Over-Optimization and the Google Sandbox

February 4th, 2010 · Posted in SEO · 0 Comments

So you set a ton of work into creating a really nice website only to find that noone can notice it and Google doesnt rank your website terribly highly.  You hear regarding a factor called “search engine optimization” and choose to allow it a try.  Before you go adding your keywords to every component of your pages and building links any approach you can, take a step back and remind yourself of the recent saying, “sometimes less is more”.

Search engine optimization, or SEO, has very began during the last five years as additional and additional fledgling webmasters have created websites, only to seek out that noone involves visit.  As they search around for ways to urge more visitors, most of them quickly find resources on how to optimize a net page for the search engines and go right to work sprinkling keywords everywhere and building links from anyplace they’ll get them.

This causes issues for a pursuit engine because, lets face it, you’re trying to govern the search results and they’re making an attempt to avoid being manipulated.  When all, just because YOU suppose your web site is a great resource on a subject doesnt mean that it is.  Google {has already} adjusted for the webmaster that’s over-optimizing their website, and its called the Google “sandbox”.  The sandbox could be a name that disgruntled webmasters have given to the situation where a new website that ought to rank well for a keyword is nowhere to be found within the rankings, solely to suddenly seem in some unspecified time in the future several months down the road.  What is this sandbox result and what might cause it?

My theory is {that the} “sandbox” is really additional of a “trustbox”, meaning that Google looks at many attributes of your website to determine if you are making an attempt to govern the search rankings.  The most obvious, and also the twp traps that most starting webmasters fall into, I believe, is over-optimizing your on-page content and building too many low quality links too fast.

I think {that the} newer your domain is, the less tolerance Google has for over-optimization of pages, or suspiciously fast link building.  Once you trip the filter, youre placed within the holding cell (”sandbox”), as a result of Google suspects you of trying to govern the results.  I conjointly believe {that the} tolerance for over-optimization varies based mostly on the industry, so spammy industries such as pharmaceutical drugs are so much additional sensitive to over-optimization than most.  Which will cause some discouragement by several who hope to seek out fast success, since those industries are already competitive enough that you simply NEED highly optimized content and lots of links to possibly compete for top rankings, however you cant do it too quickly or you’ll be sandboxed.

At a recent WebmasterWorld conference, Matt Cutts from Google stated that there extremely wasn’t a “sandbox”, however “the algorithm might affect some sites, underneath some circumstances, in a very manner {that a} webmaster would perceive as being sandboxed.”  This means that avoiding the sandbox is merely a matter of optimizing your web site without tripping the filters in Googles algorithm.

Raise yourself these queries to avoid over-optimization penalties:

– Is your title a single target keyword phrase and zilch else?
– Is your keyword phrase found in many of the following locations: title, header, subheaders, bold or italicized words?
– Will the page read differently that you’d normally speak?
– Are you during a competitive industry that is frequented by spammers?
– Have you acquired a giant number of low PageRank links quickly?
– Do you have got very few high PageRank (vi+) links pointing to your website?

In summary, this theory concerning Googles “sandbox” is that it’s really additional sort of a holding cell where the Google “police” keep your web site when it’s suspected of presumably trying to control the search results.  As the domain ages, most sites eventually gain enough “trust” to flee the sandbox and immediately begin ranking where they normally would.  Remember that Google isn’t manually ranking each web site – in the top it’s simply a computer algorithm and those who are ready to attain well in Googles algorithm WITHOUT tripping any filters can achieve high rankings and profit the most.

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Do you want to stay ahead of the pack in the race for the top Google rankings? Visit: increase web traffic. With increase web traffic you can quickly and easily get first spot on Google every day, without wasting another dollar ever again! Start increase web traffic, time for you to be first on Google!

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