter. If a search engine spammer could
get their website to rank well in Google for even one month, the profits they
could make from that one month would justify the cost of building the site in
the first place. All they needed to do in the future was to rebuild their spam
websites with different domains and slightly different content. The idea for
spammers was a simple one. Capitalize off of Google's traffic for as long as
they can (before they get banned), then do it all over again with a new website.
The method was extremely effective and easy to implement.
What made this all the more easy to accomplish was Google's extremely fast indexing.
While other search engines would take several months to index a new website,
Google could index a website in as little as one month (they are now indexing
sites within a few days). Search engine spammers were living large off of Google's
generosity.
To solve this problem, Google determined that it would compromise. They would
still index websites quickly, attempting to get as much new, fresh content out
to the general public as possible, but they would not trust new websites implicitly
as they had in the past. All new websites that were launched would be put on
probation. As time passed, and as the sites continued to pass any spam filters
they ran, the website will not be held back from performing well in the rankings.
Eventually, after quite a bit of time had passed, a site would be allowed to
"leave" the sandbox and join the rest of the established websites.
How Does This Affect My Website?
If you have a new website, there is a good chance that you will be placed in
the sandbox. This should be expected, but it should not change the way you build
your website or market it. You should use the sandbox filter to your advantage.
Google still ranks websites in much the same way that they had in the past.
Websites are judged on the quality of their inbound links and the quality of
their content. Google will continue to change how they evaluate inbound links
and content, but the basic elements of their rankings will remain the same.
While your website is in the sandbox, you should use this time to build your
traffic using regular traffic building methods such as writing articles, building
a strong community of visitors, and partnering with websites that offer some
synergy to your visitors. During your time on probation, you have an excellent
opportunity to build all the elements that cause websites to perform well in
the search engines. When you finally do leave the sandbox, your website should
be very well positioned within Google.
Is My Website in the Sandbox?
When webmasters learn about the sandbox filter, their first question is always
whether or not their website has been placed in it. Determining whether or not
you are in the sandbox is a relatively easy task to do. First, being placed
in the sandbox is different than having your website banned.
If you do a search for your domain in Google and they return zero results for
your website (and you had been previously listed in Google), there is a chance
that you have been banned. One of the best ways to determine if you have been
banned is to look at your log files to see if
Google is visiting your website. Banned websites typically do not see Google
visit their websites, regardless of who is linking to them.
If you have not been banned, but do not rank well with Google, you should look
at the quality of your content and the quality of your inbound links. You should
also see if you rank well for non- competitive keywords. Remember how the filter
affects competitive keywords more than less competitive keywords? Well, you
can use this to determine if you have been sandboxed. Finally, if you rank well
in all the other major search engines, but do not show up at all in Google's
rankings, you have probably been sandboxed.
Is There A Way to Get Out of the Sandbox?
The quick answer to this is yes, there is a way out of the sandbox, but you
will not like the answer. The answer is to simply wait. The sandbox filter is
not a permanent filter and is only intended to reduce search engine spam. It
is not intended to hold people back from succeeding. So eventually, if you continue
to build your site as it should be built, you will leave the sandbox and join
the other established websites.
Again, if your website has been placed in the sandbox you should use this time
to your advantage. It is a great opportunity to build your traffic sources outside
of the search engines. If you have a website that does well in the search engines,
you may be tempted to ignore other proven methods of traffic building such as
building a community, or building strong inbound links through partnerships.
However, if you establish traffic sources outside of search engines, when you
finally leave the sandbox, you will see a welcome increase in your traffic levels.
Conclusion
Google has been going to great lengths to cut out on search engine spam. Some
have faulted them on the lengths that they are going to claiming that it is
effecting legitimate sites as well as the spam websites. While this is probably
the case, as an owner of a website you need to place yourself in the position
of Google and ask yourself what they are really looking for in a website. Google
is looking for websites that offer quality content. Google still relies on the
natural voting system that was first used to establish pagerank. They may change
the way that they qualify content or inbound links, but the basic elements of
a quality website will always remain the same.
No website owner in their right mind will "like" Google's sandbox.
However, a smart website owner will use the sandbox as an opportunity to build
a website that Google simply cannot refuse.
This article was written by Mark Daoust of www.Site-Reference.com