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Google Sandbox-Am I in it?

by ilovechinesefood
7 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hey everybody,

I have a two month old site and I believe I could be "sandboxed" and I wanted to hear your thoughts. I know its common for new sites to fluctuate in the SERPS, so it could also be the Google Dance. Recently, I dropped all the way down in the SERPS for my keywords when I was on page 1. It's slowly but surely coming back-on page 6, 7 and 9 for my respective keywords. What makes me believe that im sandboxed is that I know my site deserves to be better ranked than that! Even my Twitter page is outranking my homepage! It makes 0 sense. I suppose it is suspicious that a site of 2 months old can outrank a site thats been around for years.

I have a very diverse link-profile, all using white-hat techniques. I guest blog a lot, which is my main source of obtaining good links. Not so long ago, I was lucky enough to make an edit to a Wikipedia page and have my URL included. Now, I have TONS of sites linking to me. I am worried that Google may find this suspicious for such a new site and put me in the sandbox to wait it out. Do you think this is possible? Or is it just the Google Dance? I know for sure that I am using good on-site and off-site SEO techniques so I am almost 100% I am not being penalized. Thanks!
#google #sandboxam
  • Profile picture of the author ilovechinesefood
    I should probably also mention that I pinged 3 articles that I guest blogged for on another site right after they were publish (all of them had a link to my site). Shortly thereafter, my rankings fell. Not sure if this is relevant
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  • Profile picture of the author unclebuck
    ilovechinesefood, (meee too!)

    Your site is still relatively new, so I would bet that it's just the dance. Just keep building, you already said that they are coming back up in the serps.

    If you are using white hat techniques you should be fine. I know it's hard but Just keep on working and be patient.

    Pinging your three articles should not be the cause of the rankings falling...

    The dance is normal and is something that we all go through, and eventually you learn that as long as you keep on working and building that your site will return and usually higher than it was before.

    Hope that helps...
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    • Profile picture of the author ilovechinesefood
      Originally Posted by unclebuck View Post

      ilovechinesefood, (meee too!)

      Your site is still relatively new, so I would bet that it's just the dance. Just keep building, you already said that they are coming back up in the serps.

      If you are using white hat techniques you should be fine. I know it's hard but Just keep on working and be patient.

      Pinging your three articles should not be the cause of the rankings falling...

      The dance is normal and is something that we all go through, and eventually you learn that as long as you keep on working and building that your site will return and usually higher than it was before.

      Hope that helps...
      Thanks, that puts my mind at ease. It's hard to keep calm when you work so hard on something just to see it vanish.
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  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi ilovechinesefood,


    You have not been sandboxed (the sandbox doesn't exist). Nor is this the Google Dance which effects established websites, which yours is not, yet.

    Your temporary listing on page 1 was due to the temporary boost of QDF, which is normal for new pages listed in Google's SERP. After that temporary boost wore off you page sank to it's currently earned position. This is normal and should be expected.

    Just keep doing solid promotion and you'll earn the higher rankings that you desire.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kevin Taylor
      I find it troubling to understand the theory of the Google Sandbox. Our site held a pagerank 2 for years. There was a lag of SEO efforts for about a year and we have recently begun improving our rankings again. The Google dance is indeed very frustrating but after years of experience I believe it does always end better than where it began if the SEO efforts are white-hat and consistent.
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  • Profile picture of the author Danny Woolard
    My situation is nearly identical.
    My Web 2.0s now have better pageranks, and the identical articles on Ezine are outperforming my site.

    Keywords that I should be top 10, I am now not even top 100...Ill take tricky unique excerpts in quotes from my articles and google doesnt even put me in top 100 anymore.

    Some keywords Im actually 22, 60, etc...So I know google didnt totally kick me to the curb.

    All whitehat, EXCEPT 2 spun articles I put on hubpages and squidoo, which are actually doing well in SERPs...

    Google now takes forever to spider and index my new pages as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author onedesk
    If you do a site search for your domain and don't see anything listed than you most likely have been penalized.
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