Digital Age Marketing Group The “Google Sandbox:” A Guide
If you are launching a new website for your business, don’t have a website yet for an established business, or have just launched your business website and are wondering how you can increase search engine rankings, it is important to understand the “Google sandbox effect” as it is known in SEO circles. While Google won’t reveal proprietary information about how it ranks websites, newer websites may have increased difficulty ranking highly, especially for competitive keywords. Why? The goal of any search engine is to provide users with reliable and trustworthy results. Newer websites may not always have had the time to build trust or may not have proven themselves reliable. Google treats newer websites with some degree of suspicion, until the website has had a chance to establish itself as reliable. What this means is that in order to rank better on search engines, your website must establish itself as trustworthy. How can you do this if your website is new, if your business is new, or if you are creating a website for an established business?
- Create great content
- Create sharable content that trustworthy websites will link to
- Leverage trustworthy websites to build links to your site
- Use business directories
These are just some ways that you can build the authority of your website. If you are considering hiring an SEO company, you want to work with a company that can offer you strong content and develop a promotion strategy that will take into account the age of your website. If you are in the process of launching a new website, establishing a new business, or want to improve your SEO rankings, Digital Age Marketing Group may be able to help your website beat the “Google sandbox effect.”
The Importance of Strong Content on Your Website
Trust and authority of a website can be built and cultivated by offering customers and readers reliable, trustworthy, and informative content. While it might take some time for a newer website to rank highly with the “Google sandbox effect,” quality content, over time, can build your site’s authority and lead to better rankings over time. Google rankings can improve with more links. Internal links are important, but you also want other websites to link to yours as well. The more established and trustworthy these linking websites are, the better your content might rank. One strong link from a highly-regarded website might be able to do more for your website than a dozen links from less-regarded websites. The takeaway? If you want your company or website to get noticed, create content worthy of notice. Set yourself apart in your field. Answer readers and customer’s questions and concerns. Be useful. Be provocative. Be interesting. Be helpful to readers. Digital Age Marketing Group can help your company establish itself in search rankings through strong content. Learn more about how we might be able to help you beat the “Google sandbox effect” if you are launching a new website.
Leverage Trustworthy Websites to Build Authority
To build authority, leverage links from trustworthy websites and business directories. Include your business in online directories. Send out press releases to local papers along with links to your website. Consider writing guest blogs or posts for trustworthy or well-read websites or blogs in your industry. Reach out to social media influencers to get the word out about your new website. If you are an existing business launching a website, leverage your loyal customer base to get the word out and ask for reviews. The more trustworthy and strong links to your website, the better your chances are of increasing your ranking in Google. Digital Age Marketing Group can help you leverage websites and links to help you defeat the “Google sandbox effect.”
Problems That Can Lead to Lower Rankings
Websites that use low-quality SEO tactics to push websites to the top of search results may face penalties in Google’s search rankings. What are some tactics that can lead to penalties? Pages that are stuffed with keywords and that don’t offer helpful content could be penalized. Websites that duplicate content may also suffer penalties. Websites that use Cloaking or that use hidden text may also face penalties. Additionally websites that are new, but have many links to them may also be considered suspicious by Google’s algorithms. Quality links are built over time. So purchasing links won’t help your site rank well. When hiring an SEO company, it is important to ask how the company plans to help you rank well on search results. If a company is using cloaking, keyword stuffing, duplicate content, or link purchasing to accomplish these goals, beware. If you are launching a new website and want to avoid suffering the penalties of the “Google sandbox effect” or are concerned that you might be suffering lower rankings due to this effect, consider reaching out to Digital Age Marketing Group today. We can evaluate your website’s content and structure and help you develop better content, better structure, and a better SEO campaign to improve your website’s SEO.
Other Ways to Improve SEO Rank for a Newer Website
Other ways your company may be able to improve its ranking is by targeting less competitive keywords and creating strong pages around these keywords. Structure for your content is also important. A website with a strong structure may be able to perform better. Finally, strong content is key. Increasing user engagement with your site by sharing content, inviting comments, and reliably posting new material can improve your SEO. If you have questions about how to improve your website’s SEO, contact Digital Age Marketing Group today. We can take the time to assess your website and determine what steps should be taken to improve your rankings today.
Beat the “Google Sandbox Effect”
Beating the “Google sandbox effect” requires a multi-faceted approach to SEO that starts with strong content and extends to building relationships with reliable websites across the web. Create a useful website with helpful content that people will want to share, and you’ll be well on your way to beating the “Google sandbox effect.” Prove yourself a leader in your field. However, like anything done well, good SEO and beating the “Google sandbox effect” takes time. A newer website might need to do the hard work of establishing itself before it can see the benefits of organic SEO.
