Comments on: Sandbox Or No Sandbox??

By: Blog for Beginners

Blog for Beginners — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:33:12 +0000

The term 'sandbox' is so foreign to me at this time. I'll like to know if being sandboxed is the same as being de-indexed or Google still indexes your site but it doesn't appear anywhere in the search results.

My site happens to be in the latter situation – so unfortunately. I guess the best option would be to continue building relevant backlinks and WAIT. Am I right?

By: Andy MacDonald

Andy MacDonald — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 15:38:49 +0000

Thanks for the comments guys. From what most of you have said, its pretty much certain in our own opinions that the sandbox does exist. as i said in my article, my site spent 7 months in the sandbox, then all of a sudden out of nowhere not only did my site show up in the SERPS, but i had page one and two rankings which was amazing.

Anybody else have any further opinions on the matter?

By: Craig Dewe

Craig Dewe — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:38:10 +0000

From my research, the google sandbox does exist, but how it's applied can vary from case to case.

For example, as mentioned above, getting a website with links from credible sources like social media can mean it leaves the sandbox earlier. My impression is it's applied site-wide rather than on particular new pages.

The most common figures I've heard are 9 to 12 months in the sandbox for normal sites. Mine took about 6 months to get out but it was right around the time I starting using more social networking sites and received some attention to a particular blog post. I would definitely recommend using them to help your site grow up faster.

Although my PR still seems to be suffering despite indications of a recent update. I'm still shaking my head at that one…

By: Robert Worstell

Robert Worstell — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:57:39 +0000

Social media apparently doesn’t have these restraints, though I have no studies or proof of individual posts’ longevity in Google rankings.

Mini-webs (ala’ Micheal Campbell) may or may not be penalized – just a few pages that show up over night isn’t the same as a few thousand. Idea is to keep it small and then to continue building it by adding more pages, articles, or link to your mini-web by floating additional mini-webs (a mini-net).

Strategy would then be to promote your mini-web through social media and get your friends to stumble/digg/etc. your new site. Then continue to add content.

Another point is that Google loves social media, so one of the better things to do would be to blog about your site, having your blog be the intro and your site be the substantive backup.

On the other hand, make your blog part of your site – best of both worlds.

As you can’t launch (and maintain) a blog for every new product you offer, it’s probably better to have a regular blog you operate, which then links and tells about your new products – which are all on mini-webs.

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 02:32:30 +0000

I have to say I’ve been really lucky with Google. I don’t know what I did right, but my site was listed in Google THE SAME DAY I launched it (3 months ago), and it’s had great ranking ever since. The only thing I think was a major factor was the high ranking I got in StumbleUpon… so I guess if people really like it on social media site that might factor in? Who knows…

By: Jirel

Jirel — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:43:54 +0000

My blog also get listed in Google and appeared in search results after seven days I submitted using url submission form.Yes, I am also lucky with this.

I am still getting considerable traffic from Google and other search engine especially Yahoo.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:16:45 +0000

My site not only was sandboxed by Google, but went completely dead in technorati for 160 days if memory serves. I only got a couple hits from google over that entire period.

It wasn’t until I completely redesigned the website, updated the meta info, and created a SEO plugin that it can back. Now Google loves me.