The "Google Sandbox" – Does It Exist? And How Can You Avoid It

The "Google Sandbox" Does It Exist? And How Can You Avoid It

If you just got into SEO, you may have heard of the infamous, "Google Sandbox." In this article, I'm going to clarify what it is and whether or not it exists. I'm also going to tell you how to avoid it (if it does exist).

What is the Google Sandbox, exactly? Many people complain that when they put up new sites (with new domains), they end up being ignored by Google for a period of time, usually around 3-4 months. It's called the "Sandbox" because that's where young kids play. Your site is young, so it's stuck in the Sandbox. Cute, I know.

There is some truth to this claim. It is true that Google does not give authority (and therefore, rankings) to new sites. And for good reason! If Google generally ranks sites on the basis of reputation (backlinks), then why would they rank your site in the first week that it gets indexed? They wouldn't unless there was no other "competition" or other sites showing relevant information. So there is a lot of training out there that teaches you to avoid the Sandbox by going after keywords with little or no competition. In a way this makes sense because all Google wants is to provide relevant pages to their users. If yours is the only one around, they'll show it even if it's new.

But if you're trying to compete amongst hundreds of thousands of other sites, domain age is going to be a factor. It is postulated that the Google ranking algorithm takes into account 100+ factors. One factor that will probably never be overlooked is domain age. If your domain is brand new, Google will not consider your information as valuable as the information coming from a 10 year old domain.

There is a myth that goes around claiming you will get sent to the Sandbox if you send too many backlinks to your site too quickly. I say this is a myth because if you need many backlinks to rank your site, you will probably not rank within the first 2 to 3 months anyway. If you don't send backlinks to your site in fear of getting sandboxed, you will almost definitely not rank.

What happens is that your site will do the "Google Dance" when Google sees new backlinks to it. And if you are going after a little to no competition keyword, there's no point of sending too many backlinks and doing the Google Dance. So in that sense, you can avoid the Sandbox by trying to rely completely on "on-page SEO" for keywords of VERY small competition.

Your site can almost never be penalized for sending backlinks to it. If this were true, then people would backlink to their competitors' pages to tank their rankings. And since this would be completely unfair, it is nearly impossible to have "bad links" or "too many links" sent to your site.

The only way to theoretically avoid the Sandbox besides what I explained above, is to buy an "aged" domain. This way, Google may not look at your site as new. There is some evidence to support that this could work.

But overall, you should not be concerned about the Sandbox. SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. So be patient, don't expect quick rankings, and don't fear 3-4 months of the Sandbox.

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