Indication of Sandbox Sites??

[SPARKO]

I was looking at the google directory for my listing; and what was funny is I'm 'supposed to be ' page rank 4. However on this listing I'm diddly squat. Is this just because of the time dmoz takes to show, or could it be a indication for me burried neck deep in sand....

http://directory.google.com/Top/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Wales/Newport/Business_and_Economy/Computers_and_Internet/

I just thought that I'd edit this thread as I've gone up 200 places in search terms, anyone else? Every month seems the same....200 positions; perhaps they've made it so 1 PR increase can be added per month, so having a PR 5 for instance takes 5 months ..... Just a thought

[Pyrrhonist]

Hate to tell ya, but when i look at the directory using the link you provided, you show up as a pr0...

[SPARKO]

Thats's exactly what I mean though; on the link I'm PR 0 diddly squat; but using the toolbar I'm Page rank 4.... so the directory may give the real indication of new sites ...?

[Pyrrhonist]

Ahhh, that makes more sense to me now.

Ok, the Google Directory is only updated for PR every 3 or 4 updates, so I wouldn't worry about it unless the problem appears for more than 4 months.

[SPARKO]

AAAH GOTYA Appologies for the useless thread seo-guy. :)

[jonk]

Did you get PR4 in the end?

[Pyrrhonist]

Hey Sparko,

why is everyone afraid of SEO Guy? Why is no one afraid of me? :confused:

[jocelyn]

[QUOTE=SEO Bob]Hey Sparko,

why is everyone afraid of SEO Guy? Why is no one afraid of me? :confused:[/QUOTE]
Did you see how a spamming post becomes when SEO GUY puts his hand on it... LOL

[dilligaf]

[QUOTE=jocelyn]Did you see how a spamming post becomes when SEO GUY puts his hand on it... LOL[/QUOTE]

Could you point me to the thread or give some back gound? Sounds interesting.

[Pyrrhonist]

Here's a good example of a spammy mc spammerson

http://www.seo-guy.com/forum/showthread.php?t=462

[dilligaf]

Huh, now that was different. Thanks SEO Bob, and I'll be afraid of you.

[Pyrrhonist]

Finally, one member who realizes where his fear should be placed :D

[Valkhorn]

I've noticed with the sandbox filter I've gotten a few front page keywords in Google. Without it, I'm much further down.

This is really interesting stuff :)

[SPARKO]

Hey guys sorry, been away sunning myself in Cornwall, Devon. Well, more like putting up with really expensive poor beer and annoying kids....
I had a quick look at my rankings no signifficant increase as yet, to who ever it was My page rank is 4 but like SEO bob pointed out they dont update the directory that often ( once every 3 months ).

Senior Bob is a right scarey SEO bloke; I can imagine him in his big sombrero, chewing tobacco spitting it all over his keyboard.....U dont wanna mess wiv someone like that :D

[Pyrrhonist]

LOL Sparko, that's pretty funny.

I don't think seoguy would like it if I kept ruining keyboards with tobacco chew though. (not that i'm contradicting or confirming any of that)

[Sophist]

Hi All

Does this sound like I am in the sandbox?

I launched my site in Dec 2003 and was doing fairly well into Jan 2004 and the first half of Feb. Feb 16 my traffic from google started to dive. From 250 daily visits to about 50 or 60. I remained like that until the end of April when my visits started to grow.

I attribute the increase in April to more pages being listed.

The reason I am wondering about the sandbox is that I cannot get some of my main pages or older ones( ones created before or soon after Feb 16) to perform.

For example: One of my main pages is targetting wood working tools. This page has a PR of 5 and is well optimized but is being beat by pages that are similar (or lower) in PR but has less optimizing. As of this morning that page sits at <600 while other pages in the top 50 aren't even close to being as relevant as mine (or have the PR).

This is consistant with almost all my top pages, only product pages with little competiton are ranking well.

I have been reading anything and everything I can find about the sandbox but the jury is still out as far as whether it actually exists. When I include the exclusion parameters I like the positions my main pages are in.

When is it time to quite being patient and assume that this is not sandboxing?

Dave M

[Pyrrhonist]

Hey Dave,

What's your domain? I don't know if you'd be in the sandbox or not, but it does definitely sound like you're being hit by some kind of filter. I know that Google's been pretty tough on sites lately that are OVER optimized - been hit by it myself lately.

[Sophist]

Hi SEOBob

Here is my URL http://all-wood-working-plans.com

This is a post that I made in another forum about some of the sites that are in the top ten a G for my main site keyphrase.

Searching Google for wood working I get:

#1 position:
Keyword tag: blank
Description Tag: blank
headings: 0
Alt tags: 13
Density of main keyword (search term I used): 2.05%

#2 position:
Keyword tag: blank
Description Tag: blank
headings: 0
Alt tags: 4
Density of main keyword (search term I used): 3.81%

#3 position:
Keyword tag: 4 words
Description Tag: blank
headings: 3 headings
Alt tags: 4
Density of main keyword (search term I used): 0.38%

#11 position: (Competes using the same merchants as I do)
Keyword tag: 37 words
Description Tag: used
headings: 0
Alt tags: 63
Density of main keyword (search term I used): woodworking 2.13%

My index page:
Keyword tag: 5 words
Description Tag: used
headings: 8
Alt tags: 10
Density of main keyword (search term I used): wood working 4.28%

All the above used title tags.

The above seems to tell me (me being un educated in SEO) that I am over optimized and should really reduce that,

Since making this post yesterday I have done the following to my index page.

1. I removed the cross linking between my datafeed site and main site. I was going for the PR but was advised that since the sites are so close to the same topic I may be penalized for that.

2. I removed description and keywords since the #1 pages have none.

3. Reduced the density of the term wood working from what it was in the post above to 3.43%.

4. Added brief description to the beginning of my body tag.

5. Changed from H1 to H2 for my main heading.

Google's spider visits about every three or four days so I will report back any results.

Dave M

[SPARKO]

use this geezer keep keywords and description etc they have a chunky contribution have a look at this paper http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/google-ranking-factors.htm have u used the pre sandbox search to see where u stand ???

keyword -dfsdgsdsd -sdfgsdgsdfg -sdfgsdgsdg -sdfgsdfgsdfg -dsfgsdgsdg -sdfgsdfgsdfg -sdgsdfgdsfg

put this in the google box replacing 'keyword' with your own search term ... ;)

[Sophist]

Hi Sparko

I have used the exclusion parameter and really like the result, but....

I will be sure to read the article you suggest. Thanks

Dave M

[OrbitSys]

When using the exclusion parameters, what does it mean? I rank very high for my targetted keywords + the exclusion parameters, but without them i rank in the 100s. They are all 2-3 month old sites, one is a couple weeks old. Does this mean that once they mature they will have this high ranking?

[SPARKO]

Im hoping so Orbitsys ! I seem to go up a couple of hundred now and again for no real reason; I think maturity must be a new serps factor

[dilligaf]

Orbitsys, My experience has been that after about 3 mos. the actual results will closely resemble the filtered results. Mine went from 100+ to top ten, others 1000+ to top 50 in one weekend and I didn't change anything.

[Sophist]

I am sure hoping that 3 months is indeed correct (if I am in the sandbox at all).

Today is 3 months since my rank fell. It would be great to see an increase in ranking in the next few days.

[SPARKO]

Me to Sophist; with your site then sophist did you have better results with the site when it was brand new i.e) pr0 and freshly indexed than when you did some seo work n worked on ya links ..?

[Sophist]

Yup

My site was indexed in early January and did quite well until mid Feb. My PR went from 0 to 4 in March and traffic has picked up since the end of April.

All my main pages are buried in the bowels of google. >500

I sense I may be over optimized after looking at some of the sites in the top ten.

I have also been told that I may be getting filtered for some aspect of my site. Maybe over optimized, To many bold..... who knows? I have made some changes to these main pages to see if I can get them moving. I will have to wait foor several more days to see.

It is frustrating not knowing if these poor rankings are the result of sandboxing or a filter of some kind.

Dave