Many of you have been pretty interested about my last 30 articles in 30 days experiment. I took a newer and weaker site this time and did quite a bit of article distribution for links using Unique Article Wizard.
I’ve seen quite a bit of movement in the search engine results, but the problem is that the site can’t seem to break the top 50 for anything. You’re in a much better position when you move up from position 400+ to position 50, but you still aren’t going to get any traffic. You never see anything significant until you break the top 10 and you see a huge jump once you break the top 5.
The experiment ended a few weeks ago but to be sure that being sandboxed was the issue, I did some testing. It definitely felt like the site was sandboxed but the only way to really tell is to do more work and wait. I added some good links that should have pushed the site up into the top 50 for some keywords and I got no improvement. When this happens it tells you that you’re boxed.
In the case of this site, I can see that it was already boxed when I bought it because it gets about exactly the same traffic now as it did when I acquired it. If the experiment had gotten it sandboxed, the existing traffic would have gone down and that didn’t happen.
How To Deal With Getting Sandboxed
Usually what you have to do to get out of the sandbox is prove to Google that the site is going to keep getting fresh content, which means you need to post more often. You also want to scale back so that you’re adding single links only – that means no new blogroll links and no article-distribution links. You probably want to post like three times per week if on a site that’s in the box – this seems to get the site out more quickly.
Unique Article Wizard can still be pretty effective but you have to change how you use it on a site that’s in the sandbox. What I would do to help a site like this is create some stronger, single links on EzineArticles or Squidoo. The EzineArticles and Squidoo pages link to your site and you use UAW to strengthen your Ezine and Squidoo pages. This will help your rankings and will make it so that you aren’t using article links while you’re boxed – remember that you want to add only single links if you’re boxed.
Formula For Dealing With The Sandbox
- Post three or four time per week, at least
- Add single links only
- Strengthen single links by pointing links at them
Tags: article distribution, google, sandbox, unique article wizard
A great, great tool….. I figured hitting UAW harder would be the key for my sandboxed site (my first one since I started using your sniping methods around this time last year) …. so, now I will scale back, and work on submitting to ezine, and strengthening the ezine article with links.
That’s what I would do!
Is it possible to get at single page sandboxed?
I mean if you post one article to EzineArticles and then go berserk using UAW to link to that particular article. Could that get that one article sandboxed?
Yeah that actually can happen Mikael. Normally what I see though if UAW is overdone is that the URL will be removed from Google’s index permanently. As long as you don’t overdo it though this doesn’t happen.
Just to clarify Court, you said: You also want to scale back so that you’re adding single links only – that means no new blogroll links and no article links. By “article links” you mean links from UAW not EzineArticles right? I’ve never had to deal with a site in the sandbox before but it’s good to know I’ll have a simple, solid plan in case I ever get myself in trouble!
@Mikeal that’s a really interesting question!!
Yeah Amanda that’s right. Thanks for a great question – I edited that line in the post.
Or you could just wait for the site to get out of sandbox
Yup
how long does it take?
Hey Court,
What about a sandboxed website that’s NOT a blog? For example, if you build a site that promotes one affiliate product and there isn’t really any reason to add additional content to it (especially at the rate of 3-4 times a week). Would the only strategy then be to wait it out?
You can still add more pages to the site Scarlett, or yes you can just wait it out.
Hey Court, this may be a little off topic but you did mention something similar in the second paragraph.
I have a 16 month old site that is finally on page one for the main key words that I have been targeting. It is currently #6 but sometimes drops to #9. According to the Google key word tool with “Match Type- Exact” ASV for Feb. is 14,800 and ASV is 14,800. With “Match Type- Broad” ASV for Feb. is 14,800 and ASV is 60,800. I am only getting 100+ visits per day at my current position. Do you see a significant increase once I go below #6? It’s frustrating because I thought that when I break page 1 the traffic would get better. It has barely changed from page 2 traffic. Thanks, Ben
There’s a pretty big difference inside the top 5 Ben. The reason behind this is simple – you can see the top 5 normally without scrolling down.
If the ASV (average search volume) is 14,800 you can expect to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 197 people per day in position #1. That’s 40% of the traffic that’s available each day.
Usually it drops around 10% per position (some keywords drop off a lot more).
Thanks for this post–my month-old sites are currently on page 1 and 2 for their primary keyword phrases while G rotates them through the new site phase, so this is the critical time for keeping them out of the Box. I’m linking to them from a PR2 authority site, but I’m also going to step up the posting, back off on UAW a bit, and focus on getting an Ezine article linking to each site. The nice thing is, UAW content passes EZA inspection with flying colors as long as you give it a unique title.
Hi Court,
Quick question here. Is it possible for a blog to get sandboxed, JUST for a particular keyword?
Here’s the story. One of my niche blog just disappeared on the top 100 in Google (used to be at the top 10) for THAT particular keyword. Other keywords rankings are unaffected btw.
What should I do then?
I’ve had this exact problem on two sites now. It seems to happen for the most competitive keyword in the niche. The first site this happened for was a 1 word keyword that got 7,000 searches a day. I did great then I just couldn’t rank for it for months.
That happened early on when I knew very little about SEO and I never improved my rankings. It happened again for me back in January and February on my main blog.
I’m targeting the keyword “SEO”. I was doing ok and ranking on page 4 or 5. I had taken a few months off and in January I started getting links again and every time I got an exact anchored link (SEO), Google would just dump me out of the index for that keyword. After a few days, I’d come back. Then a friend gave me two exact anchor PR 4 links from two sites that are 4 to 5 years old. The next day I disappeared for the keyword “SEO”, but everything else was fine. I waited it out, but it went about two weeks and I would not rank.
The way I solved the problem was by reducing my optimization. I changed to the less competitive phrase “SEO Tips”. I then focused on getting link for several long tail SEO phrases and avoided the exact anchor completely. I also registered my domain for an extra year just to get another positive signal. A week later, I showed up on page 6. Now it’s about a month later and I am on page 3 ranked at #25.
In my opinion, Google has separate filters and checks for highly competitive terms to prevent crash and burn sites from quickly targeting those terms. I was over optimized and triggered some type of filter for that keyword only. Once my site “passively” promoted that word, Google was happy with me again.
Once my site has its one year birthday, I’m expecting a boost in trust. I’m sure my site’s age played into the filter. My site was only 9 months at the time and was standing next to marketers like Donna, QuadsZilla, Brad Callen, Eli and Graywolf. I’m sure it caught somebody’s attention.
[btw, everyone listen to what Court has to say =P, I'm 12 spots from Rand Fishkin and working my way up. About 70% of my knowledge came from him, Griz, and Vic.]
Court,
Nice to hear the results/updates with the experiment. It gives us a much clearer perspective on how to go about with brand new sites.
By the way Court, is there a formula for avoiding the sandbox?
Thanks.
Alvin,
Don’t you mean that it gives us a clear picture of what NOT to do? I think Court has mentioned it before and stated that the best way to avoid the sandbox is to go slow for the first 6-12 months.
@Court – A point I came to think about when I read Alvin’s comment is that if the site was already in the sandbox doesn’t that mean that your experiment doesn’t really show anything? Or am I missing something here?
Yeah Mikael I’m not really feeling like I learned a ton from that experiment, other than the fact that the site was already sandboxed. LOL
Hey Court
I did several UAW submissions for a site that was less than a month old and I think I did them too fast. I began getting over 50 visitors a day for a couple days and then yesterday I got 12. I was on the second page of good for the keyword and when I last checked; I can’t find my site.
I slowed down the UAW submissions and was wondering should I completely stop the submissions? The blog is setup to post twice a week; should I post at least once more or will the blog come back with just 2 subs each week.
My other blogs are all about 3-4 months old; should I begin working with UAW more or let them age naturally by themselves?
They are still not getting that much traffic some are getting less than 20 visitors each day.
Not sure how to really grow their traffic without hurting them.
Thanks
Susan
Susan if there are questions in your mind the best thing to do is link from Ezine, Squidoo, or HubPages and then strengthen those pages with UAW.
What is the average time and longest time you had a site in the sandbox? Any experience with sandbox time and not doing anything to the domain, how long has it been there?
I have heard that site can be boxed for 2-8 months. Have one new site in the box but I’m not waiting to it come out. I’m already building new sites and when the one comes out and new sites goes in and I will build more sites along the way. That way I will have sites in the google index all the time and eventually all the sites hopefully will come out from the box and earn my cup of tea ^_^
Sami it depends on a lot of factors. I’ve seen sites come out in three weeks and I’ve seen others take 12 months. I’d say on average it takes about 3 months.
I do know what the Google sandbox feels like and it’s not like any sandbox I landed in as a kid. It’s no fun at all actually.
I have been in the sandbox with a number of times with a number of web sites and the sides are pretty steep. It is my opinion that you have to build a set of steps to get out and that can only be done with good content and relevant back links.
But with a bit of time and work I usually wiggle my way back out and things improve. Then I create another site and jump right back in. Maybe it’s more fun than I think.
@James “sitting in the google sandbox” Man
How long does it usually take you to get out of the sandbox? Since you mentioned you have some experience with it!
I have been reading a lot about the sandbox effect from reliable sources (aka matt cutts) and I realized that by allowing the domain to age (6 months sounds good enough)and having some authority links, plus of course heavy content (court said posting more often will help) you will most likely avoid it.
Another point that Grizz mentioned was the fact that you need to remove adsense from your blog (so as not to make Google think your blog is an MFA) and not install until the blog gets some regular search traffic and has at least 6 months.
Therefore, here’s the formula that I believe will help avoid the sandbox:
- Buy a domain name and let it age
- Add some valuable content to it and
- Add some authority backlink (PR3 or higher)
- Not add adsense code until it’s at least 6 months old
- add more content over the weeks
- After the 6 months, start a heavy link building campaign (aka UAW)
I hope that helps.
@Court, and everyone,
Please let me know what you think of my points mentioned above.
Thanks
If people did that Hassan they would probably avoid the sandbox altogether.
Hassan–I agree with your points above, except six months may be a bit steep. Grizzly waits till his sites are getting 300 visitors a day, even if they’re only a couple months old (unless he’s doing one of his hot news item projcts, where all the rules go out the window). Of course, getting PR3 backlinks is no problem for him.
This is just my theory, and it might be way out of line, but I suspect G might decide whether to box a brand new site based on a formula that includes your traffic, backlink profile, and maybe even length of visitor stay. I’ve noticed a pattern with my new sites: about a week after they’re indexed, they go on page 1 for the primary keywords in my domain name. Then page 2. Then page 4. After that, they either drop down below top 100 but aren’t boxed, or they go into the box. Some people call it the google dance, but I’ve wondered if it’s not a little more deliberate than that. I guess we’ll never know.
This is a great post with great comments, thanks so much. It sounds like there are really 3 strategies for blogs then; one for if they’re new, one for when they are ranked, and one for when they are sandboxed. For the new sites you start with EZ and get a few blogroll links; for ranked sites you move to UAW and more aggressive link building, and when sandboxed you post more and get single links (with stronger links to the single links). Hope I got that right!
maybe you were hit by page 5 penalty? email me and I can check the site for you.
By reading all these comments, it would appear that there’s NO way (other than luck and happenstance) to avoid the sandbox if your website is in any way monetized, which would mean that it’s impossible to make money solely via organic search traffic for at least a few months while your domain and website “ages”. Is that the case?
It just seems like you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. If you get a lot of backlinks straight away, you could be sandboxed for it. But if you make no particular effort to monetize or get backlinks for the first six months, you’re making no money in the meantime. I guess I’m just frustrated after reading so many claims about how you can make X amount of money in your first month or two of internet marketing, which means these people are either exaggerating, or they made their money before the sandbox came into play, or they’re doing something completely different that using AdSense or affiliate sites that heavily rely on organic search engine traffic. So what’s the answer? I’m stumped!
The answer is to build a site and see what happens.
Scarlett, I think you’re seeing ghosts where there are none. First of all the sandbox has nothing to do with monetization of the site or not. You can have a plain (non adsense/non affiliate) site go into the sandbox as well. That makes no difference. Often times you will just find that sites using adsense or affiliate links will have links built faster because people wants to make money. It is the link building that gets them and not because they are trying to make money.
The best thing to do is just take it slow. Instead of trying to get massive amounts of links a day (5-10 or more), then try to get some of the higher quality links (higher PR pages) instead. It will often take a lot longer to get a PR6 links than it will to get a PR0 link but because of the time involved you are keeping yourself from building links too fast.
Note: it doesn’t have to be a PR6 link. PR3 or PR4 will do and can often times take a fair amount of time getting from RELATED sites that is NOT owned by you (don’t get tempted to used your own network and build links fast even though you can).
Hi Court,
What do you mean when you say “You also want to scale back so that you’re adding single links only – that means no new blogroll links and no article-distribution links.”
Is that single links pointing to your site from outside sources?
What do you recommend for a daily submission # to Squidoo pages and ezine pages you just created….
how do i know if my blog gets sandboxed ?
I’ve been lucky in avoiding the sandbox until now. My last three sites got ranked very nicely thank you; the current one, an insurance lead generation company is stuck.
It only seems to be affected on three or four keyword phrases – the major ones of course! I’ve concluded that I should simply slowly build links on other, related keywords and be patient.
Very difficult for me to do :-0
This obsession with Google LUV hurts everyone. There’s not nearly enough concrete info and in-depth analysis of how to truly optimize effectively for Yahoo and MSN to diversify and strengthen your foundation so that the sea of Goog’s sometimes daily mood-shifts don’t overturn our boats. I’ve yet to find good tactical info on effective correlations and implementations to getting G/Y/M love with balance.
Beware the hand that feeds you: I’ve yanked Analytics and AdSense off several of my sites – I simply refuse to continuously give Goog the in-depth power tools they need (and use) to reward or punish my words with. Yank those snippets of code and you can FORCE Goog to scramble to reevaluate you for a burst of a more ‘organic’ rating of your site. It may be brief and temporary, but you can continue steady, methodical link-building in the interim. Appease them by re-adding the code for awhile to trigger a new round of getting felt-up: Play a game with their game: It beats sitting in a sandbox in a prom dress waiting for someone to love you.
I refuse to cave-in to Goog as the Be All, End All for eternity. I find it helps to see their place in the firmament like other great Technology Gods in their heyday: Lotus 1-2-3, Aston-Tate’s DBase, Compuserve, Gateway, AOL, Quantum disk drives… Oh how the mighty have fallen, it’s lonely at the top, and the only way to go is down…
I saw this new cash flow oppertunity and I wanted to share it with everyone
http://www.ehow.com/how_4859939_earn-extra-money-early-today.html
I believe I’m experimenting the effects of the Google Sandbox, but not sure what’s the cause of it…here’s what I did and when I notice the effect.
I originally had StatsCounter to check my traffic stats but just recently decided to switch out and use Google Analytics to integrate it with my Adsense.
I was seeing about 250-300UV/day but once I installed the analytic code, my traffic dropped to only 10-15UV/day. I couldn’t find my site for a keyphrase (5 word keyphrase) I was getting good traffic from anywhere in the SERP.
Only thing I’ve done was add the code and add a new post, that’s about it.
Anyone could explain what just happen or if Google Analytics could have cause this “sandbox”?