Sandbox Theory

Search engine optimisation forums and webmaster forums have been buzzing over the last few months trying to prove whether the Google Sandbox Theory is fact or just another Google conspiracy theory. On one side of the fence there are seo's and webmasters that dismiss the idea, on the other side, seo's and webmasters convinced that the Sandbox Theory makes absolute sense.

Firstly we should give some explanation of the Sandbox Theory. The term Sandbox was initially coined by Barry Schwarz of SEORoundTable, it describes how new sites are placed in a sandbox for a probationary period where they can play safely away from more mature or real sites.
Original definition of Sandbox Theory and Google

Sandbox is an alleged Google phenomenon in which new sites rank well for a short time, two to three weeks, and then drop completely out of sight. Some dropped sites have high page rank but don't rank for even the least competitive of terms regardless of how well the pages are optimised. When this happens a site is classed as 'Sandboxed'. The Sandbox effect appears to be limited to sites that went online after the Florida update. (November 2003)

If you feel that your site might be Sandboxed try adding exclusion parameters to your search term. Some of you who experienced the Florida update may already be familiar with exclusion parameters to see post-Florida results. For those who have never used exclusion parameters before here is how to do it;

Take your term and add '-dfsdgsdsd -sdfgsdgsdfg -sdfgsdgsdg -sdfgsdfgsdfg -dsfgsdgsdg -sdfgsdfgsdfg -sdgsdfgdsfg" (without quotes)

So if your search term was 'Gas Widgets' (without quotes) this would become;
'Gas Widgets -dfsdgsdsd -sdfgsdgsdfg -sdfgsdgsdg -sdfgsdfgsdfg -dsfgsdgsdg -sdfgsdfgsdfg -sdgsdfgdsfg' (without quotes)

If searching for your term using exclusion parameters returns your site to its former rankings and your site falls into description above, you are most probably sandboxed. However, it should be noted that including exclusion parameters will bypass many filters and there is no absolute guarantee that your site is sandboxed.Long term links are harder to get than short term links, therefore links that come and go quickly wont effect rankings overly much.

source:[+]