Why Are Your Search Results Bombing? It Could Be Inconsistency Or The Sandbox Effect
In the eternal race for top 10 positions in Google for popular keywords, there are bound to be some casualties and sites that fall by the wayside. Barring any major algorithm tweaks, or foolish black hat methods on your behalf a consistent, strategic approach should see you on top of the heap over time.
This post looks at the reasons why you may be moving down the rankings in Google, and how to avoid the dreaded sandbox effect (if in fact it even exists).
Consistency Is The Key To Reputation
In your online quest for higher search engine rankings, you need to be consistent. This is what I like to refer to as a strategy, as it is a medium to long-term approach to gaining and more importantly maintaining high search engine rankings for your chosen keywords. The opposite of strategy is the short term approach that I like to call tactics. These are the skirmishes, the quick wins that get you short term results that fade away quickly, and at worst adversely impact your overall strategy and rankings. That’s why I tend to shy away from tactics and stick to my well proven strategies.
You see the problem with a short term tactic such as a ramped up backlink building campaign for instance, is that you are going to get a large number of backlinks from very low quality websites in a very short period of time. Google is smart and notices this. Occasionally, these types of campaigns work, and you’ll get a short term boost with your rankings. The flow on effect however is that since the backlink building didn’t continue after the initial burst, Google notices this and penalises you accordingly. It’s inconsistent. It’s obvious that the website owner has just tried to do something to boost their rankings, then gone on to try something else.
Conversely with a strategy to build high quality backlinks over a longer period (say 6 months to a couple of years, or in fact ongoing forever), this appears natural to Google – because it is! And guess what? You’ll be rewarded over time with higher results that last much longer. If you’re distributing articles, better to do one a month ongoing, than a quick burst of 20 and then forgetting about it for another 6 months – or all together!
You also need to be consistent on your website. Most of us know that Google loves blogs, as they are constantly updated with fresh new content. Well you need to keep it fresh! Blog once a month, or once a week, but make sure you keep it consistent. Google notices this also, keeps track and rewards you accordingly. You’ll also want to make sure your website has an xml sitemap. Wordpress has some excellent plugins for this. You’ll also want to check there are no broken links, and that all your HTML is compliant and displaying correctly. It’s okay ot have the occasional guest blog too (this may be duplicate content if the blog post has been published elsewehere), but avoid having a whole blog of duplicate content because A) Why are you blogging in the first place? You’re adding no value. And B) you’ll never get any good rankings with an autobot blog.
The Sandbox Effect
Search for ‘Google sandbox effect’ in google, and you’ll find some forums with some fairly fiercely contested debates about whether or not the google sandbox actually even exists. Some of the confusion stems from the fact that people confuse their terminology and aren’t exactly talking about exactly the same phenomenon. (For the record, I believe the sandbox exists, I have experienced it myself on several of my sites.)
Here’s roughly what most people agree the sandbox effect symptoms to be when they exhibit themselves:
- You create a new website and start creating content and backlinks
- Initially, your site ranks high for your targeted keywords
- After an unspecified period of time, your site disappears from Google all together for your targeted keyword, however is still in the Google index which can be checked by typing your full URL into a Google search. (I found this Google sandbox checker and it seemed to verify a site of mine I thought had been sandboxed for a particular keyword. I am not sure how it does this, but I suspect it checks if your website is in the google index, then checks if it is in the index for your keyword. If search A=true and search b=false, then it reports you are in the sandbox)
- After another unspecified period of time (maybe a couple of weeks or a few months), your website reappears in the Google results for your chosen keyword and stays there.
- If your website does not reappear and is not indexed at all, it is generally accepted that your website has been removed from the index or banned for some reason.
There seems to be a general consensus that this phenomenon mainly occurs with newer websites. One solid theory is that the sandbox is like a type of cooling off period for new websites. If you are in the sandbox, it is likely that Google’s algorithm is monitoring your website for content, consistency, and ongoing backlink building activity. This is why it is key to maintain a consistent strategy – even when sandboxed. You won’t stay there forever, just stick to your strategy.
Did you find this post helpful? Please let me know in the comments what you’d like to read more of.
Yes, indeed there are, and here are just a few of the different types:
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