I wanted to get this down on paper today because I have done a lot of tests to find out if there is a Sandbox or overoptimization filter when it comes to Google. I have done a bunch of tests and I finally have the results I want where I feel I can give a good opinion on what you can do. I want to help out those, who are especially new to the game.
The Sandbox is the easy one to address. There are two things I can say about it. The two things are that either it does not exist, or I have figured out the most magical formula to bypass it, but I don't know what it is. I read these forums where people say they are in the sandbox for six or even twelve months. I want those people to know that I feel something else is wrong with their site, I put up 3 new sites in November, and by January I was on the first page of Google. May I also add that these were brand new domains, and before being on page one they were on page two or three in just a few weeks.
I can't say for sure that there is no Sandbox, even though I like to, because it is different from most of what you read, and I love to be different and cause a fuss. I will say however, that my three sites all got to the top with no problem so I either have really good luck, or I just can get around it. If there is a sandbox I missed it with three sites, so maybe it is just that my methods are better than everyone on the forums that talk about this horrible sandbox.
Now as for the overoptimization filter, that does exist, and it will hammer you. I had a site that I started promoting and had excellent results. I was about number 5 on Google for my keywords, and then one day, I was gone. I dont mean gone like moved down, I mean gone. I didnt even rank number one for a search for my domain name including the dot com.
I thought maybe they were proving to me there was a sandbox. Then I was in a state of panic for months. What about these other sites that ranked so good, would they drop too? I let the site sit for about a month and a half without changing anything, continued promoting it, but did no other optimization just to see if I popped out of the sandbox. No results. So about a week ago, I changed one thing. The first thing Googlebot would see is my H1 tag that was my main keywords, I changed that H1 tag to something completely different that does not contain the keywords.
The results of this test took a huge weight off my shoulders. I moved right up from not being indexed to position 100 by changing 4 words. Now I have made another change because I still want to reduce my keyword density. I found that my personal keyword density was about 4%. This came from all my forum reading. These Joe Blows, who probably don't even have a ranking for anything saying it should be between 3 and 7%. When I looked at the top 10 sites for my keyword, none of them, for the phrase, even have a density of 1%. I have a lot of work to do, but I am doing it one step at a time so I can see what works.
Up until this time I have been a firm believer in off page optimization, my theory has always been that there is no way they can weight on page optimization that much because it is so controllable by the webmaster. What I have learned in return is that on page cant help too incredibly much, but it can kill your site. Pay attention to the density of top sites and do your best to fit in those numbers. If you are over optimized kiss your income and your site good-bye on Google. The problem: MSN and Yahoo reward key word density so in increasing my rankings in Google I have partially damaged my MSN and Yahoo rankings, but I think it is worth it. I want to be on top of Google then worry about MSN and Yahoo.
So if you have been sitting around reading forums thinking your site is in the sandbox for 6 months, I want to tell you to change your strategy. Something you are doing is wrong. If you can seriously sit around for 6 to 12 months hoping to magically jump out of this sandbox to number one you are nuts. Make some changes to your site and see if anything happens, what do you have to lose? You aren't indexed, instead of doing the natural thing and adding all your keywords and stuffing them, see if you need to remove some. I get on page 2 in no more than 2 months with every site I launch, at least thus far, so I don't think there is anything to this sandbox.
My secret tip of the day, what do I do so differently? Here is one... I don't link to anybody. I don't exchange links nor do my sites have a single outbound link on them. Why? Because I know for sure that I can be punished for people that I link to, but not for the people that link to me. Therefore I just don't link to anybody and I avoid this issue. - 15433
The Sandbox is the easy one to address. There are two things I can say about it. The two things are that either it does not exist, or I have figured out the most magical formula to bypass it, but I don't know what it is. I read these forums where people say they are in the sandbox for six or even twelve months. I want those people to know that I feel something else is wrong with their site, I put up 3 new sites in November, and by January I was on the first page of Google. May I also add that these were brand new domains, and before being on page one they were on page two or three in just a few weeks.
I can't say for sure that there is no Sandbox, even though I like to, because it is different from most of what you read, and I love to be different and cause a fuss. I will say however, that my three sites all got to the top with no problem so I either have really good luck, or I just can get around it. If there is a sandbox I missed it with three sites, so maybe it is just that my methods are better than everyone on the forums that talk about this horrible sandbox.
Now as for the overoptimization filter, that does exist, and it will hammer you. I had a site that I started promoting and had excellent results. I was about number 5 on Google for my keywords, and then one day, I was gone. I dont mean gone like moved down, I mean gone. I didnt even rank number one for a search for my domain name including the dot com.
I thought maybe they were proving to me there was a sandbox. Then I was in a state of panic for months. What about these other sites that ranked so good, would they drop too? I let the site sit for about a month and a half without changing anything, continued promoting it, but did no other optimization just to see if I popped out of the sandbox. No results. So about a week ago, I changed one thing. The first thing Googlebot would see is my H1 tag that was my main keywords, I changed that H1 tag to something completely different that does not contain the keywords.
The results of this test took a huge weight off my shoulders. I moved right up from not being indexed to position 100 by changing 4 words. Now I have made another change because I still want to reduce my keyword density. I found that my personal keyword density was about 4%. This came from all my forum reading. These Joe Blows, who probably don't even have a ranking for anything saying it should be between 3 and 7%. When I looked at the top 10 sites for my keyword, none of them, for the phrase, even have a density of 1%. I have a lot of work to do, but I am doing it one step at a time so I can see what works.
Up until this time I have been a firm believer in off page optimization, my theory has always been that there is no way they can weight on page optimization that much because it is so controllable by the webmaster. What I have learned in return is that on page cant help too incredibly much, but it can kill your site. Pay attention to the density of top sites and do your best to fit in those numbers. If you are over optimized kiss your income and your site good-bye on Google. The problem: MSN and Yahoo reward key word density so in increasing my rankings in Google I have partially damaged my MSN and Yahoo rankings, but I think it is worth it. I want to be on top of Google then worry about MSN and Yahoo.
So if you have been sitting around reading forums thinking your site is in the sandbox for 6 months, I want to tell you to change your strategy. Something you are doing is wrong. If you can seriously sit around for 6 to 12 months hoping to magically jump out of this sandbox to number one you are nuts. Make some changes to your site and see if anything happens, what do you have to lose? You aren't indexed, instead of doing the natural thing and adding all your keywords and stuffing them, see if you need to remove some. I get on page 2 in no more than 2 months with every site I launch, at least thus far, so I don't think there is anything to this sandbox.
My secret tip of the day, what do I do so differently? Here is one... I don't link to anybody. I don't exchange links nor do my sites have a single outbound link on them. Why? Because I know for sure that I can be punished for people that I link to, but not for the people that link to me. Therefore I just don't link to anybody and I avoid this issue. - 15433
About the Author:
Brent Sweet is a busienss owner. He considers the core competency of his business to be Search Engine Optimization. That means each day for each unit he has to focus on that. His businesses offer things like Cheap Hotel Rates, Legit Online Jobs, Decorative Bird House, and he runs an SEO Blog.
