Playing in Google's Sandbox

Well, the SEO experiment continues. Yesterday the specific blog post that I trying to optimize showed up at the 392nd position on Google. Today, I gave up looking after 592 results since that was all that Google listed. I also looked on Yahoo and gave up after 400 results. I could spend all day looking through all 23,000 results. And I would rather be spending my time writing.

Getting Out of the Sandbox

While I have been here getting sand in my shorts, I decided to look up some info on the "sandbox". According to Wikipedia, Google denies its existence. I can understand the denial, but I believe it probably does exist. A computer algorithm will only do what it is told to do. Why would a site show up high early on in search results and then disappear entirely? Since Google controls the majority of the information that is seen, they control a big portion of the destiny of the internet. WOW! That is power.

Anyway, in my research, I have come to the conclusion that there is no "quick" way out of the sandbox. I will keep putting out my links on a periodic basis and let you know when I do. It will be interesting to see how long this takes. My guess is probably longer than most people are willing to devote which may be the purpose of the sandbox concept. If someone keeps at trying to earn income online or gain traffic to a certain site and keeps posting at the site for 4-6 months, Google must figure that they are serious about their site and are offering quality content. Crooks would try to move onto the next scam in that time frame.

So, while I am here in the sandbox, I will just keep posting quality content, work on building links, find other keywords that interest me and keep writing on HubPages, eHow, Xomba, and InfoBarrel. I will build up my traffic one article at a time and try to write something each day unless I am too busy. So far, that is what seems to be working the best. Writing each day and adding to my article total is the ultimate key. That is all I had for today. I will be sure to keep everyone posted.

SEO Experiment Thus Far

Yesterday, I wrote the second article for my link wheel and published it on eHow with a link back to the "SEO Experiment" post. I did not add any other links since that was my third article in the wheel. The second article in the wheel will go on InfoBarrel but since IB requires editing, I wanted to have the eHow article completed so that I could put the link in the IB article in the first draft and not have to change it.

It wouldn't have been that complicated had I written it out more intelligently when I set up my wheel. That is why I am practicing with this keyword that is not that important to me. I don't want to go through all the research to find a good niche and mess up on the SEO.

Yesterday, my post ranked as high as 29th position on Google. This morning it is at position #392. I hope that this is the lowest it goes and has nothing to do with building the link wheel. I have heard that once you are indexed, you end up going into the sandbox for a little while. I guess I am just making some sandcastles. It will be instructive to see how long this lasts. I will be sure to keep you up to date.

I have the InfoBarrel article complete. I am waiting to post it for a few days in case the loss of rank has to do with the rapidity of posts linking to my blog post. I will likely send it out on Sunday since I will be away for a few days and have limited internet access. In the meantime, I can work on my other 3 "spoke" articles. I have some rough ideas and can get some writing done finishing up the research when I get back.

That is all I had to report. I wanted to let everyone know that 2 spokes were done, and I am playing in sand. Talk to you later.