What is Google Sandbox? - An Ultimate Guide

What is Google Sandbox?

The Google Sandbox is a generally accepted term that explains why new websites don’t make it to the top ranks of Google until a certain time has passed. Although Google has never officially confirmed that the sandbox exists, SEO experts believe there is a sandbox concept that Google uses to rank new websites. During the initial period, it doesn’t rank your site even if you have done everything right with it. 

It can be said that the sandbox feature was added to Google’s algorithm during March 2004. The sandbox probably helps Google to distinguish the good websites with high-quality and up-to-date content from the ones that start off well but can’t maintain the good work. 

Google has always aimed at displaying the most relevant results to its users. And the sandbox seems like one of its tools that Google uses to ensure the relevancy of the websites it displays on the search engine results page. 

Now, if you are wondering how you can find out whether your website is in the sandbox or not, here’s what you can do. A new website under a newly registered domain will probably be put in the sandbox, once Google is aware of your site. Google can find your site by following an inbound link from another site that search bots crawl. 

If your website has made it to the sandbox, you will be able to see your website in the search results of Google if you search for the actual domain name. But it is unlikely that you will find your website listed for the keywords that you had targeted. Besides, no other pages apart from the home page or index page will be listed by Google. 

Why does a new website not rank high on Google?

Google always relies on data to rank a website. And obviously, a new website wouldn’t have enough data that could prove its expertise, authority and trustworthiness to Google. Another important factor that is necessary to rank high is the backlink profile.  Therefore, if your website is new, it can be quite tough to win Google’s trust in a short time. 

The following reasons can help you identify what might be stopping it from ranking high on Google.

1. Your website may be lacking in content

 Google tries to make sense of a website’s relevance regarding a certain topic by crawling through the pages. If there’s not much content in the pages, it can be tough for Google to understand what your website is actually offering.

2. Not enough backlinks

To rank your website, having high-quality backlinks is a must. Your website won’t rank high in the search results if you have a weak backlink strategy. Besides, the presence of internal links that allows link juice to pass through is an important factor for your website as well. 

You can build several backlinks to your website in a short time, but Google may ignore them if they are not high-quality. You need to very careful with fast-growing backlink profiles because your site can be penalized by Google for that. 

3. Lesser user signals

Google also takes the behavioural data of the users visiting your website into consideration to judge your authority and relevance. It takes some time to analyse the data and may thus postpone ranking your site for popular keywords. Some of the factors that it will analyse are the click-through rate, bounce rate, dwell time, etc. 

 How to rank high quickly?

If your website is new, it will probably stay in the Google sandbox for a while. Even if the theory of sandbox is a myth, it will take you some time to get to the top. But there are certain ways by which you can take your website to the SERPs quickly. Let’s see how that can be done. 

Get your website indexed quickly
 It doesn’t matter if your website has already gone live. Nothing counts until Google has indexed it. 

You can check whether your site is indexed by a simple Google search. All you need to do is type your site and domain and you will be able to see how many pages of your website have been indexed by Google. 

If you see that it has not been indexed, try to get it done as soon as possible. You can also register your domain on Google Search Console and submit your XML sitemap. 

Traffic

In the initial days, getting a good influx of traffic is essential for top ranks. Moreover, this can help you get out of the sandbox faster. You can try some of the following methods to increase your website’s traffic. 

Guest post on websites that are popular to get more visitors to your site and build a strong backlink profile.

Create videos on similar topics and post them on YouTube. There’s no sandboxing concept on YouTube, so you can get direct traffic from it easily. 

 Facebook ads are a great way to increase traffic.

 Try to be regular in the posts that you make in forums or Facebook groups. 

Note: Although guest posting on popular websites is important, make sure that you don’t overdo this. Building some trust with Google first is important before you go for any major link building activity. 

Get started with an active website that is still indexed

This is probably the easiest way to find your way around Google sandbox. If you can’t wait until Google puts you out of the sandbox, you can look for a domain that is on sale either directly by someone or by a registrar. Some sites that can help you out with this are Godaddy Auctions and Flippa. Go check them out. 

However, you need to be careful while buying a domain. You can’t just buy anything that comes your way. Take some time out to test these domains and see whether they are clean and relevant. Follow these steps to perform your checks.

 Check whether the domain is indexed or not. 

Check if the domain is ranking for any keywords. You can use SEMrush or a similar tool to check that. If there are a few keywords for which it is ranking, you can be sure that it is not sandboxed. 

Check the backlink profile. Again, you can use SEMrush for the task. If you see that the linking domains are spammy, you need to stay away from the website. Make sure that the anchor text used in the website is basic and under-optimized. 

Also, check if there were any spammy redirects in the domain’s past history. It’s better to go for a website that is somewhat related to what you are trying to put on your website. 

Choose long-tail keywords

Ranking for popular keywords can be tough when your website is new. But you can surely rank well if you target for long-tail keywords. Before you choose your long-tail keyword that you want to rank for, you have to do keyword research and also check the competition that the keyword carries. Additionally, you have to identify your competitors and find out what keywords they are targeting and ranking for. There are many tools available to help you with keyword research. Use them. 

Develop authority

We have already mentioned that Google wants the best results for its users, and a site won’t make it there unless it proves that its content is user-friendly, relevant, and authoritative. You can build authority for your site by having good links, user-metrics, mentions from other authoritative and relevant sites, and brand queries. Remember that this is a gradual process and doesn’t happen overnight.

Social signals

Social signals indicate Google that your website is gaining traction on social media platforms and help your site gain trust. As mentioned earlier, running Facebook ads can work quite well to bring more traffic. If you have a blog on your website, you can run Facebook ads for it and drive traffic to it. 

Avoid promoting your website aggressively 

The process to rank your website high in the SERPs is a long and gradual process. Trying too hard or promoting your website aggressively will make it come across as spam for Google. Therefore, put quality over quantity. Start with acquiring a few links for your website and make sure they are of premium quality. This is far better than having a lot of links with subpar quality. 

Focus on your foundational links more, and don’t put much effort on optimizing your anchor text. Keep it under-optimized and make sure to get good social signals. Eventually, as you start gaining more trust with Google, you can raise your aggression level slightly to build more links.

GMB verification

Google My Business listings are the key to building your local presence. You can use them to give you an overall boost to your search rankings as well. To get your GMB verification, you need to ask Google to send a postcard to your home or office address. The postcard will have a code that you can use to verify your address. But before you do that make sure it is within Google’s policy to get a verified GMB listing for your niche. If you don’t want people visiting your place, you can always hide your address on Google Maps. 

Pay attention to topical relevance 

Topical relevance in improving the relevance of your entire site instead of just one page. If you provide more pages of content to Google that support your niche, you can build relevancy and trust quickly. 

Another thing that you need to remember is to avoid keyword cannibalizing, i.e. don’t target the same keyword on multiple pages. However, you can target keywords related to your main keyword and build topics and supporting pages around this keyword.

Now, you know what is Google Sandbox, and what you can do to get out of it as quickly as you can. Once your website is out of the sandbox, the way you want to take your site forward depends on your SEO strategy – whether you are looking to create a brand or rank your website among the top search results. 

If you are looking to increase your website rankings, you can direct your SEO strategy towards acquiring more links. However, if you are looking to establish your site as a top brand, you need to get links to your website from high authority sites. 

These days, Google is more focused on highlighting the brands. As Google becomes better and better every day, it is just not enough if your site has SEO-friendly content and backlinks. You should be focusing on creating a personal brand value if you want to rank among the top results in a short time. Make it a long term goal to build your brand. Get the required exposure, create your online buzz, and work harder and harder to achieve user satisfaction. 

Final Thoughts

If the sandbox exists, it could be a really annoying place to find your website in. But you can always try to shorten the time your site spends thereby following the above-mentioned tips.

In the early days, it was easy to spam Google. All you had to do was set up a website, optimize it with the popular keywords, build links to it, and see yourself ranking almost in an overnight. And obviously, there were affiliates and black hat SEOs that tried to use this to their advantage and create lots of spammy websites. With the sandbox, Google put an end to all these spammy tactics.

But don’t let this dishearten you. Google may have come up with specific algorithms to keep new websites from ranking, but it is still possible to rank your new site on the SERPs. Just try to focus on gradually building your authority and relevance, and don’t expect things to happen in a jiffy. Eventually, you will have secured a place that is unique to you and Google. 

Author Bio

Name: Pramendra Singh

Pramendra singh is an SEO analyst and a learner with a curious mind to learn about a wide range of SEO topics. His experience in SEO and writing and reviewing content gives him a solid base to approach several subjects that are valuable for businesses and websites looking to build a strong presence in the market.

When he is not writing, you can find him enjoying and playing music. Reach him at digirock17@gmail.com.