If you’re reading about this then chances are you know about the supposed Google Sandbox that exists out there. For those of you who don’t the Google Sandbox is supposedly a period of time from a domain’s creation that that domain cannot rank in the search engine results page for highly competitive keywords. What period of time exactly? No one really knows, any guesses were made at between a few months to a year, depending on the keyword that you are trying to rank for. At PubCon 2006 in Las Vegas this entire notion was laughed at by Google when the topic came up to Adam Lasnik, Google’s Search Evangelist during SEO and Big Search’s Q&A portion. Adam was asked about the Google Sandbox, and asked for his comment on whether it existed or not.

Adam’s response was, “Britney and K-Fed or Fed-Ex as he is known have recently announced that they are divorcing. If Britney determines that purple hats are the next rage, and everyone is talking about purple hats, and you come up with a site about purple hats we’re not so naïve as to restrict you from the results.� He went on to say that the search engine results page depends on the niche and if it is content rich, and that sites that maintain this are not placed in a “sandbox� in which they are unable to rank. While I was in the audience you could tell in the tone of Adam’s voice that he thought the notion of the Google Sandbox to be quite humorous, and enjoyed answering the question about it. Adam’s comments reinforced another reason to not always believe everything that you read on message boards, as most of them are speculation, and have no basis in fact.

Jeff Lawrence is the owner of Sonicko Consulting. This article may be reused provided that the full content is published. Sonicko focuses on web analytics and Google Analytics in particular. They provide Google Analytics installation and implementation, training, and support among other services. Based out of Los Angeles, CA you can reach them at their website: http://www.sonicko.com