The Google Sandbox
The simple premise of the Google sandbox is this: Google doesn’t want to list spammy sites. Some spammers, however, have been able to get sites listed quickly, get good ranks using questionable techniques, and make a buck before Google can react. Because of this, Google seems to have increased the importance of the age of a website among its ranking factors. So now, to be designated “Not Spam,” one of the things a site has to do is, apparently, get older. It’s age before beauty: A brand-new site, even one with no spam qualities, may disappear into ranking oblivion for several months until it’s had a chance to age its way into Google’s heart.
The gossip and guessing surrounding the Google sandbox rivals that of any celebrity breakup, federal
interest rate hike, or Supreme Court nomination. Questions—many, many questions—have been asked, and anecdotal answers are all we have: Does it exist? Does it affect a whole site or just individual pages? And we are totally serious here:When Google’s Matt Cutts smiled and nodded, did he mean anything significant about the sandbox?
We’ve done some poking around under the shroud of mystery, and still, the best we can do is provide
you with unconfirmed but oft-stated rumors about the sandbox:
• Commercial sites are more likely to be affected by the sandbox than .edu or .gov sites.
• Regardless of how a site finally breaks out of the sandbox, many sites are commonly released
at the same time.
• Age is not the only factor involved; a sudden increase in inbound links and page overoptimization
may also be penalized.
So here’s what this means to you: First and foremost, don’t think of Google as the only way to get traffic to your website. Nobody loves Google like we do, believe us. But the sandbox proves that Google can pretty much play whack-a-mole with sites’ rankings in any way it likes. And second, wait it out. It might take months (yes, months) to get out of the sandbox. If you think your site is sandboxed, make sure it’s optimized and well-linked from quality, relevant sites.Then you’ll know it’s ready for its debut.