Google's
Giant Sandbox
By Mark Doust
What is the Sandbox?
Before we get too far into an explanation
as to what Google's sandbox is, it must be noted that not
everyone even agrees that the sandbox exists. The sandbox
is actually nothing more than a theory developed to explain
what many different SEO experts have witnessed with their
listings. Whether or not the sandbox really exists is actually
irrelevant when we know that the effects of the sandbox
exist.
Google's sandbox is a relatively
new filter that appeared to be put in place back in March
of 2004. This happened after the widely publicized updates
of Austin and Florida, and the implementation of what is
known as the Austin update. If you are not sure what those
are, there is no need to worry as those updates are now
for the most part in the past. The sandbox filter seems
to affect nearly all new websites placing them on an initial
"probation" status. The effect of this is that
new websites may get into Google's SERP's (search engine
results pages) relatively quickly and may even perform well
for a couple of weeks. When the filter is applied to the
new website it is referred to as being put in the "sandbox".
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 quality inbound
links the site may have. The filter restrains new websites
from having immediate success in the search engine result
pages.
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 filter
is merely an initiation period for new websites.
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.
Why Does the Sandbox Exist?
There is a lot of debate as to whether
the sandbox filter is a good thing for Google to implement
or not. Obviously webmasters who are trying to get their
sites well positioned in Google do not like the sandbox
filter as it prevents them from receiving the huge levels
of traffic that a top listing in Google can bring. The filter
was not implemented at random, however, and there is some
good reasoning for the filter existing.
As the SEO community figured out
the basic elements of Google's ranking algorithm, inbound
links, original content rich with keywords, and the proper
use of anchor text, search engine spammers began to take
advantage of these elements. Search engine spammers would
setup websites that were in clear violation of Google's
policies with the knowledge that eventually their website
would be banned from the listings. This, however, did not
matter. If a search engine spammer could get their website
to rank well in Google for even one month, the profits they
could make from that one month would justify the cost of
building the site in the first place. All they needed to
do in the future was to rebuild their spam websites with
different domains and slightly different content. The idea
for spammers was a simple one. Capitalize off of Google's
traffic for as long as they can (before they get banned),
then do it all over again with a new website. The method
was extremely effective and easy to implement.
What made this all the more easy
to accomplish was Google's extremely fast indexing. While
other search engines would take several months to index
a new website, Google could index a website in as little
as one month (they are now indexing sites within a few days).
Search engine spammers were living large off of Google's
generosity.
To solve this problem, Google determined
that it would compromise. They would still index websites
quickly, attempting to get as much new, fresh content out
to the general public as possible, but they would not trust
new websites implicitly as they had in the past. All new
websites that were launched would be put on probation. As
time passed, and as the sites continued to pass any spam
filters they ran, the website will not be held back from
performing well in the rankings. Eventually, after quite
a bit of time had passed, a site would be allowed to "leave"
the sandbox and join the rest of the established websites.
How Does This Affect My Website?
If you have a new website, there
is a good chance that you will be placed in the sandbox.
This should be expected, but it should not change the way
you build your website or market it. You should use the
sandbox filter to your advantage.
Google still ranks websites in much
the same way that they had in the past. Websites are judged
on the quality of their inbound links and the quality of
their content. Google will continue to change how they evaluate
inbound links and content, but the basic elements of their
rankings will remain the same.
While your website is in the sandbox,
you should use this time to build your traffic using regular
traffic building methods such as writing articles, building
a strong community of visitors, and partnering with websites
that offer some synergy to your visitors. During your time
on probation, you have an excellent opportunity to build
all the elements that cause websites to perform well in
the search engines. When you finally do leave the sandbox,
your website should be very well positioned within Google.
Is My Website in the Sandbox?
When webmasters learn about the sandbox
filter, their first question is always whether or not their
website has been placed in it. Determining whether or not
you are in the sandbox is a relatively easy task to do.
First, being placed in the sandbox is different than having
your website banned.
If you do a search for your domain
in Google and they return zero results for your website
(and you had been previously listed in Google), there is
a chance that you have been banned. One of the best ways
to determine if you have been banned is to look at your
log files to see if Google is visiting your website. Banned
websites typically do not see Google visit their websites,
regardless of who is linking to them.
If you have not been banned, but
do not rank well with Google, you should look at the quality
of your content and the quality of your inbound links. You
should also see if you rank well for non- competitive keywords.
Remember how the filter affects competitive keywords more
than less competitive keywords? Well, you can use this to
determine if you have been sandboxed. Finally, if you rank
well in all the other major search engines, but do not show
up at all in Google's rankings, you have probably been sandboxed.
Is There A Way to Get Out of the
Sandbox?
The quick answer to this is yes,
there is a way out of the sandbox, but you will not like
the answer. The answer is to simply wait. The sandbox filter
is not a permanent filter and is only intended to reduce
search engine spam. It is not intended to hold people back
from succeeding. So eventually, if you continue to build
your site as it should be built, you will leave the sandbox
and join the other established websites.
Again, if your website has been placed
in the sandbox you should use this time to your advantage.
It is a great opportunity to build your traffic sources
outside of the search engines. If you have a website that
does well in the search engines, you may be tempted to ignore
other proven methods of traffic building such as building
a community, or building strong inbound links through partnerships.
However, if you establish traffic sources outside of search
engines, when you finally leave the sandbox, you will see
a welcome increase in your traffic levels.
Conclusion
Google has been going to great lengths
to cut out on search engine spam. Some have faulted them
on the lengths that they are going to claiming that it is
effecting legitimate sites as well as the spam websites.
While this is probably the case, as an owner of a website
you need to place yourself in the position of Google and
ask yourself what they are really looking for in a website.
Google is looking for websites that offer quality content.
Google still relies on the natural voting system that was
first used to establish pagerank. They may change the way
that they qualify content or inbound links, but the basic
elements of a quality website will always remain the same.
No website owner in their right mind
will "like" Google's sandbox. However, a smart
website owner will use the sandbox as an opportunity to
build a website that Google simply cannot refuse.
About the Author:
Mark Daoust is the owner of Site-Reference.com, articles
that focus on Internet Marketing, Website Development, and
Search Engines. This article was originally published at
http://www.site-reference.com/Search-Engines/5147/index.html
