Is Google's Sandbox a real thing? (a question)

Caspooor

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I have a 1-year old domain name without any content (but already indexed in google) but it has a misspelling character so it's not really compelling to me, so I'm thinking of creating a new domain with a "right" name but I know about the sandbox thing and thinking of just going with that 1 year old mispelled domain name instead of creating a better name to rank faster in google?

What should I do?
 
There is definitely a time period when website will under perform. Usually applies to new websites but there are exception.

I would honestly go for the one with correct name despite sandbox if brand is important to you.
 
If you use Search Console's migrate website function ("change of address tool"), and keep all the content & URLs the same etc then - in theory - your 'new' website shouldn't be in a sandbox, as Google should treat the new website as if it were the old website. As with any site migration there will probably be a short time where Google will reassess things and that might have an impact on your traffic or rankings and what not but, in theory, your new domain should eventually be able to perform just as well as your old site, so I wouldn't consider this the same as being in the sandbox.
 
I have a 1-year old domain name without any content (but already indexed in google) but it has a misspelling character so it's not really compelling to me, so I'm thinking of creating a new domain with a "right" name but I know about the sandbox thing and thinking of just going with that 1 year old mispelled domain name instead of creating a better name to rank faster in google?

What should I do?
You should go with the correct name as brand is important than anything else.
 
Such a domain won't help you to get out of the sandbox, especially with thin or no content, no links & traffic, it does not handle any kind of value neither authority,
A domain out of the *sandbox* is a domain that has been given some authority (trust) from Google and this is not your case,
Going for some expired domain that does have a decent backlink profile could help you out skipping or minifying this, other than that, it's really kinda useless
 
Sandbox is real.

You may be able to redirect it on the webmaster console. There's an option "move site" in there. Donno if it skips the sandbox tho. I think high authority domains do skip.
 
Sandbox is real.

You may be able to redirect it on the webmaster console. There's an option "move site" in there. Donno if it skips the sandbox tho. I think high authority domains do skip.

how long does it last?

if richard branson creates a new site tonight: spaceBOGO.dom (go to space, buy one, get one for free), wouldn't it show up in ranking at the top within 24 hours? i guess it might have to do with brand mentions from authority sites?

p.s. spacebogo.com is not registered!!!
 
I have a 1-year old domain name without any content (but already indexed in google) but it has a misspelling character so it's not really compelling to me, so I'm thinking of creating a new domain with a "right" name but I know about the sandbox thing and thinking of just going with that 1 year old mispelled domain name instead of creating a better name to rank faster in google?

What should I do?
Yes I think this certainly exist as it seems very difficult to rank new domains as compared to aged. Are you not able to get some aged domain that is in the name that you require?
 
I don't believe in such a thing as sandbox. It's just google crawlers are getting slower and takes more time to calculate pages page rank and indexing. Even many members facing problems just indexing their content not to say ranking it.

Anyway, if there is such a thing, there is certainly many ways to overcome it!
 
how long does it last?

if richard branson creates a new site tonight: spaceBOGO.dom (go to space, buy one, get one for free), wouldn't it show up in ranking at the top within 24 hours? i guess it might have to do with brand mentions from authority sites?

p.s. spacebogo.com is not registered!!!

I will not call it a sandbox. But from my experience, Newer websites don't rank as well as older ones.

The age of a page is a ranking factor.

Also, google attaches some kind of authority to a website as it acquires good links OVER TIME. Website authority is also a ranking factor.

Naturally, new websites do not gain links as quickly as old ones. If you move too fast with link building on a new website, you risk a penalty.

The duration is between 2 - 6 months for me. Sometimes it maybe more.
 
Yes, of course, it does exist. You also have this sandbox on YouTube and the Google Play Store. Some guys call it "shadow ban", but in fact, it is the exact same thing as the sandbox. The goal is the same: It prevents you from getting organic traffic (or in other words; It prevents you of getting ranked).
 
wouldn't it show up in ranking at the top within 24 hours?

The sandbox is meant to slow SEO down. Sites which depend on SEO get this natural penalty, to make SEO as expensive as possible.

Sites which do not depend on SEO do not go through the sandbox.

Richard Branson could rank lorem ipsum if he wanted to. This has proven, time and again, that content is irrelevant.

User signals tell Google which sites depend on SEO and which don't. When a site gets a million visitors out of nowhere, without organic search, it automatically breaks the sandbox.
 
i don't think there is a sandbox in the form as many SEOs see it, however there is an evaluation period for new domains.
google always denied that a sandbox exists, but we know not to trust what they say.
here is an interesting article regarding the sandbox effect: https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-sandbox/
 
I'm living in the sandbox on one site for past 1 month. Doesn't rank for non-competitive keywords as well as an aged domain for sure.
 
Yes I think this certainly exist as it seems very difficult to rank new domains as compared to aged. Are you not able to get some aged domain that is in the name that you require?

You mean expired domain?
 
Here is another possible theory. Is it that there is an entire domain sandbox or simply a page-level sandbox?

Because I've noticed new pages typically climb upwards on the rankings from a low position before settling.
 
I hate to say it, but this is true.

Your site will remain in the guts of Google for quite some time until Google allows it to spring out.

Now, the issue is when and there is no one-size-fits-all answer.

I wish there is, but there isn't.

A factor to consider is the competitiveness of your niche.

Did you bother to target a less competitive sub-niche?

What kind of keywords are you going after?

There are many other questions that you need to ask so you can get an educated guess as to how long you're going to stay in the Sandbox.


One quick workaround

The good news is there is a quick way to get out of the Sandbox sooner rather than later.

This involves typing in your target keyword in Google and scraping the autocomplete results.

Once you have the list, feed them into an SEO tool like Ahrefs or Semrush.

The tool will tell you the keyword difficulty and the estimated monthly search volume for that keyword or question.

Toss out the results that have data in those tools.

You'd still be left with a long list of questions.

Now, filter those questions based on how relevant they are to your niche and cluster base them on how similar they are to each other.

Write content based on them.

You may be asking, "what about return on effort?" Good question.

Pack in as much of those related questions in a piece of content.

That way, your content will pull different streams of traffic with the same piece.

Even if it turns out that a long-tail question poses only ten searches a month and you get 40% ranking number one, that's still 40 visitors.

And if there are many questions on that page, it adds up.

The best part is you have a higher chance of ranking with those keywords that nobody else bothers with.

This is the beauty of this strategy because nobody bothers with those keywords because when you enter them in SEO tools, you get a big, fat goose egg.

Who on their right mind would target those?

But here's the secret: Google autocomplete doesn't show them for no good reason.

People are searching for them, but it's anybody's guess how much traffic you would get.

Specialize on those, and your domain authority will rise faster than you think.

And once you start dominating those longer search terms, start gunning after more competitive terms.

That's how you blast out of the Google Sandbox sooner than later, and that's how you build a firm foundation for your website.
 
The Google Sandbox refers to an alleged filter that prevents new websites from ranking in Google's top results. Think of it like a probation period—even if you do everything right, your site won't get decent rankings until it comes to an end. The Google Sandbox has never been officially confirmed by Google.
 
I used to think this too but I dont now becasue my 1.5 month old site ranks for over 141 keywords in medium competetion niche and getting tarffic
Funny thing is that its not even seo optimized
 
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