Sandboxed site finally on page 1

[cbp]

In previous threads I have talked about one of my severely sandboxed sites - we got to page one today.

Here what we did:
* it took 6.5 months (patience is a virtue)
* DMOZ and Yahoo Directory listings (as well as all the other main directories)
* Digital point co-op links and Powerlinks
* 6 of the top 20 sites for the keyword link to the site
* 100's of other links.
* varied anchor text in links
* on-page optmization OK (not overdone)
* as many deeplinks as possible

The Google algo change in Feb helped.

At the end of the day, there is no 'magic' formula, just leg work and patience

CBP

[janeth]

Glad to hear it worked out.

We have one we are working on right now as well.

[tcampione]

Originally Posted by cbp

In previous threads I have talked about one of my severely sandboxed sites - we got to page one today.

Congrats cbp!

I've had similar success with a similar approach. I was released on Feb 7, and showed up at the #6 spot for my most competitive. Today I've claimed #4.

I'm wondering, over the past six months have you received reqular page requests from any stealth GG IPs (e.g., 66.249.64.77 not identified as crawler) and if so have you see fewer since being released?

[cbp]

I'm wondering, over the past six months have you received reqular page requests from any stealth GG IPs (e.g., 66.249.64.77 not identified as crawler) and if so have you see fewer since being released?

I don't normally look - will have a look in a few days -- might be interesting.

CBP

[RichardS]

Congrats cbp!

Well it must be the end of times, because I just made it off of page 2 to page 1, currently the number 7 position. I wish I could remember everything I did. In between renaming my dog Google and shoeing him every now and then and yelling at the Google search results, I think it has to be attributed to all the great advice and topics from everyone.


Congrats again cbp




Cheers


RS

[cbp]

The paradoxical thing is, that the reason that Google may have implemented the sandbox or the aging delay for new domains or whatever it is ... is possibly related to some aspect of SEO (eg unnatural linking; too many links to quickly etc etc) ---- has only caused me to get more heavily involved in linking etc than I normally would to try and get out of it..... it is possible that long term effect of the sandbox is having the opposite effect of creating an even more unnaturally linked, SEO'd and distorted www

CBP

[cspelts]

I think you might be right - but only for the relatively few sites that have an SEO expert who really cares. I'm sure there are lots of web designers who gave up and stopped "optimizing" once they saw no affect on their ranking in Google. And in those cases, Google's sandbox may have worked exactly as planned.

[tcampione]

Originally Posted by cbp

it is possible that long term effect of the sandbox is having the opposite effect of creating an even more unnaturally linked, SEO'd and distorted www

Yes, but only as long as the sandbox is a relatively short period.

Imagine if rather than 9 - 12 months the period were 3 - 5 years (extreme example). Who would risk over optimizing and over-linking? In such a case, SEOs would cut back linking to an absolute minimum and link only with highly relevant sites for purposes of traffic rather than link value.

So maybe GG knows this already, and maybe this first round of the sandbox was no more than a trial run. I'm really speculating now, but I think the concept of a long term sandbox 'penalty' is worth considering as a possibility as to where G is going with it.

I'm not convinced that just because I'm out now that I could never be sent back.

It appears that a good number of older, well established sites have been boxed recently. To my knowledge, this has never happened before as only new domains where subject. I take this as evidence of an expansion of sandbox rules, and fodder for my ‘trusted domains’ theory.

/*tom*/

BTW: very nice work… I’ve heard of only one other (on another board) who busted out in 6 months.

[dwirken]

Google became a registrar if they are going to make a longer sandbox and this was just a trile than that would make the market from selling old domains only more valuable and to protect agains that there will be a new waiting period after a name ownership transfer. so than we must start placing good names in company's and start selling share's Al these things that they are thinking Up make new roads and more work for the SEO specialists.

[cbp]

Its up to 3rd today in Google!! (1st in MSN; 8th in Yahoo)

I guess when you in the sandbox, all you can do is keep working on content and keep working on links so you can kick ass when come out --- which is what I am now doing! (....don't get angry - get even :-)

CBP

[iamrussell]

Exact same thing happened to my 7 month old site. Today I'm #8! I've pretty much done everything you've done except get the DMOZ link. I guess you don't really need them...

[cyanide]

Originally Posted by cbp

Its up to 3rd today in Google!! (1st in MSN; 8th in Yahoo)

I guess when you in the sandbox, all you can do is keep working on content and keep working on links so you can kick ass when come out --- which is what I am now doing! (....don't get angry - get even :-)

CBP

Yep, exactly.
I have one particular site, with the owner bugging my constantly, that has suddenly showed up with some great results after this latest google update.

I've been a sandbox believer for a while now and this site definitely re-inforces it for me.

[RichardS]

Originally Posted by iamrussell

Exact same thing happened to my 7 month old site. Today I'm #8! I've pretty much done everything you've done except get the DMOZ link. I guess you don't really need them...

Yea I'm pretty much with all, Oh yea there were the human sacrifices to Satan I forgot about, I cant remember which thread I read that said it would help with Google rankigs. Hee hee:)


Cheers


RS

[voasi]

You can add me to the list as well. I've just had a 7 month old site pop up to #2 position on the top 2 keyword phrases optimized for. Duing the 7 month hiatus, the closest I got the site to where it needed to be was in the 40's.

Of course, there are ways around the sandbox if you don't have the patience... ;)

[crankydave]

After almost a year, the work is starting to pay off. After being almost non-exisistant, I have several #1 rankings and for almost all my key words and phrases a 1st or high 2nd page ranking. I'm going to join the rest by saying working hard on content and quality related links will payoff in the long run.

Now that you're out of the sandbox, do you kinda wish the others (competition) stay there for a while, or would you rather see them ranked to know what they're up to?

Dave

[tcampione]

Originally Posted by cbp

I don't normally look - will have a look in a few days -- might be interesting.

Thanks, but don't bother. I've just found the answer to "what are the stealth visits for?"

I was wondering if they had to do with sandboxed links because while in the box I received regular visits from a GG IP range that my analog stats did not resolve to googlebot and left unresolved. Oddly since out of the box (Feb 7) I’ve received only a few visits and they came within 24 hours of some new links.

Ah but ‘paranoia will destroy ya’ couldn’t be truer in this case. I’ve looked over raw log files (what a pain) and found for each ‘stealth’ visit there is an IP notation ‘google-image 1.1’.

It’s the image crawler!

Now how can I leverage those visits? :-)