I am 100% sure that there is some kind of filtering on new sites. Call it a Sandbox, call it whatever... Some testing on some new blogs shows me the evidence I need to know. What is strange is how you have no troubles with long tails in many cases, but once we start talking "big keywords" you notice some interesting changes. What you really need to do is carry out a top 1000 keyword check on your chosen keywords. If you're not to be found here and you're working to get there, then you are slap bang in the middle of this effect/filtering. You build pages around your keywords and you build links with your keywords in anchor text to aid the rankings. You're building in the same way that the guys on page one are and you are still seeing no major changes. Now, when you check the top 1000 that means that you are not in the first 100 pages for your chosen keywords. The guys on the first page or second page may be doing quite well, but what happens when we dig a little deeper?! You fly around the lower pages and you find websites with perhaps the keywords in the domain or in the inner pages that when you run through Yahoo Site Explorer you find that they have in some cases got several crappy links. You have hundreds of links in anchor text and in content and they have a mere few links from not very good places. In some cases they have zero links, zero PR and next to zero content! Are you telling me that these guys should be ranking higher than you? No chance. This is enough proof for me that there is a filter in place and if you are indexed, but aren't being found within these 100 pages then you are 100% being punished for your infancy stages. Does this last for 6 months? That seems to be the time when people report the magic happening over night (the great escape). The Sandbox may have been a coined word from outsiders, but that's certainly a good enough phrase to throw about. When you see how the guys on page one have got there you realise exactly what it takes to replicate their success and build upon it. There is no way that semi-relevant sites to your keywords can rank higher than you with a very small handful of links. There is 100% a filter on new sites in place - for arguments sake let's call it a "Sandbox"! Maybe some webmasters are lucky to avoid it, but it is 100% there. Above all else, I think the message here is that patience has to be the key to those new site owners around the web.
YOu know what, I think I believe you. I was toying with this idea myself. I have two new sites with different niche one is 2 months old and the other one month old. Each of these two have receive bakclinks and seo work from my team more than my previous websites.. one a 2 year old and the other 4 years old... according to google analytics, the new ones have recieved about 15 times as many visitors as the old ones.. yet, the older sites are ranked higher than my new ones. Each keywords for these 4 websites are each very competitive in thier kind of niche, and very similar in competition.. I have been working tirelessly for the last 60 days to get these 2 new sites to page 1, but nothing...
Stuck in the sandbox for 6 months!? wow And I agree with you about new sites having some sort of penalty. Definately.
This topic is extremely relevant to my research tonight. I tested about ten miscellaneous keywords. Took the top ranking sites, found them in Alexa and what did I find? 1- 95% of the sites were about eight years old or older! 2- I did not only use highly competitive keywords. I am very discouraged because I spent 1.5 hours finding this extremely consistent result. I understand that Alexa may not be completely accurate, but the consistency was uncanny! Would love feedback on this.
If SEO is done properly, i don't see any reason why it would take that long for a website to gain top ranking on SE's. I would say, base on my own personal observation that, a 6months to 1 year is most like the threshold.
Cheers for the feedback guys. I have read up on Webmaster World that some webmasters didn't escape this filtering until after 12 or so months; one day, without any kind of majorly fresh content or link building their traffic just boomed for no reason. With my sites I have noticed a mixed bag, with some ranking well after a few months, whilst others are taking considerably longer. This is a pain if you are always launching new sites for flipping or as new projects etc. Patience has to be the key!
Yes you're right. New sites are considered to be in google sandbox to make sure their content is real and relatively worthwhile. It can take months to get a site out of the sandbox. Yeah patience is the key.
I couldn't agree more. I've been online for about 6 months now, I'm just starting to focus on SEO and i'm hopeful that i'll see some changes in the next week or so. If i don't, then i should have a pretty good idea that i'm stuck in the sandbox. I believe it IS sad, but no doubt necessary for google to do. How many sites would be popping up, scamming customers, and then dissapearing if it wasn't for the need of the webmaster to actually run the site for 6 months - a year. I can't say I love the idea, i mean as somone trying to operate a reputable business, you need the business in the beginning to get the ball rolling. But alas, I suppose we have scammers to thank for this. If people simply maintained ethics, the search world would be a lot less restrictive.
yes, if people would only maintain ethics.. but people have never been ethical left to themselves... that's just our nature as human being...