Google Sandbox - Fact or Fiction?

We have all probably heard about the so called Google Sandbox at some point when surfing webmaster forums, but is it fact or fiction?

There has never been any official acknowledgement that the Sandbox actually exists, and while I have no doubt there is some kind of delaying factor for listing new sites, does / did the Sandbox exist?

MB

 

The sandbox does in fact exist. Can't get you any links right now (busy!), but better believe it!

 

The sandbox exists for sure..but how much time you spend in the sandbox is the bigger question. If you can get good links and write content regularly you'll be out of the sandbox in no time

 

i think it debend on time

 

They don't acknowledge many things that people notice.

 

Read this entire article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/business/yourmoney/03google.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=yourmoney

but note this section in reference to your question:

They have acknowledged it at other times as well, they just don't term it the same or call it a penalty. DazzlinDonna did a great review of that article btw, here:
http://www.seorefugee.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6111

-Michael

 

yeah the sandbox is there but its effects are little , u can get out the sandbox within 1 or 2 weeks ! so there's no problem here

 

It all depends on your industry & agressiveness of SEO and link building

 

It exist. You just won't see them acknowledge it.

 

well my blog went into a sandbox state and was not crawled for over 3 months.

so i guess it exists

 

There is no sandox and never was one.

This is a cop out the supposed expert SEOs gave clients because they had no clue or understanding of search algorithms and many still do not.

Due to the way websites spammed Googles index, there had to be a way for Google to stop this from occurring otherwise investors and advertisers would leave.

Google employed the use of a quarterly update for full scoring.

In addition Google cooled the websites down by determing a time frame for rankings. They want and need to establish trust.

You do not go to work at the bank and on day 1 get keys to the vault, same thing applies with search engines.

So Google has employed certain time frames for certain categories of websites and the competition level of keyword terms comes into play.

If you want to rank well for 'green dyed lhasa apsos in new guinea' it should not take more than one full update to rank # 1 on Google (3 months)

How ever to rank at position # 10 for 'texas holdem' it would take over a year to accomplish.

No sandbox for organic results, just a normal adjustment period so to speak

There was a sandbox that was an Adwords tool

Hope this clears the air.

 

First you need to determine what it is you speak of.

Crawling & sandbox are not related.

If the search spider cannot or is not crawling your pages it is one of a few issues.

Server problem

Hosting problem

bad robots.txt file

bad .htaccess file on Linux / Unix servers

You did something to get yourself banned.

Aging process (aka imaginary sandbox) is not crawl related.

 

sandbox exist. google is applying sandbox to the web site . it has start on 2004 (or 2003). there is sandbox forum on dp. you can look it

 

I do not agree with you, Sem-Advance.

I've seen a pattern with 5 sites I've launched the last year.

- I launch the site, and get the "new boost" effect. The site ranks pretty well for the keywords I'm trying to rank.
- Some of the site's get "sandboxed". My longest time in the sandbox was 1 month, but for most of the sites I got in and out for a periode of time, normaly 1-2 months.
- The sites are now in "normal mode". Now the SERP is up to me, and how much work I put in it. My only worries now are competition and blacklisting.

However, we may discuss the name "sandbox". Yes, there was a adwords tool named "Sandbox" earlier, but for most webmaster the word sandbox has a totaly different meaning. I personally, compare the sandbox to quicksand. Your site is stuck in the quicksand, and there is nothing you can do about it. You just have to wait it out.

 

Hi Cypherus

You do not need to agree, that is why there is M&Ms candy plain & peanuts, we all have different thoughts and that is how the world should be.

You claim your sites were in the catbox for 1 or 2 months, this does not fit with others experience of 6 months or more.

Again the reason for the difference in time, is the competition level of your keyword terms.

Scandinavian Down Jacket will only need to AGE a month or so before one can see the site in Google SERP

Online Poker though would take over 9 months to see in Google SERPS

Viagra over a year.

Why??

Because Google needs to protect itself from spammers!

How do they do this Clint??

Well they delay the time that a site can appear in the search results, dependent on the search term targeted.

Tell me in a way I can understand

Okay, your best friends are coming to visit you, and when they arrive they want to go out to eat.

They ask you "where is the best place to eat"

You tell them your favorite spot to eat is Sem-Advance Restaurant because you have been to the place to eat, liked the ambiance, the food was great, and so is the service!

You decide you will not take them to the new restaurant down the street because you have not been there, never tasted the food, they have a hunchbacked waiter named Igor with three eyes and he drools on people, and and it looks way too dark inside.

This is the same for Google,

They are going to recommend the sites that they KNOW can be trusted

They will not recommend a new site, as they have no trust in it.

So its not sandbox sites are in, but an aging delay, or what has been termed "trust rank" by some other experienced SEOs.

Peace

 

While I do not classify myself as a SEO expert, I also agree with Sem-Advance on this issue.
I have 4-5 sites and while some took a while before showing up at Google, couple of them showed up almost within a matter of days.
I don't know how it happened but it did.

 

You can argue over termanology, but I experienced a majoy time delay with my property website. I targeted some really tough keywords and managed to push my allinanchor to number 1 or 2 for many phrases but rankings were nowhere for over a year.

An issue I'm having now is that regardless of how many links I obtain, my rankings seem frozen. I've had no movement for any phases for two months, despite following a sound strategy. Are new links I gain being filtered?

Whatever term is used, there is some kind of holding penalty. I agree, the more competative the industry, the longer the filter seems to last. It may also depend on how aggressive you are with your link building startegy.

 

Now you are moving into the second part of the Algorithm that Google uses to find webmasters like yourself and hold you back further.

Artificial Link Building

Google sees this and filters your website to lowered rankings.

You admit so much in your post.

Google uses an Algorithm

Algorithms take baseline measurements and store them in a database.

They then measure new websites against the baseline

Those websites which trip the algorithmic filters, with say over zealous link building, or any artificial link building which is easily detected, are then given a reduced scoring in quality and as such the website is filtered to lowered results.

Many webmasters see this happen to their site, but do not understand why it happens.... and so they continue to hurt themselves.... by building further useless links...

I wrote about the fact that links will usually hurt, more than help, a couple years ago (lifetime for seos) on seochat.com if you would like to read more

Why artificial links hurt you!

Peace!

 

I also think that sandbox exist. Until May-21 I had a top position for many targeting keywords, now I'm at pages 35-40

 

Has absolutely nothing to do with sandbox

What probably happened is all the links you built were found to be without value and you lost your rankings due to such.