Sandboxed or not?

solarchris · #1 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 02:04 PM

I'm a little baffled of late. I run a website at www.hotelchain.net and have for a number of years. I have had some real success with this site, optimizing pretty much for Google alone and until about 3 weeks ago was way up on page one for the keywords "Las Vegas Hotels" or "Cheap hotels in Las Vegas" etc etc. Any combination saw me way up there. I have followed a very strict link campaign, keeping everything in the demo. About 3 weeks ago the site was completely zapped from Google's index, nowehere to be seen. If I do a Google search on hotelchain.net, I get a link displayed in the results but with no description, which tells me something strange has happened.

Any ideas from anyone? I'm sure I am one of many this has happened to but I can't quite get why as I havene't altered the pages drastically for a long time. Sure am missing the $$

greeneagle · #2 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 02:18 PM

Someone needs to get a grip on what is going on with all these highly competitive Sites with good PR that have fallen out of the SERPs since last GOOGLE update.

Several are being reported and it doesn't seem like we have a real good handle on what happened yet.

You may want to review this thread:
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=49752

You didn't happen to notice a substantial drop in total SERPs for your KW categories in GOOGLE about the same time did you?

Ken

solarchris · #3 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 09:20 PM

I have seen no changes from my keywords in the other search engines. MSN, Ask Jeeves etc perfectly fine. However, I usually get about 5% of traffic from those SE's so it's not much of a concern of mine I have to say. All my other sites are still way up at the top but hotelchain.net is in limbo. I suspect things will turn around, but we'll see.

Thanks for the link I'm about to give it a read...

solarchris · #4 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 09:34 PM

Just read your thread on sandbox theory. Frankly I don't care whether the sandbox exists or not, fact of the matter is that Google DOES do things to certain websites once in a while for either one reason or another. It's frustrating when one follows legit protocol and you get zapped anyway. Whether I have been sandboxed or not, I don't know but something has happened. Let's invent a new name shall we, maybe "Google Poo" - cos at the end of the day, if you have been thrust from the search engines there's no denying it is there? As of now I have officially been "google-poo'd!"

Sure would be nice if there was some sound theories on this, but I guess patience is a virtue - it just ain't one of mine!

greeneagle · #5 (**permalink**) 08-10-2005, 08:22 AM

solarchris:
"Sure would be nice if there was some sound theories on this..."

The best recommendation is to continue with promotional efforts. Maybe even include articles about vegas etc..

Appeal to traveler's dreams different ways. If the money is there include a convention schedule etc...

Ken