7 days to Google search results

My group provides Search Engine Optimization and we spend a reasonable amount of experimentation time to see what we can do to sway search engines into our good graces. A good deal of the sites we take under the knife have URLs with a history and web sites to match which are in Google’s index. Achieving relevant Google rankings takes a few weeks on the outside.

For web sites that are hosted on brand new domains it takes more time. If you’re remotely into online marketing, you’re likely aware of the Google Sandbox (also known as the Sandbox Effect). We’re used to seeing a two to four month Google Sandbox period. If you’re not, here’s a layman’s explanation from Wikipedia:

The Sandbox Effect is a theory used to explain certain behaviours observed with the Google search engine. The Sandbox Effect is the theory that websites with newly-registered domains or domains with frequent ownership or nameserver changes are placed in a sandbox (holding area) in the indexes of Google until it is deemed appropriate before a ranking can commence.

The Google Sandbox is a topic of speculation in SEO circles Some say it doesn’t exist at all, that it’s purely a function of mathematics. Whether or not the Google Sandbox is real, or rankings simply don’t come do to algorithmic computation,we generally don’t expect to see Google rankings for a couple of months at least as we’ve observed it to be a good rule of thumb.

Enough back story. Where’s this site that got indexed and ranked on a new domain in less than a week for keyword phrases? You’re looking at it.

I purchased the domain http://www.onlinemarketingperformance.com a few weeks ago. I had the DNS server pointed to SEDO until the middle of last week when I allowed it to redirect itself to GoDaddy and to show an actual web site. After putting a few posts up, a co-worker commented on a couple of posts (which was kind as I only had three to speak of at that time). Which was odd; I hadn’t told anyone about the blog yet.

Today I decided to see if my site was showing up in Google’s results for keyword phrases. I searched on “online marketing performance” and was surprised to see my site ranking on page 4. To be clear, this is only when I search with the phrase in quotations.

I also tried my name “Scott McAndrew” and there I am-the 21st result; top of Page 3 (without the quotation marks).

I then tried a phrase comprised of keywords from a blog post title: “poking beyond facebook” (without the quotations). Page one. Fifth result.

I didn’t do anything special. I’ve heard that web sites can be shown on Google in the few days after launch, but that they then fall off into the Sandbox. I’m going to periodically check Google for the phrases above and see what happens. I’m curious to see if the site gets dropped off the SERPs or if it stays.

In case the Sandbox isn’t a fairy tale; that I continue to have placement in the SERPs; that I happened to have set up my blog more elegantly than I though I did, I’ll post the process I went through.

Related reading about the Google Sandbox elsewhere on the web: