Google's theoretical Sandbox

[gcs584]

Hi All,

I'm new to these forums. I had come across the site while surfing the web. It just so happened that I like what I saw. I figured I would give it a try.

Well, I've been developing a site for a local company that sells garage doors - honestly, I'm quite new to the web development/seo arena. The site has been up now for a couple of months (2-3). It still needs quite a bit of work done to it (mostly aesthetics), but it is slowly getting there. Unfortunately, I'm still running into a large problem. Google won't index my entire site - merely the front (index) page. I am well aware that this is likely because the site is new and using a new domain name, but I'm unsure if there is anything that I personally need to do to change this matter as a webmaster.

Thus far, I have attempted all recommendations (i.e. link backs, validation, meta tags...etc.), but not had much success. From your personal experiences, what has been your solution? Should I just let time pass? Is it something I'm personally doing wrong? What have been your personal experiences? Many suggest that the "Google Sandbox" doesn't exist, yet others insist that it does. If it does or not, I've seen brand new sites indexed in a couple of weeks. Why not mine?

Any tips/recommendations would be much appreciated.

Kind Regards,

GCS584

P.S. - Not sure if this is a suitable category. Admins are welcome to move it to a more appropriate area.

[Brandon72]

Howdy.

If I were you, I'd keep tabs on my ranking in MSN / Live Search. It will show you results much sooner than Google.

If the site is only a couple of months old, a decent Google ranking might be 6 months, 12 months or 24 months away ... depending on how competitive your phrases are and how proactive you are with SEO.

With a new site, the best you can do is keep at it but don't expect much out of Google in the beginning. Look to other sources of traffic, continue growing your website and your link profile, and be patient.

Good luck.

-Brandon

[gcs584]

Hi Brandon,

Thanks for your response. Sorry for my late response, I have been under the weather.

My site has been doing quite well in Live considering it's such a new site. Right now, I'm mainly having issues with Google. Nonetheless, I'll take your advice and keep on top of my SEO and let time play out.

Thanks again,

GCS584

[cool_78]

i have a question. If your pages are being de-indexed does it mean you are in a sandbox?

[cscgal]

From what I know, it's never been proven that Google's sandbox definitely exists. If it does, though, the sandbox is only applicable to new domains. You're most likely being deindexed for another reason - duplicate pages, decrease in the accumulation of backlinks, decreased pagerank, etc.

[guybrush]

cscg
call it by any name, but a dampening filter does exist which keeps new domains from doing well in G in their early days.

c78
try getting some deep links for the pages which are getting deindexed. If they're still not indexed then you may need to work on a) quality of onpage content and b) navigation structure

[stymiee]

Google has admitted to there being a sandbox. It's just nothing like the 1,000 different explanations newbies have scattered across the web. It's everyone's favorite excuse for not ranking well. Easier to blame Google then themselves (and their poor content).

With the sandbox either you are in or you are out. It affects only new sites. That's about the only things anyone knows for sure. Anyone tries to tell you anything else about the sandbox is a fact they are full of poo poo. ;)

[Brandon72]

i have a question. If your pages are being de-indexed does it mean you are in a sandbox?

If your pages are being de-indexed (as in they were once indexed by Google but now they're not), those pages are likely tripping a spam filter and being de-indexed for that.

Unfortunately, I'm all too familiar with this. I worked for a company that had done a bunch of black hat tactics to artificially rank websites, and ended up getting many of them de-indexed ... including their own website!! So whether I wanted to or not, I sort of become an expert at "spam removal" cleanup operations.

Here were the most common causes of those sites being de-indexed:

1. Mirror pages. I'm talking hundreds and hundreds of duplicate pages with keyword-rich file names, all linked to from a bogus site map.

2. Domain masking. URL said you were on page A, but all files were being framed in from site B.

In every case, the sites were reincluded by Google within 45 days of fixing these issues.

=================== Google's webmaster guidelines
===================

Hope that helps. Let me know if you need some more help regarding pages being de-indexed.

[cool_78]

thanks for the reply guys :) but I've noticed that Iam slowly being indexed again. Does it mean Iam out of it already?

[stymiee]

Google's index fluctuates over time. That's probably all it was.

[guybrush]

if your site's new, then pages showing up and going out of index is quite a normal behavior. Btw, it doesnt have anything to do with the sandbox filter which seems to be about the aging of incoming links and the resultant serps.