This is a common question usually accompanied by loud sighs, wailing and sometimes Alopecia caused by sheer frustration.  Sometimes it's the Internet Marketing consultant that gets the instant Alopecia usually caused by the same frustrated client (have you seen my picture lately?).

So let's assume, for the poor old consultant's sake, that everything that could be done was done, you have plenty of new content and some back links. You have title tags, meta tags and alt tags. You're listed in directories, trade magazines and you've told your mother (to generate word of mouth promotion). So why, oh why is Google still ignoring your existence?

Let me introduce you to The Google Sandbox Effect.

It might be hard to believe that a search engine would hinder the appearance of a new website in it's search engine results but that's precisely what many SEO consultants and programmers believe is happening.

Google seems to be uncomfortable about ranking newer websites until they have proven their viability to exist for more than a period of at least 3 months, it may even be longer (if it really exists at all). Thus the term the "Sandbox Effect" was coined to describe the period that all new websites have their ratings placed on hold until such time as it is deemed appropriate that ranking can commence.

However, it seems the probation does not apply to new sites per se. It applies to their back links. One commentator to a forum on SEO at www.cre8asiteforums.com, said "It applies to links, not sites. And the age of the link is not the only factor. The IP range of the links and other considerations are made, and the person who I discussed this with said that Krishna Bharat is at Google primarily to develop and implement this new algorithm. It is supposed to radically change the way links are evaluated."

The idea behind this policy is to prevent spurious web sites from achieving a fast high ranking through  the practice of

•·         Buy a domain,

•·          Build a spam site,

•·          Get banned,

•·         Repeat process ad infinitum.

The policy is supposed to make it far riskier (will the site last three months?), and far more expensive as the spammer will need more sites in the "pipeline. However the collateral damage would seem to be the vast majority of genuine web sites that are trying to earn a living, but hey, what's a little collateral damage in the war against spammers?

Is there a Solution?

First, let's not forget  that there are other search engines besides Google, so one tactic might be to optimise for them.

Second, use the time to grow your content and build your back links so when you finally come out of the sand pit, you really take off.

Third, but I fear this is kind of rewarding the culprit, use pay per click advertising to gain exposure. PPC (Google Adwords) can instantly increase your exposure on Google as well as many of it's partner sites. PPC can bring traffic to your site as a direct result of people searching at Google or at one of their search partners such as Ask Jeeves, Netscape, AOL as well as many web sites that display AdWords as a source of revenue.

Finally, as one commentator put it:

"Patience Is A Virtue"

Don't pull all the hair out of your head (or your poor consultant), cursing Google because they won't allow your site to rank well. Simply accept the fact that if you have a new site, it will take awhile before it will rank well in Google. This will allow you to be more at peace with your marketing efforts as well as have the foresight to look at other alternatives.