Out of the sandbox... then back in again

Bluesuit · #1 (**permalink**) 11-07-2004, 09:29 AM

After six months and a lot of hard work I finally came out of the sandbox on Friday. I ranked #25 out of 5.3m results for my very competitive keyword whereas I didn't even feature in the top 1000 before. The business started to flow nicely.

Then late yesterday I was back to where I was before - with nothing. Today I'm still not in the top 1000. For a brief moment I was feeling pretty good.

Can anyone explain what's going on?

Regards
Bluesuit

zoreli · #2 (**permalink**) 11-07-2004, 03:49 PM

Same here. Customer of mine where nowhere in SERP's on Google (not in first 1000) and in friday he was on #1 for few of his keywords and on second pages for some other keywords.

Today, he is nowhere in the first 1000 again. I am guessing of course, but I think that Google from some reason restore previous data. I hope to see my client back in 2-3 days.

Regards, Zoreli

Softland · #3 (**permalink**) 11-08-2004, 05:53 AM

It happened to me too like 3 or 4 times before, and this week-end again.
Basically it somehow regulary (or acidentally) restores previous cached versions of the website. So it's like on Friday the website showed to be last cached on 4th of November and now it shows to be last updated on 27th of October.
From my last experiences this should be back to normal in a couple of days (hopefully 3-4 days).
It is somehow related to their servers, either some of them fail from time to time so they have to restore the last backup, or because those are "updated by rotation".

sudhani · #4 (**permalink**) 11-08-2004, 06:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluesuit

Can anyone explain what's going on?

My observations:

The results have been changing quite a bit (No major changes) over the last 20 days or so, for the websites I am monitoring. IMHO, today's results are not the best.

Hopefully, Google should revert back to the SERPs where youfigured out in the top 25.

Did you try relative:www.yourdomain.com command? check the websites you are assosciated with. And if it shows no results, it means your website is not "fully indexed and classified" by google. During this period, your results are bound to be volatile, till "google settles" you for a particular rank.

As far as Sandbox goes, 6 months is too long. Look for other quiality / spammy signals from your website and links. Try deep linking, it should help.

Btw, which website you are refering to? you are #15 for cheap car insurance for your first website in your footer.

DriWashSolutions · #5 (**permalink**) 11-08-2004, 07:43 AM

A competitor of mine was nowhere top be found in the SERPS, then on Saturday, he's #4 for the competing keyword.

If these serps stay, it seems to me like they're ever-so-slowly reverting back to the pre-Florida update.

Tamera Billings · #6 (**permalink**) 11-08-2004, 09:37 AM

I tried that relative:www command I get nothing. How long does it take Google to recognize that you exist? I have over 500 links to my site. Google says I have about 135. I am starting to believe everyone when they say MSN is the better search engine. At least they know I exist.

www.pinelakedistribution.com

Can anyone tell me why I might be in "the sandbox"?

How would you know if your in the sandbox?

Softland · #7 (**permalink**) 11-09-2004, 04:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tamera Billings

I tried that relative:www command I get nothing. How long does it take Google to recognize that you exist?
www.pinelakedistribution.com

Can anyone tell me why I might be in "the sandbox"?

How would you know if your in the sandbox?

The relative: command I don't think it works (at least on Google it doesn't).
If you want to check how many pages Google indexed for your site just look at your logs and see what resources googlebot accessed and when.
Then you can check that on Google directly too, using site:www.pinelakedistribution.com . I did that and it seems that you have like 96 pages indexed and the last time your first page was indexed it's 8th of November. So don't worry, you're doing just fine in my opinion.

greeneagle · #8 (**permalink**) 11-09-2004, 07:57 AM

The sandbox is becoming a "black hole".

Ken

pne · #9 (**permalink**) 11-09-2004, 08:04 AM

Ken,

Agreed, and six months is not too long (unfortunately). I think your previous 03/12 is much more accurate.

pne

sudhani · #10 (**permalink**) 11-10-2004, 03:46 AM

I could not open your website to comment more.

The interesting thing is your PR, Which is zero. You will get a PR even if you are in SandBox. Look for spammy signals from your website / links.

Firwefly · #11 (**permalink**) 11-10-2004, 04:44 AM

Softland:

Quote:

Basically it somehow regulary (or acidentally) restores previous cached versions of the website.

Same happened to my site yesterday - and it doubled my links.

Softland · #12 (**permalink**) 11-10-2004, 06:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eSolutionsWork

Softland:

Quote:

Basically it somehow regulary (or acidentally) restores previous cached versions of the website.

Same happened to my site yesterday - and it doubled my links.

So you're saying that it restored an older version of your site and you got more backlinks?
Because in this case it means that soon the number of your links will be in half.

kevlar129 · #13 (**permalink**) 11-16-2004, 02:49 AM

Hi all. I'm new here, and consider myself far from a web designer/master. I've written my site lately, and I believe I'm in the sandbox. Is there a way to certainly tell, and if not, can someone give me a guesstimate timeline of my PR/index status update?
Thank you all for your replies.

...just feelin' a little whooped!

Bluesuit · #14 (**permalink**) 11-16-2004, 04:31 AM

Well as I started this post I should give an update on my position. Later on Sunday (UK time) I was back ranking very highly again for my kw. This continued through most of Monday then late Monday I was out again - not even in the top 1000.

This in and out of the sandbox business (if that's what it is) has now happened to my site several times in the last two weeks. This morning (Tuesday) I am still out of the top 1000.

Bluesuit

nipplecharms1 · #15 (**permalink**) 11-16-2004, 10:05 AM

How would you know if your in the sandbox?[/quote]
The relative: command I don't think it works (at least on Google it doesn't).
If you want to check how many pages Google indexed for your site just look at your logs and see what resources googlebot accessed and when.
Then you can check that on Google directly too, using site:www.pinelakedistribution.com . I did that and it seems that you have like 96 pages indexed and the last time your first page was indexed it's 8th of November. So don't worry, you're doing just fine in my opinion.[/quote]

No one has defined, for us sort of new people, what IS the "sandbox".

And when i do a site:mydomain, it only shows all 31 of my pages, and none of the back links i have. Does that mean that Der GoogleBot HAS scanned my site?

Thanks gang. I LOVE THIS SITE!

michael

Maximilian · #16 (**permalink**) 11-16-2004, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nipplecharms1

And when i do a site:mydomain, it only shows all 31 of my pages, and none of the back links i have. Does that mean that Der GoogleBot HAS scanned my site?

Greetings - Michael (your nick gives me the giggles)!

Google, unless you use a "hack" URL, will always only present a small sampling of the inbound links to your site. Google is certainly aware of all of these IBLs & does take them into consideration when providing your website with placement in keyword search returns.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!
Max

nipplecharms1 · #17 (**permalink**) 11-16-2004, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maximum-Beauty.com

Greetings - Michael (your nick gives me the giggles)!

Google, unless you use a "hack" URL, will always only present a small sampling of the inbound links to your site. Google is certainly aware of all of these IBLs & does take them into consideration when providing your website with placement in keyword search returns.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!
Max

Dear Max,

Makes is worse :(

IBL = inbound links? Hack URL? (clueless, and i am not even blonde.... ok ok, not offending blondes per se.) So does that mean we were atleast indexed once?

And what is everyone's opinion on changing text on the page? does that really matter, how much and how often?

Thx all,

michael

Maximilian · #18 (**permalink**) 11-16-2004, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nipplecharms1

IBL = inbound links? Hack URL? So does that mean we were atleast indexed once?

And what is everyone's opinion on changing text on the page? does that really matter, how much and how often?

Hi again, Michael!

Don't worry 'bout those terms - you have been indexed by Google, if they show a sampling of your IBLs (inbound links). I, personally, do not wish for my competitors to easily view all of my IBLs.

You may wish to include your keyword phrases within you page < title > tag & be sure the in-site links & your image < alt > tags within your site pages use your keywords - this will certainly help. I do not think anyone has nailed down, if & when page content changes need to be done.

BTW - Don't let the SEO lingo throw you - Its part of the learning process.

Cheers!
Max

Mike Sands · #19 (**permalink**) 11-18-2004, 06:22 AM

Max said:
Don't worry 'bout those terms - you have been indexed by Google, if they show a sampling of your IBLs (inbound links). I, personally, do not wish for my competitors to easily view all of my IBLs.

I tried site:www.marketingmasters.co.uk and got results back, but can't see anywhere any IBL, nor can I see where another poster could spot the last time 'the first page was indexed'. Max are you saying that if there are no IBLs shown, it hasn't been indexed?
Mike

Mel · #20 (**permalink**) 11-18-2004, 06:39 AM

The site:yoururl search will return all the pages which google has indexed, but will show you nothing about links. In the list of pages returned recently indexed pages will show a date alongside the url which is the date the page was indexed/

The Gooooogle link:yoururl search will show you a small sample of the pages that link to you. You can search @yoururl to see more pages which contain your url and most of these will be links.