My site Weight Lifting World can't rank in Google even for the simplest of terms. For example for the term "weight lifting world" I am not even in the top 1000 search results. This is really starting to bug me since the site is already over 7 month old. I am either doing something seriously wrong or Google has penalized me but I don't know for what I have not done any black hat SEO. And since that key phrase is not very competitive I don't think it is the sandbox. There was a time, during the last Google update, for about 2 days I was ranking well but than got buried again Maybe it's time to invest in an SEO expert? My adsense CTR and eCPM are great according to what I have read here, all I need is traffic to take off What do you guys think?
In my opinion, your site is not in the sandbox after 7 months. I would look into using mod_rewrite on your forum urls to make them search engine friendly. Do you have many links from other sites using anchor text of "Weight Lifting World" or whatever you are targeting? Are your backlinks from weight lifting related sites? "Weight Lifting World" also might not be the right word for you to target. Using the digitalpoint keyword suggestion tool, it looks like there are only 2 searches a day for that term. You might want to target some other related phrases: weight lifting 2,623.3 /day weight lifting equipment 437.1 /day weight lifting program 244.3 /day weight lifting routine 170.0 /day weight lifting workout 163.9 /day weight lifting supplement 160.7 /day weight lifting exercise 159.8 /day
lol, I've had sites in the sandbox for 15 months, and so have many other webmasters, there was a recent thread about that here
I have almost 40 sites and not a single one has ever taken more than 4 months to get out of the sandbox.... They come out almost exactly 3 months plus a few days. Just because your site doesn't rank well, it doesn't mean it is in the sandbox. I have domains that I have owned for 7 years and every once in a while one can drop out of google for unknown reasons- sites that were ranking in the top ten to nowhere to be found. It isn't the sandbox, it can be an algorithm shift - an over optimization penalty - or possibly spammy AWS type sites (which google is seeming to hate more and more). The sandbox is a filter google applies to new domains or older domain names that have a change in ownership. Google won't count the backlinks for SERPS during that period, although they will index your site, show the backlinks, and give it PR. Perhaps it lasts longer on some sectors or spammy type sites, but I have never experienced it. The sandbox whine gets used too often - and sometimes a site can jump into the rankings after a period of time without doing anything because of an algo shift - people then incorrectly think they just got out of the sandbox, when there were other reasons. What sector are you talking about? If there are other sites that are new (older than 3 months, but less than 15 months or whatever) and ranking well, then it isn't the sandbox. It's time to take a closer look at what you are doing - or aren't doing.
No, that's called the fresh site boost. After that, you go to the sandbox. Loads of discussions about that.
Well, I am seeing a PR 5 which I´d say after 7 months is pretty damn good. Yes, maybe you´ve been hit by the sandbox fairy. Just keep building good links, adding content and working on your site. Another thought, was this a previously owned domain?
No, it's not fresh site boost. I'm talking about a site that goes from no where in the first 1000, to top 10 overnight (3 months) and stays there (with some flucuation, of course) for years. Again, what sector are you talking about? Google certainly wouldn't individually target a specific site.
Uh... you sort of lost me there... Don't want to discuss specifics since I never talk about my sites, but this is more or less what happened to me with a site I built. I opened an online games site and targeted a specific keyword which shows 850,000 results at Google. After 2 weeks, I was top 10 for that keyword. Stayed at an average listing of #8, but sometimes climbed up to #4. That is what I would call a fresh site boost. I stayed there for about a month in a half, then poof... just vanished. Not even in the first 1,000 results. No where to be found. That is what I call the sandbox. From top 10 to nowhere in one day for a new site.
I wasn't talking about specifics, but I think I know what site you are talking about anyway. I believe you are talking about a site that connects to another site for cheat content? Gaming cheat type sites generally don't have very original content and it may get past the google filter for a while- or do well based on content only (sandbox is only about backlinks) but will get hit with a duplicate content penalty. It isn't the sandbox. Targeting words with the coop can produce erratic results. I've done experiments where 15,000 coop backlinks doesn't produce as good as results as even 20 or 30 backlinks from related sites that already rank well for the particular keyword. It takes a lot more work than just pointing weight to a site, but it all depends of how much time you are willing to devote to the site. There are a lot of quality gaming sites that update their content on a daily basis. It's hard to create a cheat site with a script and expect to rank ahead of them. It also might be the number of pages in a site - a game cheat site with mod_rewrite might get you 5,000 pages easy, but it isn't too hard to figure out that a new site isn't going to have 5,000 pages of original content. That might trigger a red flag, but more than likely the site will never rank in the top 10. I have a few large page sites that don't have very much original content, but most are smaller page sites that have 100% original content, don't use any templates, and aren't affliate type sites.
Mostly from Directories and from the Co-op Not many but some from Co-Op and directories Yes I know that phrase is pretty much not searched for that is why I find it weird that I can't even rank for it. It is like my site brand name and I can't get even in top 100 Yes, its a PR5 and no I am the first owner of the domain. I hope you are right Fry
mjewel, if you are using the coop for anything else than advertising then you are doing things wrong. But that is another thing, going back to our topic, I now build my sites and just forget about Google for at least a year. And no, I wasn't talking about the cheats site, and I never get hit by duplicate pages penalties, I know how to make my sites unique. Just focus on Yahoo and MSN and slowly pay attention to Google whne you start noticing any ranking improvement.
Nope, don't use the coop for anything but getting a site indexed quickly, some traffic, but most importantly base PR. Only run it on few sites for my own reasons. I concentrate on "quality links" from authority sites. Some webmasters won't even look at your site without X PR. A month from now it might not work well, but it does now. You always have to adapt. Whatever works for you - all I can say for certain is what I have experienced, and the sandbox has never lasted more than 4 months across a wide range of sectors. That doesn't mean I rank well for every single keyword I want- but at least a few highly competitive words per site. We can talk about what used to work, but people are getting ticked off at google search results returning the same information from mass generated sites. I know you can do things to make the site "unique" but I believe those sites have their days numbered. You can only do so much if you are offering the same content in a different wrapper. I have friends who were making a boatload of money with AWS and affiliate sites, and they also found a way to get around most duplicate content problems- but more and more they are getting hit and crying about number of indexed pages and traffic. The day will come when quality and original content will take a good percentage of the top SERPS. There will always be a few who get around it, but everyone will be trying to drink from a smaller pool. I had a conversation recently- and while I didn't gain any secrets, I do know that duplicate content is a big priority with a certain company near where I live. I expect major changes in the next year and wouldn't be surprised if a large percentage of the "thousand(s) page generated sites" no matter how they are wrapped up, will good for talking about the past.