Search Engine Roundtable Moderator Threads: Ask Your Questions

**rustybrick** · 12-20-2005, 09:45 AM

Hey Guys,

We had an idea about starting a moderator only roundtable like discussion here. Basically, you guys submit your questions or topics here and we will create a thread.

The thread will initially be locked down to mods only. We will debate the topic and then when we are done, open it up to the members to discuss.

So, let's give it a try, submit your questions and topics and we will take it from there!

Thanks!

**Jim Westergren** · 12-21-2005, 06:19 AM

Am I the first?

How can you get faster out of the "Google sandbox"?

Some factors worth thinking about: Site Age, Link aging, Link Speed, Link Quality, Link Relevance etc ...

**Wit** · 12-21-2005, 09:58 AM

How to deal with a forum troll?

**cbin** · 12-21-2005, 12:20 PM

I have been working on a site for a buddy on the side, that is geared towards a very small market. His biggest keyword has 493 k results in Google not in quotes.

His site is less than a year old. And he started with a links page that was originally linking out to all reciprocals but still only about 12 sites or so he was linking to.

I started by applying a small amount of links to his site mainly from directories and he moved from page 5 or 6 to page 2 just before Jagger. I then added some keywords in is filename/urls some have more than 3 words seperated with a dash. And after Jagger his Pag Rank went from a 4 to a 3 and he went from page 2 to not even showing up in the first 1,000 results.

Do you think it was the keywords in the URL's that could of looked like spam that sent him to the back, or the relatively small amount of inbounds vs. reciprocal links?

He is number one for all the allin searches and on all other engines.

**Dan** · 12-21-2005, 12:40 PM

Originally Posted by Jim Westergren

Am I the first?

How can you get faster out of the "Google sandbox"?

Some factors worth thinking about: Site Age, Link aging, Link Speed, Link Quality, Link Relevance etc ...

An exact definition of what the sandbox is supposed to be would be useful.

**Jim Westergren** · 12-21-2005, 01:53 PM

Originally Posted by Dan

An exact definition of what the sandbox is supposed to be would be useful.

I am not sure if even Google knows that

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/32067.htm

From http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum30/32067-3-10.htm message #30

I was at the Q&A and listened to Matt's response. The part that I thought was interesting was that Matt said when they (Google) first started hearing about the "sandbox" as the term is used by webmasters they had to look at their algo to see what was causing it and then look at the sites it was affecting. Once they studied it, they decided they liked what it was doing.

So what I concluded was:
1. Yes, there is something that behaves like a "sandbox."
2. It's part of the algo, but wasn't necessarily created to do what it does. (they didn't set out to build a "sandbox.")
3. It affects some site and not others.
4. Google likes what it does.

**encanta** · 12-22-2005, 12:26 PM

Thanks so much for this thread! Here's my question: Does Google's apparent de-valuing of reciprocal links lead you to believe that the concept of link popularity is going to decrease in importance altogether in the near future? And, if so, how might Google compensate for the loss of this ranking factor? Perhaps they'll introduce human editorial review as a more important factor affecting SERPs? (This is probably just wishful thinking on my part

)

**rustybrick** · 12-22-2005, 12:46 PM

Keep them coming...

I think it makes sense to start these discussions after the holiday season.

**EGOL** · 12-23-2005, 10:45 PM

Thanks for giving us a chance to submit questions...

Let's say I own two nice websites... one about economics and one about widgets The economics site is an info site and the widgets site is retail. These have been on the web for several years.

Both of these sites have been on same server for a long time and although they have different IPs they are on same C block and are only a couple digits away from one another.

The economics site holds top turf for lots economics terms and the widgets site holds top turf for lots of widgets terms. Right now the widgets site gets two links from the economics site - one on the homepage as a sponsor and one on an interior page about widgets as a sponsor. There are no links from widgets to economics.

I was missing lots of sales because everybody who visits the economics site likes widgets.

I decided against giving widgets links from about 1/2 of the pages on economics that are most relevant. That would be hundreds of links and it would look like I am trying to manipulate rankings.

So, I built a store on economics and now it is starting to show up in the top ten for a lot of the widgets terms - beneath my widgets website.

Do you think that any of the SEs will penalize one or both of my sites because they are both in the SERPs for common search terms?

I don't want to do anything sneaky like hide my whois or move the servers around. There is nothing unethical about me owning two toy stores on the same street downtown. Is that a problem on the web? Should I do something different than the way it is set-up.