Whilst I appreciate that many of you reading this post already have an understanding of the Google “sandbox” I’ll just briefly explain to those of you that are new to this what we are talking about here before we consider how long your site is likely to be stuck in the Google Sandbox.
The Sandbox - First and foremost I should probably add that at no point has Google given any official explanation of the “sandbox”, in fact the term sandbox is a term SEO’s started using to explain this phenomenon and not an official Google term.
Who’s effected by the Google Sandbox - In a nut shell, new sites.
What happens - It appears that for a period in the early stages of a new sites life the search ranking positions of that site are dampened by something in Googles algorithm. New sites are effectively quarantined unable to break in to the top 100 or so results until Google has established whether that site can be trusted to be included further up the listings.
Its also worth noting that there are numerous theories regarding the nature of the sandbox. Some even deny it’s existence. The fact, however is that if you’ve spent any time working on new sites you’ll appreciate that the sandbox is very real.
So onto the original question of this post:-
How long can you expect your new site to be in the sandbox - unfortunately there is no definitive answer. I can only answer based on my experiences with new sites in the last couple of years. The quickest I’ve managed to get a site out of the sandbox is five months. The longest was 12 months. My approach to both sites was the same.
Why did Google create the sandbox effect - the commonly agreed train of thought on this matter was that its primarily an anti-spam measure. Historically spam sites would pop-up, climb rapidly to the top of the rankings by employing various unethical SEO techniques. They’d then attract a lot of search engine traffic before Google had a chance to exclude them from its results. As such you can view the sandbox as a measure that buys them some time to evaluate your new site.
Another theory is that its designed to offer the sites at the top a little protection, with so much business generated through the web nowadays the companies at the top generate a lot of business through their web positions. If one day a new site appears out of nowhere into the top slot and starts taking all that business that can have serious consequences for the company in question and its employees.
These are just theories of course.
The moral of this story - if your starting an online business, don’t rely on high traffic volumes from Google for competitive keywords for up to a year.
*** update *** One of the sites I’ve been working on has just emerged from the sandbox eight months after registration.
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