Sorry for the repetitive questions but Im still not sure if im in the sandbox.....We just started optimizing for some pretty competitive keywords about 2-3 months ago and we have a decent amount of links home page has around 5-6k and our deeper pages we are building links for have around 2-3k.....all our backlinks are anchored for the most part except for when we first started out. 1.An example of why I think i am sandboxed is After we first started optimizing we poped up on the 2nd page of business credit cards but only stayed for a few days only to be kicked out completely....now we jump around from 50-100....our backlink count is getting very close to the #1 position ...and are mostly articles and directorys which is exactly what our competitors used(sound like sandbox?) 2.We do however rank well on keywords that are very close to what we are optimizing for but are usually just a tad different....should we expect to be ranked high on these terms once we come out of the sandbox.
1 - Yes it does sound like your sandboxed,,, you could very well be there for 6 months to a year. 2 - Yes, you should expect to stay ranked high assuming you're still optimizing for those words. If your consistently there now, {consistent for me means sticking for a couple months or so} your positions aren't going to diminish anytime soon.
thanks webfu, should we expect to suddenly pop up on the front page for our keywords once out of the sandbox? assuming we are close to our competitors in backlinks etc.
No guarantees mate - But what I see most often after a website is out of the sandbox - it tends to linger in positions 11-15 for a few months > then with steady link building > gains way to the bottom of the first page > after that is when the real climbing or positioning begins and the site moves up to position 9 - 8 and so on.