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Sandbox – what a strange term for newcomers to website marketing! Well, the term 'mouse' is used with computers, so is there now a cat associated with the internet? No, not at all! This particular term refers to barriers to achieve high rankings on the most popular search engine – Google. Web designers can explain how a new website with a new domain name typically stays in the 'sandbox' an average of six months until it surfaces to be recognized. Of course, this is a difficult sentence to be received by a novice in the cyber market. Don't lose sleep over it - it is beyond anyone's control. So instead, learn from it! Take a proactive approach to lessen its effects. Remember the acronym S-A-N-D-B-O-X to be successful in the process. S – Sitemaps One thing often overlooked is the wonderful SEO effect of including a sitemap with each website and submitting that for inclusion with Google. Although this will not overcome all of the 'sandbox effect,' there is no doubt that it increases internet visibility for any site, new or old. A – Acquire Good Content Relevant, fresh content paired with good links can elevate rankings in spite of the 'sandbox effect.' Collect good links by making sure the sources are trusted such as CNN, DMOZ and other places with a good reputation. It would also be helpful to use a domain suffix that is exempt from the sandbox filter, examples of which are .mil, .edu and .gov. Also, be sure to build links steadily but slowly. The latest Panda update from Google will penalize any efforts to 'over-link' so any backlinks of more than 500 a month must be avoided. Proper usage can infuse fresh exposure to a new website. N – Network Seek a well-established host and network with them as a sub-domain. Although not the best marketing choice for an extended period of time, it does offer some initial internet identification until the primary domain name has been established. D – Dare Don’t be afraid to launch a website until everything is absolutely complete. Consider that an early launch even with just a 'bare-bones' approach will start the Google Sandbox Clock ticking, allowing time for development efforts to be done while the age of the website is increasing. B – Be Diverse Remember that Google is not the only existing marketing tool on the planet. Direct all SEO efforts to consider other search engines such as Bing or Yahoo, some of which have a shorter sandbox time or don’t have a sandbox filter at all. Make an effort to increase traffic from these different search engines. O – Optimization Instead of focusing on the more popular keywords, opt for the less popular ones for the time being as being a new domain name doesn’t necessarily mean that a website is not indexed at all. So work with less popular keywords and be amazed at how they may bring even newcomers to the top of the search results. X – X-Ray Vision Use x-ray vision to see through poor SEO tactics just to beat the competition. Such attempts almost always doom an overall effort to be visible and deliver products and services via the internet. Lastly, don't look on this whole experience as an exercise in frustration and futility. Be happy that it provides extra time to a new domain to be creative on working up to the top of the rankings. Be sure to hire reputable web designers to help from the infancy of a new domain name to the adulthood of a website achieving top rankings on all the search engines – and jump out of that sandbox! Chris Hunter is an expert in Web Design and Search Engine Marketing. To find out more about Houston Web Designers, go to the main website at: http://www.webunlimited.com.
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