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 (which is a holding area) in the indexes of Google until it is deemed appropriate before a ranking can commence. Webmasters with new websites claims that their site does not show up on Google search for keywords because its sandboxed. New pages of old websites are not effected by sandbox effect.

There are many different opinions about Sandbox Effect. Some says that the Sandbox Effect doesn't actually exist. Some says that the search ranking behavior can be explained as a result of a mathematical algorithm, rather than a decided Sandbox Effect policy.

Those who believe the sandbox exists observe that it can sometimes take up to a year or longer for a website to be promoted from the Google sandbox, while those who do not believe in a sandbox explain this duration as simply the time it takes for Google to calculate rank of the pages of a new site.

Regardless of interpretation, it is widely accepted that new Websites and Web pages do wait longer for ranking in Google than other search engines in general.