Your Question is “What is the Sandbox effect? How does it help in SEO?” well, let’s discuss.
Google Sandbox is not yet confirmed but still, the common belief that Google (i.e. its search engine) has a filter that places new websites under some sort of restriction. This is supposed to be done to prevent such websites to rank in searches.
The general idea for such a restriction could be that the newer websites might not be as relevant as older sites, and moreover, there are chances that newer websites might likely be hosting spam. Like a young child is placed to play in a sandbox by their guardian, newer sites similarly are restricted to help them mature and grow organically before being allowed to rank.
We can say, therefore, that the Google Sandbox effect might be considered a lesser-known yet salient phenomenon that acts as a temporary filter for newly launched websites.
A new website might remain in the sandbox for some time before it starts to appear in Google SERP (search engine results page). This kind of standby time might extend from 3 or 4 months, or it can range from six months to 1 year, depending on various factors.
Google has neither confirmed nor denied the phenomena or filter of Sandbox. So, it can be taken as an alleged filter, whose existence might be difficult to refute.
Therefore, the people in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) community take Google Sandbox’s existence as a fact. They assume it while launching new websites that the website/webpage might remain for a while in the sandbox and calibrate their SEO strategies according to it.
If one thinks about it, the logic behind the ‘alleged’ Sandbox filter makes sense. Since Google aims to serve its users with high quality and authoritative content as a result of its search query, it wouldn’t want newly minted sites that have the lesser authority or credibility to rank prominently.
Like a newborn baby doesn’t have authority, the same goes with new websites. This may be said to be Google’s own way to counter black-hat SEO practices and unethical manipulations.
To understand Google Sandbox, let us take an example of a new website. If this new site suddenly appears and it has hundreds of backlinks, this would seem unnatural and suspicious; this site might have used black-hat SEO techniques to do so. (As for normal websites which follow white-hat SEO techniques and have quality content, it took them some considerable time to achieve their rankings.
Therefore, why give a newer website any advantage?) Hence, it might make sense from Google’s point of view to keep this new website in the Sandbox for a while (to keep it there to cool off and mature).
There are two ways in which the Sandbox effect makes it difficult to follow black-hat practices:
- For a newly launched website, the black-hat SEO experts might have to wait months before knowing whether their techniques worked or not. In case their ways didn’t work, it might take additional months to tinker and experiment with new techniques. This would frustrate most miscreants and would produce a deterrent effect against any possible malpractices.
- This deliberately induced probation period helps Google to buy some time to algorithmically determine any link-building schemes before they actually affect the search results. For this period, the black-hat SEO site remains in the Sandbox and meanwhile Google can work to figure out such tricks. This helps Google in adjusting its algorithms so that these links could be ignored by it.
Signs that a website is in Google Sandbox.
One can look out for evidence that point to Sandbox activities. Check whether the website has a strong Google page rank or the backlinks to it are of good quality from trusted, authoritative, and credible sites; if this is not the case then the new website might fall into the sandbox.
Check for search results on lesser-used keywords or secondary search phrases (which might have otherwise listed the website on SERP).
If our website cannot be located with the help of any of the important search keywords, then the chances are there that it might have been trapped by the Sandbox.
If the website is new, its pages are indexed, and if one still cannot find it in the search results for exact matching titles from pages. If a page of your site ranks well initially for a specific search term, then at a later time, there’s nowhere to be found in the SERP. These things can hit us that our website has been sandboxed.
How does the Sandbox effect help in SEO?
Sandbox can act as a deterrent to the creators of new websites so that they may not indulge in spammy or black-hat SEO techniques. This helps SEOs to understand the importance of white-hat ethical SEO practices plays in a search engine’s quest for satisfying its users.
Sandbox effect cautions the SEOs into adopting good practices right from the inception of a website or webpage.
This effect gives them a sign that there could be no shortcuts and web traffic and revenue has to be earned through genuine hard work. The sooner SEOs realize this and avoid unethical and manipulative ways, the lesser is their page’s stay going to be in the sandbox.
It may not be possible for new websites to completely escape the clutches of the Sandbox. If already in the Sandbox, they can reduce their remaining stay period, or if they are new they can minimize their stay period in it by paying heed to follow SEO advice.
- Get rid of spam tactics.
Get rid of the website of anything which might be considered spam by Google. Sandbox is of the ‘unofficial’ tools by Google to fight websites that are new and might possibly host spam.
- Avoid accumulating ‘unnatural’ backlinks.
Website’s growth is organic and it evolves over a period. As the website grows and gets better, it earns recommendations and links from other websites which are considered authoritative in their respective fields.
Any unnatural means to inflate traffic has to be avoided. A lot of unnatural backlinks surely look suspicious and might invite Google penalties. This means a reduction in the site’s reputation and traffic.
- Adopt white-hat SEO practices.
Adopt SEO best practices. Say no to shortcuts, black-hat techniques, and unethical ways to increase traffic. Such ways might seem tempting to boost a website’s figures and reach but could have devastating consequences in the long run.
Manipulative and unethical practices damage a website’s reputation and attract the wrath of Google penalties. Such penalties might include de-indexing and de-ranking or an outright ban from Google. A fall in traffic or a ban might be the last thing which one would desire for a website.
- Ensure that the website can be easily scanned.
Search Engines such as Google have Google bots or web crawlers. Such bots crawl a website and index it, so that the website could be ranked for search queries.
Ensure that all the proper HTML tags with their intended purpose, robots.txt, and XML sitemap are properly made and implemented. Robots.txt is of special significance here, as it tells a crawler which pages to be crawled and which to be not.
- Create quality content along with proper Keyword Research.
Nothing can match cohesive, informative, and well-written content; content that would satisfy a user’s query. The intent of a website’s content should not be limited to an effort to rank high on SERPs.
Over a period, quality content is prized by search engines as well as users. A website’s popularity, reputation, and authority increase as a result of good content. The traffic growth of such websites is organic and the website creates for itself a robust audience base.
A website’s content can contain properly researched keywords. Such keywords might be placed at strategic places and sentences in the content so as to make a page rank better. But it must not be overdone; it must look natural. Keyword stuffing is to be avoided as it might attract Google’s algorithmic penalty.
