Growing up we we’re always taught to play fair, but there were always those kids who didn’t play by the rules, you know the ones; the bullies, the ‘too cool for school’ types, the Yahoo’s! and Googles.
Google is like the big kid in the playground who just makes his own rules, and the kids who learn how to play by these ever changing rules are the ones who end up surviving.
And not much has changed either.
Now the only things that are different are the surroundings. The swing set has been replaced with algorithms, the see-saw is now what I like to call the ‘Feedburner rollercoaster’ (have you not seen feed counts go up and down like bedsprings on a honeymoon!?) and the sandbox has been replaced with – oh wait, it’s still there.
But the rules have not changed a bit, so learning how to play by the big kid’s rules is critical if you want to enjoy your time on the swings and roundabouts.
Otherwise chances are you’ll do something you shouldn’t and he’ll push you in the sandbox or something.
So what is this ‘Sandbox’ I keep hearing about?
First off, the idea that the sandbox is some kind of ‘go to the corner and think about what you have done’ penalty is such a fallacy.
I guess the analogy is an attempt to say ‘hey, break the rules and I will send you to the sandbox. You can still do what you want – but you can’t interact with all the other kids’ and this is so not true.
To stick with the analogy it is more like ‘hey break the rules and you go the sandbox. You can still play with all the other kids, but only when they come to you – or you shout over to them’ because although you are definitely restricted you are still visible, and you can still shout (use social media) to your heart’s content. Best way to look at it is like this:
Sandbox = Indexed, not Ranked
Check out this screenshot showing the Visitor analytics of a site being indexed, sandboxed, and then out the other side. You can see it still got visits, and it lasted in this case 2 months.
- http://www.webmaster-diary.griddler.co.uk/Apr2008.aspx (Ana’s note: I decided against posting the image on my blog, since you really need to see it full size.)
So how do I stay out of it then?
If I am launching a new niche site, then I want to rank it as quickly as possible, but I need to make sure that the types of links I start throwing at it early are applicable and relevant – because I need a solid foundation to start with, especially since I plan on throwing a lot of instability at it in the near future.
Building a solid link foundation
The best type of links to start throwing at a brand new site are relevant ones.
I know this sounds like a no-brainer, but of all the criteria that your links must meet, when you first start – relevancy is the most important factor, and there is no easier way to build relevant links than by blog commenting and Article Marketing.
Blog Commenting is the easiest way to build incoming relevant links, provided of course the blog you are commenting on is a Do-Follow blog (again there are variations to this rule too – read more on the subject here:
There is no hard and fast rule to blog commenting, but because the only real way to make sure a comment stays put is to do it manually, the process means it’s almost impossible to build the links too quickly.
Article Marketing is another great way of building relevant backlinks to a fledgling site because you control the content as well as the link.
The other bonus here is that most Article Directories are well established, both in authority and Pagerank, so the incoming links represent added value.
Ana’s note: here are some great articles on link building:
- Want Quality Backlinks? Follow Me!
- Link Building Mixology Guide
- One Way Link Building Guide to Die For
You have to play on everything though
Ironically, if you want to stay out of the sandbox, you have to make a concerted effort to play on everything else, and the same goes for your link building foundation.
Pointing hundreds of relevant links of the same type at the site is fine so long as you keep things at pace, but if you start throwing other types of links at it too, you can get away with a slightly faster campaign.
Bring on Web 2.0 and Social Bookmarking!
I personally outsource, but how you choose to do it is up to you and I’m not even going into any details here anyway. By now your new site should be around a month old and should have been indexed by Google a while ago.
Staying consistent and varying the types of links you throw at it is key from this point on, but I personally believe that once the site is over 3 months old, provided you have consistently built relevant links from a variety of sources you can pretty much throw a million links at it and not get sandboxed.
Alex Whalley
Alex Whalley is the owner and founder of Build | Rank | Profit: The Niche Site Marketing Blog and the Principle Consultant at BuRP! Consulting, a Sydney based Search Engine Marketing Firm. Connect with Alex at the official Build Rank Profit Blog and learn EXACTLY how to Build, Rank, and Profit from Niche Sites today!
Shweta says
Before reading this article I did’nt had any info. about Google Sandbox and inlinks and after going through ur article I can definitely say I know a bit now.
Dani says
The sandbox is not a myth. Let me tell you what I have experienced in new sites: I just developed a new site and decided to go on blog commenting. I did all the process as It must be done. Posting relevant comments on dofollow blogs. I just posted 10 comments per day, one for each page and two for the homepage. The site has 10 pages. I did this for 10 days. So I got 120 backlinks right. Suddenly, I stopped the backlinking process due to I decided to wait those backlinks to show up in webmaster tools. In two weeks webmaster tools started to show up the backlinks and it started to have traffic from Google. It even ranked for some good keywords. It stood like this for 1 month and suddenly! Slap!!! all rankings went down from top 10 to top 500. What happened? Well If I had continued buidling links on the same rate the site rankings would increased.
Ok I started a another website with 12 pages on it and did the same. However, this time I did not stop building links. So its been 4 months and the site is growing exponentially. It is competing for some good keywords and no slap yet and it won’t be slap anymore.
What does it means? It means that google rewards sites that become viral no matter whether they are new or not. If your start your backlinking campaign do not stop until you reach your destination. Do it slowly and I recommend stop building links when the site reaches a position when it starts building links naturally. This usually happen reaching top spots at competitive keywords.
Conclution: There is sandbox but it is applied on sites that try to spam building links for a period and suddenly stop. I concluded this due to my experience.
Good post Anna.
Thanks for sharing, Dani - just goes to show slow and steady - and continuous - wins the race!
Ana
Ken Ye says
Hi Alex,
This is a great article and this is the first article that I seen that really dig into sandbox discussion. I wish I could have read this article earlier. I am fairly new to SEO, and I just lunch my site about two weeks ago. I bookmark some of my pages to about 10 social marketing sites and I wonder if this could result in anything link sandbox or google dancing whatsoever. My site is not yet fully indexed, but most pages is in google now. I check my keyword ranking by using Rank Checker, and I found several of my long tail keywords are enter the top 100 today and then drop out again tomorrow, maybe the day afterward the keyword will re-enter the 100 position again, just jumping back and forth (not just google, yahoo as well). This does look strange to me. All my other major keywords are not in any of 100 position yet, which I know I need to build more backlink. Just those few longtail keyword confused me which they are bouncing back and forth.
Well, I guess I have to wait until my site fully indexed before I can tell, but I do build some other backlinks by doing article marketings, blog comment, directory submission. I am just little worry that I might over do on social bookmarking.
I am sure Alex will share his opinion on this one, Ken, but since link building is one of my favorites, I will step in and give you my 2 penny’s worth.
There’s nothing wrong with social bookmarking in itself, as long as you do it slowly and steadily.
However, I doubt it will help you in any way to rank for your keywords. For the most part, those kinds of links are of very low quality and might hurt your rankings more than help. They will help you get indexed faster though. 🙂
I would focus on building high quality links. I would highly suggest you check out the following post on that: One Way Link Building.
Alex - out and over to you.
Ana
Ken Ye says
Hmm… I really not sure if I am doing the social bookmarking too quick or not. I probably bookmark about 100 pages in a week 🙂 cuz I want my site to get indexed faster.
BTW: I just realize there are so many typos in my last comment (typing too quick), and thank goodness you understand my point.
Ken Ye says
Sorry, I meant 10 pages in 10 different social bookmarking sites, so total 100 bookmarking, not 100 pages (except twitter :), I tweet all my pages)
Just take it easy with it, Ken - patience is a virtue in link building as well.
No, no I think you pretty much summed up what I would have said - probably sounded better from you too 🙂
Thanks Ana, and thank you Ken for such a great question, and for stopping by the TGC 🙂
Wesley Atkins says
I’ve built tons of niche sites online in the past few years and for the sceptics out there, I can say with absolute certainty that the Sandbox exists..
I’ve spent a long time testing out theories to avoid it, so here’s how I typically avoid the sandbox now on a new domain:
Rule No: 1. Ensure basic SEO
- Unique title tags across all page
- Unique description tags on all pages (or use none)
- Ensure no broken links / 404 error pages
Rule No: 2. Avoid the mass mindset
- Don’t submit your site to 1000’s of article directories
- Don’t submit your site to 1000’s of social bookmarking sites
- Don’t submit build links with spun content
- Don’t syndicate your site with RSS to 100’s of directories
Rule No: 3. Link Building Guidelines
- Ensure link diversity
- Ensure sufficient anchor text rotation
- Avoid buying or selling links for SEO manipulation
- Make sure to deeplink your long tail pages too not just your homepage
- Avoid sitewide links with the same anchor text
Rule No: 3. Design / Content Guidelines
- Ensure you use 100% unique content on your site
- Don’t have a double adsense block at the top of your site
- Don’t build MFA (Made for adsense) sites that offer no additional value
Important: Once you have authority (TrustRank) in your domain, you can get away with all the above, just not on a new site.
Wow Wesley thanks for additional inputs on how to avoid the sandbox. They are very detailed and I appreciate you for sharing them. I will take note of what you have shared here. It’s really nice that we can continue to learn from each other.
Have a wonderful day,
Ana
Wesley!
You have really gone above and beyond with this value add, and I reiterate the words of the gorgeous Ana and say - WOW, and THANK YOU!
Kurt Henninger says
I’ll play the devils advocate here. 🙂
By most SEO definitions, the sandbox isn’t when you are indexed, but not ranked, but when you are de-indexed completely.
Being indexed and not ranked is more commonly referred to as a “Google Dance”.
Symantics aside, the best advice I’ve ever heard regarding how to get out of it to keep building links to your site and don’t stop.
For the most part, when they see their site dancing around and panic and stop building links….a big no no.
Google is trying to “figure out” exactly where your site belongs in the search engines and by continuing to add links you show google that you indeed are a valid site.
Another misconception is that you can “get in trouble” for getting too many links too quickly.
Think of it this way, if it were that easy to penalize a site, don’t you think that some aggressive marketers would go out trying to “nuke” the competition and remove their competitors above them in the search engines?
There would be a whole cottage industry out there to “hurt your competition”, and in fact you can go out and buy link packages of 100K+ links to be sent out to any URL for very cheaply…
The worst that will happen is that your site might “dance around” a bit.
I do agree that having a solid link foundation will help round out your profile and help insulate you from your site dancing around.
My two cents…
Thoughts?
Thanks for sharing your own insights and wisdom Alex.
Varying anchor text should be something you are doing from the offset, so I can imagine it can only assist you to get out of trouble later on too. As for Google, I’m with you and Ana on that - nothing you can do but play by their rules I guess. (to a point of course 🙂 )
Ana,
I appreciate the kind words 🙂 thank you, the feeling is indeed mutual 🙂
Thanks for letting me stop by! (I know you were talking to Susanna there but still)
Cheers Oliver,
I appreciate the feedback and I’m glad the post was valuable in some way.
(Thanks Ana for allowing me to share it here as well!)
Harsh Agrawal@ Make Money Online says
Alex that’s a nice topic brought by you and yes it’s true that sandbox exists and I have seen few of my bloggers friend getting into Google Sandboxing. This happened with them when they started blogging and they hired someone to build backlinks and do directory submissions.. For the first 2-3 days they got traffic and after that traffic from Google almost halted..After research they realize guy got them backlink from many non relevant niche including Gambling websites.
One thing is for sure, Google hates Casino and Gambling websites….!!
Thanks for sharing that story Harsh. That’s why we need to really be careful with building backlinks because instead of the benefit we can gain, we might end up messing everything up.
Glad you came by,
Ana
Nice to see you again Oliver. I’m glad that you picked up lots of info from this post. Thanks to Cori.
Take Care,
Ana
Hi Alex
As always you have given us a great post that explains things even this newbie can understand 🙂
Sometimes not understanding all that goes on in the blogosphere is an advantage lol
I just write my articles (hopefully with the right keywords, interesting content ) and comment on other blogs and be involved in social media. As I am enjoying the journey and my site is ranking well (got to be some advantage having a small niche site) I guess Google are happy and so am I.
Patricia Perth Australia
That’s a great way to handle things Patricia. Instead of worrying about everything, you just enjoy and continue to love what you’re doing and you’re absolutely doing it right.
Keep it up,
Ana
Hey Patricia,
I love your approach to link building, or lack thereof. Every single link that you have ever built will stay up so long as the blog stays up, and THAT is a very powerful foundation with which to build upon.
This is why Google are happy.
Thanks for your insight and your support - as always!
Lol, I have been sandboxed once in my life and I never want to experience it again. If you find out that you’re sandboxed, I think the quickest way is register a new domain name and then transfer your website over there. That’s what I did and it worked in my case. I hope next time, I will be more careful and check to see if my domain has been sandboxed. If it is, I will not register it 🙂
Hello Mike,
Thanks for the additional inputs and for sharing your own experience on this topic and how you we’re able to provide solution. I’m glad you did.
Cheers to that,
Ana
As Ana said, thanks for sharing your experience Mike!
I’ll know what to do if I find a profitable niche site ends up in the sandpit next time now too!
Awesome, well not for you at the time anyway.
Frieke Karlovits says
Ana - I really like your approach. Precise yet not over technical and that’s a lot more than one can say of others who post on these subjects.
Cheers
Frieke
Hello Frieke,
Thanks for liking this post by my friend Alex.
Glad you came by,
Ana
🙂
Daniel Sharkov@Blogging Tips says
Hey Alex,
That was a great article! I really liked the way you described the sandbox effect. Irrelevant backlinks can definitely prove a problem when trying to obtain good search engine positions. I strongly agree that blog commenting is a great method when it comes to building quality links. Although it takes time, posting a comment doesn’t require too much efforts. If you have read an article, then why not throw in your thoughts about it in the comments section? It’s not much of a headache.
Keep it up mate!
Hey Daniel!
Thanks for coming over and supporting this post mate - much appreciated!
Glad you enjoyed the post, and I like your take on commenting for links. If you’re there to learn, why not get a free link out of it too. Nice
Alex,
Great stuff as always! A wonderful explanation on sandboxing. At least Google hasn’t invented the kids who come over and kick sand in your eyes. (maybe that is Bing!)
Sometimes early on it is hard to differentiate real “sandboxing” with the normal bounce a new site has when it first gets indexed. There is usually a natural high rank followed by drop followed by a rise again in my experience.
Hey Steve!
I like your add to the analogy. Bing indeed 🙂
I agree that this sandboxing is not really relevant in a site’s very early days, because as you said, this is the natural bounce.
Thanks for sharing Steve, I mean Scott. Site?
Moon Hussain says
And so, the mystery continues. Is social bookmarking okay to build these backlinks when the domain is new?
In my experience, yes it has been perfectly OK. I won’t go into detail because a: I don;t want to ;0 and b: you already know 🙂
but yeah, I mix that with blog commenting and a sprinkling or randomness thrown in for the first month or so
Thanks for stopping by Moon!
I’m not sure if I’ve been sandboxed before or not, but I do wonder sometimes what on earth goes on. On my niche site challenge it’s google rank fluctuates like a yoyo.
How long do you find before a site ranks at a stable position?
Hey Mark!
Welcome to SEO man hahaha!
You even notice this fluctuation with blog posts. I’ll rank first out of millions for a day or so before dissapearing for a while and then settling whereever the hell it does. stupid Google. 🙂
I think 3 months is the time I would say when my sites finally come to rest, so to speak.
Thanks heaps for the support here brother!
Hey Mario!
Thanks for the comments mate - I think you pretty much summed up my whole post quite nicely there.
I’ll drink to that! Cheers
This whole sandbox idea seems like a really fuzzy science to me. I hate that incoming links affect my blogs status in that way in that I really have limited control who links to me. I have much more control over my outgoing links.
Richard,
I think the whole sandbox thing IS a fuzzy science, not sure if that is the official Google term for it though 🙂
Granted you have no control over who links to you - to a point, but hey as long as they’re linking to you - you must exist. It cant all be bad.
Thanks for your comment Richard
Hey Alex, Thanks for the post,
My blog is pretty new, only 2 weeks old, and I’m not sure if its Sandboxed or not because sometimes when I search for a specific page within my blog on Google using the exact name as the title of the post for example, I get on the first page a completely different post than the one I searched for, its still from within my site, but a different post.
But if I click next for a few more pages I can find that post on like the 5th+ page, so I’m not sure if that post is being Sandboxed or not.
Is it possible for certain sections of the site to be Sandboxed while other sections indexed and ranked high?
Sorry I’m still a newbie. 🙂
If your seeing your site then you are not sandboxed. Google sandbox or whatever you want to call it basically stops the process of ranking your indexed pages for any keyphrases - regardless. If this was not the case you could simply reindex your pages with new targeted keywords.
With the results you are seeing, all I can say is ‘Welcome to SEO’ LOL!
“You know you know SEO when it makes no sense whatsoever” - Alex Whalley 🙂
Thanks for your awesome comment Sayed - it was not a stupid question at all.
Good post, Alex - I would add that a new blog can almost expect to go into the sandbox, within the first 30 days. When I started TaB, I had a few pages that ranked in the top 20, then it fell off for awhile. After a few weeks, those same pages came right back, with no action on my part. On several occasions, I believe that Matt Cutts has alluded to there being a human review process, but it is hard to fathom how that could be the case, with so much new content.
Hey Roy!
Hahaha, can you imagine that! Manually reviewing the 6 gazillion pages that are indexed every second…whoa!
I guess you are right in a sense about a new site - but its less a sandbox (or penalty) than simply your site establishing itself as the backlinks are all indexed and recognised.
Maybe - that’s my take on it anyway.
Thanks for your comments Roy!