By: Jim Hedger | Source: seo-news.com

The mysterious "Google Sandbox" has been a hot discussion topic for search engine optimizers since the phenomena was first noted and named in late April,2004. Since then, ideas on the function, scope and even existence of the sandbox have been a mainstay in SEO and Google related forums, chats and articles.

The term, "sandbox" describes a process of Google’s ranking formulas that appear to slow the debut of new sites in the Top10 listings. Whether or not the sandbox exists tends to depend on the side of the black hat / white hat debate one comes from. SEOs dedicated to "pure", non-spammy SEO tend to downplay the effects of the sandbox while those who use dark-art tactics know from personal experience that the effects are very real.

Google chief engineer Matt Cutts acknowledged it saying, "How many feel there is no such thing as a sandbox? SEOs normally split down the line. There are some things in the algorithm that may be perceived as a sandbox that doesn’t apply to all industries."

While Matt’s comments did not exactly confirm or deny the existence of a sandbox, they did leave the barn door open wide enough for a great deal of discussion.

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