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Request for Help with Website

by Prateek Dwivedi
9 replies
I realized earlier today that visits to my site have slowed down. So I decided to check my keywords to see if this was the problem. Sure enough most of the keywords that I was ranking for, most on page 1 are no longer there. And a lot of them seem to have disappeared from any of the top rankings in google period - way into the backwaters of the google search results.

I'm absolutely at a loss of what just happened - does anyone know what this might mean? I've been building links to my pages like crazy and all of a sudden my pages don't show up anymore?

How do I remedy this problem?
#request #website
  • Profile picture of the author tuldok
    is you website still online? try other search engine..

    and try also check your meta tags on html code.. sometime search engines check only the meta tags inserted in the html..

    hope it helps
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael D
    Is this a relatively new domain/site?
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  • Profile picture of the author Prateek Dwivedi
    My pages seems to have dropped significantly in the search engines. The site is still indexed, but a page one keyword has dropped to page 28, and another page 1 keyword has dropped to page 9 and a handful of others that I haven't even located yet.

    @tuldok
    Ya the meta tags are all correct. SEO is all correct.

    Mike D,
    The site is new, about a month. But isn't a month sufficient time for a site to remain in a decent position on the search engines especially when there are a lot of backlinks pointing to the pages?
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael D
    Well, it sounds like your site has fallen into the infamous Google sandbox. If you haven't heard of this before it is basically part of the algo that "penalizes" some new sites. Many new sites will get artificial rankings off the bat because they contain "new content" and that is what Google wants to offer its searchers.

    After this initial rankings boost you will usually fall back the way you have into oblivion. There really isn't a great way to avoid this (using a preowned domain has helped me avoid the sandbox, however). All you can do is continue to build links to your site. Make sure they are high quality links and hurry up and wait kind of deal. Eventually, your site will slowly start to climb back to the top.

    Now, the sandbox phenomenon has been written about by many top people and some claim it doesn't exist. Google has neither denied or confirmed that it does exist. But, I can tell you from personal experience that it does exist. It doesn't happen with every site either. I am not sure if it is only certain topics, or the criteria used but I can tell you that it happens a lot.

    Also, I know a guy who took on a contract position with another guy for a company who worked at Google and he specifically asked him about the sandbox. The guy said it was 100% true, take that for what it is worth, but I have no reason not to trust this guy.

    This is one of those really frustrating things about SEO. All you can do is keep moving forward and I can tell you that eventually your site will come back out of it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Prateek Dwivedi
      Originally Posted by Michael D View Post

      Well, it sounds like your site has fallen into the infamous Google sandbox. If you haven't heard of this before it is basically part of the algo that "penalizes" some new sites. Many new sites will get artificial rankings off the bat because they contain "new content" and that is what Google wants to offer its searchers.

      After this initial rankings boost you will usually fall back the way you have into oblivion. There really isn't a great way to avoid this (using a preowned domain has helped me avoid the sandbox, however). All you can do is continue to build links to your site. Make sure they are high quality links and hurry up and wait kind of deal. Eventually, your site will slowly start to climb back to the top.

      Now, the sandbox phenomenon has been written about by many top people and some claim it doesn't exist. Google has neither denied or confirmed that it does exist. But, I can tell you from personal experience that it does exist. It doesn't happen with every site either. I am not sure if it is only certain topics, or the criteria used but I can tell you that it happens a lot.

      Also, I know a guy who took on a contract position with another guy for a company who worked at Google and he specifically asked him about the sandbox. The guy said it was 100% true, take that for what it is worth, but I have no reason not to trust this guy.

      This is one of those really frustrating things about SEO. All you can do is keep moving forward and I can tell you that eventually your site will come back out of it.
      Hey thx Mike D,

      I really hope this is what it is, and my site isn't lost completely. I mean I've been creating links like crazy and thought they were the reason for such good rankings. I even started to get over 100 visitors a day which is a big accomplishment for me so far.

      So I have a question for you about this sandbox. If my site is currently suffering from the sandbox and can still come up in the rankings, might the backlinks that I've already built help my site move back up? Basically I know I've created a lot of quality backlinks to my site, but I also know that it takes those links some time to actually get indexed - is this a correct understanding? So if many of those backlinks aren't even indexed yet might that be atleast a start to getting my site back up in the Search Engine?

      Otherwise if links get indexed automatically in google, and there isn't a delay in time, then those 300+ links that I've built to my site were all just a waste? And the way my site now sits in the search results is the actual result of all of the links I've built? In other words, how it *really* sits in the search results without the benefit of google putting my site on the front page for fresh content?

      I'd just like to add one more thing to this post, and that is, is building 300+ backlinks to your site within just a little over a months time frame, bad for your website? In other words do I need to lay off the backlinks a little bit? Quite frankly I'm unaware of how many links should be created a day, or how often they should be created. So I've just been creating a bunch a day, every day. And I also have an automated article marketing service that submits articles at different times during the days, weeks, months etc. So this service has helped create a lot of links.


      EDIT: Im thinking that building so many links in that short amount of time probably hurt my site. If this is the case, what steps can I take to remedy this situation? Do I stop building links? Only build a few a day? Any advice with this would be great
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      • Profile picture of the author Michael D
        Originally Posted by maulsl88 View Post

        Hey thx Mike D,

        I really hope this is what it is, and my site isn't lost completely. I mean I've been creating links like crazy and thought they were the reason for such good rankings. I even started to get over 100 visitors a day which is a big accomplishment for me so far.

        So I have a question for you about this sandbox. If my site is currently suffering from the sandbox and can still come up in the rankings, might the backlinks that I've already built help my site move back up? Basically I know I've created a lot of quality backlinks to my site, but I also know that it takes those links some time to actually get indexed - is this a correct understanding? So if many of those backlinks aren't even indexed yet might that be atleast a start to getting my site back up in the Search Engine?

        Otherwise if links get indexed automatically in google, and there isn't a delay in time, then those 300+ links that I've built to my site were all just a waste? And the way my site now sits in the search results is the actual result of all of the links I've built? In other words, how it *really* sits in the search results without the benefit of google putting my site on the front page for fresh content?

        I'd just like to add one more thing to this post, and that is, is building 300+ backlinks to your site within just a little over a months time frame, bad for your website? In other words do I need to lay off the backlinks a little bit? Quite frankly I'm unaware of how many links should be created a day, or how often they should be created. So I've just been creating a bunch a day, every day. And I also have an automated article marketing service that submits articles at different times during the days, weeks, months etc. So this service has helped create a lot of links.


        EDIT: Im thinking that building so many links in that short amount of time probably hurt my site. If this is the case, what steps can I take to remedy this situation? Do I stop building links? Only build a few a day? Any advice with this would be great
        The links you have already created have not gone to waste. It is hard to say for sure without knowing everything you did, but over time those links will help you. What you need to concentrate on right now is building quality links from trusted domains. Also, build them slowly. Make sure they are single links (not from a blogroll). You just have to wait it out. I have seen sites come out within a few weeks and I have seen some take months. I just don't know exactly what goes into that.

        The good news is your link building up to this point hasn't gone to waste. Eventually, those links will help you rank again. It is just important to keep building slowly and adding a lot of new content in the process. If you were targeting a single keyword you could go after variations of that keyword instead (more longtails).

        As far as building links to quickly, I don't know a great answer to that. If you aren't spamming thousands of links I think you are fine. The time it takes to get quality links I think out-weighs any penalty you would get from them. I have always just made it look natural and not spammy. Many times it is just unavoidable. Eventually, your site will get aged and gain more trust. This isn't my site, but there is some good info on the topic here from one of the guys I learned SEO from. He really knows his stuff:

        What To Do When Your Site Gets SANDBOXED
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve L
    how many pages big is the website? how often do you add updated content? is there a blog attached?

    Steve
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    How To Design A Website That Converts!
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    • Profile picture of the author Prateek Dwivedi
      Steve,

      The site has 25 pages. These pages have been consistent on the site, save for about 6 articles that I added about a week ago. Not much content is added to it because the niche is specific and covers only a certain range of information which my site targets. To add more content would essentially be creating duplicate content, although a few areas of my site could go more in depth with certain topics which I plan on doing.

      As for a blog, I have one running parallel to my website on blogger. I was updating this blog quite frequently as of late to build back links.
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