Professional Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

265 Professional Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

15.1 Google's sandbox effect

Many website owners wonder why their websites rank well in Yahoo and Bing but not

in Google. Why is this so and what can you do about that?

It takes some time until Google lists new websites. After you have received a 100%

rating from IBP's Top 10 Optimizer, Google needs some time to list your optimized

web page.

Google's sandbox and your website

In general, brand-new websites with new domain names need about six to eight

months to get top rankings on Google.

The usual process is that Google indexes the new website, lists it for some less

important queries and then the web pages drop from the search engine result pages

for several months. Although other search engines list the site properly, Google

doesn't list the website, sometimes not even for the company name.

If you have a brand-new website, don't worry about this. You are not necessarily

doing anything wrong. Google delays the inclusion of new websites. This

phenomenon is called the Google sandbox.

Why does Google delay the inclusion of brand-new websites?

It seems that Google delays the inclusion of brand-new websites to encourage

webmasters to build content instead of building mini-networks.

Many webmasters try to artificially inflate the link popularity of their website by

creating a network of small websites with different URLs that all link to each other.

Many of these websites have no purpose other than linking to the main website.

By delaying the ranking of new websites, this mini-network strategy doesn't offer a

quick jump to the top anymore. The delay might encourage webmasters to focus on

the content of their main website instead of building useless mini sites.

What does this mean to you?

If you have a new website, expect that your website will be listed within six to eight

months in Google. Add content to your website, get good backlinks and make sure

that your web pages are optimized for Google.