Google's Sandbox and How to Get Out

The Theory.

Google's "sandbox", also know as aging filter, is a penalty Google imposes on new websites and websites that have been behaving bad (applying "Black Hat SEO Tactics"). One thing to keep in mind, Google doesn't care when you have purchased your domain name (example.com) but rather when was the first time your page was placed on the web to be found by their robots. Now, you might be asking; "why should I get penalised if I'm not doing anything wrong?", this is, as hard as you might try not to believe it, a very frequent question. The reason is, Google only wants to index serious websites, thousands of new websites are placed on Google's index every month but only a few make it past the 6-8 months mark, so, indexing these sites will be a waste of time.

How to get out of the "sandbox"?

The simplest answer is YOU DON'T. The "sandbox" is not something you can get out of by paying more money, writing letters or the like. This is an automatic filter in Google's search engine algorithm that applies to all new sites and sites that Google deem be braking the rules in accordance to their search engine standards.

Now, how can your play nice in the "sandbox"? Well if you're looking to rank high for broad keywords; example "Nike Shoes" you won't at this stage, do you know how many websites use this keyword?, millions.

So, the trick her is, go for less fatter cow (less targeted keywords) like "Nike shoes for sale in " or "brand new Nike shoes for sale". These type of keywords are know as a long tail keywords. Long tail keywords can be targeted at a niche market, if there's a lot of searches on that market with little competition, then your website will be on Google's first top 10 results in no time.

If a your site appears between the first 10 results, does it mean you're out of the "sandbox"?, the answer is; NO, but it will for sure feel like it. There are many tricks SEO companies (like us) can do to have a website rank high while in the "sandbox" while applying "White Hat SEO Tactics". I'm going to cover some of them next.

Tips for ranking high while in the "sandbox"

Gather Backlinks: Backlinks are incoming links from other websites. As time passes, the acquisition of good links can land your website to the top for your preferred keywords instead of less popular ones. Google rank well websites from well established and trusted sources, CNN, Fortune 500 sites and the likes. You do not have to wait until Google takes your website out of the "sandbox" in fact, if enough good links are acquired from trusted sources your website can be out of the "sandbox" in less than the 6-8 months period.

Concentrate on less popular keywords: like I mentioned above, concentrating in broad keywords at the starting phase of the SEO campaign can be a big mistake as there will be much competition from well established domains. Concentrate your efforts on long less popular keywords and your site will be at the top in no time.

Plan ahead of time: contrary to what many believe, planning ahead of time the lunch of a website can be a HUGE time saver. As soon as a website a live Google's internal clock will start ticking and by the time your website is ready you will have a few months ahead.

Buy expire/old domains: Many people don't know this, but if instead of purchasing a new domain you can buy an old/expired one you will have a head start, remember the sandbox effect affect new sites the most, so if an old domain is purchased, you will have less problems.

Target other search engines: Many people tend to think that their website will only be found in Google, but the fact is there are other search engines that can be targeted as well; Yahoo, Bing, and Alexa - not very well known, but extremely important.

Patience, Patience, Patience...: Most important of all; be patient, I know in this time and day we want everything to be done fast, but there's somethings we cannot avoid. Patience is a virtue, exercise it if your considering an SEO campaign,trust me, it will help you on your website marketing efforts. Simply, accept the fact that if you have a new website it will take a while to get good rankings.