The Sandbox Effect – Double Double Cross?

I have written about it. Many people have written about this grey topic that is a negative to the website designer’s vocation. The sandbox effect is real and it is currently an obstacle that stands in between you and getting a newly launched website noticed in the SERPS. There are interesting observations however that you may want to consider.

We expected Yahoo and especially Bing to employ a new site filter aggressively because of the “quality vs. quantity” mantra that Bing has exuded from the rafters of late. Google is expected to employ this type of filter also as it tries so desperately to return to organic quality results.

First, let us explore the reason for this filter and then the current implications of its use by big search. First of all it is the constant work of those who have become known as “black hats” that causes these giant purveyors of search to endeavor to control their successes. Automated linking schemes and reciprocal linking strategies threatened the very core element of big search rankings. These efforts were artificial and to get your site up there in the SERPS, you had to employ some of them because of the influences of those that hijacked the SERPS. Now everything has changed. After much activity in the shadows, the black hats evolved to hijack the pay-per-click marketplace. Finally after the threat was realized and big search recognized that real people doing real searches were getting frustrated with spammed results, Bing came out and voiced the intent to bring up the quality level of their search offering. With the merger with Yahoo, Microsoft’s intent to clean up search was taken very seriously by Google. Google took on a proactive approach even cleansing tens of thousands of paying members of its Awords program. Google also employs an aggressive new site filter. The strange part of the current state of new site SERPS placement is that Bing has opened its doors to new sites. Yahoo has also not filtered new sites out of the SERPS.

I cannot take risks with clients’ websites and their internet exposure. What I do is to take a lot of risk with my own sites. Now in launching a new site, it appears that if you are conservative about your back-linking strategy, only seeking one way back-links from high ranking sites along with social marketing and press releases, you can hit the SERPS within a week! Now this is limited to Yahoo and Bing. I have had Google crawl new websites, obviously indexing the pages but not listing them listed in Webmaster Tools. After about 24 hrs. or so, the new sites that were showing up on Google highly ranked in the SERPS, because of my expert in page and careful linking strategies. Then they drop off the face of the earth. A check of Webmaster Tools reveals that the sitemaps are updated every day as I update materials on the sites, but no listing of URL’s being indexed is available. This is certainly reflective of the reality that Google indexed my brand new sites and then employed a new site filter that has sent them to the sandbox. Below is a screen capture of the sitemap page in Webmaster Tools.

Sitemap Page from Webmaster Tools

Is the old double-double cross that we see? Who knows exactly why but we can see what is going on right now. Think about this for a minute. Bing exudes this grand intention to make their brand of search “Bing & decide” a clean and organic new style of experience for the end user that even feels good to advertisers. Independent business owners and operators are attracted to this idea of “Bing & decide.” The powerful new look of Bing attracts people while Google maintains its clean (but now more cluttered) look. Google looks over its proverbial shoulder and decides to act after the new Bing gives Google something to focus upon. Google decides to purge itself of its junk that threatens its organic search results. Google has done a lot of work and it is actively doing “Spring cleaning.”

As Bing watches while Google begins to clean up its act, the marketplace is going through its own purging. In brick and mortar establishments across this land many companies are going belly-up and established websites are shutting down. New start-ups are getting ready to capitalize on the Spring, post-tax season, early-summer sales season. Now these are the new entrepreneurs and even the businesses are left standing that want to try a new website launch to get the exposure they need for growth. These are the businesses that will pay for the services that big search provides. Bing is looking to peel off some of the advertisers from Google. It won’t be hard to do.

Google has made a lot of people angry with its big purge of advertisers. There are many that were caught in the snare and dumped that were not guilty of anything. By opening up and reducing the burden upon new websites, Bing may just be positioned in a happier place to capitalize on this big negative.

Speaking of negatives, for a website design company or an SEO company, the divulging of the real aspects of the sandbox effect to you, a business owner may affect your decision to move on a campaign to exploit free search. The SEO’s that do not tell you the whole story are not looking out for your best interests. You should know exactly what is happening and the prospects of getting your site highly ranked in the SERPS. Now is the time to move and to get your website ranked. Engage the services of the best SEO professional you can find. I am making the argument that I am your man.

-Bob W