Has my site been sandboxed???

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.