Sandbox Effect

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The Sandbox Effect is a theory used to explain certain behaviours observed with some Internet search engines. The Sandbox Effect is a topic of hot debate among those interested in search engines and search engine optimization. There are many different opinions about it, including the view that the Sandbox Effect doesn't actually exist and that the search ranking behaviour can be explained as a result of a mathematical algorithm, rather than a decided policy.

The Sandbox Effect is the theory that websites with newly-registered domains or domains with frequent ownership or nameserver changes are placed in a sandbox (holding area) in the indexes of Google until such time is deemed appropriate before a ranking can commence. [1] Webmasters have noticed that their site will only show for keywords that are not competitive. It appears this effect does not affect new pages unless the domain is in the sandbox.

Although certain details of the Sandbox Effect are disputed by webmasters, there is general agreement that the Sandbox only applies to search results from Google, and that results from other search engines such as Yahoo or MSN are not affected.

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[edit] Testing

Searchguild.com has created a test to determine whether a site is in the sandbox, and to help distinguish suspected Sandbox cases from instances where poor or 'spammy' optimization methods have caused the page's search results to be negatively affected.[1] Critics point out that this "test" assumes that there is, indeed a sandbox, and point out that Searchguild.com does not have any way of identifying a sandbox effect from a "poor" optimization technique, nor do they address the mathematical considerations implicit in a discussion of PageRank and its effect on the sandbox.

Those who believe the sandbox exists observe that it can sometimes take up to a year or longer for a website to be promoted from the Google sandbox, while those who do not believe in a sandbox explain this duration as simply the time it takes for Google to calculate PageRank using an "eigenpairs interpretation of nodes".

Those who believe in the "sandbox effect" (such as Searchguild.com) consider it a "policies" based approach by Google, whereas some mathematicians believe it is simply an algorithmic effect

Regardless of interpretation, it is widely accepted that new Websites and Webpages do wait longer for ranking in Google than other search engines.

[edit] Community reaction

Since Google is the dominant search engine on the Internet, this "sandbox effect" has distressed webmasters who see their websites included in Yahoo! and MSN in a short period of time, but not in Google despite following Google's own guidelines.[citation needed]

It is thought, by some, that the sandbox is a measure taken by Google to avoid spam websites abusing search engine optimisation techniques to reach the top of the index, getting barred by Google, and then repeating the process using a different domain.[citation needed] Others, referencing the PageRank algorithm, argue that the "sandbox" effect is simply the time it takes Google to both index and calculate PageRank for a new page, a calculation that is accelerating in scope at the pace of the expansion of the Internet.[citation needed] Yet another explanation is Google's "supplemental" index.

While the "sandbox effect" does not impact Google end-users looking for content on well-established sites, it could negatively impact users looking for recent (if indeed it did exist), unique information that is only present on newly registered web sites in the "sandbox". While the "sandboxed" sites will still appear in the result list, those who believe that a "sandbox" exists believe that such sites will not have good PageRank and will not be readily noticeable in the result list.

Google's sandbox appeared to be put in place in March 2004.[citation needed]

[edit] References

  1. ^ SEOmoz Blog

[edit] External links

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