Has my site been sandboxed???

[ronc0011]

Can anyone tell me how to tell if a site has been sandboxed?

[Wechito]

If your site used to rank well on Google and suddenly it disappears and after some days it is still disappeared, chances are that you have been sandboxed.

However, if your well ranked site is new and it disappears, this is not sandboxing. What happened here is that Google gave your new site and initial, unreal, boost, and now this "grace period" has ended.

[dburk]

Hi ronc0011,

There is no sandbox, it's just a myth.

As Wechito alluded to, you may have experienced the temporary rankings boost of QDF (Query Deserves Freshness) which wears off after a short period of time. Now your page is ranked where it deserves to be ranked based on competition and your own promotional efforts.

[ronc0011]

Thanks guys. I was concerned about that. I have been working on trying to figure out the magic handshake to get a site on Google first page and I used Scrapebox and added a few hundred backlinks. Since the site has never been anywhere near the first page I didn't really know if I had been penalized or not. BTW what is all this I hear about your site getting penalized for this or that. If that's not "sandboxed" then what exactly is the difference?

[forsalecoza]

That can also be the "google dance". If ranking is changing pages do sometimes fall to very law levels for a while. Usually you'll rank better on a later stage.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by ronc0011

Thanks guys. I was concerned about that. I have been working on trying to figure out the magic handshake to get a site on Google first page and I used Scrapebox and added a few hundred backlinks. Since the site has never been anywhere near the first page I didn't really know if I had been penalized or not. BTW what is all this I hear about your site getting penalized for this or that. If that's not "sandboxed" then what exactly is the difference?

Hi Ron,

Folks often "think" they have been penalized when they simply have not yet earned those higher rankings. Usually it's just a perception of a penalty that hasn't actually been issued. Generally, the only "penalty" that you will receive from Google is a total de-indexing. Google is not the Internet police and they don't get into issuing penalties. If you violate their guidelines it almost always results in the complete removal from their index.

Google focuses on a relevancy algorithm that ranks websites by how relevant and useful they are to their users. You need to focus on the elements that are used as signals of relevance and promote your website using meritorious backlinks (which are included as additional signals of relevance).

Some folks will try to outsmart Google, usually by artificial PageRank manipulation schemes which eventually results in lower trust of the pages that allow spam to be posted unchecked. Those backlinks pass little on no linkjuice due to the low trust rank earned by unmoderated content. If you build webspam it typical provides fleeting value because Google is constantly seeking aout and devaluing those backlinks.

What is happening is that pages that contain spam do not carry weight in backlinks created there. You may get a brief period of linkjuice before the spam is identified and devalued. The important thing to note is that the devaluing takes place at the site that allows the posting of spam, there is no penalties imposed on the target pages the spam points toward.

[Tim Ross]

You aren't ranked for your keywords, not even in quotes and you don't get any traffic.