How To Beat The Google Sandbox And Make Some Cash At The Same
Time
I stumbled across this quite by accident. I knew it was there
because I'd seen it before but I forgot about it until today.
So I did some checking to see if it still does work and based on
my limited test it appears that it does.
What I'm about to explain to you may not only help get sandboxed
sites indexed and ranking quicker, it can even make the site
owner a little money.
I've been blogging for a few years now. I started it as a hobby
and the blog I had was actually a blog before there were blogs.
In other words I was "blogging" with a regular website.
Then a friend turned me on to Movable Type. It is a software
which allows me to automate the publishing of content on my
website.
I was having problems getting my website/blog indexed by Google
back then - this was about 3 years ago.
It was also around this time that I heard of a new program
called Google Adsense (https://www.google.com/adsens
e) in which one could place code on their web pages that
would display ads, and the website owner would earn money on
every click.
I thought "what a cool idea" so I immediately applied for an
account. 48 hours later I was placing ads on my blog.
Shortly after this while reviewing my server logs I noticed that
I was getting Google referrals! That's right, within days of
placing the ads on my site, it had been fully indexed by Google
and it was actually ranking quite highly for terms related to
the content I was posting.
I couldn't believe my luck. Here I thought all I was going to do
was make a little money on the side yet I found that the Adsense
may have actually helped get my site indexed.
Remember, this was before the Sandbox, but it was a time when
link popularity ruled the web. But since it was only a hobby I
wasn't worried about building links. Because I already had a few
loyal readers, I wasn't trying to position this site.
Flash forward to December 2005 and a friend asks me to help him
set up his own blog. Actually he wants two of them - each with
their own topics, and both very different in nature.
I consult with him and on February 1, 2006 we register two new
domains for him.
He proceeds to build out his blogs and as he's doing this I
suggest placing ads on them. At the time I wasn't thinking that
it would help with indexing, just another way to increase
exposure of the ads to generate more revenue for me and him.
We agree to split the money and he places the ads on the two new
sites.
I didn't think much of it until his visitor traffic started
going up. He also placed Google Analytics code on the sites and
gave me access to them so I could take a look to see where all
this traffic is coming from.
Turns out, he's getting a few Google organic referrals.
Imagine that - two brand new sites, with no incoming links, but
somehow they have managed to sneak out of the Google Sandbox in
3 weeks?
Imagine my surprise, considering I have another site that I
started over a year ago, and have been dutifully building
content and links, yet I can't get it out of the sandbox. In
fact, the current Google cache is of pages that no longer exist,
and haven't for months.
My explanation, however "out there" it seems to be is that
somehow the Google Ads have allowed the site to bypass the
sandbox and move into the index almost immediately.
The first Google organic referral came last week, just two short
weeks after the site was tagged with the Google Adsense code.
Since then, both sites have received a handful of Google organic
referrals.
Based on this very small and somewhat limited test case, my gut
is telling me that one way out of the sandbox and into the SERPs
is to apply for and install Google AdSense onto your site.
At the very least you'll make some money - maybe not a lot, just
a few dollars a month (Google only pays out in $100 increments
mind you, so it may take a while to get that first Google check)
and the best case is that you'll bypass the sandbox, get indexed
quickly and even start driving organic referrals to your site.
Like I said, this isn't anything near a scientific study but it
seems pretty clear to me that what has helped these two sites
become indexed so quickly are the ads.
So if you're stuck in the sandbox, perhaps applying for AdSense
is a good idea.
I know I'm going to be placing ads on my other site to see what
effect (if any it has). My guess is that within a few days it
too will start ranking.