Adventures in Net Marketing: More on My Sandbox Experience

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March 10, 2005

Christy and Jenn both asked how long my sites had been in the sandbox. I'd forgotten to include this information in my post earlier today - which turned out to be a good thing, actually, because when I wrote about how Gail and I had both gotten our sites online at around the same time, I hadn't given any thought to when they were actually indexed.

When you were indexed, of course, makes a difference when you're figuring out how much time you've spent in the sandbox. And it turns out my sites were in the sandbox longer than Gail's.

My sites were indexed around mid- to late-September, so it looks like they were sandboxed for about 5 and a half months. But I just talked to Gail, and her sites weren't indexed until November sometime, so she was only in the sandbox for about three months or so.

My sites have more backlinks, so that may account for the different times spent in the sandbox. Or not. After rooting around Google for more information about the sandbox effect, I've come to the conclusion that no-one really knows anything about it with any particular degree of certainty. The only real consensus (as in majority vote, not 100% agreement by a long stretch) is that the sandbox effect probably does exist, and most new sites land in the sandbox for a probationary period of play.

Two good articles I found on the sandbox effect (or aging filter):

Google's Giant Sandbox (Mark Daoust)

How to Play in Google's Sandbox (David Wallace)