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What is The Google Sandbox Effect?

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By · August 26, 2004 · 109 Comments

In the age of fair competition you may find it hard to believe that a search engine may hinder the appearance of a new website.

This is what is currently believed to be happening on more web servers today. Some programmers have viewed Google as uncomfortable to rank newer websites until they have proven their viability to exist for more than a period of “x” months. Thus the term “Sandbox Effect” applies to the idea that all new websites have their ratings placed in a holding tank until such time is deemed appropriate before a ranking can commence.

However the website is not hindered as much as the links that are reciprocated from other users. Newer links that are created are put on a “probationary” status until again they pickup in rank from other matured sites or placed directly by an ad campaign. The idea behind the hindrance is to prevent a fast ranking to occur on a new website. The usual holding period seems to be between 90 and 120 days before a site would start obtaining rank from reciprocal or back linking.

Some advice has been given to have companies you are going to reciprocate back add your link first to the website. This may help grandfather your site in, thus reducing the waiting time associated with “new” websites. People have noticed a 0 page rank when first signing up and receiving a bolstering 7 page ranking after 4 months. Why the delay? The fact is, that if people realized how easy it would be to get a high ranking, would that take away the credibility of the engine. It depends on whom you ask, but it does seem to be happening frequently to newer subscribers. Do not discontinue back linking, your rank will eventually appear.

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.sitetube.com. Visit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites.

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There are 109 Comments. Add Yours.
  1. geeurbie
    Reply

    I’ve written here and on other blogs that I do not believe in the Google Sandbox. I manage three websites for my businesses. I have effectively used page titles and other Meta tags and never experienced the sandbox. My new website http://www.tucsonseosolutions.com gets first page results with Google. It is in a competitive field of SEO.

    What I emphasize here is a localized approach to SEO. Everything that I do mentions Tucson. That includes my page titles. I have also gained first page for my house cleaning tips blog located at http://www.yourfreshstart.us/wp. and it’s home web site ranks well also…
    It usually is ranked in the # 1 position with Google.

    So having three websites not experience the sandbox by using Keyword phrases in my page titles seems to be working. I would suggest that you might want to give it a try.

    • David dSouza
      Reply

      geeurbie:

      You manage an SEO website, yet you do not seem to understand the Sandbox.

      What keywords do you show up in Google for? ‘Tucson SEO’ and ‘Tucson House Cleaning tips’ the reason you are not sandboxed for these terms is because no one searches for them and there is no competition, see:
      http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

      Try starting a new website and getting ranked well for a keyword that people actually search for. Even if you are sandboxed you will still show up in Google for your company name and other obscure keywords that no other websites would even compete for.

      It amazes me that you manage websites and try to sell SEO services and yet do not seem to know this.

      • I think that the sandbox is very true. My site about rating video games (http://games.2donext.com) did not start getting organic traffic for about 3-4 months for items people actually search for.

        Now if I could just get them to stay.

      • The best thing to do to get out of the google sandbox is to request a link exchange from other ranked sites. To find other sites that offer link exchanges, simply search for “add a link” or something similar and start submitting your site. Of course the sites with higher page ranks are preferred.

    • i want to thanks th owner of this site

    • You haven’t a clue mate.

  2. I agree with the writer, the sandbox is true.
    My site (http://www.walidov.com) is not well archived even that I have more than 500 back links in websites that have PR= 7, 6, 5, 4 and 3.
    Also my page rank is still “0″!!
    So all these fact leads to the trueness of this post.
    Thank you so much for elaborating such important issue.

    • Hello,

      Yes you are right Jakob Jelling , I believe that Google Sandbox effects any new website.
      thanks for your great article.

  3. hornet
    Reply

    True
    This has happened to me at the start
    Thank you very much
    http://www.s7r.net

    • True
      i want to thanks th owner of this site

  5. One nice thing that can happen is that day when you finally do get pagerank. Usually it is accompanied by a nice bump in traffic. At least that’s been my experience with previous websites. Waiting for the same at http://www.onmylist.com

      • well, I rarely develop a web site on my own but recently, i’ve got involved in internet marketing and starting to do internet business. One of the topic I am involved is SEO. well, I have heard the penalties about Google but not sure about it until i read this post. There were lots of discussion about the sandbox effect, while I’m new to this topic, I can’t comment too much about it. However, by reading the post, it certainly helps me to think carefully about building link to my website and avoid the penalty.

        thank you guys I have learned some new things today!

        • Up until christmas i was getting great traffic also until we to got stuck in the sandbox! some of my pages that where coming up as page one in searches totally dissapeared…we moved from an iis to linux server, changed the structure of our site and have spent months implimenting seo, and they say spam email is bad!!! still here’s hoping http://www.avongraphics.co.uk

  7. SSY
    Reply

    What if you develop a new website when google updates their page rank and backlinks does it automatically get a ranking. My website http://www.myhiphopclothing.com hasn’t received a ranking other than 0 yet for about 2 in a half months now I thought it was because google didnt update yet.

    • SPB
      Reply

      This sandbox thing is mystifying for me. How can you check to see if you are in it? Can you be put in it when already established? My site http://www.wiiuser.co.uk was gradually working it’s way up the search ranks when suddenly it has completely disappeared from google. It is still visible in yahoo!

  8. I dont understant. I have site which has about 7 month. In the last 4 day, google is senig me only 10 – 20 visitors. Till then google was sending me at least 300 visitors. What is wrong? I have over 5000 pages indexed by google. Ai have links that point ti my site. What is wrong? My site is http://www.wallpaperszone.eu

  9. Hello, thank you for posting this information that would be helpful for others, and i just want to confirm that the Google Sandbox is truly exist and it’s a delaying filter applied to newly indexed websites which are targeting commercial or competitive keywords, all what you can in the time your website is sand boxed is to keep your search engine optimization as always and give it more time till it’s recovered by Google which i find totally fair.

    http://www.seo-proz.com
    Search Engine Optimization

    • WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW

  12. I have been observing google for quite some time (as it is my favorite search engine). This has happened to one of my sites lately http://www.pinoynursingreview.com/ and I am still waiting for it to surface on google till now even with some backlinks already.

    Any tips?

  14. There obviously is some kind of filter which many refer to as the sand box effect for newly built sites. However, some say this no longer exist.
    Thanks for this very informative article. It is very helpful. Our site http://www.westcovinacriminaldefenselawyer.com seems be doing ok but I think it what you exactly say, its a non competetive keyword.

  15. There is sandbox for the page hosted at any servers?

  16. yes, i think my site is in the sandbox period, coz my site just go live since mid dec last year.

  17. Hello,

    How long does this sandbox effect last? Can you have a PR1 and still be in the sandbox? I seem to be stuck, and not quite sure what to do next.

    Thanks

     

  18. Yeah, I agree. I have new sites that vanished and then begin to rank after 2-3 months. I guess every new sites will have to experience this.

  19. It’s going to be hard asking companies to put a link to your site first before you put a link to theirs as yours is still new and has 0 PR. It’s only possible if you already have some PR.

  20. This definitely has to be true.   I have recently (in the past 2 years) started a few different websites, and all of them had difficulty gaining page rank in the beginning, even though I had many high quality pages linking to me. 

  22. This is just an interesting observation I’ve made, but it seems that if I buy a domain name and put a site up, it usually gets sandboxed.  BUT:

    I had over 60 domains that I bought about 4 years ago.  I finally finished websites for them last year. I uploaded them to the new server, then updated the DNS at the registrar, and forgot about them for a week.

    Within a week, most of the new sites were indexed and cached in Google, although I had not created a single link to any of them yet, or submitted any of them to any other search engines.

    I have duplicated this on a smaller scale, with one or two sites here and there.  It’s kind of freaking me out actually, as I usually test my websites before rolling them out, and a few times, Google has cached my latin filler. :)

    • Guest
      Reply

      The reason you are able to be ranked on the 60 sites that you have without any reciprocal linking is because your sites, while just developed are not considered new in the eyes of google.  You have sites that are in essence 4 years old and google sees your sites as relevant which will give you a higher initial page ranking.

      The moment you created your sites and they went live, you know have content that can be indexed.  Additionally, you have the years of existence with your domain names so you are not a new site and will not have the label of a spam site.

      Good luck with your projects!

  23. This sandbox things just doesn’t make sense. This would definately make it very hard for someone to start a new site and see no result for at least 2 months. All your promotion ain’t going to show and you just have to sit it out.

  24. J C
    Reply

    I finally got out of the sandbox after 3 months. It sure is nice to have access to others thoughts on this and the promotion of our websites. Thanks for all the input.

    http://www.computertutorforseniors.com

  26. I bought my domain all of four months ago, and still nothing on google.  I’ve read elsewhere on a SEO website that it can take at least six months to get through the ‘sandbox’ now, even up to 12 months. My product name is fairly unique, ReportQL, with only eight results listed.

    I’ve got keywords, titles and everything I should have, i’ve even submitted a site map to google.

    http://www.reportql.co.uk

  27. Its reassuring to hear that other people are having the same experiences as me!  I’m new to all this and couldn’t understand why I seemed to have dropped off the google radar even though I’ve spent the last month doing nothing but getting links to my site.

    I’ve submitted my sitemap to google and it never seems to index any more of my pages.  Yahoo seems to update itself a lot quicker, but I guess most people will use google instead.

    It’s all very frustrating when you’re trying to set up a new business and actually make an income instead of watching your stock get dusty!

    Mel

    http://www.lovesexyhampers.com

  28. Thank you, now I understand my PR 0, since mid-December, if it was already preocupandome toward something wrong.

  29. i’m running a used cars portal for the UK, i’m also stuck with PR1 for a year, have got fed up of trying to market the site through the engines, working with online advertisement campaigns instead.

     

  30. I believe Google sandbox is real. For my instance, I got my site http://www.index-online-casino.com ranked well on Google at first two months. However, in the third months, all SERPs disappearred. It only been found in position 850-950 with very targeted phrases. I will be patient to wait for the release out of Google sandbox. Anyway, I don’t live for Google. If there is not Google in the plant, I still have a heat-hart to develop my sites. Sandbox means nothing to me.

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