Google Filter and/or Sandbox?

[phuggett]

Hey All,

I would appreciate your thoughts on this. It is a bit of a long one, but I would really value your professional opinions.

We traditionally had a website that didn't perform well in the SE's. We launched a new website at the backend of October and since then it has performed well on MSN, MSN BETA, and YAHOO for our choosen keywords. We are still ranking poorly in Google for our main keywords, yet we rank highly on very un-competitive keywords.

I have done an extensive analysis on the 10 ten results in Google for our keywords covering page size, download times, keyword density, keyword frequency, META's, alt tags, anchor text, header tags, internal linking structure, backlinks averaged across all SE's including number with +PR3 value against lesser links, code examination etc etc etc....

In summary, although I now have a wishlist of changes for our site, it is no less search engine and user friendly for our keywords than those top 10 results. In fact in some cases it is better.

I have also been keeping a weekly report on our performance in all SE's for our keywords against our main competitors for the last 3 months and developing trend lines for performance. Our results have stayed stuck in the +Page 10 area and not moved week by week. This is despite getting a huge quantity of new related : quality backlinks, with keyword rich anchor text and then checking that the pages containing the links have been spidered and indexed by Google.

Since this is the case, the next logical step for me was to look at why we haven't been moving in the SERP's. I have been looking at threads about the sandbox theory and/or Google filtering sites for a period.

In one thread I read that adding the "-sdfsdfg -ddsf -dsfsdf -dqdfqsdf -dqfsdfqsd -qsdfqsd -sdfsdqfqsdf -sqdfqsdfqs -qsdfqsdf -sdfsqdfqsdf -sqfqsdfqsd -sdfqsdfsq -sdfgsdfsdf -qsdfqsdf" to the end of your keyword can show some unfiltered results.

I did this for my 3 main search terms and my website was placed at position 1-4 for all 3.

It was also recommend to try the same keyword searches but with allintitle: and allintext: I did this and again our site appeared within the top 1-4 positions of the SERP's.

My question I guess is do you think, based on the above evidence, that our site is being held against an age filter as it has only been live since the end of October in it's present form? If no, do you think it is another filter or something else entirely?

If it is the age filter I have read that you should just wait it out and one night, overnight the SERP's will change to incorporate the site properly.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully helping me out.

A slighty confused and frankly SEO'd out - Paul.

[UKZJ007]

I think its sandbox, I am 1-2 for all of my places when using "-sdfsdfg -ddsf -dsfsdf -dqdfqsdf -dqfsdfqsd -qsdfqsd -sdfsdqfqsdf -sqdfqsdfqs -qsdfqsdf -sdfsqdfqsdf -sqfqsdfqsd -sdfqsdfsq -sdfgsdfsdf -qsdfqsdf" ... but rank lower without that.

[MerlinX]

Originally Posted by phuggett

My question I guess is do you think, based on the above evidence, that our site is being held against an age filter as it has only been live since the end of October in it's present form?

I have a site that is pretty much in exactly the same situation: great results for allinanchor, and "-sdfsdfg" etc... but it's not even in the double digits for actual SERPs. And my site's been live for almost a year now. So, if it's an age filter, it's a pretty long one.

If you figure it out, please let me know.

[UKZJ007]

It might be that unrelated links penalize your site more ... i know for sure that I have a few ten thousand unrelated links which could be the reason.

[longcall911]

I’m in a similar situation, although my site is 8 months old. I’ve followed the general advice of “get lots of links” and have heard the opinions that only ‘related links’ count, as well as the contrary opinion that 'all links' count.

I’ve been through the cycle enough times now to be convinced that too many links, too quickly will push you farther down in SERPs for your primary keyphrase. I had reached #31 a couple of months back. Today I was sent from #56 to #71.

This has happened almost every time that a bunch of new links come in, or at least within a few weeks of it. I tend to think that the ‘related links’ theory seems to work for the wrong reason. I think most would agree that if you are after a very specific group of links, they are going to come more slowly than if you were indiscriminate.

For a site launched in October, you’re probably doing well. My suggestion is to add links very slowly. If you have more than competitors do now, I’d slow to a crawl. Make the on-page changes you were planning, and see where you are in a month or two.

It seems to me that the ‘too many’ links penalty does seem to last about 30 days, but that’s really tough to nail down. BTW: I’m not an SEO professional, so understand this advice is from another guy just trying to make his business site visible.