

THE GOOGLE SANDBOX

The sandbox is alive and well.

In March 2004, Google implemented a new filter, now referred to as "The Sandbox". This new "effect" took months to notice and quantify.



The sandbox is also referred to as an "aging delay". Two aging delays have been suggested - one for link weight, and one for competitive term ranking.



The sand box only applies to highly COMPETITIVE terms, revolving around money, such as the words attorney, loans, viagra, real estate, etc. The more lucrative the keyword, the longer the wait.



Yahoo has a sandbox, as well. Opinion seems to indicate that the Yahoo aging delay is not quite as long as the Google Aging Delay. Yahoo does seem to provide an initial boost, that will disappear after about 4 weeks.



MSN appears to have no sandbox. New sites with new pages, targeting competitive terms, can rank well very quickly (weeks) for those terms.



HOW IT WORKS

If you subscribe to the spam reduction theory, Google's thinking was, NO NEW SITES get good ranking, until they prove themselves.

Spammers generate thousands of new pages daily, along with millions of new links to go with them. This penalty is new-site based. Long-standing sites have no trouble ranking new pages.



Link Weight Aging Delay

Google WITHHOLDS "link juice" on new sites, by deprecating the new links, for 2-8 months. If the domain and backlinks have existed for a certain length of time (6 months?), then maybe you are OK, and escape from the sandbox.

Over time, the newly generated links are given weight, and eventually the sandbox effect is lifted.



Competitive Term Aging Delay

Google WITHHOLDS high ranking ability on new sites, for highly commercial keywords, such as loans, real estate, viagra, etc.

Eventually, the new site will rank well for the competitive keywords, and the sandbox effect is lifted. Six months is mentioned most frequently.



SOLUTIONS

Two methods are currently being used to get around the Sandbox penalty for new sites.



One method is to join the Google Ad Words or Adsense program, in which case your pages get spidered in MINUTES. Your site will be checked initially with an algo or human "smell test". If you don't smell bad, you're in. Good rankings will follow (provided of course, that you have good on-page SEO, and a few good backlinks).



I speculate that if you are a Google partner ("approved"), then you are not going to be penalized, unless you subsequently "go bad".



The second method is to buy an old domain, just for it's longevity, and old backlinks. Many have bought up old domain names for this purpose. This may work right now, but the rules will soon change again. They always do.

Good luck!

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