While Google’s never confirmed its existence, Web site operators routinely complain about the “Google sandbox.”
They are talking about the apparent period of sometimes years between Google finding a Web site, and making it available in search results. The practice, perhaps better described as a Google sand trap, is meant to maintain the integrity of what Google’s delivering, according to some Google experts.
Now along comes Google’s free Related Links feature, unleashed April 4, in which Google automatically provides links to content related to what’s already on someone’s Web page.
In the two weeks since its debut, some Related Links users have noted how quickly their sites have made it out of the Google sandbox and into Google search results.
This is significant particularly to those Internet interests that don’t already take part in Google’s free AdSense advertising and revenue-sharing program, which it’s been suggested is a similar free pass into Google results.
Rob Sullivan of TextLinkBrokers, a marketing firm, wrote of adding the related links feature to a site he’d been trying to get Google to index for a year. A couple of days later, there it was in Google search results.
Two other Web site operators contacted via e-mail say they’ve had the same experience.
When asked for comment, a Google representative said, “Related Links does not get you any extra pages indexed or any boost in ranking.”