Sandbox Effect - Theory

The Sandbox Effect is a theory used to give details certain behaviors observed with some Internet search engines. The Sandbox Effect is the theory that websites with newly-registered domains or domains with frequent ownership or name server changes are placed in a sandbox (holding area) in the indexes of Google until such time is deemed appropriate before a ranking can commence. Webmasters have noticed that their site will only show for keywords that are not competitive. It appears this effect does not affect new pages unless the domain is in the sandbox.

The Sandbox Effect is a topic of hot debate among those interested in search engines and search engine optimization. There are many different opinions about it, including the view that the Sandbox Effect doesn't actually exist and that the search ranking behavior can be explained as a result of a mathematical algorithm, rather than a decided policy.

Although assured details of the Sandbox Effect are unclear by webmasters, there is general agreement that the Sandbox only applies to search results from Google, and that results from other search engines such as Yahoo or MSN are not affected.