Google Sandboxing
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I have a new site with a new domain that ranked well the 1st week or so after it was indexed then it totally dropped off the SERP.
My question is, does Google Sandboxing affect new sites on new domains that don't have any incoming links? The site dropped off before I began link building - from what I've read unnatural link build is often the cause. Can you still be sandboxed without any link building?
If this is the case, are there things I can do to get out of the sandbox?
Thanks folks,
Jason
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I would just give it a little time, and see what happens when you get a few links.
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Thanks so much for the quick response EGOL. I'm quite sure this isn't a duplication content issue, it is a website for dental practice and all of the content is fresh and unique to them.
We're in planning stage of the link building process, this is tops on our list.
I was surprised to see the site drop completely out of the SERP for searches such as the practice name. When it does rank it is pages deep and a it is an internal page that is listed (as opposed to the index page).
In Yahoo and Bing the index page ranks within the top 5 results for the company name. In Google the index page ranked well for the 1st couple of weeks, now it doesn't rank at all except for really long tailed searches. I've created similar sites with strong results for similarly competitive keywords. But this is the 1st time I have experienced this and the only real difference was this site had a brand new domain and no existing site before.
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First... new sites often go in and out of the SERPs for a few days to a couple of weeks. Hang in there you might be fine.
Second.. if you have very few links and especially if they are weak links you might need more power to stay in the SERPs.
Finally... is anyone republishing your feed or scraping your content? Search for a unique sentence or two from your site between quotation marks. A few years ago a powerful news site was republishing my feed and BAM.. my blog fell out of the SERPs like a ton of bricks. Almost completely gone but my content on that news site was up in the SERPs. I wrote to them and asked them to remove my feed and they were good guys about it. A couple weeks later I was back in the SERPs at full strength. I honestly believe that what people call "the sandbox" is often a duplicate content problem caused by feed republishing or scraper sites.
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