4 replies to this topic

[mohit]

A small clarification needed on the sandbox issue.

(1) How does one estimate the start of sandbox period for the website. I know there is no definite way to determine that but people all around say, it may take 6 months or normally 8-9 months but starting when?

**** When the domain is registered and the domain registration records are updated?If I register a domain name and proceed with the website development ( not making a single page live until completion) and it takes 4 months, is this time period counted in the sandbox period?

**** From the date when the website is first crawled by the search engines? Not sure about this as there are websites which have a short stint at the SERPs for 2-3 weeks and are then relegated to the sandbox.

(2) People register a domain, put a "coming soon" page there. Any idea how is this page handled by the crawlers? I guess the concept behind the sandbox is to monitor the progress of the website when it is undergoing "seasoning". This way the Google tries to keep away the web from instant spam. If one has a "coming soon" page for months during website development, then there is no way for the crawlers to determine the website progress. Then how should it decide when to push the website back to the main index.So how is that handled?

(3) How are complete site makeovers handled by search engines? If I have a website which is 5-6 years old and I decide to revamp it completely. Now, a complete make over is akin to making the new website live with the exception of domain seasoning and some backlinks which point to the website. Does Google registers the extent of "change" done to a website?
Are there any chances of putting the website again into the sandbox?

Thanks.

Edited by mohit, 26 April 2007 - 06:33 AM.

[Randy]

1. From the first time they see some links pointing to the web site. It has nothing to do with when a site was registered from what I've seen, and a site can be spidered (based upon registration?) before there are any links pointing to it. But the aging delay clock apparently doesn't begin ticking until there are at least a couple of links pointing towards the site.

2. Hard to say for sure. I have seen cases where Coming Soon pages were linked into internal navigation, spidered but weren't even indexed. Which would lead one to believe perhaps the engines are actively looking for Coming Soon language.

3. It depends. At the very least the newly redeisgned pages are all going to need to be re-crawled and re-scored. And that's assuming all of the page filenames stay the same. If the filenames all change there is usually a longer time to get it to the point where those brand new pages start ranking again. You can control this a bit with 301's, but my general advice is not to change filenames during a redesign if you can keep from it

[mohit]

a site can be spidered (based upon registration?) before there are any links pointing to it.

May be spidering the WHOIS database??

3. Keeping the filenames intact, will the search engines re-assess the website ( for quality) and push it to the sandbox when it is changed completely ? Because during this revamp, there could be design changes, changes to website navigation which alters the crawlers path from their last visit, content changes which affect the relevance score, substantial shift in the anchor text used with relation to the landing pages...etc...etc... So a majority of ranking aspects are altered.

Do you think Google puts the website which are revamped completely into the sandbox or is it just another SEO myth?

If yes, should the changes to the website be made in phases or altogether in one go to avoid sandbox or ( considerable) slip in rankings?

[Randy]

Do you think Google puts the website which are revamped completely into the sandbox or is it just another SEO myth?

I've read people saying this sort of thing, but I've never experienced anything of the kind myself. And I've done the old total revamp thing to a total of 6 of my web sites since the Aging Delay thing started. When I say total revamp, I mean a total content revamp, design/layout revamp, etc. Basically everything, except that I always make it a point to keep the original page file names.

So with a total revamp where you're keeping the original file names and adding new ones I've not seen anything that mimics the aging delay/sandbox. It does take the engines a bit of time to re-spider and re-score the new content on the old pages, and all of the new pages they find, which causes a bit of SERP fluctuation. But nothing like an aging delay where the site simply disappeared for months and months.

[Michael Martinez]

You can strip your domain of all value by removing all currently indexed content and failing to use 301 redirects to point inbound traffic to new locations. Some people might interpret the inevitable loss of rankings and PageRank as a "Sandbox-like Effect". It's more of a self-imposed exile from the Web community.

If you just put up new content on new URLs and don't use the redirects, you'll need time to rebuild your inbound link strength but your internal linkage will help in the short term. The problem is that unless the search engines are accustomed to hitting your root URL very frequently, you may wait a long time to be recrawled.

So the 301 redirects are very important any time a site removes substantial amounts of content and puts up new content on new URLs. The Sandbox Effect is more about determining whether links pointed at your domain can be trusted. There are some sites which are deemed to be trustworthy enough that their links will help your site better than most. Such links, of course, are much more difficult to obtain than most links.

So when you rebrand all the content on your domain, keeping as many link relationships viable (through 301 redirects if nothing else) as possible is imperative.