Are you unable to rank your web pages even after creating high-quality content and going all out on the SEO front? Well, it turns out that being unable to rank your new website might not be your fault.
According to an Ahrefs study, only 5.7% of all pages in the Top 10 SERPs were created within the past year. Most of the Top 10 SERPs were at least 2 years old.
SEO experts have come up with the term ‘Google Sandbox’ to explain the phenomenon of new pages and websites being unable to rank even after having the best content and links. A sandbox in SEO means an algorithm that prevents your website from ranking in its nascent stages. It’s a place where Google keeps new websites to check them thoroughly before allowing them to rank.
Read more to find out more about Google Sandbox in SEO, and find out how to rank your new site faster!
Table of Contents
What is a Sandbox in SEO?
Well, when you ask an SEO “What is Google Sandbox in SEO?”- The reactions are always going to be mixed. This is because there is no official explanation or even proof provided by Google about the existence of a sandbox for new websites.
However, most SEO professionals agree that it takes at least 6 to 9 months for a new website to appear on the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages- The top search results for any keyword). The SEO Sandbox is, thus, hypothesized via experimentation and experience, to be an algorithm by Google that holds back a new website’s ranking until it is sure that the website is not spammy and toxic.
This may be the reason that your indexed website is not ranking. Even if you push very high-quality content to your new website, build high-quality links, and ensure top-notch search engine optimization, your website might still land up in the sandbox, and be unable to rank.
Although the existence of a sandbox remains under question, all SEOs can definitely agree that new websites with new pages take significantly longer than old websites. However, there are ways to avoid the sandbox, or at least exit it faster with strategic decisions.
Does Google Use a Sandbox?
Google officials have long refuted the existence of a sandbox, but the effect of newer websites being purposely left out of rankings has been somewhat confirmed.
According to Google’s John Mueller, “With regards to the sandbox, we don’t really have this traditional sandbox that a lot of SEOs used to be talking about in the years past. We have a number of algorithms… that might look similar, but these are essentially just algorithms trying to understand how this website fits in with the rest of the websites”.
This clearly points towards what SEOs have hypothesized for many years. Indeed, Google prevents new websites from ranking in their early months. However, it is not a penalty, but more of a learning period for Google in which it confirms whether your website is spam or not, and whether it is a long-term viable website.
What SEO Experts Say About the Sandbox?
Here is what the biggest voices in the SEO industry have to say about the sandbox effect in SEO:
- Barry Schwartz (Founder of Search Engine Roundtable)
According to him, “The Sandbox might just be Google being cautious with new sites, waiting to see if they prove themselves over time.” He advises, in his many SEO guides and conversations over at SERoundtable, that the sandbox is basically the time period when Google is cautious about you and is building the necessary trust to rank your website.
- Brian Dean (Founder of Backlinko)
According to him, “The Sandbox might be less about an algorithmic filter and more about the time it takes for Google to trust a new website.” He advises to keep building the necessary signals such as backlinks and user engagement, and over time they will be strong enough to convince Google to rank your website.
- Rand Fishkin (Founder of Moz and SparkToro)
Rand says “The Sandbox effect is less about a formal penalty and more about a natural delay in the ranking process as Google gathers data on a new site.” Rand believes that there is enough evidence to point towards the existence of a sandbox, however, it may never be officially called that. He attributes the low rankings to a lack of trust and authority, both of which take time to develop.
As we can clearly see, SEO professionals acknowledge that ranking fast is tough- almost made purposely impossible.
How to Detect if Your Website is In the Sandbox?
Multiple factors can point towards your website being in the sandbox. One thing is for sure, if you’re reading this, you are having difficulty in ranking your new web pages on Google.
These factors, or any combination of them, can mean that your website is in the sandbox:
- Missing Pages
You’ve typed in your exact page title, and… nothing. Nada. Zilch. If your site’s nowhere to be found in the SERPs, even when you’re searching for it specifically, you probably are in the sandbox.
- No More SEO can be Done
Once you’ve optimized everything, analyzed the competition, skyscraped every existing piece of content, and built many high-quality links to your website, you are in the hands of Google. After many such pieces of content and several weeks of trying to optimize more, if you still don’t have a positive hit, you are likely in the sandbox.
- Appearing in Other Search Engines but Not Google
Try searching for your targeted keywords in other search engines like Bing or Yahoo. If you’re more easy to find there, or right there at the top results, it’s likely that Google is intentionally holding you back. Ring a bell as to what this is called?- Yup. You’re in the SEO Sandbox.
- Your Website is New
Congratulations on your new website. Unfortunately, Google’s present to the newbies is no one really wants. Google holds back from ranking new websites to check their quality, spam score, and other factors thoroughly.
- Major Restructuring Has Been Done
Did your website go through a major restructuring recently? Research suggests that after a major restructuring and redesign, Google starts treating your website as if it were a new website. This leads to having the same low-performance effects as if you were a new website.
If you are facing a few of the factors listed above, you might be stuck inside the sandbox. However, one should remember that the sandbox is not a punishment inflicted by Google. It is like a probation period in which Google is testing your website’s integrity.
Why are Your Web Pages Going to the Sandbox?
What exactly is the problem is ranking pages for what they are worth? This supposed ageism and discrimination might seem unfair to new website owners and businesses, but there is a strong reasoning behind it.
The point of the result pages is to give the best possible information about a search term to the user. A lot of factors go into making Google a worthy search engine, and they directly affect the existence of a sandbox.
Here are some of the reasons why your website may have to go through a testing period known unofficially as the ‘Google Sandbox’ in SEO:
- Competitive Fairness
Websites that have already existed for longer periods of time which push out high-quality content regularly have signals of reliability attached to them. Google ensures that they aren’t outranked by new entrants to the market who haven’t yet proven their worth. This ensures a good end-user search engine experience.
- EEAT
Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines tell us that they evaluate certain factors to assess the quality and relevance of a search result for a user. E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Google prefers sources that have first-hand experience in the industry the source is talking about; They also check the expertise of the source’s information, the authoritativeness of the source in the niche, and the trust they have built-in readers and consumers over many years.
One can clearly see how new websites might not have had enough time to signal these quality factors.
- Prevention Of Spam
Approximately, a whopping 4 million new websites are created every single day, according to Ahrefs. Most of these are spam and toxic. By delaying their time to be able to rank, Google has more time to assess their behaviour and assess their nature, leading to better outcomes for the general search-engine user.
- Algorithmic Assessment
As mentioned already, Google prefers websites that have been giving out reliable information to users. Google is constantly crawling sites to make sure that only the top brass survive. Building this trust and authority takes time. Some newer websites in competitive niches and high-volume keywords may take up to 2 years of quality content to rank.
How to Get Out of Sandbox and Rank Faster?
Although you cannot control when your webpages will start ranking, like any good SEO, the best you can do is to be ready for when Google starts taking you seriously. It might take some time, unfortunately, but patience is the cornerstone of SEO. When the fruits come in, they sure do come in sweet!
Here are some of the actionable insights you can start working on to rank faster and escape the sandbox:
- Raise Authority through Building Links
One of the fastest and most reliable ways to signal trust and authority to Google is to build high-quality links from trusted and reputed websites. When a reliable and high-authority website links to your content, it signals to Google that you are also a trustworthy source, and some of that authority (read: link juice) gets transferred over to you.
- Publish High-Quality Long Form Content
Long-form research-based and highly informative content is the goldmine of SEO. Although it is time-intensive, the rewards are massive. The focus should be on creating highly informative blogs while shifting the strategy from quantity to quality. Long-form informative content can be an excellent signal for demonstrating expertise on a subject.
- Perfect Your Strategy
While your pages are stuck in the down-low, you should focus on building a strategy regarding targeting the right keywords, having the right mix of various sub-niches in your niche, and creating a solid content calendar that comprehensively covers an authoritarian level of information regarding the subject matter you write about.
- Build a Social Media Presence
Your social presence feeds into your reliability and trust and translates literally into backlinks that signal authority. It’s a win-win. While you wait to become the top of the SERPs, create engaging social media content and expand your reach there, and that reach and social credit will help Google gauge your reliability across the web.
Fall from the Heavens: The Reverse Sandbox Effect
We have discussed the effects and remedies of the sandbox period in detail. This period of negligible ranking and fluctuating traffic can disappoint any SEO, however, it might start in the completely opposite manner.
SEO experts have also coined the phrase ‘Reverse Sandbox Effect’ that describes the phenomena of new websites and newly published pages having a high boost in traffic right after their launch for a short period of time (1-7 days typically).
This short boost in the performance of pages is, again, an international move by Google. In this timespan when the page is purposely ranked highly, Google is checking important aspects of the page such as bounce rates, click-through rates, etc. Google analyses various qualitative factors as well including how users interact with it, whether they find it valuable, and how it compares to existing content on similar topics, etc.
After this ‘honeymoon period’ in the rankings, pages might experience a normalisation, which is pages going back to being ranked naturally. This may lead to a sharp decline in rankings. This decline is usually referred to as the sandbox period in SEO, where to pick up the rankings again, SEOs have to be patient and work on all-around website improvement.
Conclusion
Even though not proven officially, the sandbox is nonetheless an interesting phenomenon. On one hand, it improves search engine usage for the average person searching for information on the web, and these improvements are the ones that have made Google the most used search engine in the world- by far.
On the other hand, It is a huge problem for businesses and SEOs. A lot of time and investment is required for setting up a new website and publishing content on it. Once the operation is running, it is already a huge effort by a lot many involved. To see the abysmal rankings then, well let’s say it’s justified to be a tad bit disappointed.
SEOs must be patient and out-endeavour the sandbox period because once the rankings start climbing, all your existing high-quality content will be back in the game and ready to satisfy search queries all around the globe.
FAQs
What does the term sandbox mean in SEO MCQ?
Google Sandbox is an effect that has been observed by most marketing professionals due to which new websites cannot rank on Google for the first few months, even after having good backlinks and optimization. In this period, Google apparently keeps the websites in a cache and prevents them from ranking like they normally should.
What is Google Sandbox Period?
While it’s debated how long it takes to rank after launch, usually Google sandbox period usually lasts anywhere from 6 to 9 months according to most SEO professionals. If you’re putting out great content and building authoritative links in this time, you should be able to rank within a year from launch.
What is Sandbox in Blogging?
The sandbox is an alleged set of algorithms that prevent a new website from ranking even if it has high-quality content, backlinks, and search engine optimisation. Its existence has been hypothesized since 2004, but the effect is widely agreed to be true.
What is Sandbox in digital marketing?
A sandbox, also called sandboxing, or the sandbox penalty, refers to the phenomena of newer websites being unable to rank on Google in the first few months. Digital marketers have agreed that there is some algorithm that prevents even high-quality new websites from ranking.
