Sandbox?

[dan_Vt]

I saw a thread somewhere about Google's "sandbox", but it didn't get into what this sandbox really is or why it exists (just a bunch of bitching). What I gathered from it was that Google was withholding some sites from it's search results.

Anyone have any idea what this is all about?

 

[identity_00]

The "sandbox" is a theory some believe and some dont. I do believe some form of it exsists. As you know many websites owners are purchasing links including high PageRank links (paying big money monthly) and are creating tons and tons of link exchanges to enhance their sites in the search engines.
To market your site in the search engines -you must build links to it and owners are getting more and more clever in doing this process. Before the "sandbox" a new website could simply purchase a few PR9 links and have a strong PR presents very quickly.

To slow down the process (and stop/slow down the purchasing of links)Google is "evaluating" links to determine their proper credit. Some aspects Google could be "evaluating" on our theme, IP, anchor text, PR, and amount of links - but no one really knows exactly but basically Google puts your new inbound links on the backburner for a few months before it is credited.

 

[trishan]

Nice explanation identity, do you have any links on wher we can read more about it?

 

[identity_00]

Yea I just looked up these little articles -

http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/000368.html
http://www.topsitelistings.com/news/google-sandbox.php

My post probably has more details then the articles though.

 

[dan_Vt]

Thanks for the info.

Sounds fair to me. Buying links doesn't mean your site has any value at all. If Google wants to present the best (most valuable) sites to its users then this seems to be the right thing to do.

How happy would Google's users be if they search for information and get sites with none...but lots of links...

 

[trishan]

Good point Dan, I would want the most valuable sites when I do a search for something.

 

[axilant]

very informative post, also interesting

 

[identity_00]

But are you really getting the best results now with the sandbox?

For example..lets say you started a news site and you have tons of new information. It is updated daily with all the fresh news around the world. Perhaps you even have news that know one else knows about such as constant new tsunami information that people should know about. Without being a "YAHOO" site its very difficult to promote that story/article in time since Google is now "evaluating" links. You see by the time the links are "evaluated" (and you may have a #1 postion in Google) its old
information and outdated by now.

It has its pros and cons -

 

[banners2go]

Will google follow new links or our those put on hold as well.

For example:

I purchase a link on a PR9 page to my site. Google does not take the link into account when calculating the PR of my site because it is brand new.

My question is will the spiders follow that PR9 link onto my site and index my site at a higher frequency because it is linked from the PR9 site?

 

[identity_00]

The theory is that they are placed on hold. To stop/slow down buyers from buying links. It would be crazy to pay monthly for a PR9 site (OH boy that is some money) and have to wait.. and wait.. and worry.. and hope everything goes as planned and credited.