I wonder if this would make any impact upon getting a site out of the sandbox. What did you tell them?
dmoz is horible..screw them, you don't need them to get into google. i started my home page, and spread links to my page around the internet with key words being the hyperlink text, and i was on google top result with meta tag description within a month. AVOID DMOZ AT ALL COSTS!!! they will screw up your site description and then you can't change it because google uses their description in place of meta tags!!!!!!! seriously ....
I agree Yarman, and was referring to a few examples I have seen where they didn't screw up the sites' listings. They have a lot of power but what I was referring to was the sandbox effect and how it can be avoided by Google first discovering your site thru a DMOZ listing. That is how much power DMOZ has over Google listings, no lie.
Maybe Google's reason is something like this: We have no directory and DMOZ is the biggest one and for the lack of anything better and because of us being overwhelmed with spam results, in the bigger scheme of things they help more than they hurt. Then again how many complaints has Google received about DMOZ? DMOZ itself seems to block all complaints and AOL doesn't get enough. Until the issues are taken to the parties in power, it will be in the hands of the head editors in DMOZ.
This is the other thing I was think about. Wouldn't it make sense for Google to ensure that websites that contain Adsense ads appear higher in the rankings than sites that don't?? I mean, the higher your site is in the rankings, the more traffic you get, the more clicks you get, the more money Google makes, right? So, maybe your site suddenly climbed the charts because of Adsense.
http://roberttaft.com/no_filter.htm If that is the rankings without the sandbox filter my bank account is going to increase drastically when I get out of then sandbox. Don't think it is though. Another interesting note during the pr update for a series of 3 days I was in the top 6 in google before and after that im not in the top 1000. People who do not believe in the sandbox explain this?
Maybe it's a bug that even the Google PhDs can't fix!! Consider this: If I were to introduce a search engine called "Bugle" (say) and your site's rankings did the whole "Bugle Dance" for days at a strech, the "site:" command did not give appropriate results etc. Then, I introduce a "Bugle Bar" that gives each site a rating and then, I don't update it for months and months. And when I do, the values are not correct anyway. Would you give me the same credit?? (i.e. dfsweb's probably just doing all this to create chaos, confuse SPAMmers and protect his search engine). I think we give Google too much credit for the things that work as well as the things that don't work. It's about time we emailed them and said "Hey, If you create a product or feature, make sure it works!"
I think I wrote following: "I was searching for this "domain.com" on google, but google doesn't show the listing and results for this "domain". Does this mean they are not good and its a bad site and I should not do business with them. Thanks" Again I am not sure, what clicked to take this domain out of sandbox.
So it seems that coming out of the sandbox is a matter of an, instant, overnight result. Has anyone noticed otherwise? Perhaps a site which had the penalty applied, but slowly and steadily climbed its way to the top?
To the idiot who left this comment "Nonsense. My site is evrywhere yet I am snadboxed. Keep you're head in the sand" with a blue rep (no-point). I was referring to how a site is found initially and not where it is now. If your site is found thru a random links page vs a DMOZ listing, chances are you'll be sandboxed. please, people like you need to read or hire a professional seo.
Strange but Ive been helping a mate out with his golfing site, it's been live on Google for about 2 months, it's a free domain, and he's not gone into the sandbox yet. Only has one link (from my site) It's the first time I've seen a site not go into the sandbox. The keyword term is not competitive at all, and it's only a hobby site..
I don't know who you are referring to, but you don't need to say things like this in this forum. I have always respected the members at DP for their courtesy and open-mindedness, esp for newbies and I think your comments go against the very spirit of DP.
Not at all, Ruben. That comment was left in my rep box and clearly states that the one who wrote it didn't read what I was saying. He obviously took the time to give me some anonymous something but not to read thru the information I gave him. That is ignorance and has nothing to do with the level of expertise.
No problem Once again: I have seen a few cases in which the sandbox has been avoided completely. Around 10 cases. In 8 of those cases my friend (who owns a pretty good seo firm) has instructed his clients to get no incoming links to the brandnew sites. In Google's eyes those sites did not exist. He managed to get those sites into DMOZ and immediately he got them some rankings (DMOZ description and title were just right). It seems to me that Google puts a lot of weight on how a site is first found. I have heard similar things about getting a Yahoo! Directory listing first but haven't actually seen anything first hand. Mike
Now check this out. my website is currently getting out of the sandbox for one term, "roommates online," however, other search terms, such as "roommates," "roommate search," etc... are still in the sandbox for G. How can this be possible? The url is http://www.roommatesonline.net I use the term "getting out" because it was not verified on all datacenters as being in the top ten and it was in and out of ranking as well for about 4 days. I think this might provide some insight into exactly what the sandbox is. The speculation has been that G is penalizing links, but it seems to me that there is something more than link penalization. I believe that link penalization with regard to the specific keyword used would be more appropriate.
Ruben, could it be that some of the best links that you have coming in use "Roommates Online" as the title tag since that is the actual name of your site? That is something DMOZ and Yahoo! Directory would do which does explain it if it's the case. Google seems to validate terms given from their most reliable sources. I would focus on getting links from important sites (sites with rankings, lots of incoming links etc.) preferrable related or semi-related (such as real estate). Those links can come into pages other than the home page and often those wind up being the ones ranked for the additional terms.
This is probably true. But, what about the individual word "roommates" vs "roommates online?" Obviously the latter is a more competitive term. Would that not have bearing on the SERPs. As well, why is the latter term sandboxed (no where to be found in the SERPs) and the former not? What interests me, not just for my site, but as far as G is concerned in is if and how it decides when a site should be allowed to come out of the sandbox for a particular keyword.