Google Sandbox – What to do while waiting.

I often get asked about the google sandbox and the main question is always “how do I get out of the google sandbox”. This is a fair question, but first you need to know for sure that your site is really in the sandbox. Just because your website is not showing up for your main keywords doesn’t mean that you are sandboxed, it might mean that you just don’t have enough link juice pointing to your site.

First of all, what is the google sandbox anyway? Here is a basic definition:  “A filter affect that Google places on new domains to stop the website from high rankings for the main keywords”. In other words if your website is brand new and you are trying to rank for the keyword “seattle seo services” then there is a pretty good chance that you will need to wait before your site can just fly to the top of google. Pretty sneaky on behalf of google and a great idea to try and stop alot of the spam and scams that people like to create. Does this mean that your site will not rank for any of it’s keywords? No it doesn’t, it just means that until your site has been around for awhile you will have to wait at the back of the line. However, you can still rank for some long tail keywords which are not as competitive.

For example, we might want to try and rank for “seattle seo agency” as this keyword is not that competitive and might send us at least a little traffic while we wait to get out of the google sandbox. We might also focus on the brand name for the site and just get some basic links with our company name as the anchor text instead of going for the main keyword right off the gate. If you dig deep enough you will find keywords that you can rank for and get some traffic from.

How long does it take to get out of the Google Sandbox?

The short answer to this is “when ever google says so”. But it is believed that it can take about 6 to 8 months and sometimes longer depending on the market. Some claim that it only takes about a month or two but I doubt that is the case if you are targeting some highly competitive keywords.

What to do in the meantime.

While you are waiting to get out of the google sandbox the best thing that you can do is continue to work on other aspects of your site, such as making sure that you have good on page seo and quality content. You will also want to make sure that your internal linking structure is set up correctly. It also a good idea to go ahead and start building links with the anchor text that you want to rank for, the sooner you get some links the better it will help your site once it does come out of the sandbox.

Can I avoid it altogether?

No, I mean Yes, no I mean maybe you can if done correctly. The only way that I know of to avoid the google sandbox would be to buy an expired domain. The downside to this is that you might not be able to get the brand name you are looking for, but if you are willing to sacrifice it then it is the best option.

If you would like more information about the google sandbox you can check out the “Sandbox_Effect” article on Wikipedia. As always, thanks for reading.