Comment posted on Sandbox Effect: How to Play Nicely in Google’s Playground by Alex@keyword winner
If your seeing your site then you are not sandboxed. Google sandbox or whatever you want to call it basically stops the process of ranking your indexed pages for any keyphrases - regardless. If this was not the case you could simply reindex your pages with new targeted keywords.
With the results you are seeing, all I can say is ‘Welcome to SEO’ LOL!
“You know you know SEO when it makes no sense whatsoever” - Alex Whalley 
Thanks for your awesome comment Sayed - it was not a stupid question at all.
Alex@keyword winner also commented
- Thanks for sharing your own insights and wisdom Alex.
Varying anchor text should be something you are doing from the offset, so I can imagine it can only assist you to get out of trouble later on too. As for Google, I’m with you and Ana on that - nothing you can do but play by their rules I guess. (to a point of course ) - Thanks for sharing your insight Andreas, You always have some great value to add to the conversation. I appreciate you bringing it here too.
-
- As Ana said, thanks for sharing your experience Mike!
I’ll know what to do if I find a profitable niche site ends up in the sandpit next time now too!Awesome, well not for you at the time anyway.
- Ana,
I appreciate the kind words
thank you, the feeling is indeed mutual
Thanks for letting me stop by! (I know you were talking to Susanna there but still)
Recent comments by Alex@keyword winner
- 7 Tips To Make Your Comment Stick Out Like a Sore Thumb
Oh God - pressure to leave epic comment mounting…Ana,
Great post my friend, and one that I cannot agree with more. Blog commenting does incredible things for both traffic and ranking, and ANY tip that one can implement to get noticed amongst the scores of bloggers clamoring for attention can only be a good thing, right?
I have always made sure to make my comments stand out by using either humor, sarcasm, referencing something very specific from the post, - but as you said, I ALWAYS provided value first and foremost.
Thanks for sharing these tips, I personally use the first commentator trick, but I have not thought to add html to highlight it - nice
As for the name - I have a unique one, and aside from a professor in the states, I OWN it now (except this guy’s facebook page beats mine - and MINE is facebook/alexwhalley AND links to alexwhalley.com a million times…WHAT THE?!?! LOL…SEO man, what can you do )Sorry, went off on a tangent there. (long comments was on the list Alex - allright - giggidy
) - Improve Your Google Ranking: From Lame To Fame in 4 Easy Steps
Nice post Ana!I really like the feature of MS that allows you to see their links.
Does this provide the same details as say a link:domain search in Yahoo! or Google?Great summary and also great use of the plugins you speak so highly of
I just stick with common sense for the on page SEO side of things, but as for the research - I do like the look of MS.
- Make Money with Twitter
Ha! It’s 3:14am as I write this.Does that answer the coffee question
PS: Check the comment luv thread below - I gave you some awesome link love!! - Mistery of Google PageRank Solved?
Hell yes I agree with you!PR matters, but then so does the dress you wear out. BUT its not going to affect your evening. OK bad analogy but you get it
worry about what you CAN affect, not what you can’t.
My blog is just shy of 6 months old now and only last week ( I think) did I move to a PR2, so as you say…whatever.btw…
Two months old?!? WOW Ana, you are one to watch this year. - Make Money with Twitter
I never really thought about monetizing twitter but Harris does make some good points here. Clearly providing value first has got to be key, but I like that he talked about getting them focused on you - hard to do in the Twittosphere, but any tips can only be a good thing.
I am building up my following, almost 5000 atm, and it results in around 500 visits to my blog per month so definitely potential to monetize that traffic source.Thanks for the post Harris, and thanks Ana for posting it here so I could get my coffee AND learn a thing or two about the little blue bird
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I’ll play the devils advocate here.
By most SEO definitions, the sandbox isn’t when you are indexed, but not ranked, but when you are de-indexed completely.
Being indexed and not ranked is more commonly referred to as a “Google Dance”.
Symantics aside, the best advice I’ve ever heard regarding how to get out of it to keep building links to your site and don’t stop.
For the most part, when they see their site dancing around and panic and stop building links….a big no no.
Google is trying to “figure out” exactly where your site belongs in the search engines and by continuing to add links you show google that you indeed are a valid site.
Another misconception is that you can “get in trouble” for getting too many links too quickly.
Think of it this way, if it were that easy to penalize a site, don’t you think that some aggressive marketers would go out trying to “nuke” the competition and remove their competitors above them in the search engines?
There would be a whole cottage industry out there to “hurt your competition”, and in fact you can go out and buy link packages of 100K+ links to be sent out to any URL for very cheaply…
The worst that will happen is that your site might “dance around” a bit.
I do agree that having a solid link foundation will help round out your profile and help insulate you from your site dancing around.
My two cents…
Thoughts?
Hi Alex,
Great post. It’s a complicated subject, since Goggle’s sandbox and Google’s supplemental index seem so similar but are essentially different things. The sandbox is site wide and degrades the ranking of all pages. It’s particularly relevant to new sites, though older sites can still find ways to trigger it.
The supplemental index creates the same loss in ranking, but effects sites on a page by page level. I actually just wrote a post not too long ago about checking which webpages are in supplementals, and it inevitably sparked questions of Google’s sandbox in the comments. I’ll use the post as my commentluv link in case you want to check it out. Thanks again for all the helpful information.
Brian@Charleston Marketing´s last blog ..How To Keep Your Website Off Google’s Supplemental Index
Thanks for good stuff
Hello there,
Thanks for reading my post.
All the Best,
Ana
Alex that’s a nice topic brought by you and yes it’s true that sandbox exists and I have seen few of my bloggers friend getting into Google Sandboxing. This happened with them when they started blogging and they hired someone to build backlinks and do directory submissions.. For the first 2-3 days they got traffic and after that traffic from Google almost halted..After research they realize guy got them backlink from many non relevant niche including Gambling websites.
One thing is for sure, Google hates Casino and Gambling websites….!!
Harsh Agrawal@ Make Money Online´s last blog ..Six Ways You’re Cheating Your Blog’s Readers
Thanks for sharing that story Harsh. That’s why we need to really be careful with building backlinks because instead of the benefit we can gain, we might end up messing everything up.
Glad you came by,
Ana
Hi Alex
As always you have given us a great post that explains things even this newbie can understand
Sometimes not understanding all that goes on in the blogosphere is an advantage lol
I just write my articles (hopefully with the right keywords, interesting content ) and comment on other blogs and be involved in social media. As I am enjoying the journey and my site is ranking well (got to be some advantage having a small niche site) I guess Google are happy and so am I.
Patricia Perth Australia
Patricia@lavenderuses´s last blog ..A Dental visit with a difference…where’s the lavender
That’s a great way to handle things Patricia. Instead of worrying about everything, you just enjoy and continue to love what you’re doing and you’re absolutely doing it right.
Keep it up,
Ana
Hey Patricia,
I love your approach to link building, or lack thereof. Every single link that you have ever built will stay up so long as the blog stays up, and THAT is a very powerful foundation with which to build upon.
This is why Google are happy.
Thanks for your insight and your support - as always!
Alex´s last blog ..Easy SEO just arrived with Keyword Winner WP Plugin
Hi Ana,
hi Alex,
a great article. I like the analogy with the sandbox. Well, Google is a 12 year-old boy who is pretty powerful, isn’t he ? Just like Susanna I haven’t known much about this topic and you broke it down very nicely.
Thanks for sharing.
Take care
Oliver
Oliver Tausend´s last blog ..Outsourcing For Network Marketers – Oliver Tausend’s First Steps
Nice to see you again Oliver. I’m glad that you picked up lots of info from this post. Thanks to Cori.
Take Care,
Ana
Cheers Oliver,
I appreciate the feedback and I’m glad the post was valuable in some way.
(Thanks Ana for allowing me to share it here as well!)
Alex´s last blog ..Easy SEO just arrived with Keyword Winner WP Plugin
Thanks Ana for sharing this post!
Hey Alex,
I don’t know much on this topic and found the information fascinating. Thank you for breaking it down and keeping it easy to follow.
Thank you!
Susanna
You’re welcome Susanna. Alex is definitely one of the great in this field.
Thanks for stopping by,
Ana
Ana,
I appreciate the kind words
thank you, the feeling is indeed mutual 
Thanks for letting me stop by! (I know you were talking to Susanna there but still)
Alex´s last blog ..The Bluebird and the Cannibal Goldfish A love story
Susanna,
So glad you found the post informative and helpful.
I appreciate you taking the time to comment as such.
Alex´s last blog ..Easy SEO just arrived with Keyword Winner WP Plugin
Lol, I have been sandboxed once in my life and I never want to experience it again. If you find out that you’re sandboxed, I think the quickest way is register a new domain name and then transfer your website over there. That’s what I did and it worked in my case. I hope next time, I will be more careful and check to see if my domain has been sandboxed. If it is, I will not register it
Mike´s last blog ..Content Professor Review- Create Spinned Content Online For Free Limited Time Offer!
Hello Mike,
Thanks for the additional inputs and for sharing your own experience on this topic and how you we’re able to provide solution. I’m glad you did.
Cheers to that,
Ana
As Ana said, thanks for sharing your experience Mike!
I’ll know what to do if I find a profitable niche site ends up in the sandpit next time now too!
Awesome, well not for you at the time anyway.
Alex´s last blog ..Do-Follow- nofollow Do you even know where you’re going
Ana - I really like your approach. Precise yet not over technical and that’s a lot more than one can say of others who post on these subjects.
Cheers
Frieke
Frieke Karlovits´s last blog ..Blue Personalities – Traditionally Called Sanguine
Hello Frieke,
Thanks for liking this post by my friend Alex.
Glad you came by,
Ana
Alex´s last blog ..Easy SEO just arrived with Keyword Winner WP Plugin
Previously sites went into the sandbox when they got too many links too quickly as determined by the search engine. Nowadays I observe that such sites rank, but not well.
Thanks for sharing your insight Andreas, You always have some great value to add to the conversation. I appreciate you bringing it here too.
Alex´s last blog ..Want Quality backlinks Follow Me!
Hey Alex great article and easy to understand even for newbies!
I always find that the lack of real competition for Google makes them to experiment with our websites results however they want. They can make sandboxes, google dances etc.
Sandboxes are a real pain if you want to rank really high for a certain keyword really fast. I usually find that is easy to exit the sandbox if you can get 2 or 3 links from sites with a certain authority in that niche. Also, linking to internal pages also seems to speed up the process.
I don’t know if this has something to do with it but varying your anchors might help also (makes it look less spammy and more natural).
Alex@Jocuri´s last blog ..Hockey in patru
Hello Alex,
Thanks for the additional input. They are great as well. As with Google, I guess you’re right, they can do whatever they want, they can dictate and make changes if they want.
All the best,
Ana
Thanks for sharing your own insights and wisdom Alex.
)
Varying anchor text should be something you are doing from the offset, so I can imagine it can only assist you to get out of trouble later on too. As for Google, I’m with you and Ana on that - nothing you can do but play by their rules I guess. (to a point of course
Alex´s last blog ..Easy SEO just arrived with Keyword Winner WP Plugin
Hey Alex,
That was a great article! I really liked the way you described the sandbox effect. Irrelevant backlinks can definitely prove a problem when trying to obtain good search engine positions. I strongly agree that blog commenting is a great method when it comes to building quality links. Although it takes time, posting a comment doesn’t require too much efforts. If you have read an article, then why not throw in your thoughts about it in the comments section? It’s not much of a headache.
Keep it up mate!
Daniel Sharkov@Blogging Tips´s last blog ..Frequent vs Infrequent Blog Posting Schedule
Hey Daniel!
Thanks for coming over and supporting this post mate - much appreciated!
Glad you enjoyed the post, and I like your take on commenting for links. If you’re there to learn, why not get a free link out of it too. Nice
Alex@keyword winner´s last blog ..The Bluebird and the Cannibal Goldfish A love story
Alex,
Great stuff as always! A wonderful explanation on sandboxing. At least Google hasn’t invented the kids who come over and kick sand in your eyes. (maybe that is Bing!)
Sometimes early on it is hard to differentiate real “sandboxing” with the normal bounce a new site has when it first gets indexed. There is usually a natural high rank followed by drop followed by a rise again in my experience.
Steve@Lifestyle Design´s last blog ..5 Easy Ways to Save Time
Hey Steve!
I like your add to the analogy. Bing indeed
I agree that this sandboxing is not really relevant in a site’s very early days, because as you said, this is the natural bounce.
Thanks for sharing Steve, I mean Scott. Site?
Alex´s last blog ..The Bluebird and the Cannibal Goldfish A love story
I noted the same and not only in Google, but in some other SE. Very often a new site may even completely disappear from the index, although the robot regularly visits it, but then reappears again.
Dennis´s last blog ..Decorate Your Blog For Halloween- Free Icons- WordPress Templates and Tutorials
Yes it’s usually like that Dennis and you’re right, it does not only happen in google but in other sites too.
Thanks for dropping by,
Ana
And so, the mystery continues. Is social bookmarking okay to build these backlinks when the domain is new?
Moon Hussain´s last blog ..Do People Want to Hear That Making Money Online Can Take Time
In my experience, yes it has been perfectly OK. I won’t go into detail because a: I don;t want to ;0 and b: you already know
but yeah, I mix that with blog commenting and a sprinkling or randomness thrown in for the first month or so
Thanks for stopping by Moon!
Alex´s last blog ..The Bluebird and the Cannibal Goldfish A love story
I’m not sure if I’ve been sandboxed before or not, but I do wonder sometimes what on earth goes on. On my niche site challenge it’s google rank fluctuates like a yoyo.
How long do you find before a site ranks at a stable position?
Mark Bell´s last blog ..Twitter Dummy Learn to market your website effectively
Hey Mark!
Welcome to SEO man hahaha!
You even notice this fluctuation with blog posts. I’ll rank first out of millions for a day or so before dissapearing for a while and then settling whereever the hell it does. stupid Google.
I think 3 months is the time I would say when my sites finally come to rest, so to speak.
Thanks heaps for the support here brother!
Alex´s last blog ..The Bluebird and the Cannibal Goldfish A love story
I’ve always referred to “the sandbox” as the time period when Google will not rank a new domain.
When a domain is penalized for doing something wrong I understand that as a penalty as opposed to being in “the sandbox”
I could be wrong this is just how I’ve understood the terminology.
Gerald Weber´s last blog ..Does SERPd Need a Copywriting Category
Hey Gerald,
Thanks for taking time to read this post. I’m glad that you’ve been enlightened about what sandbox is.
Have a nice day,
Ana
This whole sandbox idea seems like a really fuzzy science to me. I hate that incoming links affect my blogs status in that way in that I really have limited control who links to me. I have much more control over my outgoing links.
Richard´s last blog ..How Much Cash Am I Going To Generate Through Adsense
Richard,
I think the whole sandbox thing IS a fuzzy science, not sure if that is the official Google term for it though
Granted you have no control over who links to you - to a point, but hey as long as they’re linking to you - you must exist. It cant all be bad.
Thanks for your comment Richard
Alex@keyword winner´s last blog ..Keyword Winner SEO WordPress Plug-in
Hey Alex, Thanks for the post,
My blog is pretty new, only 2 weeks old, and I’m not sure if its Sandboxed or not because sometimes when I search for a specific page within my blog on Google using the exact name as the title of the post for example, I get on the first page a completely different post than the one I searched for, its still from within my site, but a different post.
But if I click next for a few more pages I can find that post on like the 5th+ page, so I’m not sure if that post is being Sandboxed or not.
Is it possible for certain sections of the site to be Sandboxed while other sections indexed and ranked high?
Sorry I’m still a newbie.
Sayed´s last blog ..Updated Plugins List
If your seeing your site then you are not sandboxed. Google sandbox or whatever you want to call it basically stops the process of ranking your indexed pages for any keyphrases - regardless. If this was not the case you could simply reindex your pages with new targeted keywords.
With the results you are seeing, all I can say is ‘Welcome to SEO’ LOL!
“You know you know SEO when it makes no sense whatsoever” - Alex Whalley
Thanks for your awesome comment Sayed - it was not a stupid question at all.
Alex@keyword winner´s last blog ..Keyword Winner SEO WordPress Plug-in
Good post, Alex - I would add that a new blog can almost expect to go into the sandbox, within the first 30 days. When I started TaB, I had a few pages that ranked in the top 20, then it fell off for awhile. After a few weeks, those same pages came right back, with no action on my part. On several occasions, I believe that Matt Cutts has alluded to there being a human review process, but it is hard to fathom how that could be the case, with so much new content.
Hey Roy!
Hahaha, can you imagine that! Manually reviewing the 6 gazillion pages that are indexed every second…whoa!
I guess you are right in a sense about a new site - but its less a sandbox (or penalty) than simply your site establishing itself as the backlinks are all indexed and recognised.
Maybe - that’s my take on it anyway.
Thanks for your comments Roy!
Alex@keyword winner´s last blog ..Keyword Winner SEO WordPress Plug-in
Hey Alex, Sandbox effect without a question sucks. Its ok when you get sandbox few weeks after your website was index because its a brand new site and Google has it way of ranking you till you get some quality backlinks. When launching a new site there is no secrets build slow but steady Quality over Quantity is the most important rule,
Marios
Marios´s last blog ..AffiloRama Affiliate Marketing Training Portal
Hey Mario!
Thanks for the comments mate - I think you pretty much summed up my whole post quite nicely there.
I’ll drink to that! Cheers
Alex@keyword winner´s last blog ..Geez- I wish I knew THAT when I started Blogging!
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