SEO Tycoon

**alifan** · 03-31-2006, 09:25 AM

Hi,

I have 4 Sites all registed around the same time, i "think" 2 of them are sandboxed, the 2 in question are www.celeb-forum.co.uk and www.michelleryan.org.uk any sugestions on what i can do..?

thanks in advance

**gringo** · 03-31-2006, 11:12 AM

New sites might not rank well for competitive terms for up to a year (that's a rough estimate). Use this time to take up a new hobby or learn how to play a musical instrument. Or you could improve your site, increase links, marketing etc.

**Dustin07** · 04-04-2006, 08:35 PM

Quote:

New sites might not rank well for competitive terms for up to a year (that's a rough estimate). Use this time to take up a new hobby or learn how to play a musical instrument. Or you could improve your site, increase links, marketing etc.

LOL too true. You can still gain rank with the other SE's, and those backlinks have a hidden value that many people don't know about... You see, while they do offer a 'vote' (as they call it) for your page rank and increased rank in the SERP's, they also offer a doorway to visitors. Some people actually click on those links, LOL

took me a long time before I realized that good quality links on related sites held more value than just the ibl count.

**ChipJohns** · 04-06-2006, 10:43 PM

Hi alifan, Starting from the beginning because I don't know what you know.

Sandbox i.e., the aging process is something that all new sites go through. So its not like your sites were all of a sudden sandboxed. They started out that way. A new web site can stay in the sandbox from anywhere between 5 and 12 months. In some cases even a bit longer. So it isn't uncommon for 2 of your sites to be "set free" and the others still waiting.

How old are the domains? Do any of your pages show up for obscure keywords?

I did a search for this string "Michelle likes spending time with her friends and eating out"

This is taken right off of your home page. You came up first for this search..

I tried a few other searches. There is a lot of competition for michelle ryan..

Here is an easy test you can do. Past your entire title tag in and search it. You will probably come up first. then take a part of the title away. Keep taking parts of the title away until you no longer show up. This kind of lets you know how you are doing. Remember, if you are in the box you will still show up for obscure keywords. But just obscure keywords. If your title tag doesn't have obscure words in it and you are showing up. Well then you may not be in the sandbox. (Of coures this isn't for certain.)

For the michellryan site: You may still be in the box, or you may just not be listing. Either way nothing changes. You have a lot of work to do if you want to get your listing up. If you are in the box or not just act like you are not and start getting content on your site that other ryan fans will want to link to. This will take a lot of content. By the time you get to the point where you can rank you will be out of the box. If you are already out, it is going to take that much work to get you to the top. So either way, it doesn't matter.

Get to work..

**vangogh** · 04-07-2006, 02:32 AM

It's really just like Chip said. You're not actually put in a sandbox. It's just that competitive terms take time before you will have done enough optimization for them to show up in search results.

I think too many people think of the sandbox as something Google puts you in because you've done something wrong or because they just don't like you. I dont really believe in the term as it's commonly understood.

Google places value on the age of a domain and the age of the links pointing to that domain. All that means is your site will perform better in search engines a year after you registered the domain than the day after. It also means the backlink you got yesterday will mean a lot more if it's still there 18 months from now.

The thought though that because you can't find your site for your favorite keyword means Google must have placed it in the sandbox is completely false and something many now use as an excuse for why they can't get pages ranked. You can have pages ranking the day they are indexed. Just not for keywords where millions of optimized pages already exist in the index. That will take time and hard work and hence the sandbox effect.