When I first heard the term “Google Sandbox” from my friend, Yan who had just started niche marketing that was about 9 months ago. He explained that some of his niche sites were still in “probation” after getting the dreaded Google Sandbox for ranking too fast in too short a time. Well that was something new I learned then as I had always thought you get to rank well because of your hard work in backlink building. Why should one be made to lose his search engine ranking for doing the right thing?
Well fast forward to today, 9 months later, I can now say, though not too proudly, I not only heard about Google Sandbox, I experienced it too. 3 of my micro niche adsense sites had it with one being “released” just about 3 weeks ago.
What is Google Sandbox?
The Google Sandbox is a term used to describe Google’s filtering process that affects most new websites by placing them on a “probation” status. Google seems to especially target those that get to its SERP too quickly too soon.
There is no official definition and I read many different explanations and opinions given by many people who may have experienced it as well. BTW I have not read any statements from Google confirming or rejecting the existence of Google Sandbox.
Google Sandbox is not a penalty
Well a penalty is something given by Google if you contravene any of its TOS, or whatever rules and guidelines that have been clearly spelled out for you to comply with. Google Sandbox seems to be given to new sites who rank too well in the search engines or domains that might have changed owners too frequently. It’s probably Google’s way of telling us it prefers natural link building from all websites. However I like to think this Google Sandbox may have been Google’s answer to lots of spammers who were till recent years able to game the system and pretty much got away scot-free.
My own experience with Google Sandbox
If you have been following my Google Micro Niche Adsense journey, you would know I now own 7 domains. My very first website moved to Google’s page 1 #1 position a few days after getting indexed. All I did was using Angela’s Backlink Building Program and article marketing. It stayed on #1 for about a week till it disappeared completely. Its “probation” period lasted for about 2 months and now it’s back on Google’s #1 position. Two other newer sites with positions in #1 and #3 have now gone into Google Sandbox.
What to do when your sites are in Google Sandbox
Backlink building and more backlink building. Yup! that’s what I hear everyone recommending when I was researching what others were doing. Well I probably didn’t do enough of that since it took me a whole 2 months to get out of my probation period. The benefit of continuing to do backlinking is that when you get out of the sandbox you are in a better position to rank even higher than before. Some people believe how long you stayed in the sandbox depends on your popularity link so getting more backlinks to your new site must surely mean a lot.
Also do you know that Google has openly said through Matt Cutts that having backlinks is more important than having a ton of great contents and that determines which sites get crawled too. I saw a recent video in which he says that Google will ignore such sites unless it has a good number of backlinks to your site.
How to tell you got it
This is not de-indexing and all your pages continue to be indexed by Google. So this means that you will continue to see your website url when you type “site:www.domain”. Another test you should try to do is go to Yahoo instead of Google and search for the term “linkdomain:” followed by your website url. Your backlinks that you had accumulated will continue to be shown here.
If you are still unsure if you’ve got de-indexed by Google instead you can conduct a quick test this time using Google. Go to any of your web pages and copy part or complete sentence and place the whole text i.e place “your text” in Google search bar and click “”Search”. If Google returns with your selected text it shows that your website has not been de-indexed. Yeah you just got the sandbox, that’s a lot better 
How does Google Sandbox affect me
I’ve learned to live with it and that’s the same recommendation I will give to whoever is asking how not to get into this temporary setback in terms of your search engine ranking. Like I mentioned I just used the limbo phase to do my backlinking tasks.
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December 26, 2009 at 8:34 am
Hi Peter,
I know you've probably heard this one before as well, but even though building traffic in your niche is important in home based online businesses, I've never been a big subscriber to the idea that #1 ranking is that supercritical…especially in the beginning. To this end, I think continuing to do what you do and growing your site organically is the best plan no matter what Google or any other search engine chooses to do with your site.
December 26, 2009 at 8:50 am
Hi Shawn,
You're right. Achieving good search engine ranking and therefore high traffic should be a natural progression if you do all the right things to build your site, earn people's trust in you and building relationship with others.
December 27, 2009 at 5:00 am
Hi Sir I have listen from you after a long time. I have listen about google sandbox at DP forum. Someone nicely explain about it. Well it is not completely assure that if google officially inform about google sandbox or just it is one term that we are going to use within us.
The new site that google do not believe completely then google put that site on google sandbox, but I do not completely believe on it.
December 27, 2009 at 7:54 am
Well you belong to a group of people who do not believe in the sandbox possibly because you have not experienced it. But there is another group of bloggers who have experienced it. Anyway good that you have had no such experiences to contend with.
December 28, 2009 at 8:06 am
I'm confused with this peter. Will google send you a letter or something or you just experience this anytime? I don't understand this google sandbox and I'm worried about my blog.
December 28, 2009 at 8:18 am
I don't think you need to worry too much. This happens to new blogs only and not all new blogs get this treatment. We really do not understand how Google select these blogs. I have experienced it because I've created about 7 new niche blogs lately.
December 28, 2009 at 1:55 pm
it's a very nice posting,good work
January 2, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Hi Peter,
Thanks for the very informative post. I didn't really know exactly what the Google sandbox was until now. Fortunately I haven't had to experience this, but it's nice to know what I can do if I ever have this happen to me. I plan on starting up some small niche sites this year (that's the plan, anyway), so this information will come in handy.
January 2, 2010 at 3:27 pm
There are many people freaking out in the forums about getting sandboxed. I just wish more people would read posts like this to have a better understanding.
Regards,
Kai Lo
January 3, 2010 at 12:43 am
Hi Alan,
That's a great idea to start a few niche sites because the potential of earning some money is always there like I've seen for myself. The good part is that it is easier to rank them for low competition KW phrases but with decent traffic. Like me know if you need any advice when you're into it.
January 3, 2010 at 12:47 am
Hi Kai,
Good to see you here. Yes that's perhaps one of the reasons that led me to write this post – too many people have experienced this. But many are still not in the know simply because they don't create too many new websites because the sandbox affects only brand new sites.
January 3, 2010 at 12:46 pm
Hi Peter
Thanks for the post, I am relativey new at this and am going to start promoting more sites in the near future. This will help. Its people like you that help us newbies get on the right track
January 3, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Yeah, I'm interested in getting into some smaller, less competitive niches. I had started a site the beginning of last year, but I sold the site as I lost interest. I would need something that's mostly automated or doesn't take too much work, or something I can outsource to someone to write content for. In any case, it's one of my goals for this year, so hopefully I can get that underway. Thanks… some advice wouldn't hurt.
January 3, 2010 at 10:45 pm
Thanks for the info , I did check if any of my websites got deindexed and we are good there
January 4, 2010 at 1:24 am
Thanks for your submission to the Seventy Fourth edition of the Blog Carnival: Blogging. Your post has been accepted and its live:
http://thatsblog.com/blog-carnival-blogging/blo…
-ThatsBlog.com
January 4, 2010 at 4:41 am
The Google sandbox is generally related to new websites less then a year old. It's only part of many factors that makes-up Google's algorithm in determining a website's search engine ranking.
January 4, 2010 at 9:08 am
Hi peter, I have a new blog, it's 5 months now and I don't know how check if I am in this sandbox.
January 4, 2010 at 9:31 am
HI Walter,
Thanks for dropping by and since you are new, a warm welcome to my blog. Well you won't be new if you come here more often.
January 4, 2010 at 9:31 am
Thanks good to hear Ruben.
January 4, 2010 at 10:15 am
few months ago i got a sanbox for a website of mine because i did a little link building work and the website was brand new
January 4, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Hi Peter,
A very Happy New Year to you and all the readers here.
I wanted to know if Google Sandbox has made my site into probation, is it good or bad for my site? does link building will help me in that case?
If you can suggest me any good person who can help me get good natural link building services.
Thanks
January 4, 2010 at 5:50 pm
Hi GDI,
Thanks for sharing. How long did you stay in the sandbox?
January 4, 2010 at 9:45 pm
The google sandbox happens to me when I try adding like 10 external links a day from different websites like social bookmarks. My suggestion is to open up a blogspot blog and build links for a keyword. See how much you can do a day without getting sandboxed.
I say do it this way so you are not risking your own domain in being penalized and lose creditability
January 4, 2010 at 10:19 pm
Brian,
Was this a new site and how new is it. Just want to find out if it is within the 2 months age that most people claim sandbox usually happens.
January 4, 2010 at 10:23 pm
As far as I know Google Sandbox happens only to new sites when you do too much link building and gets you ranked too fast in too short time. If your site is old you should not worry about it. But it is good to keep doing constant link building.
January 7, 2010 at 11:47 am
I was afraid of Google sandbox after one of my small websites disappeared, but I rad a lot about Google and came with the answer that you must constantly work on the site so Google and users can realize that your site is worth of visiting.
January 7, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Hi Gochi,
That sounds like very good advice. Thanks for dropping by.
January 9, 2010 at 3:39 am
Link building is a great help to make your website get rankings in the search engine. Consistent link building just to remain on the rankings.
January 10, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Does this phenomena really exist? Well, no one really knows for sure.
January 27, 2010 at 3:02 am
I have faced the sandbox and it is annoying but it happens. Soon enough your sites come back and that is all that matters. I am waiting on a site of mines to come back. It has been around 3 months now and I am a little worried. It is not de-indexed but nowhere to be found. The dreaded Google sandbox.
January 30, 2010 at 4:31 am
Wow, 3 months is a long time. Did you do backlink building during this time?
February 27, 2010 at 8:20 pm
I always faced the sandbox for a few of my keywords, however mines only lasted 5 days max and they went straight back to the top. So, you don't need to worry if it happens it's just temporary.
February 28, 2010 at 2:20 am
I always faced the sandbox for a few of my keywords, however mines only lasted 5 days max and they went straight back to the top. So, you don't need to worry if it happens it's just temporary.