Google Sandbox for New Websites

Webmasters or blog owners spend their precious hours, days or months to build their web pages. They prepare their content, try to set an eye-catching design, struggle with possible software and hosting problems and finally make their pages ready for the exciting launch night. However, they confront a nightmare right after they launch their brand new web pages.

The mighty Google does not help them for traffic.

The right question to ask before getting frustrated is; "Have you heard of the Google Sandbox concept?"

It is called sandbox because your website is put in an area where you are isolated from others. If you are sent to sandbox, you can't compete with old and established ones till your lovely website proves itself. You need to play with other children and you will need time; you will need to grow before playing with adults. If you grow up and gain Google's trust, then you can rank well on SERPs.

Why is Google doing that Aging Delay?

It was first observed after the update in 2004. (By the way "Google Sandbox" is not an official term agreed by Google, it is called like that by the web community) Before that change, spam websites were using Google as a ground for earning easy money overnight. There were lots of abuse, spam was everywhere. Spammers were preparing websites with copy/paste, getting good rankings for competitive words quickly on SERPs, taking huge amounts of traffic easily and search engines were helping them a lot. At that time it was getting hard for search engine users to find quality websites because of this "earn easy money online" strategies.

So starting from that update, Google changed its algorithm and started to apply some filters to prevent this kind of tricky business. New websites no longer rank well easily on SERPs.

I should also mention that older websites are also sent to sandbox if they are penalized. That is a different topic and there are lots of differences between being in sandbox as a young website or an old website. This article is only about new websites and I will write another article about older websites in future. So you may ask "Am I penalized and sent to sandbox or am I waiting in sandbox because I am a newcomer?"

How can you understand that your new website is in Google Sandbox?

These are some symptoms if you have a new website and waiting in sandbox:

• Usually this sandbox filter affects new websites which are 0-12 months old.
• Most of the time this aging delay is for new registered domains. However in some cases it is observed that using older domains are also not a solution for this delay if its content and web pages are newly created.
• When you try "site:www.yourcutesite.com" in Google, your pages will be shown in the results. That means you are not banned totally, bots can visit and index your webpages. (Also give search engines some time for indexing your new pages; search their index after 1-2 weeks from website launch)
• When you look at your analytics programs or server logs, you will see that you are getting visitors from Google only with your brand or company name as search keywords.
• When you search for your targeted keywords in Google, your website won't be in SERPs or will be between 30th-50th pages.
• Other search engines might send you traffic with your targeted keywords. (Though you can read differently elsewhere, I believe Yahoo and Bing also started to use some similar filters in their algorithms for new websites, they are also fighting with spam, right?)
• Your website will not rank well for highly relevant keywords or even long tail less competitive keywords.

What can I do, how can I get out from sandbox?

You will not like my answers for this question. Essentially the solution is time. You need to wait, wait and wait. Most likely you will wait for 3 to 12 months after your website launch. This duration is changing with the competition on your targeted keywords. If you are planning to rank well in a competitive market, you will have to wait longer.

People say this kind of filter does not exist. But in my opinion every website passes through this kind of filter. Some stays very long in sandbox since they are aiming highly competitive markets. Some does not wait, even feel a sense of waiting since their targeted keywords are not so popular and challenging for ranking mechanism.

I know it is hard to wait but be patient. Use this time for your advantage. Don't ever use black hat SEO techniques. Just try to improve your content, do your white hat SEO work, increase your brand value with marketing, use social media to promote your pages. Avoiding this filter is impossible so don't believe in some tricky articles or videos.

My ultimate advice, always try climbing the hard path, it will be worth it.

Don't forget, it is just a probationary period to prevent spam. If you are planning some good business with your website or blog, you will be glad about this sort of filter in future. Because when you pass this "frustrating" time, when you start playing with adults, this filter also will protect you from spammy competitors.

Aykut Pehlivanoglu lives in Ankara, Turkey. He is Co-Founder and CEO of PB Bilisim since 2007. His company owns a website network which includes well-known ones like Gametator, Worth Of Web and Suggest Me Movie.

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The Google Sandbox - What is it and Does it Really Exist?

The Google Sandbox is basically a time period that websites must wait in order to start ranking for high competitive keywords. It's a filter system that Google places on new websites which have little to no trust.

There are many theories on the internet regarding the Google sandbox as it's not entirely clear, however, we do know that some sort of filter system exists which lasts between 3 to 9 months (some claim even longer). This filter system will affect highly competitive keywords and will not show them in the SERPS.

It's important to mention that the sandbox affect is keyword related only and will not affect the whole site. It will affect the site if all of your keywords are highly competitive which require extra trust by Google in order to show the results in their SERPS.

Can I avoid the Google Sandbox?

I'm afraid this is not possible, Many people claim that doing this or that can reduce the chances of your site getting sandboxed. To avoid being sandboxed is never going to have a clear path. Some of the many claims are very useful to your website and rankings even if they will not actually get you out of the sandbox.

If there is a way to get out of the sandbox then you will need to:

Earn Google's trust - this is done by getting some high quality backlinks from sites such as dmoz - yahoo and other sites with high page rank including .gov and .edu domain.

Write quality content - write quality content so that it will become very popular - people will bookmark it - it will appear on delicious, flickr, and on many blogs. Google loves content and if you keep producing excellent content which gets syndicated and used by others then it should speed up the time your website spends in the sandbox.

Some people even say that by building backlinks slowly will also get the site out of the sandbox or avoid the sandbox altogether. To be honest this isn't a factor which will affect the sandbox.

What to do while I'm in the Sandbox?

To come out of the sandbox requires patience and no one knows this better then webmasters who have been in the sandbox for their competitive keywords. If you are in the sandbox then don't give up.

Keep promoting your website -when you get released from the sandbox filter you should have some great rankings.

Target long tail keywords - Remember that the sandbox only affects competitive keywords - optimize your articles to target long tail keywords - you will start to rank for them quickly.

Points to consider:

Being caught up in the sandbox filter is one of the worst experiences that any webmaster can have. The period ranges from 3 to 9 months - some people say that this period focuses on the site age and others say that it focuses on the age of backlinks. Either way when you get a new site make sure to start creating backlinks to it asap so that the backlinks can also age with the domain. A quality aged backlink has great power.

Remember to keep working on your optimization for the website as when you will come out of the sandbox you should benefit from great rankings.

If you have found this article useful then please feel free to bookmark it.

Big Seo Techniques is a UK based SEO company providing SEO services with many clients benefiting from page 1 rankings. Visit us today for a free website valuation and quote.

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Surviving Google's Aging Delay

Google has always been the search industry's innovator and that's just what Google's aging delay symbolizes, the evolution of search innovation... yet another significant step forward for Google.

Google's success as a search engine can undeniably be attributed to its ability to consistently return the most relevant search engine results. That's what kept the search giant on top of the pack and leading the multi-billion dollar search industry & that's what's going to keep them there!

Now that said, is it any wonder why Google incorporated the infamous aging delay into their ranking criterion? The simple truth is, Google's aging delay is a full frontal assault on artificial link inflation.

With the induction of multiple clever off-page reciprocal-linking strategies engineered to artificially inflate link popularity and PageRank, Googles aging delay wasn't only necessary and long overdue; it was the next logical step in the evolution of search.

The confusion and misunderstanding of the aging delay among site owners is nothing short of amazing. Many of my clients are confounded because their new sites are well positioned in Yahoo, MSN & the other large search engines while they're site is no where to be found in Google's search engine result's pages (SERPs)... except for perhaps on the most obscure search terms.

Current and unconfirmed speculation has been misplacing the blame on Google's 'sandbox' effect. While this is a possibility I believe it's also highly improbable.

The sandbox holding period is typically anywhere between 90 to 120 days, the aging delay appears to be much longer. I've seen new sites delayed for up to 6-8 months.

The premise of the sandbox delay theory suggests that new sites are being penalized for gaining too many links too fast. To date I haven't seen a scrap of evidence to support that claim.

The sandbox theory is further disproved by the fact that newer sites engaged in procuring relevant links experience the same delay in climbing Google's SERPs as other new sites utilizing scores of purchased text links. This lends credibility to my thought that new sites are not being penalized on the premise of acquisition or quantity of inbound links and; supports my theory that it's the reciprocated links that are being delayed by an aging filter.

It just doesn't seem 'reasonable' for Google to penalize sites for acquiring legitimate directory listings & building an optimized reciprocal link based network. In my opinion, mainstream SEOs are confusing the existing sandbox effect, with Google's new 'aging filter' that arrived on the search scene earlier this year.

It seems more likely that Google's aging filter is weighing the 'maturity' of inbound links and not the new site itself. Meaning that in addition to the traditional ranking criterion, the age of a sites inbound links are also now considered.

My own theory is that newly acquired inbound links are placed on a 'probationary' status until they've 'matured' before they're considered. For example, a new and relevant inbound PR 6 link would not be given the same weight or consideration as a 'grandfathered' PR 6 link until the aging delay expired.

By placing newly acquired links on a probationary period and delaying the ranking of newer sites Google has effectively offset the instant free ride to the top of their SERPs. Purchasing volumes of brokered links to that end is now a moot point. After all, your site will still be delayed regardless of the amount of links you purchase and you won't see any return on investment (ROI) for at least 6 - 8 months.

Existing Site owners interested in immediate (ROI) are now strongly motivated to build new pages or expand existing sites in order to avoid Googles lengthy aging delay. With the 'all-the-rage' mini-network strategy shifting to more of a long-term commitment it seems likely that's exactly what will happen!

Whether by clever design or not, the only alternative to riding out the aging delay that produces immediate results in Googles SERPs is to advertise through Google's AdWords Program. So it seems that Google's solution vis-à-vis the aging delay has turned out to be an excellent vehicle to promote Googles own AdWords Program as well. Hmm...

How do you survive Google's aging delay? By taking pro-active action!

I haven't seen any new sites with new domains appear at the top of Google's (SERPs) since early to mid 2004. I've consulted with and tracked many of my clients' new sites and despite the fact they have hundreds of #1 positions in Yahoo, Alta Vista, AllTheWeb & MSN for their keywords I've yet to see any remarkable results in Google until the 6 - 8 month period.

The trend I've noticed suggests that new sites are initially indexed; ranked accordingly in Google's SERPs for a week or so and then literally vanish from the SERPs for several months. In most cases they can't even be found with the most obscure search terms... including their own name and address.

If you're launching a new site don't panic. Once you've registered your domain name and configured the hosting, you should set up a few temporary pages. Obtain links to them from other sites in Google's index to start the aging delay count down. I recommend launching a site immediately with enough content to set up and facilitate the requirements for directory listings to start. The sooner Google is aware of your domain the better. Just don't hold your breath waiting to see results... It could be as long as 6 - 8 months!

Gauge your optimization efforts by where your site ranks in the other search engines. Provided you're not engaged in unethical practices and followed Google's Webmaster's guidelines this should give you a ballpark indication of where Google will rank your site after the aging delay, just be patient.

To that end, don't keep tweaking and changing your pages source code and trying to manipulate your rankings until your site has been in Google's index for at least 6 - 8 months. In other words, there's no need to reinvent the wheel here because it doesn't seem to matter what you do, your site will still be delayed regardless.

Don't keep submitting your pages to Google either! It won't make any difference.

Check your server logs to confirm Googlebots' crawl and then forget about it. Googlebot will find your site again if you're actively reciprocating links so your time would be better served building an optimized reciprocal link network to get your site out there and linked to as early as possible.

If traffic from Google is crucial to your marketing and promotion plan, and I don't know anyone who would argue otherwise... budget to run an AdWords campaign for a few months until the site is indexed and positioned. You might even consider running an Overture campaign as well!

If you purchase non-directory links, reallocate that budget to Adwords advertising.

It's pointless to purchase links when you can invest in an AdWords or Overture campaign. Purchasing links is an investment you won't see a red cent ROI for at least 6 - 8 months while an Adwords campaign will drive targeted traffic to your site that can convert immediately. Keep in mind that Lycos, HotBot, AOL, Ask Jeeves, Iwon, Netscape & Teoma also receive paid results from Google! MSN, AllTheWeb, AltaVista & Yahoo receives paid results from Overture.

Do other search engines have an aging delay?

Google provides primary search results to other search engines. It only seems reasonable to expect that your site may be delayed in Google's partner sites as well.

One-way you may be able to work around this, and I can't emphasize this enough; is to make sure you submit your site to DMOZ, the open source directory. Google, in addition to the other major engines, receives directory results directly from DMOZ.

Yahoo and its partner sites don't seem to be utilizing an aging delay, nor does MSN, so focusing your early efforts on these search engines might give you a competitive edge in the Yahoo network.

At the end of the day when it's all said and done surviving Google's aging delay is just a matter of time. The days of purchasing instant link popularity and PageRank are over and in due course you will see Google give your site the recognition it deserves.

Copyright 2005 Lawrence Deon

Lawrence Deon is a Search Engine Optimization/Marketing Consultant, Author and Developer of the popular search engine optimization and marketing model Ranking Your Way To The Bank. http://www.rankingyourwaytothebank.com

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