We return to a subject that you may recall we touched upon in our snippet of 8th June which you can refresh yourself with using the above link.

There has been a suspicion around for a long time now that Google puts new sites (ie new domains) into a Sandbox to play for up to 12 months before allowing them out into the index where they stand a chance of being ranked, at least for the more important, and more competitive,search phrases. Although officially denied by Google, there is every chance that the Sandbox exists. So, how can you avoid getting sucked in?

1. Develop your incoming links slowly, a few a week, they will soon
build up
2. Make sure that all these links come from a wide variety of IP
addresses
3. Vary the link text
4. Do everything in moderation, be very very careful not to over
optimise anything
5. Plan ahead!

The ideal solution is to plan ahead, which means putting up a new site ahead of when you are really ready to do so, developing a few incoming and outgoing links so that it is connected into the web, and include some basic content. That will tell Google the site is around and will start the clock ticking.

So what is the best that can be hoped for? Well you might only get to play in the Sandbox for a couple of months!

This snippet was inspired by an article in this month’s Planet Ocean newsletter – if you only subscribe to one SEO information newsletter, we recommend this one – so that’s two snippets for this week!

Please note that our September SEO training workshop is now full. We have had to disappoint a number of people but have now posted our dates for the next Workshop, as well as our web click analysis training, in November which you can view here:

http://www.searchengineworkshops.co.uk/dates.htm?source=blog