Google did not coin the term “sandbox”. This ficticious place is where new websites are held for weeks or perhaps months to age before showing up in search results. The search engines protect their reputation and reserve top search results for proven and trusted websites, and designers call that waiting period the sandbox. Age of a site has been one factor for becoming trusted, and of course that takes time. Having an active blog may help accelerate the aging period.

Fact: Various sources report a range between 60% to 80% of all blog owners will quit in the first month. Of active blogs, another 66% go more than 2 months without a post. Blogging does not have to be a chore. By posting monthly as a minimum, you avoid being placed by search engines into those categories of abandoned or temporarily abandoned blogs.

Do you have a custom blog integrated with your main website? Some of my clients did start blogs, yet early on they stopped posting. Reasons vary. To achieve value from your small business blog there is no pressure to post new content daily, or even weekly. Infrequent posting biweekly or once a month is better than stopping altogether.

Comparing the site performance of my clients, those with newer websites and integrated blogs who immediately maintain a minimum level of blog posting are out of the sandbox sooner than others with older blogs who stop or never start posting. The comment from the first paragraph bears repeating: “… search engines protect their reputation and reserve top search results for proven and trusted websites.” A static or stale site that doesn’t change cannot compete with a dynamic site that adds original quality content often. That fine line is easily overcome by staying active in your blog to enhance recognition as a proven and trusted site.

My advice for clients for small business custom website design is patience when it comes to the benefits of SEO, Search Engine Optimization, and overcoming the sandbox effect. Recent results have proven that you can overcome the holding pattern of new websites that keep you from showing up in Google SERPs, Search Engine Result Pages.

Before accepting custom website design projects, I still caution new site owners that it may take as long as 3-6 months, or perhaps a year, before their new website shows up in search results. Recent surprises with new website launches indicate some websites may get out of the sandbox sooner. Instead of 6 months, some of my clients have Google page one results in less than 6 weeks for generic search phrases!

Here are examples as of mid-November, 2007:

Search for room additions+southern california to see Masterson Construction on page one.
Search for exterior painting+cumming ga to see Mannion Custom Painting on page one, also.

One secret to establishing the authority and trust of your website is keeping your site dynamic by adding quality original content often. From studying the recent search results mentioned, other features in my custom website designs and further advice that I give have obviously shortened that waiting period.

The age of your website cannot be accelerated, so how did these two sites break my 3-6 month rule? For one, each has a custom integrated blog and the owners post on a weekly basis. That adds quality original content. Next, each took my advice to register their www domain for 5 years. A registration for 5 years versus just 1 year shows a commitment to be online for the long haul. This is public information easily retrieved by the search engines, and may carry more weight now than it did just a few months ago to help overcome website aging.

Finally, both sites were designed in XHTML with CSS which is streamlined code for faster page loading, and using less code means pages are easier for search engines to index, too. You may want to learn more about improved SEO custom website design in my articles Small Business SEO Tips and Tricks and Google Crawlers and Stray Cats.

SEO techniques in the XHTML code and on-page content with a focus on websites designed for visitors all add up to more positive results, and may include an early release from sandbox prison. Website owners who try to trick search engines with deceptive SEO techniques will eventually be caught and punished. Blog owners who abandon posting are overlooking one of the easiest ways to add fresh content.

Proper code and on page search engine optimization of your site along with a blog strategy achieves proven results. If you have a dusty blog, and want more advice for reactivating content, this blog has a ton of advice with writing tips. Post one or two paragraphs weekly with quality advice about what you do to avoid the look of an abandoned blog. Feel free to contact me with questions or comments, too.