Google’s Sandbox is something that used to be talked about a lot a few years ago, but now seems to have faded from memory. Perhaps that’s because the SEO community has come to some consensus about what’s true and what’s not. The Sandbox was, after all, a fairly debated topic.
Here’s what the Sandbox theory says:
For a fixed number of months — 6, 12, or something similar — after a site is newly launched, it doesn’t matter what you do; you simply won’t be able to achieve long-term rankings. Your site is stuck in the Sandbox (see Wikipedia). There’s plenty of evidence suggesting that while it’s not impossible to rank with a brand new domain, it’s definitely more difficult. We’ve seen countless examples of domains that, after solid SEO work, suddenly shoot up in the rankings right around the six-month mark.
That said, we’re not claiming the Sandbox is proven. Matt Cutts, Google’s (more or less permanently vacationing) Head of Webspam, hints in a video about domain age that something does seem to happen after 2–3 months. It’s actually a great video for understanding just how vague Google’s communication often is — listen closely and you’ll notice Cutts never really answers either of the questions he’s asked.
Six months is the turning point where we often see something shift. While we wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s a hard rule — it’s extremely difficult to test — we do feel that some kind of barrier seems to lift around the six-month mark. What do you think? We’re already discussing it over on LinkedIn…
The reason
According to the theory, the purpose of the Sandbox is to act as a protection against spam — supposedly, spammers (unlike everyone else) just can’t seem to get their hands on older domains.
Magnus Bråth
Consultant & Adviser
Magnus is one of the world's most prominent search marketing specialists and primarily works with management and strategy at his agency Brath AB.