Monday, January 26, 2009

Does the Google Sandbox Exist

By Brent Sweet

If you have ever read anything on search engine optimization or tried it, chances are you have been told about the famed Google Sandbox. The fact is nobody at Google has ever admitted that it exists, and nobody really has proof. It is believed by some that Google has some sort of filter that prevents websites from being ranked good when they are new, to prevent spam sites.

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.

I have a site that I built that was on the first page of Google for a competitive keyword in less than 30 days. I will admit that after the first 14 days of domain registration it was indexed below position one hundred and then jumped to number 40. But couldnt that have been a result of my increased optimization efforts.

In conclusion, I think the sandbox is not there. If it does exist it doesn't take a site long to get out of it if you know how to optimize offsite correctly. I don't think there is anybody out there that can expect going into it that they should be on page 1 in less than 30 days. Most places say 3-6 months.

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.

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