Yes, it's another Sandbox thread...

[Redleg]

A while ago I moved 5 pages from my main site and made a new small one..
You can find the complete story on SeoChat:
http://forums.seochat.com/t11484/s.html

The pages did rank very well on google for their keywords/phrases, and they did get several houndreds of visitors pr day, so I thought it would be a good idea to move them to a site of their own, since they were slightly off topic...

I got the perfect keyword domain, moved them and redirected the old pages to the new site...
Two google backlinks updates later and the pages still ranked WAY below (200+) what they used to do on my other site.
All of the pages had PR 6 and over 900 (registered) backlinks to every page, and the content hadn't been changed much...

Yahoo suddenly started to love my new site so I decided to do nothing and wait for google.
But about a week ago, I grew tired of waiting, and I moved the pages back to my old site, and did a 301 redirect from the other site..

Bang, just a few days later the pages did "magically" appear at #1-5 in google again, with the exact same content as they had on the old site....

Sandbox/Sandtrap/Sandcake/Sandfly/(*add sandword here*) or what?? :confused:

[digitalpoint]

I've seen similar things before... In the most simplistic terms, it seems to me that Yahoo likes smaller sites, and Google likes larger sites. Google especially likes a site when it's an "authority" (whatever that means). At that point, the site could have pages about virtually anything and it will rank well.

[Redleg]

It certainnly looks like that..

Even forum posts that are WAY off-topic ranks real good in google from time to time...

Well well, I guess that's good news for those (of us?) who have "authority" sites, but bad news for new sites...

I've made a couple of other micro sites like that, and I'll try to move those into my main site as well, just as an experiment...
(they are off-topic..)

[l234244]

Google search "how long do you keep it up"

Number 1 spot of 12,600,000 terms is a post in seo guys forum, see for yourself check (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=how+long+do+you+keep+it+up&btnG=Google+Search)

[compar]

Google search "how long do you keep it up"

Number 1 spot of 12,600,000 terms is a post in seo guys forum, see for yourself check (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=how+long+do+you+keep+it+up&btnG=Google+Search)
I'm not sure what point you are trying to make? But here are a couple of observations on the results.

1. The fact that there are 12,000,000 pges has nothing to do with the exact phrase. Enclose it in quotes and you get 73 pages (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&c2coff=1&q=%22how+long+do+you+keep+it+up%22&btnG=Search).

2. The reason you get 12,000,000 for the search without quotation marks is because there are so many generic words in the phrase. Google will return sites for any of these words in virtually any order.

3. You could get almost any page you want to show up in the top ten for any exact 7 word search term. Try searching on any seven words on any page you know. Just make sure the words are in exactly the same order in your search term as they appear on the page.

4. This is a content only search result, and certainly has nothing to so with the sandbox effect which is the subject of this post.

[l234244]

Compar, relax mate just trying to add a bit of humour

[compar]

Compar, relax mate just trying to add a bit of humour
I see. You were expecting a Viagra ad. :)

[mopacfan]

Google search "how long do you keep it up"

Number 1 spot of 12,600,000 terms is a post in seo guys forum, see for yourself
Are you hawking viagra or something?

edit: dangit, Compar beat me to the punch

[Will.Spencer]

A while ago I moved 5 pages from my main site and made a new small one..

Do you have dates?

We're trying to estimate the length of the sandbox...

Brian is guessing 120 days.

I'm hoping he's right, but I can't make myself believe it.

[Redleg]

I had the military ranks site up and running for about 3 months (90+ days), before I moved the pages back "home" again..

[Owlcroft]

Does anyone have a simple, clear explanation, or theory, of what Dumbo the Flying Search Engine thinks it is accomplishing by this torture?

[compar]

Does anyone have a simple, clear explanation, or theory, of what Dumbo the Flying Search Engine thinks it is accomplishing by this torture?
No! It just drives me fucking nuts. I wish they would get their house in order.

[digitalpoint]

Google probably really isn't as stupid as you think. There is definite value to Google simply by being obscure and difficult to reverse engineer. If you can't understand it, you can't take advantage of it. :)