The Google Sandbox Theory
Am I in the Google Sandbox? If you have been to any webmaster forums you will see a lot of threads about this. The reality is that the Google sandbox is just a theory. There is no official Google confirmation or any real concrete proof from outside sources that it exists at all. The theory has been around a few years now but really seemed to gain in popularity after a major Google index update in early 2005.
What is the Google Sandbox Theory? There are several theories but what started to happen was that webmasters began to notice that new sites optimized and with back links, were not ranking well for the keywords they were using. More commonly, sites were being listed in the search engine results (SERPS) for a few weeks and then either being dropped from the index all together or ranking extremely low for their respected keywords. Eventually this phenomenon was tracked to websites that the domain names were bought around March of 2004. Thus, all the websites created around or after March 2004 were said to be “in the sandbox”. The sandbox theory took on new life in February 2005 with the Google update names “Allegra”. Varying degrees of fluctuation was being found in the SERPS from different websites. High ranking websites were loosing positions and low ranking websites were gaining. This was a major Google algorithm update and had a big effect on how you ranked and webmasters had to adjust. To add to the conspiracy theory of the sandbox though, was the “apparent” release of websites from the Google sandbox. This was the strongest evidence that an actual sandbox existed and allowed experts to better understand the Sandbox effect. If you ask in webmaster forums or do a search you will find plenty advice on how to compensate for the Google Sandbox effect. The reality is that since there is only speculative proof it even exists, there is no real steps to be taken to minimize or even avoid this effect. Build your site and always keep it updated and if you are “in the sandbox” you will come out strong and hit the SERPS running. Popularity: 30%
Thursday ~ May 05, 2007 by OMS Posted in General SEO |
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Hello! Good Site! Thanks you!
