The Google “Sandbox” is Real but not Definitive

February 22nd, 2008 | 28 comments

Over the past several months I’ve been working on and studying several Websites with hopes of digging up some definite truths to the “Google Sandbox Theory.”

I’ve done many case studies in the past and with most things search related I’m able to figure out a somewhat defined answer to my questions. With this case in particular though I’ve learned only two things:

1. The Google Sandbox is real.
2. There are no clear answers as to why a site is placed in the sandbox.

What is the “Sandbox Effect?”

Believe it or not there isn’t even a “standard” definition for this. There are so many variables that there are very few instances in which the explanations are the same.

- Some people say that the sandbox is a parameter within Google’s algorithm, which prevents new sites from ranking until it has reached a certain level of maturity (age.)
- Some say it is when a site is dropped from the SERPS because too many links are pointed at a site in a very short amount of time.
- Some say it’s directly related to Google’s “Supplemental Results,” which are now obsolete.

Those are just a few of the many different definitions you will find if you start researching the subject.

I’ve tested every theory I’ve heard and while I won’t say they are all 100% false, none of them turned out to be 100% accurate 100% of the time.

As I mentioned in a prior post my Article Marketing Report was ranking very high for a few relatively competitive search terms such as:

- article marketing
- article marketing ebook
- article marketing report

…but all of the sudden, over a year after its launch, it was dropped completely for those search terms. No black-hat SEO methods, alot of natural linking, but gone from the SERPS. Not long after that post it reappeared. A few days later…gone once again. To this day, almost a month later, it’s still not ranking for those terms.

I strongly believe this has something to do with the “Sandbox,” as there has been no black-hat techniques and although it is a sales page, all aspects appear to be good with Google.

But this wasn’t a new site. That’s only one example of the MANY different variables that go into the “sandbox effect.”

On the other hand, I had an article directory that obtained over 40,000 links within the first month of it’s creation. That site was ranking high for hundreds and thousands of long-tail keywords and still to this day ranks well. It’s never had any type of sandbox effect applied to it. (mentioned site has since been sold due to the lack of time I had to manage it)

I could go on and on with many, many different examples of different sites. Some in similar niches others in completely different niches. Some sales pages others full of content. Only a handful of the results match!

The Google Sandbox Can’t be Definitive

If there are a few, easily understood, set rules, it would screw up Google’s SERPS. Why? because although we can control some of our links to some extent, we can’t control the majority of them.

If Google said any site that receives so many links in a set period of time, or any site that is less than x months or years old will not be returned in their SERPS, they would be punishing some good sites and more importantly to them (I’d imagine) they would be restricting searchers from being served some of the best sites on the Internet. Some of the most popular sites online today were started by Companies and Organizations that already had mass exposure, meaning those sites gained an INCREDIBLE amount of exposure from the start.

How dumb would Google look if everyone and their brother was talking about this cool, new site, and it wasn’t even in Google’s results?

My Conclusion

From my own testing and research I do believe there is definitely some sort of algorithmic parameter, which Google uses, but I don’t believe it can be generalized into a common phrase, such as “The Sandbox.”

I don’t see anything wrong with giving a new site a boost with a strong link building campaign, but I have seen some of my own sites being pulled from Google’s SERPS after building 10′s of thousands of links within a few months time. However, I’ve seen some of my own sites and sites of others gain 10′s of thousands of links in less time, which continue to conquer competitive search terms.

Your new site may or may not retain top SE rankings right away. DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT! If you have solid content on your site and your promotion is white-hat based, even if your site is held back in the beginning it will eventually take off.

I can’t tell you what causes a site to be “suspended” (for lack of better terms) initially in Google’s SERPS and I honestly don’t believe anyone else can either unless Google decides to speak on the matter. What I can tell you is that other than the one example above (my article marketing report) which I expect to regain it’s positioning soon, I’ve never had any long-term issues with Google not ranking my sites and pages for their respective keywords.

Once again, I believe the “Sandbox Theory” to be an over-hyped “the sky is falling” theory that has been blown way out of proportion. It does exist and as I’ve shown examples of it can sting a bit, but quality, white hat Websites and pages always seen to recover. That being said, although it is something to keep in the back of your head, I don’t believe it to be something you should worry too much about when thinking long-term!

Photo Credits: Thawizard

28 comments

Jason
23rd February, 2008 at 7:59 pm

Hi,

I have a site that was getting about 400 to 500 visitis a day from Google search results. Lasy September it was almost 2 years old, and all of a sudden ( 12.30 pm ) on Spetember the 6th it was sandboxed. It’s averaged 10 visits a day since then, and I did nothing wrong. The search results just stopped dead.

My site hasn’t got any ban because all my pages are still listed, they’re just in the hundreds now instead of the first page.

I get a few long tale searches a day now.

The sandbox or whatever you want to call it exists.
Josh Spaulding
24th February, 2008 at 5:43 pm

Yep, that’s the nature of the beast I suppose. If everything is indeed white-hat, I believe you’ll get your rankings back.
Rip
25th February, 2008 at 5:28 am

I too have a couple sites that have just been absolutely buried in the SE results for over a month now.

I haven’t spammed them with links or anything, although they are only ~3 months old. They only have 500-1000 links each, all from legitimate sites.

At the beginning of January my two sites were placed much higher than they are now, to the tune of results page 10 or so… now they are on page 30+. I’m not sure what’s going on.
Personal Finances
25th February, 2008 at 3:33 pm

It really stinks when that happens! On the bright side, though, whenever I’ve had it happen to me, the site eventually gets its ranking back. Sometimes, it takes as much as a year.

-Allen
Josh Spaulding
25th February, 2008 at 3:38 pm

Yep, I noticed yesterday that “AMD” is back for a few keywords, but not nearly as high as it was. I’d say say for that example it’s no longer in the sandbox, I just need to work on some incoming links.
Franck Silvestre
25th February, 2008 at 7:31 pm

It was a good article Josh. I am also a victin about the “boomerang effect” from time to time.

At a time, my site disapeared from the first page of Google for the keyword “affiliate marketing” for a while, but it came back.

This happens for almost all my sites, they disapear a few days, and then they are back.

Google dance that I can’t explain.
Josh Spaulding
25th February, 2008 at 8:07 pm

Thanks, Franck. If someone could just break Google’s algorithmic code, huh

They’d do well, for a day or so until it was changed again lol
Strip Blogger
26th February, 2008 at 3:02 am

I had thought that the sandbox was just a myth. Maybe that explains some of the other blogs I follow.
Allen Graves
26th February, 2008 at 10:57 pm

Josh,

I am wondering how much of an effect static content has on the sandbox theory. The sites I have had that have been sandboxed were all static.

All of my other sites that have content changing on a daily or bi-weekly basis have never been affected.

AL
Josh Spaulding
26th February, 2008 at 11:04 pm

@ Strip, it’s definitely not a myth, but it’s heavily misunderstood. When you get a minute you might want to take a look at my comment policy by the way, thanks

@ Allen, For the longest time I thought the same thing and it may indeed has something to do with it. But I’ve seen the sandbox effect happen to both static sites and this very blog.
chris
26th February, 2008 at 11:34 pm

Google’s sandbox effect really should not be a big deal if you are utilizing various methods of driving traffic to your website. Tools such as articles, blogging, video, ppc, directories, press releases etc. By utilizing a full spectrum of methodologies to drive traffic you will bypass alot of problems launching a new site. Josh good article keep it up!
Mark Ivar Myhre (2 comments.)
27th February, 2008 at 4:38 am

Hi Josh

I suppose if your site was listed in a major directory it would not be ‘sandboxed’.

For example, say you wrote 20 or 30 pages for a website, got it listed in Best Of The Web or Go Guides or Joe Ant.

Or, God forbid, you actually got into Yahoo.

Wouldn’t high quality directory links keep you out of any sandbox?

Do you agree?
Josh Spaulding
27th February, 2008 at 4:44 am

Hi Mark,

Whether a site appears in a low-quality web directory, high-quality web directory or not at all doesn’t matter.

I don’t see why it would?

I paid for inclusion into Yahoo’s directory btw. It ended up as a few good links, but not worth the price.
Mark Ivar Myhre (2 comments.)
27th February, 2008 at 5:14 am

I just thought maybe a high quality directory listing might provide some sort of immunity.

I’ve been thinking about a paid inclusion into Yahoo’s directory for my main site which right now gets ~700 uniques a day; almost all of it from google search results..

I was hoping a yahoo listing might bring some yahoo search traffic. Not from the directory itself, but from better rankings in organic search. Right now, I rank very poorly for my keywords in yahoo.

But from your comments, I guess it didn’t help you much.
Jean Morgan
27th February, 2008 at 7:35 am

I have seen sites of mine rank highly for a few weeks, even months sometimes and then drop to page who knows what ‘cos no one will ever see it there. I have software that shows the sites are listed still.
I just carry on as normal. I build links, add more content,submit some articles, join a few directories etc. Nothing overboard just a little something going on regularly.
Suddenly I start to notice sales coming from the site. I check the stats. Traffic! Put a couple of keywords into Google, and there it is on the first page.
So yes I firmly believe in the sandbox but have no idea how to avoid it in the first place. In fact at the moment I have 3 sites which although being spidered Google seems to stubbornly refusing to add to the index and don’t get me started on how to get into MSN these days, not that I care very much.

Jean
Evan
27th February, 2008 at 10:58 am

Maybe they use randomness so that the algorithm can’t be predicted.
Josh Spaulding
27th February, 2008 at 3:01 pm

@ Mark – I just can’t see a directory listing effecting a site’s probability of being sandboxed and I definitely don’t see a directory listing as a way to get immunity from anything! There are only a hand full of directories that give you a link worth anything and when you’re in all it is, is another link.

I have a few pages on my Germany sites in DMOZ. Counts for a good link, but those pages weren’t effected much.

@ Jean – That story sounds very familiar I think you hit the nail on the head.

@ Evan – I think there are alot of random variables. I wouldn’t say it’s to prevent the algo from being detected. I’d say it’s just how it’s built, like the rest of the algorithm; extremely complex.
Jason
27th February, 2008 at 5:39 pm

To mark

My site was in Yahoo when it was sandboxed, and Joe ant.

It’s not in Yahoo now as I couldn’t pay $300 for a site that isn’t making any money. So I guess it will get buried deeper.
durrob
1st March, 2008 at 4:08 am

My website was a month old, and getting 400-700 page views a day, then one day all of a sudden 25 page views a day, all my links are quality links.
Brent Crouch (13 comments.)
9th March, 2008 at 8:56 pm

Hi Josh,

Brent Hogdson wrote a post about what to do if your site mysteriously disappears for your top keywords. I was a commenter to this post because I was experiencing this issue at the time he wrote the post.

I’m not sure if what he described as a “data update” applies to your circumstances or not. Luckily, in my situation it did and my rankings came back within a few days.

One of the things Brent mentioned to me was a lot of people start updating and making changes to their site when their rankings disappear. What would have been a temporary loss of rankings becomes permanent because of all the “tweaking” they do to the site during the “data update”.

It’s a good post that is worth reading.

http://www.brenthodgson.com/marketing-case-studies/what-to-do-if-your-site-is-dropped-from-google.php

Good Luck,

Brent Crouch
Josh Spaulding
10th March, 2008 at 2:15 pm

Hi Brent,

Thanks for the recommendation. I’m not much of a believer in content changes affecting your SERPS these days. That’s not to say I’m right and he’s wrong, but from my own experiences in the past year or so it just seems like content tweaks don’t cause much to happen.

P.S. I did receive your email and I’ll get back to you on that sometime today
Brent Crouch (13 comments.)
10th March, 2008 at 3:35 pm

“but from my own experiences in the past year or so it just seems like content tweaks donâ€™t cause much to happen.”

That is good to know. I’ve got a site that is doing very well in the search engines. I use the site to sell a digital product. I’ve been wanting to “tweak” the page some to try and raise my conversion rate. I have been very reluctant to do so, because I don’t want to screw with my rankings.

Since you haven’t seen much of an affect from doing this, I think I’ll give it a try.
Josh Spaulding
10th March, 2008 at 3:47 pm

Hey Brent,

Just replied to your ticket.

Yeah, as far as SERP rankings go, I believe several years ago the on-page factors played a much bigger role than they do today. Of course the content is looked at, but I update pages quite frequently and very rarely see it directly contribute to changes in rankings.

So while I wont’ say it “WON’T” effect anything, I will say it’s unlikely.

Josh
Brent Hodgson (1 comments.)
21st March, 2008 at 3:17 pm

Hi Josh & Brent,

I saw the clickthroughs coming in to my page from Brent Crouch’s link above (thanks Brent!), so I thought I’d drop by.

I want to clarify a few things…

Significant content changes *will* affect rankings – but the key here is “significant”.

Recently, we redeveloped a client’s site, yet maintained the site structure, and largely maintained the same content… But we saw rankings drop 50-100 (or often more) places down the rankings for about 2 months.

Again, this was a *significant* redevelopment – although site structure was maintained, and page content was kept very similar, title tag structures etc changed significantly.

After about 2 months, the site started ranking well for the “new” keywords, and rankings improved for the old keywords too (not quite to where they were previously – but much higher than where they were).

Brent [Crouch] – by all means, optimise your sales page for conversions… Don’t worry about making those sort of tweaks.

HOWEVER – Chances are, you’d have better success with SEO if you had a whole series of lead-gen pages (valuable articles, linkbait etc) that you focussed on ranking, and drove that traffic into your electronic products page.

In my humble opinion… Pages can’t be optimised for both conversion and SEO – it generally requires compromising one or the other… and when you compromise, it’s not “optimisation”.

Re: the “dropped from Google” article (linked above) I was referring to sites disappearing when no significant changes were made to the site.

This is a phenomena where sites disappear and reappear in Google’s SERPs after 48 hours – which I suspect means it’s simply a data centre issue (i.e. – Google is changing the data centre they’re using or something similar).

Re: the significance content changes in general – if read up about the history of the Hilltop Algorithm if you haven’t read about it already. It shows (if you collect enough data on ranking factors) why you end up with two different conflicting sets of data – one where on-page changes are very important, and one where on-page changes are largely unimportant.

(In the data I’ve pulled together, I also found some conflicting data on whether Domain Links or Page Links were more important… again, this could be traffic affecting how the algorithm is applied… but that’s another story…)

Anyway – rabbiting on enough here.

I think you both have my email address now – so don’t be strangers.

Brent (the other one)
Dr Altaf
7th April, 2008 at 6:00 am

I liked the info by Brent H.
I have a few sites and blogs. I experimented with SEO and new contents. All my sites were earlier ranked well, Then I found all on a sudden, it is gone down, or even some are not in SERPS.
Only difference, I made a lot of links to my own sites with KW/ Ph, that were copied to my all sites equally.
Does that matter to Google or other SE?
Also I am not making any good money with optimization either. Any good suggestions to me Brent pls?
Aslo how to know the traffic/rank of my blogs?
Thanks & reagrds,
Dr Altaf
markowe
11th July, 2008 at 9:14 am

So, did you ever get back in the rankings for those keywords you mentioned?

I have just had the same thing happen – a site that was getting good traffic just suddenly disappearing from the SERPS altogether, real bummer – an eBay listings site, maybe Google doesn’t like them…
Jack (2 comments.)
31st August, 2009 at 8:52 pm

Hey,

I’ve recently started running my own personal website design blog, based around me as a student designing websites. Anyway, I had posted an article about “My top 5 website layouts” about 2 days ago. I was averaging about 100 unique visitors per day, then suddenly, I get a jump to over 300 in one day.

I checked my results and it’s down to this 1 article. So I searched google for “top website layouts” and there I was, ranging from 2nd to 6th position. I was bloody happy to say the least!

I thought I’d give it another search, just to see what has happened, and I’ve totally disappeared. The only mention of it is a link to dzone.

Very weird stuff. One thing to note, whenever I post a new blog, I add it to digg, dzone, propeller and about 3 other sites.

I’m hoping it’s the “sandbox” and google aren’t messing me around

Jack
Jack (2 comments.)
31st August, 2009 at 8:53 pm

Let me note that – this was over a space of about 10 hours.