Is My Site Sandboxed?

[JDSalinger]

I have a site that is almost 4 months old. It had been ranking for a number of keywords centered around product names. However, today I checked and I now find these pages are not ranked on the 1st page for these keywords but are on the very last page of results for the keyword in the SERPs. Other pages of the site are showing up. However, these are not pages that I had done any link building to.

My link building strategy has been to write articles and blog commenting. I only started the blog commenting about a month ago. This has consisted of me making anywhere from 5 to 13 links a day on do follow blogs. My question is has my site been sandboxed or is this just an initial fluctuation?

[dburk]

Hi JDSalinger,

There is no sandbox, it is just a myth.

We get at least one of these threads a week and most of the time it is just the temporary boost effect of QDF wearing off and your new web pages going to it's currently earned position.

[Josh MacDonald]

Type your domain into Google search engine, tell me your results.
Search your domain like this:
mydomainname.com

Tell me what rank you are.

[JDSalinger]

Originally Posted by macdonjo

Type your domain into Google search engine, tell me your results.
Search your domain like this:
mydomainname.com

Tell me what rank you are.

I am in the first position and it is showing 243 results.

[JDSalinger]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi JDSalinger,

There is no sandbox, it is just a myth.

We get at least one of these threads a week and most of the time it is just the temporary boost effect of QDF wearing off and your new web pages going to it's currently earned position.

Thank you for responding. I know you know your stuff. However, I recognize that sites can jump around in position but this is a pretty dramatic jump where my page is moving from position #5 to position #429. I do not know what QDF is, but it seems like that is more than just google dance. Believe me, I would be happy to realize it is a myth. But why would I see multiple pages basically fall out of the top 400 overnight?

[Josh MacDonald]

Originally Posted by JDSalinger

I am in the first position and it is showing 243 results.

Romor has it that you are not sandboxed.

[JDSalinger]

Originally Posted by macdonjo

Romor has it that you are not sandboxed.

Thanks mac, I assume you mean rumor. If not, you will need to explain further. so what do you think is going on? Do you think I will be back at my old spot in a couple of days?

[dburk]

Originally Posted by JDSalinger

Thank you for responding. I know you know your stuff. However, I recognize that sites can jump around in position but this is a pretty dramatic jump where my page is moving from position #5 to position #429. I do not know what QDF is, but it seems like that is more than just google dance. Believe me, I would be happy to realize it is a myth. But why would I see multiple pages basically fall out of the top 400 overnight?

Hi JDSalinger,

There are dozens of threads on this forum about QDF.

Your web page hasn't yet earned that #5 position. It was temporarily boosted by QDF (the freshness factor), and now that that temporary boost has worn off, your page has gone to it's truly earned ranking. It is just that simple.

Now you need to get busy earning the ranking that you desire by promoting your web pages.

[JDSalinger]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi JDSalinger,

There are dozens of threads on this forum about QDF.

Your web page hasn't yet earned that #5 position. It was temporarily boosted by QDF (the freshness factor), and now that that temporary boost has worn off, your page has gone to it's truly earned ranking. It is just that simple.

Now you need to get busy earning the ranking that you desire by promoting your web pages.

Ok but here is the thing, my sites pages didn't start in the #5 position, it started back at 80th position then the 50th, then all the way down to #5. So why would your freshness factor improve over time? I would be with you if it was at #5 all the time and then dropped out but that is not happened here.

[ElectronPlumber]

JD, I've been working on an FAQ for just this sort of thing. As was stated above, this sort of thing is posted here 10 times a day. You've most likely lost your honeymoon effect.

Check out http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...deindexed.html for more details.

[Tim Wallace]

you should put some content of your website into the google to search, to see whether the page of your site ranks No. 1, if not, It may be in sandbox.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by JDSalinger

Ok but here is the thing, my sites pages didn't start in the #5 position, it started back at 80th position then the 50th, then all the way down to #5. So why would your freshness factor improve over time? I would be with you if it was at #5 all the time and then dropped out but that is not happened here.

Hi JDSalinger,

That seems fairly typical of the usual pattern we see with QDF. The algorithm is dynamic with many different signals contributing to the ranking score. I have seen a similar pattern at least a thousand times before. It is nothing new nor unusual.

[Mike Grant]

Originally Posted by dburk

There is no sandbox, it is just a myth.

You keep clamoring this over, and over, and over.

Create a new site and give me the URL.

I guarantee you I will sandbox it for months.

[Mike Grant]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi JDSalinger,

That seems fairly typical of the usual pattern we see with QDF. The algorithm is dynamic with many different signals contributing to the ranking score. I have seen a similar pattern at least a thousand times before. It is nothing new nor unusual.

That is not typical and that is not the pattern of QDF.

The QDF is short bursts of ranking improvements everytime new content is found. This does not last months.

[Shane Hale]

Google will Sandbox sites aka De-index. If your site is doing bad stuff to the point of abuse like Phishing it will happen. Check by googling your name.com if it pulls up you are not sandboxed.

Google Dance- New site with links tend to bounce around in rankings.

Serp Filter penalties. If you have an established site and run abnormal amount of backlinks or bad neighborhood links via Anchor text backlinks for certain target keywords. Google will take your rankings and penalize you for indeterminate amount of time.

Google Panda/Farmer update was implemented end of Feb 2011 and March 2011 which hammered sites with duplicate content and bad neighborhood links.

Another thing is sites like Ezine Articles and directories were hit hard with this update. There are some steps you can do to fix this. I wrote a blog post with more detail about Google Panda here

[dburk]

Originally Posted by Mike Grant

You keep clamoring this over, and over, and over.

Create a new site and give me the URL.

I guarantee you I will sandbox it for months.

Hi Mike,

LOL, and how would you do that? Do you have the magical key to the mythical Sandbox?

[Mike Grant]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi Mike,

LOL, and how would you do that? Do you have the magical key to the mythical Sandbox?

Yes, I do.

Give me a brand new site's URL of yours and I will sandbox it.

[Mike Grant]

Originally Posted by Shane Hale

Google will Sandbox sites aka De-index. If your site is doing bad stuff to the point of abuse like Phishing it will happen. Check by googling your name.com if it pulls up you are not sandboxed.

Google Dance- New site with links tend to bounce around in rankings.

Serp Filter penalties. If you have an established site and run abnormal amount of backlinks or bad neighborhood links via Anchor text backlinks for certain target keywords. Google will take your rankings and penalize you for indeterminate amount of time.

Google Panda/Farmer update was implemented end of Feb 2011 and March 2011 which hammered sites with duplicate content and bad neighborhood links.

Another thing is sites like Ezine Articles and directories were hit hard with this update. There are some steps you can do to fix this. I wrote a blog post with more detail about Google Panda here

Sandbox =/= deindexed.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by Mike Grant

Yes, I do.

Give me a brand new site's URL of yours and I will sandbox it.

Hi Mike,

Here's a brand new website just asking to be sandboxed by you:

No Sandbox | The Sandbox is Just a Myth!

Let's see your sandboxing prowess!

[Mike Grant]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi Mike,

Here's a brand new website just asking to be sandboxed by you:

No Sandbox | The Sandbox is Just a Myth!

Let's see your sandboxing prowess!

Give me a new URL of yours, not one of WP.

Domain authority extends to subdomains, not the other way around.

[Phasm]

There are several possibilities right now judging by the given information. This happens all the time and is not uncommon at all, though so I wouldn't worry too much.

1. The theory that your rankings are now 'settling in' to where they belong
2. Your website triggered a filter for overly aggressive link velocity, non-varied anchor text or not building enough separate page links.

In my opinion it's more likely the second option. The phenomenon in #1 referred to in this thread is generally something that only happens with newer websites than yours and rarely happens after you've already climbed up.

If you went from position 300 to position 3 overnight then a temporary grace period is more likely, but since you climbed up slowly I don't think that's the case. Make sure you're using more than one keyword and page when you're link building, anchor text filters are easy to trigger.

The best thing to do from here IMO is to keep building links and SEOing your website like nothing happened. The only thing I would change are your backlinking behaviors if you're not appearing natural enough.

[JDSalinger]

Originally Posted by robertjack07

if your site new to Google and not older than 6 month then it is in sandbox.check your site by Google.

My site is not older than 6 months but I can find it in the first position by doing a google search with mydomainname.com.

[JDSalinger]

Originally Posted by Phasm

There are several possibilities right now judging by the given information. This happens all the time and is not uncommon at all, though so I wouldn't worry too much.

1. The theory that your rankings are now 'settling in' to where they belong
2. Your website triggered a filter for overly aggressive link velocity, non-varied anchor text or not building enough separate page links.

In my opinion it's more likely the second option. The phenomenon in #1 referred to in this thread is generally something that only happens with newer websites than yours and rarely happens after you've already climbed up.

If you went from position 300 to position 3 overnight then a temporary grace period is more likely, but since you climbed up slowly I don't think that's the case. Make sure you're using more than one keyword and page when you're link building, anchor text filters are easy to trigger.

The best thing to do from here IMO is to keep building links and SEOing your website like nothing happened. The only thing I would change are your backlinking behaviors if you're not appearing natural enough.

Hi Phasm,

Thank you for responding. Right now, I am building backlinks to several different product pages. I write some articles that I post on my blog and then when these are indexed, I post the same article to only one article directory. Then, with each additional post, I then post to another article directory.

The other thing I do is post blog comments to sites that have page rank and are do follow. Most of these blogs tend to be ones that automatically accept comments. I tend to use the same anchor text for these comments but I have only been building links this way for less than a month. I also am not doing more than 5 a day for any one keyword and only doing about 8-13 overall links each day.

What would you suggest I adjust based on this information? Is this natural enough? Do you see there being any issues with Panda/Farmer update?

[dburk]

Originally Posted by JDSalinger

Hi Phasm,

Thank you for responding. Right now, I am building backlinks to several different product pages. I write some articles that I post on my blog and then when these are indexed, I post the same article to only one article directory. Then, with each additional post, I then post to another article directory.

I see two possible issues here.

First, if you are posting on a blog then your blog's home page content is likely changing with each new blog post. As you content changes, so will your rankings.

Second, if you are duplicating all of your content through article syndication then none of your content is unique. Even though your content is the original, it is not unique and may not rank as high as unique content typically does.

[Mike Grant]

Originally Posted by Mike Grant

Give me a new URL of yours, not one of WP.

Domain authority extends to subdomains, not the other way around.

Should I continue waiting, or am I not going to receive one?

[JDSalinger]

Originally Posted by dburk

I see two possible issues here.

First, if you are posting on a blog then your blog's home page content is likely changing with each new blog post. As you content changes, so will your rankings.

Don't think this is an issue. For starters, I am not trying to rank for any keywords for my home page or even building links to it. I am building links to individual product review pages. Also, the blog posts are not listed on the home page. Only the 5 most recent blog post titles are shown (i.e, a Latest Blog Posts). I also am still ranking in the #12 position for the keyword phrase of the site eventhough I have not done any link building to the home page and it is still ranked in that position eventhough the other pages where I am building links have dropped.

Originally Posted by dburk

Second, if you are duplicating all of your content through article syndication then none of your content is unique. Even though your content is the original, it is not unique and may not rank as high as unique content typically does.

My site has blog posts and pages. The pages are unique content on the site and are not being posted anywhere else. They are product review pages. The only thing that is being reposted is the blog posts and then they are only being reposted to one article directory. The blog posts have a link in the resource box back to these product review pages.

[JDSalinger]

Originally Posted by Mike Grant

Should I continue waiting, or am I not going to receive one?

LOL, I don't think you are going to get one from him. I think if you are truly motivated to prove this point (like you appear to be), you will have to get one yourself and do it. It would be a nice little case study though.

[Phasm]

Originally Posted by JDSalinger

Hi Phasm,

Thank you for responding. Right now, I am building backlinks to several different product pages. I write some articles that I post on my blog and then when these are indexed, I post the same article to only one article directory. Then, with each additional post, I then post to another article directory.

The other thing I do is post blog comments to sites that have page rank and are do follow. Most of these blogs tend to be ones that automatically accept comments. I tend to use the same anchor text for these comments but I have only been building links this way for less than a month. I also am not doing more than 5 a day for any one keyword and only doing about 8-13 overall links each day.

What would you suggest I adjust based on this information? Is this natural enough? Do you see there being any issues with Panda/Farmer update?

The first thing I would suggest is to stop posting your unique content to article directories, even if you're spinning it. This could be the result of the duplicate indexing and triggering a panda-like penalty.

Anything I submit to a article site or anywhere the content is public and can be syndicated I never use the content from my money site. It's like saying, hey I wrote this really high quality piece of content but there are similar versions of it already all over the internet on sites that are infinitely more credible than mine.

Because it's still difficult to isolate the problem I would also start varying the anchor text on your blog comments. Even 15-30 daily blog comments to an unestablished website can look unnatural if they all use the same anchor text. Even if you only use tiny variations it will help your anchor text diversity because it won't be as systematic.

For example lets saying your keyword is "San Diego Dry Cleaning", some slight variations you can use are:

• San Diego Dry Cleaner
• San Diego Dry Clean
• Dry Cleaning San Diego
• SanDiego Dry Cleaning
• Best San Diego Dry Cleaning
• Affordable San Diego Dry Cleaning

Google views spaces in your keywords as a separating character so "dog training" and "dogtraining" are seen as two different keywords and will sometimes display completely different results. These slight variations in your anchor text will make your website come off a lot more natural. If you still have any problems I would try to throw in some non-anchor text links to make it even more natural looking.

The real trick is to continue SEOing your website like nothing happened and you'll come back up.

[Mike Grant]

Originally Posted by JDSalinger

LOL, I don't think you are going to get one from him. I think if you are truly motivated to prove this point (like you appear to be), you will have to get one yourself and do it. It would be a nice little case study though.

For someone who refuses to acknowledge the sandbox and calls it "mythical", he sure does try to skip around the test a lot.

Hell, using his rationale, he should do awesome in the SERPs with what I'm going to do to the domain.

[JDSalinger]

Originally Posted by Phasm

The first thing I would suggest is to stop posting your unique content to article directories, even if you're spinning it. This could be the result of the duplicate indexing and triggering a panda-like penalty.

Anything I submit to a article site or anywhere the content is public and can be syndicated I never use the content from my money site. It's like saying, hey I wrote this really high quality piece of content but there are similar versions of it already all over the internet on sites that are infinitely more credible than mine.

I understand this point. I don't know if I mentioned it earlier. However, I only submit the blog post to an article directory after it has been indexed by Google. This way it is clear to Google that my site has the original content. Also, as I said above, I am only posting the blog posts to article directories. The blog pages (product review pages) roughly 15-20 pages are not posted elsewhere so there is unique content on the site. Do you still think this could be an issue. I have done this same thing on other sites with no issues. One of which is only two weeks to a month older than this site.

Originally Posted by Phasm

Because it's still difficult to isolate the problem I would also start varying the anchor text on your blog comments. Even 15-30 daily blog comments to an unestablished website can look unnatural if they all use the same anchor text. Even if you only use tiny variations it will help your anchor text diversity because it won't be as systematic.

For example lets saying your keyword is "San Diego Dry Cleaning", some slight variations you can use are:

• San Diego Dry Cleaner
• San Diego Dry Clean
• Dry Cleaning San Diego
• SanDiego Dry Cleaning
• Best San Diego Dry Cleaning
• Affordable San Diego Dry Cleaning

Google views spaces in your keywords as a separating character so "dog training" and "dogtraining" are seen as two different keywords and will sometimes display completely different results. These slight variations in your anchor text will make your website come off a lot more natural. If you still have any problems I would try to throw in some non-anchor text links to make it even more natural looking.

The real trick is to continue SEOing your website like nothing happened and you'll come back up.

I could certainly vary the anchor text as that is easy enough. I am just really surprised that blog commenting could be an issue. The most links I was building to any page on the site was 5 links a day. The 10-13 links in total were spread out over several different pages. I just wonder what has triggered this issue with Google: was it the blog commenting, the articles, or is it mainly just b/c this is a new site? Regardless, what time can I reasonably expect that my rankings will come back? Should I expect this will take 3 months?

[dburk]

Originally Posted by Mike Grant

Should I continue waiting, or am I not going to receive one?

Originally Posted by Mike Grant

For someone who refuses to acknowledge the sandbox and calls it "mythical", he sure does try to skip around the test a lot.

Hell, using his rationale, he should do awesome in the SERPs with what I'm going to do to the domain.

Hi Mike,

I guess you missed my post above. I created a new website just for you to use you magical sandbox key on.


Since it is brand new, it hasn't even been indexed yet. I suggest that we give the Googlebot a chance to find it and index it, then do your best to sandbox it.

[Mike Grant]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi Mike,

I guess you missed my post above. I created a new website just for you to use you magical sandbox key on.


Since it is brand new, it hasn't even been indexed yet. I suggest that we give the Googlebot a chance to find it and index it, then do your best to sandbox it.

I'm assuming you missed my reply to your wordpress.com page, then.

Give me a URL of yours, not one of WP's, as domain authority extends to subdomains and not the other way around.

[JamesGw]

Your site is just too new to make assumptions about. You're definitely not sandboxed. Just keep building links and you'll climb back up.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by Mike Grant

Give me a new URL of yours, not one of WP.

Domain authority extends to subdomains, not the other way around.

Just another myth IMO, search engines do not recognize domain level authority, only page level authority.

If you kept up with Fish Randkin's research you would already be aware that he backed off the claim of "domain authority" as a measurable influence in SERP ranking in favor of "page authority". My own research has led me to believe there is no domain level signals used in SERP except to group results post query. If you have anything that suggest otherwise I would love to see the source.

In the interest of learning and sharing knowledge I will register a new domain, setup a new hosting account and create yet another website so you cannot hide behind the notion of "domain authority". I will even research the domain to be sure that it was not previously registered, we wouldn't want any latent "domain authority" skewing the results.

Please let me know if there are any other prerequisites for what you would consider a valid tests before I proceed.

[Mike Grant]

Originally Posted by dburk

Just another myth IMO, search engines do not recognize domain level authority, only page level authority.

If you kept up with Fish Randkin's research you would already be aware that he backed off the claim of "domain authority" as a measurable influence in SERP ranking in favor of "page authority". My own research has led me to believe there is no domain level signals used in SERP except to group results post query. If you have anything that suggest otherwise I would love to see the source.

In the interest of learning and sharing knowledge I will register a new domain, setup a new hosting account and create yet another website so you cannot hide behind the notion of "domain authority". I will even research the domain to be sure that it was not previously registered, we wouldn't want any latent "domain authority" skewing the results.

Please let me know if there are any other prerequisites for what you would consider a valid tests before I proceed.

SEs don't recognize domain level authority?! How are you to explain the Amazon's, Overtstock's, Walmart's, eHow's, etc. rankings?

No other prereqs. Just a brand new domain that is well-optimized on-page. I ask that you don't try to do any indexing.

Edit - also link @ where Rand "backs off the claim of 'domain authority'".

[HKSEO Rotzee]

Originally Posted by Mike Grant

SEs don't recognize domain level authority?! How are you to explain the Amazon's, Overtstock's, Walmart's, eHow's, etc. rankings?

No other prereqs. Just a brand new domain that is well-optimized on-page. I ask that you don't try to do any indexing.

Edit - also link @ where Rand "backs off the claim of 'domain authority'".

*Grabs popcorn and sprite zero

[JDSalinger]

Originally Posted by HKSEO Rotzee

*Grabs popcorn and sprite zero

I was thinking the same thing. I almost posted that Michael Jackson gif where he is eating the popcorn.

[HKSEO Rotzee]

*Starts bitching at the guy next to him about how long its taking for the movie to start

[HKSEO Rotzee]

Originally Posted by JDSalinger

I was thinking the same thing. I almost posted that Michael Jackson gif where he is eating the popcorn.

yeah, internet fights are awesome, now I have something to look forward to for a little while :P

[Mike Grant]

Originally Posted by HKSEO Rotzee

*Starts bitching at the guy next to him about how long its taking for the movie to start

Right there with ya. I'd love to see his reasoning for his beliefs.

[HKSEO Rotzee]

Originally Posted by Mike Grant

Right there with ya. I'd love to see his reasoning for his beliefs.

Can you clarify what your goal is.

Are you trying to get him sandboxed/penalized for months...meaning you believe he will go away for a long time but possibly come back stronger/weaker....or are you going to try and get him completely de-indexed for ever.

What exactly are you stating you are going to do...and what EXACTLY is he stating you can't do. So that there is no "I TOLD YOU", "No, I knew THAT would happen.. I was talking about blah blah"

[Mike Grant]

Originally Posted by HKSEO Rotzee

Can you clarify what your goal is.

Are you trying to get him sandboxed/penalized for months...meaning you believe he will go away for a long time but possibly come back stronger/weaker....or are you going to try and get him completely de-indexed for ever.

What exactly are you stating you are going to do...and what EXACTLY is he stating you can't do. So that there is no "I TOLD YOU", "No, I knew THAT would happen.. I was talking about blah blah"

I'm going to sandbox his site.

He claims it's not possible because the sandbox does not exist.

I'm going to send hundreds of thousands of links at his domain, ping them, and watch nothing happen and watch the domain be a ****load harder to move afterwards.

[HKSEO Rotzee]

Originally Posted by Mike Grant

I'm going to sandbox his site.

He claims it's not possible because the sandbox does not exist.

I'm going to send hundreds of thousands of links at his domain, ping them, and watch nothing happen and watch the domain be a ****load harder to move afterwards.

*Turns head and stares at Dburk

[Mike Grant]

Originally Posted by HKSEO Rotzee

*Turns head and stares at Dburk

Nothing to be said, really.

Just time to put it to the test.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by Mike Grant

SEs don't recognize domain level authority?! How are you to explain the Amazon's, Overtstock's, Walmart's, eHow's, etc. rankings?

...um, how about massive advertising?

Perhaps our next experiment should be outranking those websites using a new domain with no "domain authority". We can save that for another day.

Originally Posted by Mike Grant

No other prereqs. Just a brand new domain that is well-optimized on-page. I ask that you don't try to do any indexing.

So you want a brand new domain, not even indexed and what... you will get the site indexed? I assume that if you don't want me to get the site indexed that you also don't want me to promote the website either?

So remind me, what exactly are we trying to prove again?

Originally Posted by Mike Grant

Edit - also link @ where Rand "backs off the claim of 'domain authority'".

It's been a couple years ago, and Rand doesn't like to focus too much attention on it since he made his bones promoting the whole notion of "domain authority". I will look for it and post later.

[dburk]

I have a dinner engagement, one of my local clients is being honored for his success and he asked me to attend. I will get this new website up first thing in the morning.

[Mike Grant]

Originally Posted by dburk

...um, how about massive advertising?

Perhaps our next experiment should be outranking those websites using a new domain with no "domain authority". We can save that for another day.



So you want a brand new domain, not even indexed and what... you will get the site indexed? I assume that if you don't want me to get the site indexed that you also don't want me to promote the website either?

So remind me, what exactly are we trying to prove again?



It's been a couple years ago, and Rand doesn't like to focus too much attention on it since he made his bones promoting the whole notion of "domain authority". I will look for it and post later.

Advertising? Care to show me what advertising Wikipedia does? Outranking the aforementioned sites does nothing to prove your point on the lack of importance of domain authority. There's a reason why domains like I've mentioned rank much easier with much less page authority.

Yes, do not index the site. I want it as new as possible. Just have good on-page optimization, as I've already said. I've also already said what I'm going to do.

Oh, one of those, "he said it, but I can't find it right now despite him pushing the notion of domain authority importance". Sure, sure. . That's an easy backing out of your statement.

[DireStraits]

And I thought sandboxes only existed in childrens' playgrounds?

People always think something's all true. ~Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger.)

[Mike Grant]

Originally Posted by DireStraits

And I thought sandboxes only existed in childrens playgrounds?

People always think something's all true. ~Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger.)

I guess you stand to learn a bit as well

[DireStraits]

Originally Posted by Mike Grant

I guess you stand to learn a bit as well

I've no fish to fry in this particular debate, Mike, it has to be said.

I will say that on the one hand, I concur with your beliefs that "domain authority" exists and counts for something.

On the other hand, I can't say that I've ever experienced anything that'd constitute "sandboxing" with any of my sites. Nor has my brother or anyone else who I know.

Penalisation for on-site "b1ackhat" tactics - yes. And possibly for off-site stuff, in very extreme, rare and obviously traceable/identifiable cases of self-backlink-spamming. Apart from that, all I've ever experienced is the sometimes-expected wild fluctuation of rankings that can occur when a site's still in its relative infancy and doesn't command enough authority and incoming link-juice (or have sufficient "roots", if you will) to withstand sudden and significant changes to its backlinking profile.

But I've never seen any of that as what has long been referred to as "the sandbox". Because I've never seen a site just get "stuck" in the dark depths of the SERPs for reasons that I cannot reasonably attribute to something pretty specific, and hopefully (and usually) resolve without "hoping and praying".

So on the basis of that, I don't know. But whatever the case, I'm not about to start losing sleep over it now, myself.