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What is the Google “sandbox”?

In my own words I would say it is an observation of an algo effect implemented by Google in March 2004 that makes new sites not rank at all for a period of many months. It is a dampening effect that was most probably created to stop spam sites from getting high rankings quickly in the SERPs.

Here is a 11 page thread at WMW started Nov 17, 2005 discussing the sandbox.

Here is an article from Search Engine Roundtable (Barry Schwartz) from May 20, 2005 entitled Google Sandbox Defined.

Here is an article about it written May 6, 2004 - only a few months after the effect was observed.

How do I determine if my site is sandboxed?

In this excellent post from randfish at SEOMoz dated Jan 11, 2006 he explains various techniques on how to detect and determine if you are in the box.

How do I get out of the sandbox faster?

On the January 3, 2006 a special thread was created in which the moderators at SE Roundtable Forums discussed different strategies on this.

They came up with 3 different solutions:

Barry posted:
Well, most experts believe that the sandbox is about earning Google’s trust. How can we earn Google’s trust?

- trusted links from trusted sites
- quality content
- use an old domain name that has been live (purchase a site)
Use the DaveN redirect method that DaveN posted at SEW Forums on the December 12, 2005.
This method is using an old out-of-sandbox domain to put the site on and then 301 redirect it to trick Google into belieaving the site is much older than what it is.
Randfish posted:
“produce a piece of content that’s going to skyrocket your site to Internet superstardom - del.icio.us/popular, digg, furl, mentioned on huge blog sites, slashdot, etc.”

It is also interesting to see what Mike Grehan is saying about this matter. Here is his ClickZ column and here his blog post. Basically his answer is to start a buzz marketing and other SEM strategies and don’t bury yourself under SEO tech. For him the answer seem to be marketing and not SEO. Here is Randfish reply to that article.

On a follow-up post by dazzlindonna on SEO Scoop it is interesting to see that her preferred choice is to target all those non-sandboxed keyword terms and build up the site until until it gets realesed from the box.

Here are also a few theories posted at SEOFAQ.net

16 responses » Leave a comment

Corey said on January 18, 2006 at 3:36 am
none of my sites seem to have ever been sandboxed (atleast i dont think so) im getting lots of google traffic
goggle said on April 27, 2006 at 7:01 pm
I have always used DIGG quite effectively to get traffic but never knew that it would be effective agianst sandbox too..
eimee said on July 14, 2006 at 10:47 am
The Google Sandbox is a metaphorical term to explain why most new websites have very poor rankings in Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS). The Sandbox explains that what many different SEO experts have witnessed with their listings but not depends on their theories. Sandbox applied filters to the new sites. 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 qualities inbound links the site may have. 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 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. Now a days every seo team select google sandbox for keyword selection purposes.
Annerose said on January 30, 2007 at 10:54 pm
I thank you for your comment.
Oudam said on May 9, 2007 at 4:02 am
From my experience it takes 8 months to over a year to get out of the Google sandbox…way too long, IMO.
Jon said on May 21, 2007 at 4:37 pm
I seem to be experiencing the ’sandbox effect’. Hopefully patience and persistance will win the day!!!
credit card expert said on October 4, 2007 at 11:03 am
Hi,
Its a good post.I feel it is very interesting and more informative.Now-a-days everyone in the SEO field using google’s sandbox for keyword optimization.The Sandbox Effect is a topic of hot debate among those interested in search engines and search engine optimization.The Google Sandbox is an alleged filter placed on new websites. The result is that a site does not receive good rankings for its most important keywords and keyword phrases.The Sandbox acts as a de facto probation for sites, possibly to discourage spam sites from rising quickly, getting banned, and repeating the process.Thanks for sharing with us.
Jake said on October 13, 2007 at 7:09 pm
It took my hypnosis treatment site about 7 months to come out of the sandbox - not sure if it has further to come out yet!
Tony John said on December 9, 2007 at 8:00 am
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 qualities inbound links the site may have.
Prechha Narongthai said on December 11, 2007 at 12:33 pm
I feel it is very interesting and more informative.Now-a-days everyone in the SEO field using google’s sandbox for keyword optimization.
Jitada Srinara said on February 9, 2008 at 9:15 am
Thank you very much for your sharing. Enjoy life.
Tony Fricger said on February 26, 2008 at 7:37 am
Great. Thank you veru much.
Tanarat Sriniyom said on March 1, 2008 at 5:56 am
Great. Thanks.
Teena Valenso said on April 21, 2008 at 8:19 am
Thank you for sharing.
susy said on April 24, 2008 at 7:29 am
thank you for sharing.

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