By Mark Doust                           

Google’s sandbox is a relatively  new filter that appeared to be put in place back in March of 2004. This happened after the  widely publicized updates of Austin and Florida, and the implementation of what is known as the Austin update. If you are not sure what those  are, there is no need to worry as those updates  are now for the most part in the past. The sandbox  filter seems to affect nearly all new websites  placing them on an initial "probation" status.

The effect of this is that new websites may  get into Google’s SERP’s (search engine results pages) relatively quickly and may even perform  well for a couple of weeks. When the filter  is applied to the new website it is referred to as being put in the "sandbox". The new website  will still show in the result pages, but it will not rank well regardless of how much original, well optimized content and regardless of how     many quality inbound links the site may have. The filter restrains new websites from having immediate success in the search engine result  pages.                        

The sandbox filter seems to affect  almost all new websites, with very few exceptions.  It is important to note that the filter is not  a punishment for anything the webmaster did with their new website. The filter is merely  an initiation period for new websites.                            

The sandbox filter also affects  more competitive keyword driven sites more than   sites that key in on less competitive keywords.  If your website focuses on very competitive  keywords, you are likely to remain in the sandbox  for a longer period of time than if you focus on keywords that are relatively non competitive keywords.                      

Why Does the Sandbox Exist?                            

There is a lot of debate as to  whether the sandbox filter is a good thing for          Google to implement or not. Obviously webmasters  who are trying to get their sites well positioned in Google do not like the sandbox filter as it prevents them from receiving the huge levels of traffic that a top listing in Google can bring. The filter was not implemented at random, however, and there is some good reasoning for  the filter existing.                               

As the SEO community figured out  the basic elements of Google’s ranking algorithm, inbound links, original content rich with keywords,  and the proper use of anchor text, search engine spammers began to take advantage of these elements. Search engine spammers would setup websites that were in clear violation of Google’s policies  with the knowledge that eventually their website would be banned from the listings. This, however, did not matter. If a search engine spammer could  get their website to rank well in Google for  even one month, the profits they could make from that one month would justify the cost of building the site in the first place. All they  needed to do in the future was to rebuild their  spam websites with different domains and slightly different content. The idea for spammers was  a simple one. Capitalize off of Google’s traffic  for as long as they can (before they get banned), then do it all over again with a new website. The method was extremely effective and easy to implement.                              

What made this all the more easy to accomplish was Google’s extremely fast indexing. While other search engines would take several  months to index a new website, Google could  index a website in as little as one month (they are now indexing sites within a few days). Search  engine spammers were living large off of Google’s  generosity.                              

To solve this problem, Google determined that it would compromise. They would    still index websites quickly, attempting to get as much new, fresh content out to the general public as possible, but they would not trust new websites implicitly as they had in the past.  All new websites that were launched would be put on probation. As time passed, and as the   sites continued to pass any spam filters they  ran, the website will not be held back from  performing well in the rankings. Eventually,
after quite a bit of time had passed, a site would be allowed to "leave" the sandbox and join the rest of the established websites.                              

How Does This Affect My Website?          

If you have a new website, there  is a good chance that you will be placed in the sandbox. This should be expected, but it   should not change the way you build your website or market it. You should use the sandbox filter  to your advantage. Google still ranks websites in   much the same way that they had in the past. Websites are judged on the quality of their inbound links and the quality of their content.  Google will continue to change how they evaluate inbound links and content, but the basic elements  of their rankings will remain the same.                                 

While your website is in the sandbox,  you should use this time to build your traffic
using regular traffic building methods such  as writing articles, building a strong community  of visitors, and partnering with websites that  offer some synergy to your visitors. During your time on probation, you have an excellent  opportunity to build all the elements that cause  websites to perform well in the search engines.  When you finally do leave the sandbox, your website should be very well positioned within    Google.             

Is My Website in the Sandbox?                                                

When webmasters learn about the sandbox filter, their first question is always      whether or not their website has been placed  in it. Determining whether or not you are in   the sandbox is a relatively easy task to do. First, being placed in the sandbox is different  than having your website banned.                                 

If you do a search for your domain in Google and they return zero results for your
website (and you had been previously listed  in Google), there is a chance that you have  been banned. One of the best ways to determine if you have been banned is to look at your log files to see if Google is visiting your website.  Banned websites typically do not see Google visit their websites, regardless of who is linking to them.

If you have not been banned, but  do not rank well with Google, you should look  at the quality of your content and the quality of your inbound links. You should also see if    you rank well for non- competitive keywords.  Remember how the filter affects competitive keywords more than less competitive keywords?  Well, you can use this to determine if you have  been sandboxed. Finally, if you rank well in all the other major search engines, but do not  show up at all in Google’s rankings, you have    probably been sandboxed.
                               

Is There A Way to Get Out of the Sandbox?                              

The quick answer to this is yes,  there is a way out of the sandbox, but you will      not like the answer. The answer is to simply wait. The sandbox filter is not a permanent  filter and is only intended to reduce search engine spam. It is not intended to hold people back from succeeding. So eventually, if you  continue to build your site as it should be built, you will leave the sandbox and join the other established websites.
                               

Again, if your website has been placed in the sandbox you should use this time  to your advantage. It is a great opportunity to build your traffic sources outside of the   search engines. If you have a website that does well in the search engines, you may be tempted to ignore other proven methods of traffic building such as building a community, or building strong inbound links through partnerships. However, if you establish traffic sources outside of  search engines, when you finally leave the sandbox,  you will see a welcome increase in your traffic  levels.                                 

Conclusion                               

Google has been going to great lengths to cut out on search engine spam. Some
have faulted them on the lengths that they are  going to claiming that it is effecting legitimate sites as well as the spam websites. While this  is probably the case, as an owner of a website  you need to place yourself in the position of Google and ask yourself what they are really  looking for in a website. Google is looking  for websites that offer quality content. Google  still relies on the natural voting system that was first used to establish pagerank. They may cange the way that they qualify content or    inbound links, but the basic elements of a quality  website will always remain the same.                               

No website owner in their right  mind will "like" Google’s sandbox. However, a smart website owner will use the sandbox as an opportunity to build a website that Google   simply cannot refuse.      

Aout the Author: Mark Daoust is the owner of Site-Reference.com, articles that focus on Internet  Marketing, Website Development, and Search Engines.  This article was originally published at http://www.site-reference.com/Search-Engines/5147/index.html