Introducing the problem

In setting up a ranking system based on links, it soon became clear to Google that link manipulation remained a threat to the objectivity of their search results.

With patents filed in the early 2000’s such as Hilltop, LocalRank, and Topic Sensitive PageRank, Google was looking for ways to sustain this objectivity.

In 2003 it all came to a head.

• Sales of links for “PageRank” purposes exploded as a market. It was a market that went mainstream among webmasters.
• John Scott evangelised that the anchor text in links was king for rankings. The idea was radical for many whitehat SEO’s, who knew anchor text was important – but many hadn't realised to what extent. Suddenly they saw the wood for the trees.

Google’s response was swift and inevitable, and 2003 saw them respond in 3 significant ways:

• Google stopped the Google Dance – until then, a monthly PR and backlink update. After a summer of nothing, we found what was left had gone quarterly.
• A Google Update began migrating from a new datacenter on November 12th. I made first call on what would live in infamy in SEO - Florida - a major shift in the ranking algo using multiple aspects of previous patents.
• On December 31st, Google engineer Matt Cutts and others filed for a patent on a paper called Information retrieval based on historical data - a paper in which historical data and user behaviour could be factored into ranking algorithms.

Even before the dust had settled on Florida, volume link building SEO's suddenly noticed something odd.

Whereas previously you could drop links in the tens/hundreds of thousands and see a fast impact in ranking on Google, suddenly it took 30 days. It was so precise you could measure it.

It was the beginning of what was to be known as The Google Sandbox.

At first many SEO's contested that any sandbox existed. It was only those SEO's in high volume link building who saw its effects most clearly.

However, what once started out as an aging filter on link development has since become a much more sophisticated set of filters, which are often keyword triggered to use historical data.

The situation we found ourselves in now is that the sandbox has become a normal everyday reality for ranking on Google, and most SEO's now accept that. The result is that to rank on Google for any kind of competitive keyword, you need to be able to leverage some degree of “trust”.

In fact, as Michael Gray astutely put it – “The sandbox isn’t something you are trying to get out of, it’s the trustbox that you are trying to figure a way into.”

The bottom line is - it doesn't matter if a small business has been established for decades. If they have a new website on a new domain, then they are dead in Google for competitive keyword rankings, unless they do something extraordinary.

That's the problem.

Here's one solution.


Beating the Google Sandbox

The nature of the problem dictates that issues such as “trust” and “authority” have become major concerns for targeting significant keyword searches.

A key point here is that relatively older domains have more “trust” and generally more “authority” than relatively newer ones – they have an historical record by which they can be evaluated.

So let’s leverage that.

Link development remains a major factor in ranking on Google, but if mainstream link development on a newer domain is going to be effectively wasted, let’s apply a more lateral solution.

If SEO is about generating targeted traffic via search engines, and links are a pivotal part of increasing a site’s visibility for significant keywords, we need to think outside of the normal SEO box.

Let’s not link build for our own new domains.

Link build for other people's older domains instead.

If you want to beat the Google Sandbox then don’t directly link build for your target small business site.

Instead set up your own content and links on more authorative third-party sites, and link build for these pages instead.

If you can get a listing on third-party sites where active links are allowed, you are effectively setting up third-party validation of your target website via links from relatively older, more trustworthy, and authorative domains.

By link build I’m talking about volume link building methods that won’t have much chance of success on your target domain – but can get away with it on more established sites.

This isn’t a new tactic – blog spammers have been trying this for some time. What you can do is apply a more Whitehat link building approach, which leverages third-party sites better than your original target website.

Done properly, a company's new domain that would have little chance of competing for commercial rankings by itself, can now develop a presence for those keywords by proxy – by ranking pages promoting the company via trusted third-party sites.

What’s even better is that you can often use these third-party sites to sell the benefits of your target company – before anyone even visits the company website.


Where to find third-party validation sites

There are various options available here – a good way to look for them is to simply keep an eye on the results for keywords you’re targeting and spot for signs of where you can submit User Generated Content (UGC) on that domain to promote your target website.

However, a few simple options include:


1. Business Directories

Some business directories allow the creation of a dedicated page to promote your business.

Some of these can be pretty pricey, especially considering that a listing alone doesn’t necessarily convert well for listings.

However, if you can rank these pages for major keywords, you can send that traffic from the directory directly to your website, providing the Google user with exactly what they were looking for in the first place.


2. Presell Pages

Evangelised by Jim Boykin, Presell Pages are effectively a dedicated page on a more trusted related topic site, espousing your products and services.

And also for adding your links to.

One of the understated points about Presell Pages is that although a primary concern has been to generate strong links from strong sites, well-built Presell Pages can be very good at capturing Longtail traffic in themselves.

As Longtail traffic can often convert better than generic searches, this means that Presell Pages can often be a valuable source of traffic regardless of link benefits.


3. Article Sites

Although article sites have come in for some due cynicism, there are some well-established article sites out there.

Although not the strongest way to set up third-party validation - many article sites restrict link use - one of the benefits is that you can set up an article to perform as a Sales Page with link(s).

Then you can sell your company benefits before the users even visit the targeted website.



There are, of course, a large number of other places where you can set up your own UGC, where you can set up links and sell your company at the same time.

The best way to find these is to monitor exactly which UGC sites have any significant impact in the SERP’s already within the range of your targeted keywords.


Summary

The underlying point, is that if you can work with volume link building for newer domains, then direct your volume efforts not at your targeted company site, but instead at third-party sites.

The result is that not only can you then fight for placement in commercial keyword searches using your UGC pages place on other websites, but you can also develop quality links to your target website – and help lift that out of the sandbox and into the trustbox.

Of course, if you target multiple UGC pages, you can also claim multiple ranking positions as indirect paths to your company website – providing you have the resources to do so.

There are trade-offs, though.

Firstly, you’re effectively introducing an extra user action – an extra click – between the user search and landing on your website. This is obviously less efficient than ranking directly yourself.

Secondly, the options of which sites you can target can be limited. Additionally, your competitors may also try the same thing, and there isn’t room in the SERP’s for all of the UGC pages from a single site in the Top 10 listings. So there's an automatic cut-off on the opportunities here.

Thirdly, linking to multiple third party sites can demand considerable link resources. So you need to carefully consider how you allocate them, with best available links to your target website, and volume methods – ie, sitewides, etc – aimed at the third-party sites.

However, if you run your link development campaign intelligently and with due consideration, that quality new business you wanted to help really can get a presence on Google – regardless of sandboxing - and thus achieve the goal of developing a strong presence in search for a website that would otherwise not make the grade.