My site is 3 years old, was very strong before. But It's been 6 weeks now since it went to sandbox. If i copy any sentence from my homepage, all original, search in Google, i find other sites stole the whole thing!! I found even one that took my code, copied it but forgot to upload images, so you can see the outlines of my site, no images though. I was wondering how Google with its famous relativity and quality of Search results could allow this
If your site is 3 years old, its not in the sandbox. What makes you think that? If its due to rankings being lossed, I'd double check some of the linking building you've been doing. I'd also check what your competitors are doing.
Well, i changed the theme of my site last October, so the content is relatively new Why i think i am in a sandbox? I am nowhere to be found in Google not only for the keywords but also copying parts of text searching them in google i get other sites with my content... I also find my result, but very low, lower then the supplementary results of the thieves. Mine is not supplementary, all pages are well indexed, the link structure is strong; have authority top 500 worldwide sites like PR8 linking to me. Sandbox it is!
I deal with similar issues, here in China, but this usually happens to new websites. Competitors just copy the whole site (they must be using some kind of software, even the sitemaps, robots txt and css are EXACT copies), they just change company names and contact information (in some pages you even find out your own company name, that they have missed during modification!), and after a few weeks you find most of your pages in the supplemental index while they rank in the top 10 for the targeted keywords! And there is NOTHING you can do about it....
How many links do you have in Y!? How many indexed pages do you have? If your site is 3 years old, its not sandboxed, you just need a little refocusing. You say you "changed the theme"....what does that mean? Reading what you just said, your site is not supplemental, so I'm not sure what you're trying to say.
My site was travel related now its fashion, so the targeted keywords are different, travel rankings are still the same even if they are not useful for the visitors as i have fashion going on now, but i was ranking really high for 10k keywork combinations on fashion, since 6 weeks ago none. I have 5k links in Yahoo, 2k indexed pages in google. My site should be sandboxed for the new keywords (October 2006)
I never checked it before but now i did and see that for the main keyword i am on the 950th spot, so it must be "Penalty 950" So you were right, its not in a sandbox. I fixed the problems that might have caused this penalty a week ago, now, do i have to submit for reinclusion or wait for an automatical aproval ?
Some how I don't agree to the statements that Google will drop your ranking cause someone has copied your matter. If you are someone who agrees to this, than how easy it is to drop anyones Ranking. Google in not that idiot. One more myth people say if you submit to FFA sites Penalize you. I don't say submit to FFA - it doesn't have any importance but it doesn't harm you too. Google simply ignores it. if you don't agree than how easy it is to have your competitors be penalized by Google. Think on it.
i think it's not good idea that 3 years old web site is sandbox. are you sure that you did not get any google penalty?
I didn't say i agree on that, i just described what i'd noticed. And ofcourse links to your site don't harm it, if you link to spam then it does!!! I just didn't like spam sites to rank higher. Oh by the way Google has fixed this incident last night, my site is back, not so high but just where it belongs. Google is fair
If they copied your site word for word then it probably was a duplicate content penalty. You are lucky because some people had to wait months before the problem was corrected
Indeed, you could resolve it legally, but it's better when something like this doesn't happen. For example, here's a site about apparel overstock http://www.merchandizeliquidators.com/appareloverstock.htm . It was basically stolen, just like yours. Hard time for the site's owner.. I bet for you was the same.
You know the reasons for the problem, major changes in content can bring up "serp not to be seen" issues, this is however not sandbox just that you no more give content related to the keyword or even if it is the same keyword but the density that you had earlier might have changed, well it doesnt take much time to get back if you are still with the same keyword
True but also untrue, but only becuase not enough information. Since the theme has changed then yes, the sandbox starts all over again. This was a mistake. What should have happened was a new (but old) domain. What has happed with the new site ranking is perfectly correct and that is what should happen. Yes the content has been pinched, but the theme of the robbibg site is the same hence the content is trusted more. A sharp webmaster no doubt
Pretty sure a three year old site will not be in the sandbox unless you've been posting to all sorts of warez and porn and drug sites and recently got re-indexed
That seems indeed strange and perhaps you got penalized for a different reason. EDIT: :O This thread is from June!