Help please

My website has been up for 4 months and I'm still in the sandbox.

When I use the McDar tool it tells me that I'm 25 in 100 for All Anchor links for one of my keywords that is doing well in MSN. Does this mean that if i were out of the sandbox, I would be #25 for this keyword?

 

No, there are more factors than links that go into you placement. That means that if only links were a factor you might well be there, as long as you didn't spam to get there. I have heard and seen it take as long as a year to get "out of the sandbox" (I really think that you are out of the sandbox until Google let you get in and play IN the sandbox with all the other good kids, but thats a completely different thread). Don't fret to much you are doing good in MSN so you are probably getting traffic.

 

Thanks for your response and looking at things from a optimistic standpoint. I have been frustrated in the last day because I had a really good adsense day and I was excited to review my logs cause I thought google had let me out of the sandbox. But it was MSN & Yahoo...i'm not complaining but I was hoping it would be google which would mean that the income stream would be a little bit more steady.

A few specific questions, for SEO purposes should I:

1. Include a robot.txt file?
2. Should do a noindex on any pages with affiliate links?
3. I think i need to redo my sitemap page, I have all my links as H1 - this is really bad isn't it?


I spent a lot of time optimizing my keywords so I think I'm ok there.

Another problem I have is that I used the Network Solutions HTML tool to create my website initially so there is excessive html - like the ones wysiwug tools put in your code.

I'm just grabbing for straws I really want to see some traffic from google....

 

I hear google can sandbox you for a year if the keywords are quite competitive, sorry

 

I wouldn't worry about any of that stuff you mentioned...except maybe putting a jump script and excluding it in robots.txt for your affiliate links. Sounds like you are building links nicely if you are #25 AIA. I would be sure to mix up your anchor text at this point. Think about how it looks from a "natural" standpoint. If all of your links look exactly the same (same anchor text) or are very similar...does that seem likely/natural? Try to get some good content going that is related to the keyword you are trying to rank for.

 

Thanks Chachi et all - I feel a little bit better. I guess I will be patient and be happy with what I'm getting from yahoo & msn.

 

MoneyFolk,

I'm in the same boat as you. my site is about 9 months old and i rank very well in yahoo and msn but am nowhere to be found in google. It is very frustrating and I feel for you. I do get some traffic from google for very small keywords but for the major ones, NOTHING. Just try to keep yourself motivated.

 

shirsc2 - Thanks for the nice words. I'm glad to know, I'm not the only one.

 

1.Yes include a robot.txt file. I think most sites (not all) should have a robot.txt file.
2.If you no index the affiliate links you may piss the affiliates off but it may also mean you are saving more juice for your other pages.
3.I would do no more than 1 or 2 H1 tags on each page, 1 preferably and that should be the title of you page/article/topic. It should at least compliment your page title. More than one H1 may be bad or it may just mean that it discounts your main one. I would personally not H1 a link unless it is also the title of an article or page.

all of course just IMO.

 

I waited 9 months to see one of my sites get out of the sandbox. Your halfway there.

 

Thanks, Guy. I will change my sitemap and make the H1 = H2. I will also include the robots.txt.

Yikes its going to be alot of opening files ...hmmm I think I can get the hubby to use perl and imbed it into each page.

Thanks again.

 

Web Gazelle -

A few questions for you...

1. What was your first indication that you were out of the sandbox? Did you have a really good adsense or affiliate day and thought "something is new".

2. Did you experience a surge in traffic immediately after you got out? And also was this surge in traffic sustained?

3. What was your ranking for your best keyword after you got out? Did your ranking keep getting better or did it stay relatively the same.

Sorry for all these questions....but you know how it is when you really want something.

Thanks in advance.

 

At the time I was only targeting one keyword and I was getting good traffic from Yahoo and MSN for that term. Then Google had it's Burbon update and I was ranked number 3 for the search term. I wasn't even in top 100 before that. Google instanly was my top traffic bringing SE after that.

 

If you use a Cascading Style Sheet, it would make changing stuff on your site easier.

 

Aih ... good luck to you. My website is still in the sand box for 14months .. And my allinurl ranks no. 3 ..