Wednesday, January 21, 2009

How Long does the Google Sandbox Last

By Brent Sweet

If you know anything about search engine optimization then you have probably gotten word of the Google sandbox. The sandbox is a thing that nobody knows for sure if it exists. It is a filter that people believe will prevent your new site from achieving the ranking it deserves because it is new to the Google index.

So is it really there? I can't really say for sure. It would be a good idea, but it would prevent sites that are brand new and good from ranking for a period of time. There really is only one thing that would tell you if it exists and that is if you were so good at SEO that you could develop and optmized page both on and off site that should be number 1 and register the domain all on the same day. I don't know anybody that good.

My thing is I had a site that got to the first page of Google for a competitive word in less than thirty days. I will tell you that about 2 weeks after registering the domain I was indexed at about 110 and then I jumped to 40. Is that the sandbox? Maybe. But the key is 2 weeks after that I was at number 10. I think that may have been a result of increased optimization efforts, not a sandbox.

My point is, that yes it may exist, but it is easy to get a first page ranking in about 30 days. If you are so good that you are optimizing where you should be above that, but are not then maybe there is. My point is that my site was on page 1 of Google before I was even indexed in Yahoo, so I dont believe there is a sandbox per say.

I think what people refer to as the sandbox is simply the fact that it takes a little time to outrank sites that have been indexed for some time. I mean the fact is to get a higher ranking you have to pass sites that were there before you. - 15359

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