Google’s trust factor is the variable in their algorithm that equates to how much they trust your website, your domain name and even your hosting provider. Yes, your domain name and host are important and you need to have both a domain name and host with trustworthy histories. Trust factor was added to Google’s algorithm as a tool in their effort to combat the evils of web spammers who historically were able to launch new SPAM websites faster than Google was able to find them and black list them from their search results.

When trust factor was first added it was often referred to as Google’s sandbox effect. Essentially when a new website was launched Google would spider the website and then banish it to low rankings for a number of months, only allowing it to rise in search to its appropriate height after proving it was not just a Johnny come lately, SPAM effort. Essentially causing a delay between launch and rankings prevents web spammers’ from reacting so quickly to each move Google makes and forces them to build more quality into their websites.

Trust factor doesn’t just impact web spammers; it delays the rankings of all websites. Whenever Google recognizes a significant change to a website the alarm goes off back at “Google Central HQ” and the rankings of the website in question are automatically lowered. Google then maintains these lower rankings until enough time has passed for the website to prove it is once more stable and can be trusted. The amount of time is not known and appears to be based on a number of factors including the age and past history of the domain name hosting the website and the age and past history of the webs server hosting the website. For example, does the server host any SPAM websites? Has it hosted SPAM websites in the past? Has the domain name ever been penalized for containing SPAM?

Trust factor isn’t only used in dynamic situations when changes occur to websites, it’s also believed to be amongst the over 200 factors Google uses to constantly determine the rankings in their search results. If two websites are essentially equal in all ways and one of the two is addressed using a domain name that was previously used in SPAM efforts, the other website will rank more highly. If two websites are essentially the same and one is hosted by a server know to host (or have hosted) SPAM websites, the other will rank higher.

You’ll know if your domain name has been penalized for SPAM, one day it’s near the top and all of sudden the next day your site drops like a rock, along with your Google referred traffic.

Trust factor is a prime reason we recommend you host with us. We carefully select our clients. We don’t work with spammers, nor do we host SPAM websites. We know every client we host and have full control over our servers. We don’t host SPAMMY websites, nor have we ever!