What is the outcome after a Google sandbox?

[EastCoast]

I have a new website, with a brand new url. I went "live" mid-March of this year. I'm figuring I'm being sandboxed by Google. I'm not even on the radar for "city state real estate"...not in the top 100 pages.

Now I know that I'll need to be patient and things will come. I'm working on articles, blogging, building links and online relationships. I'm currently on the top of page 2 in Yahoo, but no where to be found on Google. From the research I've done, I heard the sandbox can be anywhere from 3 to 6 months. Do you find this to be true?

What will happen after the Google sandbox filter has been lifted? (for lack of a better expression). Will I gradually come into the top 100 pages and move up, or will I just "show up" on page 6 (or wherever) for certain search terms?

Thanks for any help you can give.

[stevetrang]

I personally believe that the sandbox is imaginary. I had a site make page 1 of google in less than a week. Had to take it down for NAR reasons, though. Anyhow, keep up the hard work, and it will come.

Most of my stuff is found on page 5 or 6, with one on page 2. I'm still struggling with huge bounces on google. Maybe that's what you have to look forward to until you dominate the market like the rest of the guys here.

[RESteve]

If you don't have any links going to a new domain that carry some authority, it can take a little bit of time for Google to find you. I would work on building links in sites that have a lot of traffic (REW Blogs is a great start!) and decent authority.

Once you've been spidered and indexed, the page you end up on for your keywords you've written for really depends on your competition.

If your main keyword is a very competitive one, I wouldn't be surprised if you started out on page 20-30-and on. If it's a very niche keyword, then you could get right on to page 2-3 very quickly. It really just depends.

I think you have the right mindset, however. Keep working to build organic/strategic links back to your site, and continue to add quality, unique content to your site along the way.

[webmaster]

There is no 1 right answer to this question - it really does depend on the competition in the market, the competition for the terms and a lot more.

For a brand new domain in Google for something really competitive like "area real estate" you should anticipate over a year for first page placement (don't considering page 6 it doesn't help you as anything other than a measure of progress)

You will of course from lesser terms start ranking and generating traffic much sooner - just keep developing quality backlinks and content, and you will get there

[Profitbooster]

For a brand new domain you can be in the "sandbox" as long as you say but not always. I have been in and then all of a sudden my page "popped up" onto pages 2 & 3 for the keywords I was going after.

If you are building links and continue to add content you will rank well when you do show up. Sometimes I have disapeared in the results for a week or two thinking I would be gone a while, and then came back quickly.

One thing to check if you are in the "sandbox" ( a place which google denies exists) is to type your full URL into google. If you don't see your page you are in it.

[bhartzer]

Now I know that I'll need to be patient and things will come.

Actually, you don't have to be patient. There's a "trick" that you can use to jumpstart your domain's rankings and get past the supposed "Google sandbox".

Find and purchase an expired domain name (domains from Godaddy's auction are good) and set up a 301 Permanent Redirect from that domain to your brand new domain name. The new domain name will take on the characteristics of the old expired domain name.

[webmaster]

This isn't true - if it's "expired" then it will likely (in most cases) have lost it's juice - if you are 301'ing a domain, it should be an "active" domain with links that you try to purchase.

Actually, you don't have to be patient. There's a "trick" that you can use to jumpstart your domain's rankings and get past the supposed "Google sandbox".

Find and purchase an expired domain name (domains from Godaddy's auction are good) and set up a 301 Permanent Redirect from that domain to your brand new domain name. The new domain name will take on the characteristics of the old expired domain name.

[webmaster]

Btw East Coast - I took a snapshot of a full service client graph (obviously any specific details regarding client or market will remain private) to show you and others how we expect a full service campaign (or for those doing a great job on their own) what their traffic might look like.

See below:

[webmaster]

Note for quite some time, there is very low traffic but a subtle and steady growth (This is mostly from longtail as pages get spidered and authority increases - then there is quite a spike (almost all graphs look like this) and that is really a breaking into the top 5-10 of Google for your most competitive area real estate terms.

Did you just come out of the "sandbox" - call it whatever you want - basically you have crossed the authority threshold required to be considered authoritative enough for top spots in top (competitive) phrases.

[Philman]

When it comes to the "sandbox", there really can be a lot of factors. Obviously the age of your domain is one. But others are things like the current competition, number of indexed pages and the amount of backlinks you are getting daily. If you just buy a brand new domain and you start getting an absolute ton of backlinks to it, the big G is going to know something out of the ordinary is up. So, you may end up being placed on the sidelines for a little while until Google starts getting a better trend of your inbound links.

Once you are out of the sandbox though, you should be able to rank for your keywords like everyone else. The question is, is your site even in Google? Try doing a search for "inurl:[your website]" to see if you are even on there. If you are not, then you may be sandboxed. If you are though, then it could just be a competition factor. It's hard to tell though without knowing the keyword(s) in question.