What is Google Sandbox?
Google Sandbox is a term that SEO’s use to refer to an unconfirmed phenomenon where there is a delay in ranking new websites or webpages in the SERPs. A common theory is that Google may put newly created websites into a “sandbox” for a certain period of time in an effort to reduce spam.
This “sandbox” effect is often noticed by webmasters and SEO professionals when a new site or page, despite having good content and SEO practices, struggles to rank well initially. It is said that the active age of the domain can keep a webpage from ranking well.
The duration of the sandbox is said to last anywhere between a few weeks to even a few years.
Does Google Sandbox Actually Exist?
Despite there being no concrete or confirmed evidence that this phenomenon exists, since 2004, many SEOs have argued that it does exist. Some evidence arguing for this phenomenon include:
- SEOs notice that sites might rank well in the first few weeks since publishing, but would ultimately fall and take time to recover
- Some SEOs’ observed that their website would struggle to rank on Google, but ranked well on other search engines – even for low volume keywords
- Some website owners found their websites “sandboxed” despite having natural links pointing to it.
- Leaked documents about Google Search have also indicated that Google uses a site’s age to determine whether or not to sandbox a site.
Google has also denied the existence of a sandbox, but does confirm that some algorithms may behave like one – as Google tries to understand how the new site compares to others who rank for the same keyword.
How To Deal With Google Sandbox
Confirmed or not, there are a number of things you can do to ensure your website has the best chance of ranking:
- Create high quality content that is well structured and relevant to your audience
- Use relevant keywords, title tags, descriptions and headings
- Prioritise high quality links (Quality over quantity!)
- Index your site soon as it’s published
- Be patient! A successful website takes time.
- Promote your website
