The Google sandbox effect is a theory that has been around for a few years now. The theory is that Google put all new websites and domains in to a back box or holding area until it has checked the site out to ensure it is relevant.

It only effects new domains not new pages within your website and but it doesn't mean you can't rank at all as you can still usually show if keywords are not competitive, as there isn't as much competition for you to overcome therefore Google are more likely to show your website.

Now I'm not here to tell you that there is a Google sandbox but I'm also not here to say there isn't, I'm just going to tell you how it works and some points on how to try and overcome it.

There are different opinions about the sandbox theory as some say that the theory doesn't exist as they have had no problem with new websites at being ranked where as others say it took them up to 6-8 months to even rank on Google where as they had quite high rankings on other search engines. This is why some top internet marketers have come to the conclusion that Google do have some kind of system where they do not allow you to be ranked until they see you as a relevant website.

One of the reasons people believe that Google do this is that they are trying to limit spam websites and people who practice the black hat techniques of marketing. I am not going to go into detail about what these techniques are but I'm sure other articles or websites will.

It is believed that the Google sandbox doesn't happen to everybody but this could be linked to a few factors such as they have used a domain name that has recently expired or an older one, not a brand new domain name that Google will not recognise.

This takes me to some pointers that are worth you considering to try and overcome this sandbox theory.

First of all like I mentioned above you can look for recently expired domain names and buy those rather than coming up with a brand new one, as it seems that Google penalise domain names that it hasn't seen before.

When you are deciding on your keywords go for the less popular ones that people don't search that often as Google may show you on these if there is not much competition for them. Aim for keywords that have 10,000 or less competitors you could be surprised even though there may not be many searches if you rank on these particular keywords you may find that you get more visitors from them rather than the more popular keywords.

One of the biggest mistakes some new internet marketers make is they only concentrate on advertising on one search engine which is Google, what they don't realise is they are probably missing out on a lot of sales from customers who use other search engines. So one of the best things you can do is target lots of different search engines such as Yahoo, Miva, Ask Jeeves, and MSN etc.

You will probably find that you will be highly ranked on these websites as there will not be as much competition and whilst you make an impression on these search engines the time within the sandbox won't be as disheartening because you can make sales elsewhere until you come out of it.

Other techniques you can try to shorten your time in the sandbox is to get as many high quality links from other related websites that are within your niche, as this will prove that you are a relevant none spam website and Google will notice this.

Also updating and changing the content on your website regularly will also help as again it proves your relevance and makes Google look into the topics surrounding your website.

Finally you can try adwords, even though this is not a free way of advertising and will not improve your SEO it does mean that you will get ranked on Google immediately in the sponsored searches. However this can sometimes prove to be difficult if you are in a competitive market as you will have to pay more per click, but it could tide you over with some much wanted sales while you overcome the sandbox.

In conclusion to this theory I feel as though Google certainly don't make it easy for you to rank within their search engine but I'm not sure whether to think they actually have a back box for all new websites. With the internet getting bigger and bigger everyday it's no surprise that it can be difficult sometimes to market a particular niche and make a living online.