There has been huge speculation in the past year or so about apparent new phenomena incorporated within the Google algorithm. This so called phenomena has been referred to as the Google Sandbox Theory. In this article we shall discuss the various definitions of the Google Sandbox and why the understanding of these definitions is significant. There shall also be a discussion of various other issues concerning this phenomenon and its potential consequences. From the outset we claim that most of the information contained in this article is based on sound and experimental speculation rather than scientific fact due to the fact that there is no real evidence of the existence of the Sandbox Effect. What is discussed is based on theory as that is what the Sandbox Effect is. Theories are not based on scientific fact and because of this the article set-forth here, it is a matter of opinions rather than sound scientific fact. Nevertheless countless experiments have allowed us to reach various conclusions based on circumstantial evidence.

The definition of Sandbox has been laid out as follows: "A restricted environment in which certain functions are prohibited. For example, deleting files and modifying system information such as Registry settings and other control panel functions may be prohibited. Sandboxes are used when executable code has come from an external source that is not entirely trusted". If one is to apply this definition in the context of search engines the Google Sandbox Effect can be defined as "initial assessment of new websites before they are incorporated within the ranking criteria of Googles search engine ranking positions. Factors such as Link maturity and website longevity are taken into consideration and assessed in order to establish the worthiness in relation to its search engine placements" ( Nasir Abbas, 2005-09-13 ).

Most websites that are new and are submitted to Google post 2004, rank well initially for about 2 weeks and then completely disappear from the search engine rankings. The new websites show no improvement in placements and/or updates in PageRank for any time between two months too seven months. The time frame where the websites show no rankings or PageRank updates is what is to as referred the Sandbox period. Within this period the websites generate hardly any traffic regardless what type of optimisation methodologies are incorporated.

So why has Google implemented this method within its ranking criteria? There are many theories put forward; however we shall discuss the most common one which is to reduce search engine "spam".

Here at SEO Bank Ltd we believe that Google has incorporated the Sandbox effect to reduce website spam. If one is to analyse website listings and search engine rankings prior to 2004, one could conclude that new websites were appearing at an alarming rate. A large percentage of these websites had little or no content and had high link popularity. How could a website that was poor in both quality and content have such high link popularity? The answer is quite simple. Due to the fact that the most important factor of ranking in Google was based on Link Popularity (PageRank), individuals could easily obtain links through buying links and artificially inflate their PageRank and as such achieve high rankings. This alone undermined Googles ability to provide quality and relevant results due to easy manipulation of its search engine algorithm. Even though most of these websites were banned after a few months, their ability to achieve high rankings enabled them to make substantial monetary gain. This enabled them to justify building one website after another even though some of their websites may get banned. This resulted in an on going process whereby Google were penalising these websites and the spammers continuously creating new websites and spamming their way to the top. The Google Sandbox Effect drastically cuts out this problem because all new websites are on a probationary period for at least a few months. This results in most spam websites being eliminated in the probationary period whilst high quality websites continue to improve or simply wait it out.

In addition to the latter, what the Sandbox also does is make link buying more expensive thus, undermining the link buying process. Due to the fact that previously, one could buy links to their websites and see results within a month, it made link buying acceptable as people started to see a return on their investment quickly. Due to the sandbox process, any link added to a website, its benefit is not seen immediately because the value of the link only comes into play after a few months and as such the ROI (return on investment) of the link purchase is difficult to justify. However what must be remembered is that the sandbox is not a permanent but a temporary measure to assess the quality of the website. Within this period the quality of the website can be improved through improvement of content, quality link building and site architecture.

In conclusion it could be stated that the Google Sandbox is a theory which is based on strong circumstantial evidence and as such should be considered within an effective marketing and optimisation strategy for new websites. This is especially true for those who carry out search engine optimisation for their clients as they need to be made aware of the process. In addition, one should understand that the Sandbox effect has been introduced to tackle search engine spam and this phenomena will inevitably resulted in better and fairer search engine results.