A while ago I created a blog about my niche and was writing information about it. The thing is I knew what domain name I wanted so I created a link to the site even though I didn't own the domain or a hosting plan yet. Fast forward to now, got hosting bought domain, my site was indexed like the 2 or 3rd day it was up, but I guess I'm in the sandbox. Is it possible that I could have been penalized at all for that move?
If you buy an expired domain, what SHOULD happen is that any previous links should lose their value. Expired domains lost their search engine value (at least in my experience) a few years ago.
It won't have any negative effect as thousands of domains expire and have links pointing to them and then get re-registered.
for that move, meaning linking to it? no, that wouldn't cause this. all new domains are subject to the sandbox, however. your domain would be included. are you saying the domain expired and you bought it or you bought a new domain? the only way to buy old domains and avoid the sandbox is buy them from the existing owner and don't allow them to expire.
Nah, it's a new. I was just wondering because the way it's set up there is a like a link to each page. I guess now I have to wait 4-6 months for the sandbox effect to die. Which is lame because I already have more content than some of the top keyword search result sites.
you do not automatically come out of the sandbox. it doesn't work like that. you're in the sandbox until you've done enough to get google to trust you. it can last years.
Really? For one phrase I'm the top search (either 1 or 2) result though. For instance I beat site X at phrase Y but for phrase Q site X is above me.