How to avoid getting sandboxed

[caroline]

Okay, so I created a new site in mid-September and did a really stupid thing with it - I linked to it site-wide from my existing site. :o

The result is, it's been almost two months and the site ranks for obscure queries only. In reality, it isn't doing that bad, BUT I know it could get multiple times the traffic it gets right now if it ranked well for some not really competitive keywords which it does not.

That is, my site has been sandboxed. I am sure it has. I mean it doesn't even rank for its name which is searched about 0 times a day. I've removed the site-wide links and I'm waiting for an update.

I have another site in the works as well. What's your advice? How can I make sure it doesn't get sandboxed?
Or do all sites have the same fate regardless of whether they get suspicious links?

[earlpearl]

What I've heard most often is optimize the site for long term google optimization. Definately optimize for now for yahoo and msn. Wait on google. Have patience.

Dave

[petertdavis]

What do you mean by "sandboxed"? I've never heard that term used in this way before?

[hurricane_sh]

The result is, it's been almost two months and the site ranks for obscure queries only. In reality, it isn't doing that bad, BUT I know it could get multiple times the traffic it gets right now if it ranked well for some not really competitive keywords which it does not.


My site has stuck in the sandbox for almost 4 months

[Solicitors Mortgages]

4 months seems to be the 'norm'...make sure you have some other sites linked to you and then you should be OK...any more than 4 months and you've got deeper problems.
GEM

[exam]

Okay, so I created a new site in mid-September and did a really stupid thing with it - I linked to it site-wide from my existing site. :o

Or do all sites have the same fate regardless of whether they get suspicious links?
Why exactly would a site-wide link somehow be a bad thing? :confused: There must be something I don't understand. Why would they be considered suspicious links?

I have another site in the works as well. What's your advice? How can I make sure it doesn't get sandboxed?

I believe all new sites get sandboxed. I suppose this is G's way of making sure the site is for real. Makes sense to me, although the wait is hard to endure. :(

[hurricane_sh]

4 months seems to be the 'norm'...make sure you have some other sites linked to you and then you should be OK...any more than 4 months and you've got deeper problems.
GEM

Actually it keeps dropping from 3xx to 6xx in the last month, can't see any possibility to get out of the sandbox soon.

[compar]

What do you mean by "sandboxed"? I've never heard that term used in this way before?
What world have you been living in?

[Solicitors Mortgages]

What do you mean by "sandboxed"? I've never heard that term used in this way before?

there is some reading for you if you do a google search for the following terms

sandboxed

google sandboxed

google sandbox

Where the hell has my site gone?

Ok...kidding on the last one
GEM

[clubmedia]

yeah my sites dropped a bunch lately

[disgust]

I'm pretty much of the opinion that all new sites are sandboxed as well. has anyone actually gotten a high ranking in less than a few months WITHOUT aggressive linking?

[randfish]

I highly recommend you read this - http://www.socengine.com/seo/guide/sandbox-march-filter.html and figure out for sure if you're really being sandboxed. You can PM me with the site too if you'd like and I'll check it out. If you are ranking well for obscure searches, that's usually a sign that you're NOT in the sandbox - it's more a factor that pushes you out of even the least competitive searches...

Best of luck though!

[disgust]

so if you're getting obscure hits, but for your primary term, you're doing great in allinanchor but poor in the serps, what're you calling that? :)

[Solicitors Mortgages]

OK...sorry,,,time i asked this,,what on earth is allinanchor?
What is it,,,what does it do,,how and why and whats the relevence??

apologies 4 not knowing
GEM

[janecompersnews]

Do a search on google for allinanchor:search term (replace search term with your keyword/phrase). You are basically asking Google to tell you what sites rank well for that keyphrase by looking at anchortext links (the clickable text to a site) and other inbound links. Getting your keyphrase as the clickable link is believed to play a large part in high rankings in Google today.

All in anchor, all in URL (allinurl: ) and All in text (allintext: ) are all contributors to the Google algo. Rank well in these and you are likely to rank well in Google when your site comes out of the sandbox. :D

Jane

[Solicitors Mortgages]

Thanx for that Jane,.

[janecompersnews]

There is an interesting site here for you Gem :D
http://www.mcdar.net/dance/index.php

The google datacenters and the allin: all in one place and easy to use.

Jane

[chachi]

I'm pretty much of the opinion that all new sites are sandboxed as well. has anyone actually gotten a high ranking in less than a few months WITHOUT aggressive linking?

I agree. It definitely seems that IBL's give you all of the benefits they do for a "mature" site, except to help you rank for any terms that are in the least bit "competitive". Junk terms with little search volume are just about the only thing I have seen a new site rank for. It is my opinion that the links are what is being "sandboxed" not the site itself. I just had some pop this morning for one site. Took about 3-4 months. The site was at 124 for a particular term the entire time while at #2 allinanchor. Today it jumped to #43. Hopefully, it will keep on going.

So, to answer the original poster's question. I would not take down the sitewiede links. I would leave those up and go get yourself some links from other sites...and be patient.

[ResaleBroker]

I highly recommend you read this - http://www.socengine.com/seo/guide/sandbox-march-filter.html and figure out for sure if you're really being sandboxed. You can PM me with the site too if you'd like and I'll check it out. If you are ranking well for obscure searches, that's usually a sign that you're NOT in the sandbox - it's more a factor that pushes you out of even the least competitive searches...Very interesting article. Thanks for the link! ;)

[magiana]

has anyone actually gotten a high ranking in less than a few months WITHOUT aggressive linking?


Yupp, I have, but my site is written in swedish. Maybe that´s an explanation? Or does it mean that the sandbox theory i just rubbish?

[compar]

Yupp, I have, but my site is written in swedish. Maybe that´s an explanation? Or does it mean that the sandbox theory i just rubbish?
No the "sandbox" theory is far from rubbish. There is just too much evidence of sites that in the past would have had high SERP placement not receiving that placement for extended periods of time. Remember it only seems to apply to SERP placement for reasonably competitive search terms or keyword phrases.

Maybe it is only implemented for English sites. That would make sense, I think.

[dazzlindonna]

How to avoid the sandbox: Think long-term. Readjust expectations. Plan ahead. Spend 6 months or more developing a killer site and getting links to it from a wide variety of sources. Do the wahtoosie dance when it starts ranking 6/9/12 months after launch.

[compar]

How to avoid the sandbox: Think long-term. Readjust expectations. Plan ahead. Spend 6 months or more developing a killer site and getting links to it from a wide variety of sources. Do the wahtoosie dance when it starts ranking 6/9/12 months after launch.
In other words Dazziln, there is no sandbox for those with patience. The problem is that we have come to expect instant results and gratification via the Internet. Look at all the people who are still convinced that some insignificant change they make in the morning is the reason or explanation for their SERP jumping 3 places in the afternoon. It just doesn't work that way. SEO is a long term procedure.

[earlpearl]

Prior to Florida, how long did it take to get good rankings using active SEO? I wonder if sandboxing was a lingering algo effect after florida?

Dave

[dazzlindonna]

A much shorter amount of time, Dave. Someone with the ability to throw a lot of good links at a site in a short time could rank well in the next update (usually a month). More average time frame was 2-3 update cycles (~ months). I think the slower cycle began with Florida, but was tweaked and intensified sometime in April. It's all about "what used to be" vs. "what now is". For those who argue against the existance of the sandbox (regardless of exactly how it is defined), they've either been lucky, or they weren't around to see "what used to be". (Ooh, I feel a flame coming my way now). So, now, I tend to just accept "what now is" and go with the flow. What else ya gonna do?

[reh3363]

In my opinion the initial sandboxing of most sites is because Google just doesn't think it's of any importance. If you don't have enough backlinks coming to your site why would google think was important. I've personally seen a site that was ranking in the top ten for many different search terms in about 2-3 weeks. The site I'm refering to is Mighty Goods and when they announced they immediately had a lot of back links from a lot of high ranking sites. Some of the links were from the CSS Vault, Style Gala, NY Times, and Stopdesign. Also note that these were all one way links. As you can see this is an exception to the norm but it should show that it is possible with enough back links. Also note that the alexa ranking for this site is 362,322 after about 2 1/2 months.

The URL for Mighty Goods is http://www.mightygoods.com

[Cricket]

In other words Dazziln, there is no sandbox for those with patience. The problem is that we have come to expect instant results and gratification via the Internet. Look at all the people who are still convinced that some insignificant change they make in the morning is the reason or explanation for their SERP jumping 3 places in the afternoon. It just doesn't work that way. SEO is a long term procedure.
This took me the longest to learn. The folks that take the time to learn and do this business with the "long term" in mind, will be much more pleased with their results.


Cricket

P.S. Good to see ya Bob!

[Sven]

I had domains not ranking with google, I'd gottem them countless links, they had pr they simply should just should rank.

So, I did a 301 redirect for the entire domain onto the back of one of my existing domains on the same topic.

The exisiting domain ranked well already.

PRESTO within a week I had all the rankings I wanted. Content wasn't the problem the sandbox was.

I've copied this serveral times over several domains. All with massive sucess, hope it helps.

[hurricane_sh]

I've copied this serveral times over several domains. All with massive sucess, hope it helps.

Great tip! Now Google know how to improve their sandbox technology :)

[Sven]

Hey, great post in my thread; care to explain a bit further what you did exactly?

So take your old domain, the sandboxed one
I use php
<?
header("HTTP/1.1 301");
header("Location: http://www.NONsandboxed-domain.com/content-here-in-a-subfolder");
?>


There's not much else to explain....

Preferably have the sandboxed domain and the ranking domain on the same content.

[caroline]

Thanks! Though I am surely going to get loads of more links before implementing that.

[harver]

Okay, so I created a new site in mid-September and did a really stupid thing with it - I linked to it site-wide from my existing site. :o

The result is, it's been almost two months and the site ranks for obscure queries only. In reality, it isn't doing that bad, BUT I know it could get multiple times the traffic it gets right now if it ranked well for some not really competitive keywords which it does not.

That is, my site has been sandboxed. I am sure it has. I mean it doesn't even rank for its name which is searched about 0 times a day. I've removed the site-wide links and I'm waiting for an update.

I have another site in the works as well. What's your advice? How can I make sure it doesn't get sandboxed?
Or do all sites have the same fate regardless of whether they get suspicious links?

As far as I know, you can't avoid your new site getting sandboxed. The only way is to get an old domain.

[johncr]

Some months ago I got this from a bulletin and posted on a notebook.

"Some advice has been given to have companies you are going to reciprocate back add your link first to the website. This may help grandfather your site in, thus reducing the waiting time associated with "new" websites. People have noticed a 0 page rank when first signing up and receiving a bolstering 7 page ranking after 4 months. Why the delay? The fact is, that if people realized how easy it would be to get a high ranking, would that take away the credibility of the engine. It depends on whom you ask, but it does seem to be happening frequently to newer subscribers. Do not discontinue back linking, your rank will eventually appear."

[mxlabs]

it usually takes me 2-3 months to get out of the sandbox... although it can take much longer, depending on your backlinks, page count and competition I think.

The 301 tip is good, gonna try that some time. Thank you.

[hdpt00]

I'm in a fairly competitive field and I'm #1 allinanchor and #136 in the SERPs. I have only noticed my site rank well for 1 term I didn't mean to totally optimize for. The end result: 1-2 visitors per day.

Yet still almost all my visitors are from google... How is this so with the sandbox? The sandbox is synonymous with "spend money on AdWords we're done ranking new sites."

Cheers.

[Mia]

yeah my sites dropped a bunch lately

You might want to take a closer look at: http://www.vwsites.com/

The problem I see is you have google adds at the top, and a tower on the right side.. Careful. Google suspends accounts using more than one set of adsense links on a site. Just an FYI.

[hdpt00]

Mia: you are way out of the loop. They have been allowing it for quite some time now.

[Mia]

Mia: you are way out of the loop. They have been allowing it for quite some time now.

That's news to me.. Used to be their TOS strictly forbad this. I now of two people that actually got suspended because of it.

Can you show me where in the TOS this is allowed now?

Thank you for letting me know. :)

[hdpt00]

Happy bday:

https://www.google.com/adsense/faq#format3

[Mia]

Interesting.. Thanx. Wonder what made them change this. I am pretty certain it was not always that way. Thanx again!

[nadlay]

mia,

You are correct it was not always that way, but the Adsense TOS was changed to allow up to 3 blocks of ads two or three months ago.

[Mia]

That's great.. I guess I can re-activate all my includes on my sites that had it that way originally.. Thanx for the tip!