...the initial glorious days at the topof the search rankings. This phenomenon is popularly referred toas Google's Sandbox. Google's Sandbox is like a quicksand Though "Sandbox" sounds pretty pleasant, it very much resemblesa quicksand than a playground as suggested by its name to manyweb professionals. When a new website is indexed in Google, it gets propelled tothe top of the SERPs charts for a short yet glorious time, andthen, slides downhill only to be buried deeply in the ...

...sand atGoogle. In other words, Google's Sandbox is about a brand newwebsite being placed on probation, or a hiatus or in amoratorium and kept lower than expected in searches, beforebeing given full value for its incoming links and content. How does it affect the website? The Google's Sandbox is said to be a filter placed on newwebsites to discourage spam sites from rising quickly, gettingbanned, and repeating the process. Websites in the Sandbox doesnot receive good rankings for its most important keywords andkeyword phrases. The new website will be there in the resultpages, but it does not rank well no matter how much original,well optimized the content is and how many quality inbound linksthe site does have. Which sorts of websites are vulnerable to be mired in theSandbox? While all types of sites can be placed in the Sandbox barring afew exceptions. The problem appears grave for new websitesseeking rankings for highly competitive keyword phrases. Morecompetitive keyword driven Websites seeking rankings in highlycompetitive searches are likely to be in for a much longerduration. How long does a site remain buried in the Sandbox?Hiatus in the Sandbox varies from one to six months, with threeto four months being the average stay time frame. It has beenobserved that less competitive searches are given the muchshorter stay, whereas hyper-competitive keywords often getsojourn in the sand for six months. The most frequent time ofburial is said to be about three months for most search terms. What distinguishes sites trapped in sand and a Google's penalty? Sandbox is a Google-only event. Many folks while they see goodrankings in Yahoo and MSN Search of their sites mistakenlybelieve that they have triggered a Google penalty. However thisis generally not the case in point. Sites penalized by Google do not appear in the Google searchengine results pages for even the less important searches.Moreover, sites which have invited the wrath of Google show nopage rank, and have a grey bar on the Google Toolbar. And noneis true in case of sites mired in the Sandbox. Google's Sandbox: Letting website grow to its natural evolution Google is looking ahead for Websites that offer quality content.It is an effort to prevent spammers from creating web sites thatare just a flash in the pan, and to discourage the violation ofGoogle's Webmaster Guidelines which was not an exception in thepast, to say the least. Google's Sandbox has deliberately been instituted to put a checkon the use of throw away spam sites to build early traffic, andto slow down the purchase of expired domain names, among otherthings. Google continues to strive that its ranking algorithm, inboundlinks, original content rich with keywords, and the use ofanchor text are not tampered with for a short term gain severelyaffecting its credibility and quality standards. This stand isdriven by the vision of Google that Website should growgradually to its natural evolution. Getting grounds before getting grounded in SandboxGetting grounded in the Sandbox is almost near-universal forsites. So, it is the best to be prepared for the eventuality.Planning ahead to be buried in the Sandbox may lessen thedamage, using the time to your best advantage. To keep theSandbox filter from causing severe harm to your online, and evenyour offline business, employ the following strategies: - The sojourn in the sand may be cut short to a degree bypurchasing and sending live a website, before it is ready forprime time. - Make it sure that you add as many incoming links as possibleto get keep on adding content to your site. Do anything butincrease your site's appearance on the Interner - Purchase and register a domain name and park it. By so doing,some of the sand time will be run through the Google hourglass,before your site is ready for launch. In the meantime, you canbe preparing content when your site goes public - Plan the time of your website launch to have the Sandbox timeperiod passed off when your site needs high search enginesrankings the most. Plan for entering the Sandbox by putting yoursite live at least three months earlier than expected. Rising from the moratorium: Key strategies that really works! All your apprehension and concern apart, your stay in theSandbox is simply an excellent opportunity to improve upon yoursite, and enrich it the way Google will never ever refute toaccept in the top rankings. You can dig in the sand to carve outa niche in your site optimisation. Here's how you embark on... - Use the time in the quicksand to add incoming links to yourwebsite whilst you are in Sandbox. Better still, if you canemploy a link exchange strategy right at this time. - Reach out to useful directories as good sources of one-waylinks, additional Page Rank, and potential visitor traffic.Submitting to the various Internet directories, including TheOpen Directory Project, is quite advantageous in the long term - Design and develop promotional and marketing strategies foryour website to raise and maintain traffic levels during yourhibernation in the sand. - Building a community, or building strong inbound linksthrough partnerships pays better off. If you establish trafficsources outside of search engines, you will see a welcomeincrease in your traffic levels once you get out of Sandbox. - When you got trapped in Google's sand, you may put aside abudget for an Adwords Program, i.e., Google's pay per clickadvertising program. This will, of course, help you out ingetting exposed and promoted on Google as well as many searchand contextual partner sites - Prefer not to discount traffic from other search engines suchas Yahoo, Ask Jeeves and MSN, all of which do not seem to haveany type of Sandbox. It may work pretty fine because sites thathave well "on the page" search engine optimization do verywell in these engines. What do you need the most while in hiatus? Right Strategy Mix,Time and Patience The Sandbox is not something you are eventually doomed to. It isnot the ringing of death knell for your site either. It is notaimed to hold you back from succeeding. Time and patience are your best friends while faced with thispredicament providing that you execute the right strategy mix.You may not need to pull all the hair out of your head. Addingsome powerful incoming links, with strong link anchor text, andadding relevant and rich keyword, and fresh content will helpyour site rise from the Sandbox, sooner than the later.