That model worked fairly well in 1996 but if you are still following this strategy in 2005, you are effectively non-existent on internet. Why? There are now dozens of search engines and directories and somewhere in area of 80 million websites on www. Still think folks are finding you?

So how does average consumer find your company? They type in a couple of keywords into a search engine and are then presented with thousands of your competitors’ websites.

Let’s say your company is Walt’s Widgets. You have a pretty website with pictures of your widgets, a nice “about us” page, maybe some employee pictures and a picture of your beautiful building. It all looks good on website but when Mr. Consumer types “widgets” into Google, poor old Walt’s Widgets is on page 620 of search results!

How can this be? Your site is not optimized for search engines and is not being indexed by search engine spiders and robots so you aren’t being seen!

Research has shown that average surfer will only review first three pages of search results and will not drill down any deeper. If you are on page 62, you effectively don’t exist!

My recent observations however have led me to believe that time your website spends in Google Sandbox should be seen as a golden opportunity rather than a frustrating inevitability.

Into Sandbox

Many webmasters respond to their websites confinement to Sandbox by spending endless hours forever checking listings in Googles results pages for any sign of their website. Not only is this a waste of precious time but also serves only to increase frustration caused by Sandbox. Other webmasters more sensibly focus their time and effort improving Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) of their website in order to improve its rankings within other search engines such as MSN, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves and others. Although these may not be as widely used as Google search engine, they don't have same aging delay of Sandbox that Google does. Therefore, achieving good listings in these search engines early in a websites life can at least generate some traffic and hopefully some sales whilst confined to Sandbox.

Earlier this year Tsunami disaster in Asia forced me to change name of my web development business from Tsunami-Site-Design to Pixelwave Design. I had to register a new domain name, build a new website and start from scratch with my web promotion. The new site was an ideal candidate for confinement to Google Sandbox, and sure enough after an initial day or two of good rankings new site couldn't be found in a Google search for any of my keywords. A search for business name did bring new site up in first place though so I was safe in knowledge that my site was contained within Google database but lack of inclusion for my keywords suggested that my site had been confined to Sandbox. The inclusion of my own personal site within Google Sandbox gave me a great opportunity to monitor and track its progress.

The first thing I noticed was high frequency with which a Googlebot spidered pages of my site. The Googlebots were visiting a few times everyday and visiting all pages of site. It struck me that if Google had gone to trouble of writing and implementing 'Sandbox' filter as part of their algorithm and regularly spidering sites within Sandbox then Sandbox wasn't simply an area into which new sites get put in order to delay their inclusion in SERPS. Instead it can be considered as a probationary period for new websites during which Google pays close attention to sites development.

This means that as far as Google is concerned, your websites time in Sandbox may well be one of most important times in its development. Rather than seeing this time as a frustrating inevitability you should see it as an opportunity to really show Google how your website can shine. The Google Sandbox should be a time to make most of all attention your site is getting from Google and show search engine what it wants to see.

The Steps to Success