Does Google sand box exist?

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55
Hello everyone, I was wondering if google sand box really exist? Have anyone really got sand boxed before or its just all rumors? I mean to a brand new site can do a senuke blast every other day without getting sandboxed? Thanks..
#search engine optimization #box #exist #google #sand
  • You'll only know if your site is no longer indexed by Google.

    Check it out on google by typing your exact URL in quotes.

    Ed
  • Yes, there is a sandbox and from time to time websites will get caught in it and disappearing from search results for various periods of time before reappearing. Google does not penalize your for multiple submissions but other search engines do.
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    • The sandbox is a myth made up by people who's sites aren't optimised as well as they could be. That, of course, is simply my opinion.
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • I don't believe that a "Sandbox" exist however do understand what google wants and doesn't want. They are the best search engine because people find the information that they want using google. No one goes looking for sales ads! So give google what they want and you will do well. Give them garbage and nothing but sales ads and they will eliminate you.
  • Quality sites don't get sandboxed.

    Sites with really high keyword densities, loads of external links, tons of typos and grammatical errors, or any other obvious signs of a low quality websites causes websites to be sandboxed.

    I have never been sandboxed.
  • OoooOOoohhh, The saaaannnboooxx is gonna get you!!!

    Ok really, I don't subscribe to the theory of there being a "sandbox" for sites that build links very quickly. I do however think that there is an "evaluation box" and for smaller sites I have realized that sometimes less is actually more.

    I know it sounds crazy but I have noticed that I can actually rank a site and hold rankings a lot easier by building less links. I guess it's kind of like "flying under the radar" so to speak.

    After building lots of links google will have reason to take a look at your site to see what all of the fuss is about, while they are doing so they seem to put you off to the side or shuffle you around in the serps while trying to figure out where your site should actually rank. However, if you build links consistently your rankings will always eventually improve even if they do drop for a brief period...

    Gary..
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  • yea thats what I thought too.. people just trying to slow down the competitors and get ahead of them themselfs by building more links in a certain period...
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    • You will only face a permanent ban if there is something in the content that seriously violates the law, for e.g. extreme violence.

      You could face google dance if for example backlinks are built too fast. In which you'd dissapear from the search results to the backwaters. But not to worry, you'll come back 3 months later (at the most) at the same position or better.
  • Sure the sandbox exists,

    Ask yourself,


    Do you have a new domain?


    Did you spam 1000 links at once?


    Were most of those links blog comments?


    If you answer YES to any of these questions, you could be sandboxed.

    But the secret is DON'T stop link building, that only makes you look MORE unnatural to Google
    • [1] reply
  • Whether or not you call it the "sandbox", it does exist. I had a site de-indexed for what I can only imagine was my over-exuberant backlinking to that site - but it was later re-indexed...so no biggy.
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    • Then the sandbox doesn't exist, does it? You got de-indexed, not sandboxed.

      If I was de-indexed, that would be a biggy.

      If you think building backlinks fast is bad, you have never heard of
      the world, "viral."

      If do really stupid things, you will get de-indexed.

      Let me quote the powers that be here at the warriorforum:
      Paul
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
      • [2] replies
  • If this is true--- why don't we all just blast all our competition with 100x Xrumer blasts, place them on link farms, etc.?

    People say do not place a lot of links at once- again if true then why not blast our comp with links and crap sites??
  • Its not true i will agree with the above poster why not blast our competitor with links and crap sites? Its a big question!
  • Let me tell you personally that the dreaded sandbox does exist. I tried running an experiment by driving about 100 links to my site a day and true to that matter, it disappeared!

    Prior to this, my site was ranked first page for a couple of terms. A costly experiment on my side. However, it came back after a couple of weeks, but i got help by driving a few quality links to the site.

    So moral of the story is to not suddenly build links aggressively. And if you happen to get sandboxed, keep on building links to it but no aggression.
  • YES, MAKE SURE YOU FOLLOW THEIR GUIDLINES!!!!!
  • If you make enough sites you'll realize sometimes some new ranks rank well and easily and sometimes some of them don't.

    So I believe the ones that don't are in the sandbox.

    That's my opinion of these, from personal experience. So no, it's not a myth for me.

    Oh boy I wish it were only a myth!
    • [1] reply
    • Hi jacksonlin,

      So you think different levels of competition has nothing to do with your varying results? :confused:

      For me at least, I had perceived these different results as different levels of competition, i.e. low competition is easier to rank than higher competition. Who knew that it wasn't different levels of competition, but mean o' Google punishing me with their "Sandbox". Thanks for straighten me out on this. :rolleyes:
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply
  • There are many arguments regarding this. If Sandbox really exist.The only way to know if this is existing is to experience it. You wont believe until you have experienced the Sandbox.
    • [1] reply
    • Hi ltgreenenergy,

      So how does one recognize this "Sandbox"? How will I know it's the so called "Sandbox" and not just stiff competition? :confused:

      If you have some insight on that then please enlighten me!
      • [1] reply
  • What do you call if something like this happens to you :-

    - Your site has been ranking well (position 1-6 page 1) for the last couple of months
    - One day you decide to experiment and try to push the site up the serps by sending in 100s of backlinks (combo of web2.0, linkwheels, angelas, blogs) per day (big mistake btw )
    - next thing you know, your site is no longer in page 1. Not even in the top 100 rankings as searched by MS's rank tracker
    - however your site is listed in google still cause you do a search for site:yoursite.com and it shows up. It's just not ranked as well as it used to be, or simply vanished for the keyword term you were targeting.

    Is it the sandbox? it's definitely not banned cause it still shows up when you do a site: search. Call it whatever you want. Sandbox...penalty...etc but it does happen. It happened to me personally.

    What i did to get my site back in the serps is to keep on building (quality) backlinks to my site and sometime after a month, it came back (thankfully!).

    Believe what you want. I know what happened to my site and i consider it an experiment that i won't do again. At least i know what i shouldn't be doing next time from my personal experience. Smart men learn from their own mistakes, wise men learn from other peoples mistakes...
    • [1] reply
    • How many links did you throw at it in one day?

      1000?
      2000?
      5000?

      And how many did you normally build a day prior to that and for how long?
      • [1] reply
  • Matt Cutts from Google said at Pubcon year before last that there is no sandbox per say. He said in some industries it might "appear" that there is such a thing, but it is just how their algorithm works for those "special" industries that gives the illusion of a sandbox.
    • [1] reply
    • Pro Tip:

      Matt Cutts works for Google.

      Cutts' videos, words, etc. are not for the webmaster's benefit. It is for Google's benefit.

      If you took everything he said literally, you'd be up ****'s creek.

      Remember, he has a motive, and it's to keep everyone guessing.

      Just because he said there is no "sandbox" doesn't mean there isn't a penalty.
  • dburk,

    Great!

    I'm just looking for someone to do some diagnostics on my sites!

    I'll send you a PM and I'll show you what I'm talking about.

    Having said that, I'm still a firm believer of the sandbox unless I am PROVEN otherwise.

    Because from my personal experience, there is a sandbox!

    =]
  • Banned
    Yes it exists, I was in it for 5 weeks (got no Google traffic at all), then one day I was "released" and my traffic came back instantly.

    After making some design changes I got put back in and again had to wait weeks to come out.
  • Yeah Zeb I agree with bgmacaw. I think you're looking for something to blame for whatever it is you think happened, when you don't know all the variables.

    As other people said, there's marketers that create 10s of thousands of links per day and have never been "sandboxed". Plus, what do you think happens when something goes viral (maybe from being featured on Digg)? That's most definitely inconsistent backlinking, but those pages don't get "sandboxed".

    Other things to consider:
    • How do you know what your competitors were doing in their SEO campaigns during the time you thought you were "sandboxed"? Their efforts directly affect your results.
    • Did you PING all your Web 2.0 profiles after creating them? If not, there's no way Google would have crawled them all in 2-3 days.
    • Did any of the content (on-page SEO) on your site change during this period? This can have a huge impact on SERPs.
    • [1] reply
    • Hey you're entitled to your own opinion mate

      I was sharing what happened to my site when i suddenly drove 100s of links to it one day. Previously i was constantly driving links at 10 per day, then i went in overdrive and upped that by 1000% (100s) of links per day. The penalization was not instant of course. But probably less than a week after implementing link overdrive. Did nothing to my on page seo factors etc..only external seo.

      I'm saying that could be one of the causes of getting penalized. A sudden surge of links. I know that some sites can handle this such as cnn or some huge site but i'm not cnn lol. btw my site was about 6 months old if not longer.

      Can't say about what others did by driving 1000s of links and not getting a penalty. This has not been my case, so i'm just sharing with you all what happened to my site and how i got out of it.

      If you drive 1000s of links and come out okay, good for you mate but i won't be doing this and i've learned my lesson

      Not blaming google or anyone here mate. Just sharing from my past experiences/experiment.

      Oh and yea, i did get my site ranked back in after some time (close to a month), so it's all good now...
  • The Sandbox as I understand it is being relegated to Google's supplemental listings.

    This is when not all of your pages get crawled regularly or ranked for keywords.

    There is a great post about it on Jim Boykin's blog. Would post a link but don't have enough posts yet. Lol
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • Ok, now I can post this link:

    Jim Boykin's Link Building Blog

    Worth the read...
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • without a shadow of doubt the sandbox exists. I've experienced it before for a short amount of time on one of my sites! Not a good situation to be in.
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  • 55

    Does Google sand box exist?

    Hello everyone, I was wondering if google sand box really exist? Have anyone really got sand boxed before or its just all rumors? I mean to a brand new site can do a senuke blast every other day without getting sandboxed? Thanks..