Is my website in the sandbox? The search term is in my domain name, is it possible?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by www.goodinvestment.info, Jul 4, 2008.

  1. #1
    My website does not show at all in the google search for the term "vancouver computer". My website is www.VancouverComputers.info

    Is it possible that this site is in the sandbox for this term? It shows fine for the search "vancouver computers", but not for the singular. "Vancouver computers" shows close to 8.4 million results, while "vancouver computer" shows only about 440,000. This seems strange to me.

    My understanding is that the sandbox kicks in when your domain name is different from your keyword. But in this case the key word is the domain name itself. It's strange that google robot cannot find it.

    Plural search results: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...l&hs=lIL&q=vancouver+computers&start=260&sa=N
     
  2. mjewel

    mjewel Prominent Member

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    #2
    The sandbox affects certain competitive keywords on new sites for a period of time which can last approximately 3 -12 months. During this period, backlinks are not used for purposes of ranking. They still pass PR, they just aren't used for SERP's. Your backlinks must reach a certain age before google counts them on new domains. Google's Matt Cutts has stated it only applies to certain keywords.

    "vancouver computers" or "vancouver computer" are not even close to being competitive keywords (http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/index.php shows no daily searches for either keyword) so I don't think that is your problem. I didn't see any reference to "Vancouver Computer" in your text body on the index page. Add it if you want to rank for it. Your h1 tag says "What we Provide" - change it to the keyword/keyword phrase you want to rank for and remove the other one since you shouldn't have more than one to a page.

    The number of google search results is a meaningless number for determining how many people actually search for a keyword. You want to make sure you are targeting a word that people will search for.

    Your site is new. New sites can experience a brief period of ranking well, but then fall completely out of top rankings for any competitive keyword. This is normal. High rankings are a process, not an event, and you should expect at least a year before you will see results for any highly competitive keyword. It can happen sooner, but it's best to plan for the long term. Most people fail because they think that they only need to build a good site and then expect to start ranking right away.

    The only backlinks showing on yahoo for your site are DP backlinks which carry very little weight. You are going to need a lot more quality and relevant backlinks before you can even expect to start ranking well with google for keywords that are going to bring you good traffic.

    You should also get rid of the index.html link in your menu unless you do a 301 redirect for the root. This is going to cause you problems with google.
     
    mjewel, Jul 4, 2008 IP
  3. www.goodinvestment.info

    www.goodinvestment.info Peon

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    Wow thank you. Excellent points.

    Do you have any suggestions for what keywords I should target?

    And it still seems strange that I don't show up for "vancouver computer" at all. I will add it to the text just to make sure.