9 replies to this topic

[Andre]

Hi everyone.

I've been out of the SEO loop for a couple of months. I'm now trying to get a site ranked for fairly easy keywords. The site is 5 months old, has enough inbound links, isn't spammy etc. Still no luck. Getting a gazillion visitors/month from Yahoo, but 16 from G during the whole of August!

Only thing I can think of is the age of the site. It's exactly like another site of mine in many respects, but (of course) different content and a different topic. The other sites gets 20K visitors/month - mostly from G. Age is the only big difference between these two.

Could that be it? Is G just slow?

Am I missing something?

Many thanks.

[ghergich]

.....Sandbox.....

[Randy]

Welcome back Andre !

Yup, it sounds like what has come to be known as the Sandbox effect to me also. Nobody knows for sure if it's true, but it sure seems to be from the outside looking in.

There are a few posts around here regarding this type if thing. A search of the forums should bring them up for you.

[BrianR]

Welcome to the forum, Andre - hope you enjoy being with us.

Perhaps include your site url in your signature so that we can get a better understanding of your site and the market you operate in.

Thanks,

BrianR

[Andre]

Thanks. Will do a search for "sandbox". BrianR, thanks for offering to look at the site, but I'd rather not mention the URL. I've made the mistake before of sharing URLs (in my newsletters) of sites that make money only to find them copied a couple of days later . I'm of course not saying you would do that, but this is a public forum and all...
Thanks.
Andre

[Gatorhardware]

I would guess sandbox as well. Our laptop site is going through the same issues. Now that is has been running for over 6 months we are getting more visitors from google. Strange thing is that we haven't changed anything on it. And haven't been building links.

[Andre]

Yip, sandbox. Having read the thread explaining it I'm pretty sure that the sandbox filter is what's going on here. I indeed launched a whopper of a link building campaign the minute the site was up. It had 100s of targeted links pointing to it within a day or two.

[greenlightsuk]

Sandbox lasts for 6 months ?

[OldWelshGuy]

The commonly agreed timeline for the sandbox effect is from 12 weeks on, it really should start clearing up after 12 weeks. Six months is way too long IMO.

Also keep in mind that it is the phrases that get sandboxed not the entire site, so the site should rank for some phrases, it's just the anchor text ones that should get sandboxed.

[Neil F]

Andre,

I am having the same problem with my site, it has been up about 4 months and I have great listings in Yahoo, now getting coverage in MSN, Alta Vista, etc.,

But I am nowhere in Google. The only way I am getting Google traffic is to pay for it.

I don't know how long this is going to last...I hope not more than six month...

Since your site is older than mine, let me know when it starts to clear up!!!