Can SEO Move Your Site Out Of Google’s Sandbox?
January 21st, 2009 by Nick
What Is The Google Sandbox?
Moving a website out of Google’s sandbox starts with understanding what the sandbox effect is and whether or not it exists to begin with. Webmasters are familiar with this concepts but Google has made no confirmation as to its existence.
What the sandbox effect causes is newly established websites to be placed in a sandbox until Google sees it fit for it to be places in the index of this search engine. These new websites therefore are unable to compete for ranking with other similar sites until a specific period has lapsed. There are however websites that do not go into the sandbox depending on the keywords and Quality of the Content of these sites.
Minimising The Chance Of The Sandbox
The whole sandbox effect still remains speculation but some say that there are ways to avoid landing up in it. They suggest targeting less competitive keywords as those websites that usually go for strong, popular keywords end up being caught up in Google Sandbox.
Another way of avoiding the sandbox is by buying old domains. Because it is the new websites that are victimised old domains will not suffer the effect of this trap. Also, by paying for other Google services experts suggest that this is another way of avoiding the sandbox. Purchasing services such as pay per click and AdWords might do the trick.
SEO’s Role In Google’s Sandbox
The infamous Google sandbox effect was apparently created to stop websites from abusing search engine optimisation methods or using black hat tricks. After being banned for this misuse these sites would just repeat this process but under a new domain name. This very tactful abuse had Google figuring out a way to put an end to it in the form of the sandbox effect. Before a new website could get ranking it first has to be placed on hold.
Can SEO be used to move a website out of this sandbox effect however? Luckily, the sandbox effect is not a permanent feature and is mainly to eradicate search engine spam. There is not much one can do with search engine optimisation that helps avoid this and it has been said that websites with significant keywords and proper on site SEO still fall prey to the sandbox. SEO focuses on strong competitive keywords but in a sandbox effect it is advisable to stay away from popular keywords.
Regardless of this, Search Engine Optimisation is still a fundamental aspect of a website and although it cannot do much to save a site from Google s sandbox effect it is still necessary for afterwards when the site is ranked.
Whether Google’s sandbox effect exists or not, if your website is caught in this delay period best use the time to create more back links, add new content to pages and other features to your website to make it more attractive to search engines.
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Good article. The sandbox (or equivalent) is every SEO company’s nightmare. Search Engine Optimisation by its very nature makes changes which could cause rankings to drop initially, but good SEO should always produce good results long term, and a good SEO company should have the experience and knowledge to minimise the chances that this will happen to your website.
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