I have a doubt regarding sandbox. How can one determine how much competitive a keyword is?? will it depend on number of search queries or number of sites targeting that keyword? can you provide a substantial number??
Well, the easiest way to determine how competitive a keyword is ... Google the keyword... Google the keyword in quotes...Take note of the difference. now google something like inanchor"keyword". . that last part may or may not be the correct string... It may need some modification, but, its a simple mod.. Any good searcher will pick up what is missing & put it in their. Sandbox does occur, if you don't think sandboxing occurs than I'm sure you also don't believe in OOP.
I usually just take a look at the first 3 sites displayed in Google Serps. If the #1 site has sitelinks I know it will be very hard to get there.