New Site? Good Google at First, Then Gone - Sandbox?

[greeneagle]

There seems to be a flurry of new posters that recently launched a new Site with good initial SERPs and then it suddenly disappeared!

These are classic symptoms of what has been dubbed the "Sandbox Effect".

Quoting Garrett French:

"I reported recently on a Google phenomenon in which newly listed sites rank well for two to three weeks and then drop completely out of the top 1000. Often these newly dropped sites have high page rank and don't show for even the least competitive of terms."...

Read more here:

Quoting Jakob Jelling:

"In the age of fair competition you may find it hard to believe that a search engine may hinder the appearance of a new website.

This is what is currently believed to be happening on more web servers today. Some programmers have viewed Google as uncomfortable to rank newer websites until they have proven their viability to exist for more than a period of "x" months. Thus the term "Sandbox Effect" applies to the idea that all new websites have their ratings placed in a holding tank until such time is deemed appropriate before a ranking can commence."

Read more here:

It is important to note that this "Sandbox" phenomenen seems to still being practiced and is thought to be an anti-Spam Website filter.

Ken

[flanok]

Hi again,

At the moment I have sufficient web work on my existing sites to keep me more than busy. However I am sure like most of you there are plans to set up new sites say in 6 months to a years time.

After reading about Sandbox I am now wondering whether it is a good policy to bring those initial plans forward.
If I was to register my new domians now then put basic generic information on then leave them for 6 to 12 months on google, to when I was originally going to start on them. (It is unlikely anyone will visit the sites with such a low ranking).

Then when I start doing SEO work and adding inbound links the sandbox should have been and gone.

Is this a solid theory or out of the box?

Thanks again

Mark

[greeneagle]

flanok,

It's been our experience that while seeing the "Google Sandbox Effect" on new Sites, the other Search Engines demonstrated more traffic than GOOGLE. Don't forget the other "guys", they have similar requirements, and they may well use the "Sandbox" against GOOGLE as best they can.

Ken

[toby_bird]

I'm still trying to get a grasp on the "best" practices of SEO and well everything else in between....kinda green but getting there.

I have a site that has dropped from Google for one search term - yet risen to the top (positions 1 & 4) for two other more specific search terms. The site did just go through a major rehaul and every page was changed. Also moved from .htm to .shtml (redirected using .htaccess to avoid 404)

So my question is this: the main search term (the one dropped) has a great deal of competition. Could the fact that the site was redone have caused this fall?

Site: http://www.eleaseinternational.com
Main keyword phrase - equipment leasing
Others - international equipment leasing, leasing international, equipment leasing international

Thanks in advance.

[swampdeer]

It would be interesting to hear of anybody out there who has launched a new site and not been sandboxed by Google.

[toby_bird]

You know that's what I'm wondering. Being that we redesigned our entire site does Google now see it as a new site? And if so...how odd that it ranks well for some keywords but has dissapeared altogether for others.

lol Maybe we just have one foot in and the other out.