Knowledge (XXG)

Sandbox effect

Source 📝

122:
and to remove any gains that may have been enjoyed from such links. Google also penalizes those who took part in the manipulation and helped other companies by linking to them. These types of companies are often low-quality directories that list a link to a company website with manipulative anchor text for a fee. Google argues that such pages offer no value to the Internet and are often deindexed. Such links are often referred to as paid links.
167:
reports of negative SEO, where companies were being targeted with manipulative links by competitors knowing full well that they would be penalized. There has been some controversy over whether the Disavow tool has any effect when manipulation has taken place over many years. At the same time, some anecdotal case studies have been presented, which suggest that the tool is effective and that former ranking positions can be restored.
96:, who attempt to manipulate Google's page ranking by creating many inbound links to a new website from other websites they own. Some SEO experts also claim that the sandbox only applies to highly competitive or broad keyword phrases and can be counteracted by targeting narrow or so-called long-tail phrases. 121:
Penalties are generally caused by manipulative backlinks intended to favor particular companies in the search results. By adding such links, companies break Google's terms and conditions. When Google discovers such links, it imposes penalties to discourage other companies from following this practice
58:
record, but instead refers to the time when Google first indexed pages on the domain. Keyword competitiveness refers to the search frequency of a word on Google search, with observation suggesting that the higher the search frequency of a word, the more likely the sandbox filter effect will come into
175:
Negative SEO started to occur following the Penguin update when it became common knowledge that Google would apply penalties for manipulative links, Such practices as negative SEO led companies to diligently monitor their backlinks to ensure they are not being targeted by hostile competitors through
135:
Paid links are links that people place on their site for a fee, believing that this will positively impact the search results. The practice of paid links was prevalent before the Penguin update when companies believed they could add any type of link with impunity since Google claimed prior that they
166:
Google has encouraged companies to reform their bad practices and as a result, demand that efforts be taken to remove manipulative links. Google launched the Disavow tool on 16 October 2012 so that people could report the bad links they had. The Disavow tool was launched mainly in response to many
88:
Google has long been aware that its historical use of links as a "vote" for ranking web documents can be subject to manipulation and stated such in its original IPO documentation. Over the years, Google has filed a number of patents that seek to qualify or minimise the impact of such manipulation,
62:
While the presence of the Google sandbox has long been debated, Google has made no direct disclosure. However, as the sandbox effect almost certainly refers to a set of filters in play for anti-spam purposes, it is unlikely Google would ever provide details on the matter. However, in one instance,
259:
new websites, saying that the claim "doesn't seem to be borne out by experience". He states that he created a new website in October 2004 and had it ranked in the top 20 Google results for a target keyword within one month. He asserts that "no one knows for sure if the Google sandbox exists", and
50:
According to the theory of the sandbox effect, links that may normally be weighted by Google's ranking algorithm but don't improve the position of a webpage in Google's index, could be subjected to filtering to prevent their full impact. Some observations have suggested that two important factors
112:
would not negatively affect a site ranking; Google had been applying such link-based penalties for many years but not made public how the company approached and dealt with what they called "link spam". Since then, there has been a much wider acknowledgment of the dangers of bad SEO and forensic
63:
Google's John Mueller did mention that "it can take a bit of time for search engines to catch up with your content, and to learn to treat it appropriately. It's one thing to have a fantastic website. Still, search engines generally need a bit more to be able to confirm that and to rank your
211:– In January 2012, Google's webspam team penalized the Chrome browser's homepage for manipulating PageRank with purchased blog posts. The penalty dropped Chrome's homepage's PageRank from 9 to 7 and knocked Chrome off the first page for important keywords such as "browser." 157:
Blog networks are sometimes thousands of blogs that appear unconnected, which link out to those prepared to pay for such links. Google has typically targeted blog networks and once detecting them has penalized thousands of sites that gained benefits.
148:
These are links left in the comments of articles that are impossible to remove. As this practice became widespread, Google launched a feature to help curb such practices. The nofollow tag tells search engines not to trust such links.
113:
analysis of backlinks to ensure no harmful links. As a result, the algorithm penalised Google's own products too. A well-known example is Google Chrome, which was penalised for purchasing links to boost the web browser's results.
271:
is reported to have said that some things in the algorithm may be perceived as a sandbox that does not apply to all industries. Jaimie Sirovich and Cristian Darie, authors of
104:
Google has been updating its algorithm for as long as it has been fighting the manipulation of organic search results. However, until May 10, 2012, when Google launched the
42:
ranks web pages in its index. It is the subject of much debate—its existence has been written about since 2004, but not confirmed, with several statements to the contrary.
675: 785: 260:
comments that it "seems to fit the observations and experiments of many search engine optimizers". He theorizes that the sandbox "has introduced some
252:
in rank — much like the "New Releases" in a book store are displayed more prominently — to encourage the organic building of the World Wide Web.
372: 652: 890: 179:
In the US and UK, these types of activities by competitors attempting to sabotage a website's rankings are considered to be illegal.
841: 455: 398: 355: 223:– During fiscal year 2011, Overstock.com attributed a decrease from $ 1.08 billion to $ 1.05 billion in revenue to Google penalties. 140:
attribute to paid advertisement links is imperative. Businesses that buy backlinks from low-quality sites attract Google penalties.
235:– In March 2013, the BBC faced penalties for unnatural links on a specific page. Google downgraded the page's rankings as a result. 534: 229:– On December 25, 2013, Google penalized Rap Genius for 10 days. The result was a drop of about 700,000 unique visitors per day. 191:– On March 7, 2011, Google purchased BeatThatQuote.com for £37.7 million and, within the same date, penalized BeatThatQuote.com. 807: 733: 683: 706: 578: 880: 759: 296: 93: 485: 314: 499: 426: 217:– In January 2014, Expedia dropped 25% in search visibility, which resulted in Expedia shares dropping 4.5%. 885: 556: 471: 327: 51:
causing this filter are the active age of a domain and the competitiveness of the keywords used in links.
136:
ignored these links instead of penalizing websites. To comply with Google's recent TOS, applying the
310: 513: 837: 763: 451: 351: 345: 244:
A "reverse sandbox" effect is also claimed to exist, whereby new pages with good content, but
214: 188: 54:
Active age of a domain should not be confused with the date of registration on a domain's
830: 679: 630: 105: 874: 220: 208: 198: 786:"Rap Genius No SEO Genius: Lyric Site Fails to Recover Traffic After Google Penalty" 653:"Google's Chrome Page No Longer Ranks For "Browser" After Sponsored Post Penalty" 857: 737: 710: 268: 261: 226: 85:
appropriately". This could be understood as the cause for the sandbox effect.
17: 603: 582: 232: 202: 137: 109: 760:"Google penalty, management decisions blamed for Overstock earnings dip" 514:"Understanding negative SEO and how your rivals can use it against you" 39: 448:
Ranking Number One: 50 Essential Tips to Boost Search Engine Results
279:
an explicit "sandbox", the effect itself (however caused) is real.
255:
David George disputes the claim that Google applies sandboxing to
55: 264:
into the system to restore a bit of sanity to Google's results".
631:"Sorry that it took me until now to comment on the situation..." 275:, state that they believe that, while Google does not actually 607: 194: 858:"Coffee Talk with Senior Google Engineer : Matt Cutts" 267:
In an interview with the Search Engine Roundtable website,
808:"Google Sends BBC News A Manual Link Penalty Notification" 297:"Google's Sandbox Still Exists Exemplified by grader.com" 197:– On February 6, 2006, Google penalized BMW.de for using 500:"Case Study: Improving Rankings After a Google Penalty" 557:"Google demotes BeatThatQuote one day after buying it" 579:"Google Applies 'Death Penalty' to BMW's German Site" 472:"Recovering from Google's Link-based Penalty Action" 27:
Phenomenon possibly affecting search engine rankings
535:"My Website Is Bombed With Backlinks – What To Do?" 829: 734:"Expedia gets hit on Google traffic decline issue" 108:update, many people wrongly believed low-quality 832:Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP 273:Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP 864:. RustyBrick, Inc. Web Development. 2005-11-16. 676:"Google ends Chrome search rank penalty period" 8: 828:Jaimie Sirovich and Cristian Darie (2007). 399:"Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide" 823: 821: 339: 337: 335: 287: 315:"10 Ways to Diagnose a Google Penalty" 7: 328:The Google Sandbox: an early history 707:"Even Google Can Suffer a Penalty…" 486:"Controversy over the Disavow tool" 89:which Google terms as "link spam". 784:Slegg, Jennifer (7 January 2014). 705:Jansen, Derek (25 February 2014). 651:Sullivan, Danny (3 January 2012). 604:"BMW given Google 'death penalty'" 25: 92:Link spam is primarily driven by 674:Keizer, Gregg (26 March 2012). 248:inbound links, are temporarily 1: 350:. ABCSEO. pp. 109–110. 38:) is a theory about the way 907: 891:Search engine optimization 474:. Treuemax. 14 April 2014. 126:Common forms of links spam 862:Search Engine Roundtable 94:search engine optimizers 836:. John Wiley and Sons. 201:and dropped the site's 176:negative SEO services. 446:James Beswick (2010). 240:Reverse sandbox effect 162:Dealing with a penalty 788:. Search Engine Watch 344:David George (2005). 881:Internet terminology 709:. PP. Archived from 655:. Search Engine Land 488:. The Link Auditors. 117:Link-based penalties 100:History of penalties 559:. theregister.co.uk 812:Search Engine Land 764:Salt Lake Tribune 758:Oberbeck, Steve. 610:. 6 February 2006 189:BeatThatQuote.com 183:Notable penalties 16:(Redirected from 898: 866: 865: 854: 848: 847: 835: 825: 816: 815: 804: 798: 797: 795: 793: 781: 775: 774: 772: 770: 755: 749: 748: 746: 744: 729: 723: 722: 720: 718: 713:on 13 March 2014 702: 696: 695: 693: 691: 686:on 21 March 2014 682:. Archived from 671: 665: 664: 662: 660: 648: 642: 641: 639: 637: 626: 620: 619: 617: 615: 600: 594: 593: 591: 589: 575: 569: 568: 566: 564: 555:Fiveash, Kelly. 552: 546: 545: 543: 542: 531: 525: 524: 522: 521: 510: 504: 503: 502:. David Trounce. 496: 490: 489: 482: 476: 475: 468: 462: 461: 443: 437: 436: 434: 433: 423: 417: 416: 414: 412: 403: 394: 388: 387: 385: 383: 368: 362: 361: 341: 330: 325: 319: 318: 313:(May 27, 2009). 307: 301: 300: 292: 84: 83: 79: 73: 72: 68: 21: 906: 905: 901: 900: 899: 897: 896: 895: 871: 870: 869: 856: 855: 851: 844: 827: 826: 819: 806: 805: 801: 791: 789: 783: 782: 778: 768: 766: 757: 756: 752: 742: 740: 731: 730: 726: 716: 714: 704: 703: 699: 689: 687: 673: 672: 668: 658: 656: 650: 649: 645: 635: 633: 628: 627: 623: 613: 611: 602: 601: 597: 587: 585: 577: 576: 572: 562: 560: 554: 553: 549: 540: 538: 533: 532: 528: 519: 517: 512: 511: 507: 498: 497: 493: 484: 483: 479: 470: 469: 465: 458: 445: 444: 440: 431: 429: 427:"Google Groups" 425: 424: 420: 410: 408: 401: 396: 395: 391: 381: 379: 371:Mueller, John. 370: 369: 365: 358: 343: 342: 333: 326: 322: 309: 308: 304: 294: 293: 289: 285: 242: 185: 173: 164: 155: 146: 133: 128: 119: 102: 81: 77: 75: 70: 66: 64: 48: 28: 23: 22: 15: 12: 11: 5: 904: 902: 894: 893: 888: 883: 873: 872: 868: 867: 849: 842: 817: 799: 776: 750: 724: 697: 680:Computer World 666: 643: 621: 595: 570: 547: 526: 505: 491: 477: 463: 456: 450:. One Uproar. 438: 418: 389: 363: 356: 347:The ABC of SEO 331: 320: 302: 295:Rand Fishkin. 286: 284: 281: 241: 238: 237: 236: 230: 224: 218: 212: 206: 192: 184: 181: 172: 169: 163: 160: 154: 151: 145: 142: 132: 129: 127: 124: 118: 115: 106:Google Penguin 101: 98: 47: 44: 32:sandbox effect 26: 24: 18:Sandbox Effect 14: 13: 10: 9: 6: 4: 3: 2: 903: 892: 889: 887: 886:Google Search 884: 882: 879: 878: 876: 863: 859: 853: 850: 845: 843:9780470100929 839: 834: 833: 824: 822: 818: 813: 809: 803: 800: 787: 780: 777: 765: 761: 754: 751: 739: 735: 728: 725: 712: 708: 701: 698: 685: 681: 677: 670: 667: 654: 647: 644: 632: 629:Cutts, Matt. 625: 622: 609: 605: 599: 596: 584: 580: 574: 571: 558: 551: 548: 536: 530: 527: 515: 509: 506: 501: 495: 492: 487: 481: 478: 473: 467: 464: 459: 457:9781452849904 453: 449: 442: 439: 428: 422: 419: 407: 400: 393: 390: 378: 374: 367: 364: 359: 357:9781411622517 353: 349: 348: 340: 338: 336: 332: 329: 324: 321: 316: 312: 306: 303: 298: 291: 288: 282: 280: 278: 274: 270: 265: 263: 258: 253: 251: 247: 239: 234: 231: 228: 225: 222: 221:Overstock.com 219: 216: 213: 210: 209:Google Chrome 207: 204: 200: 199:doorway pages 196: 193: 190: 187: 186: 182: 180: 177: 170: 168: 161: 159: 153:Blog networks 152: 150: 143: 141: 139: 130: 125: 123: 116: 114: 111: 107: 99: 97: 95: 90: 86: 60: 57: 52: 45: 43: 41: 37: 33: 19: 861: 852: 831: 811: 802: 790:. Retrieved 779: 767:. Retrieved 753: 741:. Retrieved 727: 715:. Retrieved 711:the original 700: 688:. Retrieved 684:the original 669: 657:. Retrieved 646: 624: 612:. Retrieved 598: 586:. Retrieved 573: 561:. Retrieved 550: 539:. Retrieved 537:. 2017-02-08 529: 518:. Retrieved 516:. 2013-06-06 508: 494: 480: 466: 447: 441: 430:. Retrieved 421: 409:. Retrieved 405: 392: 380:. Retrieved 376: 366: 346: 323: 305: 290: 276: 272: 266: 256: 254: 249: 245: 243: 178: 174: 171:Negative SEO 165: 156: 147: 144:Comment spam 134: 120: 103: 91: 87: 61: 53: 49: 35: 31: 29: 738:MarketWatch 732:Crum, Rex. 46:Description 875:Categories 634:Retrieved 541:2017-03-08 520:2016-07-09 432:2014-10-01 406:google.com 377:Google.com 311:Ann Smarty 283:References 269:Matt Cutts 262:hysteresis 227:Rap Genius 131:Paid links 36:sandboxing 317:. SEOmoz. 250:increased 110:backlinks 792:11 March 769:11 March 743:11 March 717:11 March 690:11 March 659:11 March 636:11 March 614:11 March 588:11 March 583:Fox News 397:Google. 203:PageRank 138:nofollow 563:8 March 246:without 215:Expedia 82:‍ 78:‍ 76:content 71:‍ 67:‍ 840:  454:  411:1 July 382:1 July 373:"OINK" 354:  59:play. 40:Google 402:(PDF) 205:to 0. 74:your 56:WHOIS 838:ISBN 794:2014 771:2014 745:2014 719:2014 692:2014 661:2014 638:2014 616:2014 590:2014 565:2014 452:ISBN 413:2016 384:2016 352:ISBN 277:have 65:site 34:(or 30:The 608:BBC 257:all 233:BBC 195:BMW 877:: 860:. 820:^ 810:. 762:. 736:. 678:. 606:. 581:. 404:. 375:. 334:^ 846:. 814:. 796:. 773:. 747:. 721:. 694:. 663:. 640:. 618:. 592:. 567:. 544:. 523:. 460:. 435:. 415:. 386:. 360:. 299:. 80:— 69:— 20:)

Index

Sandbox Effect
Google
WHOIS
search engine optimizers
Google Penguin
backlinks
nofollow
BeatThatQuote.com
BMW
doorway pages
PageRank
Google Chrome
Expedia
Overstock.com
Rap Genius
BBC
hysteresis
Matt Cutts
"Google's Sandbox Still Exists Exemplified by grader.com"
Ann Smarty
"10 Ways to Diagnose a Google Penalty"
The Google Sandbox: an early history



The ABC of SEO
ISBN
9781411622517
"OINK"
"Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide"

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.