Thread: Google Sandbox

Originally Posted by bogart

The sandbox doesn't exist.

Actually, the sandbox for new sites does exist and has been unofficially acknowledged by Google engineers at one of the Search Engine Strategies conferences.

@solokkhz, it sounds like your site has been hit with either a penalty or a filter.

1. Did you make any unusual changes recently?

2. Is all of your content unique? If your content is unique, you should look for a scraper who has stolen your content. The search engines do not always properly determine which content is original. Matt Cutts has said that the page with the most links pointing to it is usually considered to be the original.

3. Are most of those 1000 backlinks from directories? A directory link is a low quality link and may be viewed as a paid link. Too many directory links can cause problems.

4. Are most of the backlinks sitewide links? 1000 identical sitewide links from a single site may only count as a single link. Too many sitewide links have been a bad idea for at least 5 years. Google prefers to see natural links.

5. Is the site an affiliate site using the same content found on thousands of other sites? if so, the site has been hit by the duplicate content filter. I view this as a penalty, but Google calls it a filter.

6. Has the PageRank on the inner pages in your site recently dropped to a gray bar? That's a good indication that a page has been penalized. Google does this to directories to rob them of the value of their links.

7. Are you selling paid links or does it appear that you are selling links because pages are stuffed with excessive outbound links to other sites? Google is on a vendetta to penalize sites that sell links. The trigger for this can be a blog that contains hundreds of unrelated articles that each contain multiple outbound links. If you are run a blog, it should be based upon a theme.

I've seen lots of situations where either poor link building practices or duplicate content issues will cause a mature site to tank. These are both issues that are not dealt with thorough the normal algorithm ranking process, but rather appear to be based upon a random filter that is periodically run. Some sites get hit with it, while others do not. The only thing that is consistent about Google is their inconsistency.

Originally Posted by solokkhz

You are wrong here,
The site is not new, and it have many links (around 1k links).
Yes, i built lot links lately, I am not sure if it's called sandbox or not but i am suffering something very annoying and i am not banned.
so i am not sure what i should do.

A two year old site isn't in the sandbox.

The best thing to do is wait a couple of weeks to see if the ranking come back. Google is constantly playing around with the algo and there's sometimes collateral damage. Usually some adjustments are made and some sites come back.

Originally Posted by TopDogger

Actually, the sandbox for new sites does exist and has been unofficially acknowledged by Google engineers at one of the Search Engine Strategies conferences.

I don't believe that the "sandbox" still exists. As I understand it, the "sandbox" effect was unintentional. Matt said a few years ago that "there wasn't a sandbox, but the algorithm might affect some sites, under some circumstances, in a way that a webmaster would perceive as being sandboxed."

About the same time that Matt Cutts was denying that the sandbox existed was when other Google engineers acknowledged that it did exist. Go figure.

I still see a problem when trying to get new sites to rank well for competitive search phrases that goes beyond mere competition with other sites. It may be the maturity factor coming into play, because the age of a site is a factor in the current algorithms.

BTW, if you believe everything that Matt Cutts says, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn that I will gladly sell you you -- cheap!

Matt Cutts also denies that there is such a thing as a duplicate content penalty. He says that they merely reduce the ability of duplicate content pages to rank well. Technically speaking, it may not be classified as a penalty within Google, but if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck. . .

Originally Posted by TopDogger

I still see a problem when trying to get new sites to rank well for competitive search phrases that goes beyond mere competition with other sites. It may be the maturity factor coming into play, because the age of a site is a factor in the current algorithms.

There seems to be more importance on the age of the domain, backlinks and content or can be called a trust factor.

Originally Posted by TopDogger

BTW, if you believe everything that Matt Cutts says, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn that I will gladly sell you you -- cheap!

You can't take anything about Google as gospel. There's changes to the google algorithm in a daily basis. Many times, the engineers don't even realize the damage that they cause.

Originally Posted by bogart

You can't take anything about Google as gospel. There's changes to the google algorithm in a daily basis. Many times, the engineers don't even realize the damage that they cause.

That is a big part of the issue. Google claims to make about 400 algorithm changes per year. I don't think that any of the engineers understand the full ramifications of some of the changes. Matt Cutts is a very good public relations guy, but it doesn't appear that he is working in the trenches, making the changes and doing the testing. That creates a natural disconnect between his perception and the reality.

It will be interesting to see if any havoc is wrought with Caffeine.

Many times a webmaster believes that they have a penalty or have done something negative when in fact the algorithm has a bug for a particulair search. That's way it's better to wait a few weeks before going into panic mode and many changes to a website. He is a good article: Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine explaining how many changes are made --

Any of Google’s 10,000 employees can use its “Buganizer” system to report a search problem, and about 100 times a day they do

Tweaking and quality control involve a balancing act. “You make a change, and it affects some queries positively and others negatively,” Mr. Manber says. “You can’t only launch things that are 100 percent positive.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/bu...1&pagewanted=2

Can you tell us what changes have you made recently?? Make Sure you site has not a link to Banned/Penalized sites.
What are the keywords and your site URL?

By the way, here is an interesting article i found on someones blog about the Sandbox and how to get out, you guys may wanna check : Google sandbox – how to jump over? | SEO Blog

Another thing that I would do is to watch the keyword and analyze the sites that have stable rankings. You can learn more about what is happening based on what you are not doing compared to the competition.

The sandbox is a controversial issue. Some people believe it exists, while others do not. I believe it did exist, but have not seen the sandbox effect for some time.

A sandboxed site will only be sandboxed for very competitive search phrases. The duration could last up to one year. There is a site maturioty factor with Google that appears to kick it out after a while.

Building one way links from other sites in your industry to your site is one of the best methods.

If your site is an autoblog or uses content from other sites, it is not sandboxed. It is penalized. The only thing that will fix that problem is to get rid of the duplicate content.