...help in getting my site out of the sandbox? O.K....here's the situation. I have a store that I started on my primary website three years ago that caused me to launch a new one on a larger scale that I started back in late April. I used my primary site to help get the new site listed in Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc. and obviously do have links pointing to it from there. Now the question I have is I still run my original smaller store on my main site, and that one page happens to be ranked number #1 in Google for one of my keyword phrases. If I shut it down and point the index page using a 301 redirect at the same category page that has pretty much the same products, and more or less the same meta and page information, will it still list in the same position? Most importantly, now that the one page would be ranking high in Google would it more or less have a "trickle down" effect to the rest of the pages? I've wanted to shut it down and switch over completely but didn't want to lose my current position since everyone knows how difficult this process can be. So if anyone has any good advice that would be terrific. Thanks in advance. Ian
I would not use a 301 redirection, you will lose your top positions for a while for sure, and you may not even get them back you should combine your sites somehow else, like taking feeds from the big one on the small one
Ideally would have been to have run a 302 redirect for a while, then switched to a 301. Tis would have avoided the sandboxing of the new site.
I haven't done anything yet, as I've been waiting to hear everyone's thoughts here first. The new site got sandboxed after I started pointing links to it and dropped like a rock. My original store as I said is still #1 for my keywords, but I'd like to move it over to the new one which obviously lead me to my question here. OWG, are you saying that by doing a 302 redirect now may work? Is that more or less the best way to tell Google about a "change in address" without losing the ranking? Ian
Google suggests using a 301 re-direct. I've done this with one of my sites after having to change the domain name. I can tell you that it now appears as if the site has been sandboxed despite the re-direct. I'm not sure if anything will change once Google does their next update. I can only hope so.
"Ideally would have been to have run a 302 redirect for a while, then switched to a 301. Tis would have avoided the sandboxing of the new site." have you actually seen this work and avoid the sandbox? it seems like a 302 is very risky given google's preclusion to mishandle 302s.
ill think ya will find no matter what kinda re-direct you do, your new domain will still hit the sandbox, the sandbox/age filter is simply applied to new domains no matter how they are built and if you avoid it your very lucky. your better of getting sandboxxed waiting it out and enjoy the traffic from msn & yahoo for a while, then have a heartattack when google sends you bucket loads more
you are probably right, but there is no harm in trying to figure out ways around it. (or out of it quicker)
i know a 301 wont stop sandboxxed since thats how i got started redirected from sub.oldsite.com to new .com and passed all my traffic over (was getting thousands of refferals from G) for the whole 2 days then POOF like magic it was gone and still only just comeing out (after 9 months)
well thats good to know, I won't be trying that any time soon how about a new subdomain on an old-un-sandboxed site, have you seen those sandboxed?
I know this is an old post but it's still a relevant issue. Jill Whalen at HighRankings uses this with her clients so it probably does work. See this for more: Switching to a New Domain Without Losing Your Google Rankings