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The Google sandbox
Written by Chris HarpinRight, you have your new site, you are checking your stats daily and you are seeing traffic from MSN and Yahoo but not Google… why not? Well it's simple, you're in the sandbox!
What is the Google Sandbox effect?
Use the time to add content and to make sure your site is set up perfectly for when you do rank
The sandbox effect is like a probation period. Your domain name will be picked up as soon as Google trawls through your site, however the exposure it will give you will not go beyond this.
For example, our new site www.yorkshirecars.com is getting a wealth of traffic from MSN and Yahoo and it is only three weeks old (at the time of writing). It features number one on MSN for various phrases but at present will only be found on Google by the search term ‘yorkshirecars’, even ‘yorkshire cars’ will not present the site.
How long does the Google Sandbox Effect last for?
The feeling throughout the industry is that this can vary from one to six months depending on the competitiveness of your site. From my personal experience I would advise that on average four months should be expected before you see a decent amount of traffic coming your way.
Why would Google do this?
Do a search on the term ‘Google Sandbox’ and you will see almost as many theories as there was for the JFK shooting. The one that makes most sense and appears most often is that a few years ago many SPAM sites were set up with large budgets to purchase back links, giving a site instant popularity overnight. This reduced the effectiveness of what is an important part of the Google algorithm.
By putting sites through a probation period, no amount of back-links will give a site instant popularity. This then causes the people behind SPAM sites to believe that investing thousands in this type of marketing will not benefit them so they will stop doing it and the search engine value of back-links will once again become an important factor.
How can I dig myself out of the sandbox?
There is only one way to achieve this, and that is to wait. Use the time to add content and to make sure your site is set up perfectly for when you do rank. Pay Per Click can be used to ensure that much needed traffic is sent to your site but it will have no effect upon your natural listing.
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