I had to put something down to give people some information. Daily I get questions on the Google Sandbox and the filters like the overoptimization filter that Google is rumored to have. I just had to come out with something that showed the results of my tests. I think that this could help some people, especially new SEOs identify if their site has some problems.
The Sandbox is the easy one to address. There are two things I can say about it. The two things are that either it does not exist, or I have figured out the most magical formula to bypass it, but I don't know what it is. I read these forums where people say they are in the sandbox for six or even twelve months. I want those people to know that I feel something else is wrong with their site, I put up 3 new sites in November, and by January I was on the first page of Google. May I also add that these were brand new domains, and before being on page one they were on page two or three in just a few weeks.
I don't know if the Sandbox exists or not. It is like being 8 and questioning Santa Clause. I am not sure if it is there or not, but as long as I continue to believe then I am careful, or in the Santa Clause instance I get presents. Now I would love to come out and say it doesn't exist because I would probably be the only SEO that would make such a claim. All I know is that I either have a superior method to all the people that talk about the Sandbox, or people talking about it have other problems than just some sandbox.
Now the overoptimization filter. Let's just be blunt, if your site is overoptimized in Google's eyes they will completley destroy your rankings. They will literally kill your site. Bye Bye good ranking, hello I am not in the index at all. Here is what I did. On week 2 of new website that was fantastic, I was on page one in the number five position. Best ranking ever in that short amount of time. Oh it was lovely. Then along came Mr. Overoptimization and he slit my throat. My site disappeared one day, and I don't mean from page one, I mean from the whole index. I wasn't even on page one when I searched for my domain name with the dot com.
Right away I screamed Sandbox, read everything I could on it, and accepted that I would not be ranked for six months. I then pulled half of my hair out wondering if my other sites would drop like that too. As a matter of fact I obsessed over my rankings sometimes checking them hourly just to make sure they were still somewhere close to page one. You know Google rankings change a lot, I learned this during my little breakdown. After about a month of inaction because I assumed Sandbox I boldly made a move. At the top of my site in my H1 tags I had my keywords, I changed that tag, took the keywords out of it. A few days later, though not number one because I still am overoptimized, I was in position 100. Guess what? I wasn't sandboxed, I overoptimized.
The results of this test were impressive. I jumped from not being indexed to being just over position 100. I have since made another change reducing my keyword density some more. I found that my keyword density for my main keywords was about 4% which people in forums, who I dont believe know a lot, say is good, somewhere between 3-7 percent. The sites ranked for this keyword have a density for the phrase somewhere between 0-1%. I am now waiting to see what this reduction does for my rankings.
Before today if someone asked me I would have said on page optimization is crap, and nobody needs to do it. I change this statement now and say onpage optimization will not get you good rankings, but it will absolutley blast your site if you do too much of it. See I didn't think that Google would weight the factors within my control so much, when it comes to improving rankings, they may not, but boy they will just delete you right out if you are over optimized. The only problem I have is I have now dropped in my rankings on MSN because they like high densitys. Thats ok though, I want a good position on Google, I will get MSN later.
So to those people in the forums stating that they have been sandboxed for 6 months, change your strategy. There is no way that Google is holding you back for 6 months but putting my sites on in 2 weeks. I am no different than you. I don't know Matt Cutts and I don't have ANY clue what the algorithim is. But I do get to page 2 sometimes within weeks of launching new sites. So if someone told me this, I would be going back to my site saying ok what am I doing wrong here.
Here is a tip from me. Don't link to anybody. What? That's right. I have several websites, they don't link to eachother and they don't link to anybody else. The reason? I know I can be punished if I link to someone that links to someone that sucks. Therefore instead of leaving my destiny in there hands, I just don't link to anybody including myself. - 15275
The Sandbox is the easy one to address. There are two things I can say about it. The two things are that either it does not exist, or I have figured out the most magical formula to bypass it, but I don't know what it is. I read these forums where people say they are in the sandbox for six or even twelve months. I want those people to know that I feel something else is wrong with their site, I put up 3 new sites in November, and by January I was on the first page of Google. May I also add that these were brand new domains, and before being on page one they were on page two or three in just a few weeks.
I don't know if the Sandbox exists or not. It is like being 8 and questioning Santa Clause. I am not sure if it is there or not, but as long as I continue to believe then I am careful, or in the Santa Clause instance I get presents. Now I would love to come out and say it doesn't exist because I would probably be the only SEO that would make such a claim. All I know is that I either have a superior method to all the people that talk about the Sandbox, or people talking about it have other problems than just some sandbox.
Now the overoptimization filter. Let's just be blunt, if your site is overoptimized in Google's eyes they will completley destroy your rankings. They will literally kill your site. Bye Bye good ranking, hello I am not in the index at all. Here is what I did. On week 2 of new website that was fantastic, I was on page one in the number five position. Best ranking ever in that short amount of time. Oh it was lovely. Then along came Mr. Overoptimization and he slit my throat. My site disappeared one day, and I don't mean from page one, I mean from the whole index. I wasn't even on page one when I searched for my domain name with the dot com.
Right away I screamed Sandbox, read everything I could on it, and accepted that I would not be ranked for six months. I then pulled half of my hair out wondering if my other sites would drop like that too. As a matter of fact I obsessed over my rankings sometimes checking them hourly just to make sure they were still somewhere close to page one. You know Google rankings change a lot, I learned this during my little breakdown. After about a month of inaction because I assumed Sandbox I boldly made a move. At the top of my site in my H1 tags I had my keywords, I changed that tag, took the keywords out of it. A few days later, though not number one because I still am overoptimized, I was in position 100. Guess what? I wasn't sandboxed, I overoptimized.
The results of this test were impressive. I jumped from not being indexed to being just over position 100. I have since made another change reducing my keyword density some more. I found that my keyword density for my main keywords was about 4% which people in forums, who I dont believe know a lot, say is good, somewhere between 3-7 percent. The sites ranked for this keyword have a density for the phrase somewhere between 0-1%. I am now waiting to see what this reduction does for my rankings.
Before today if someone asked me I would have said on page optimization is crap, and nobody needs to do it. I change this statement now and say onpage optimization will not get you good rankings, but it will absolutley blast your site if you do too much of it. See I didn't think that Google would weight the factors within my control so much, when it comes to improving rankings, they may not, but boy they will just delete you right out if you are over optimized. The only problem I have is I have now dropped in my rankings on MSN because they like high densitys. Thats ok though, I want a good position on Google, I will get MSN later.
So to those people in the forums stating that they have been sandboxed for 6 months, change your strategy. There is no way that Google is holding you back for 6 months but putting my sites on in 2 weeks. I am no different than you. I don't know Matt Cutts and I don't have ANY clue what the algorithim is. But I do get to page 2 sometimes within weeks of launching new sites. So if someone told me this, I would be going back to my site saying ok what am I doing wrong here.
Here is a tip from me. Don't link to anybody. What? That's right. I have several websites, they don't link to eachother and they don't link to anybody else. The reason? I know I can be punished if I link to someone that links to someone that sucks. Therefore instead of leaving my destiny in there hands, I just don't link to anybody including myself. - 15275
About the Author:
Brent Sweet is a busienss owner. He considers the core competency of his business to be Search Engine Optimization. That means each day for each unit he has to focus on that. His businesses offer things like Cheap Hotel Rates, Legit Online Jobs, Decorative Bird House, and he runs an SEO Blog.
