Hello this is John Locke, and today I want to talk about the Google sandbox.
What is the "Google sandbox"? What does that mean? There's two things that
prompted me to make this video today. One is that a viewer wanted to know about
the Google sandbox. So thank you for that suggestion. The second thing is, I saw
somebody on the Reddit Big SEO forum, talking about how
they have optimized their site, and they think their site should rank higher.
Doesn't everybody? They were saying that they
think that it has to do with their domain age (Time elapsed since they first registered the domain name). This person on
the Reddit forum, they were saying that they're in a category, a
vertical, where it's all baby boomer age people -- people in their 60s and 70s.
They said the number one and the number two ranking sites
have a lot of domain age. They've been around forever. They have a lot of
incoming links. But all the rest of the sites (on page one of Google) from number three on page
one all the way down to page four, it's all thin content. People don't
have links, and all these other things. They have a couple citations,
NAP citations. But it's a lot of thin content (ranking for this term). Lots of
not-so-stellar links. He thinks it has to do with the Google sandbox. (Why his site isn't ranking higher).
That may or may not be true. It's hard to say without looking at
the site itself, and being able to tell you (specific details). Let's talk about what the Google
sandbox is. Many people believe, and I'm one of them too,
that there is a kind of a "sandbox"-- where there's a dampening of the
ranking ability of a domain in its first year or first few months
of its use. You can have an aged domain -- meaning that
it's been registered for more than a year -- but Google actually looks at how
long it's been used as an
active domain. Let's say you have a brand new website, and you
debut the site. Google dampens the ranking power of that domain for a
little while. The reason being, they try and find where it's fitting into the
rest of your industry. "Where should we rank this site? (in comparison to the other sites in this industry?)" In the past,
many people who had "pump and dump" websites would buy a domain
for a year, and they would do affiliate marketing, trying to get those sites
to rank. (How some would so this is by) pointing a bunch of spammy links at those sites. Basically, leveraging black hat SEO
techniques, to make that site rank for a year. They don't care (about the long term health of the domain) because after a
year, they're going to dump that domain anyway. This is when Google
probably first started using the sandbox, which was around 2004. In recent
years, Google representatives have been asked point-blank, "Do they have a sandbox?"
You should keep in mind that usually, Google representatives do not tell the
one-hundred percent truth about the algorithm. (They cannot as terms of their employment.) It's a very important thing to
keep in mind. You must look for direct answers, and then for times when
they're using vague language. When they use vague language, that means
there probably is something (in what they didn't say) where you should analyze exactly what they're
saying. John Mueller, Google's representative, a couple of
years ago was asked about this -- (or Gary Illyes from Google) was asked about the
sandbox, and they said that they do not have a literal sandbox where it keeps a
domain dampened for a certain period of time. However, most SEOs have noticed
that there is a dampening period, that can range from anywhere from one month
to thirteen months, generally speaking. So, your domain name,
your website, should reach its full ranking potential in all cases after
that first year. Because Google is then certain that you're not pumping and
dumping that website. You're not just pumping a bunch of spammy links into it,
a bunch of "black hat SEO" links to increases sales, and then
dumping the domain. So, how long does it take (to escape the Google sandbox)? What are things that you
can do to make the site rank, right out of the gate? Make sure that you
are putting out relevant content on your website, of course. That is something
you should always do. Whatever your customers are looking for, make sure
that information is on the site. Make sure that on each page, they can complete
the action that they are expecting to take. Be proactive about your link
building. That's one of the big things. Being proactive
about link building consistently. Not just a big flurry, and then stopping.
Making sure that you're consistently, over time, doing link building. Making
sure you get all your foundational citations, like industry
directories, local directories, your social profiles.
Trying to get mentioned in some other
places that are related to your industry. However you have to to make that happen
in a natural way, that's what you should do. The Google reps have said in
the past that they don't have a sandbox, but they definitely do have something
that exhibits sandbox-like qualities. So whether that's an algorithmic thing, a
dampening process that happens within the Google algorithm itself? That might
be. Mind you, this doesn't mean that your site is not indexed. Your site can
be indexed the same day. Meaning the website itself appears in the Google
index. If you do a branded search, and you search for your company name,
it will show up. But it doesn't mean that you're going to rank for your money
keywords, right out of the gate. Remember SEO is a long-term process,
and you're going to have to do all these things like create content, and build
natural, relevant links to your website, over time. Then, just be patient and
continue to try and grow your brand in ways that you would do naturally. Do
things like going to trade shows, direct mail. You could definitely do
those old-school methods. I would say that Google cannot always track those, so
be sure that you're doing things (online) like being active on social media,
building brand awareness, publishing content, all those things that
brands do in the 21st century to build their brand. The Google sandbox,
yes. There is a dampening period. It can vary, and it depends Google has said that,
the Google representatives had said that. There is a time that they keep
trying to figure out where it fits (in the larger category). That is what John Mueller has said
directly. There is a period of time in which they try and figure out where it
fits within your industry, and your vertical. That really does sound like
a sandbox to me. Where you don't just rocket to number one. You're not going to
be able to do that. First mover advantage is real. Many of the incumbent
rankers seem to have a lot of advantage. Knocking somebody off of that
pedestal takes a little bit of work. Just keep at it, improve your site,
improve your brand, improve your links, improve your content, improve your user
experience, all those things, and you should be in good shape. This is
John Locke for Lockedown Design and SEO. We help manufacturing and industrial
companies get more RFQs and put more money in their pocket. That's what I'm talking about. If
you have a SEO question, leave it in comments below.
Remember, we're publishing every week. We'd be happy to see you subscribe. Until
next time, peace.