Google Sandboxing - does it still exist?

[OM2]

I read an interesting article about Google Sandboxing

From what I understand, if you have a complete new website which *suddenly* gets loads of links, then your website will be sandboxed!!

Google will think you're trying to fool them and will place you on probation - or something like that!

The article went on to say that it's best practice to get links just a few at a time - say a few every week

The article was 5 years old

I wanted to know: is Google Sandboxing an issue + something you need to be aware of?

I can understand why it might be necessary - but then I again, I think Google must be much more intelligent now.

If there is a new website that gains popularity and loads of incoming links *really* quickly, then Google should have other measures that allows it to spot a fake!

Any replies would be great

Thanks


OM

[sitetruth]

I read an interesting article about Google Sandboxing

From what I understand, if you have a complete new website which *suddenly* gets loads of links, then your website will be sandboxed!!

Google certainly has defenses against link spam.

I thought, though, you were talking about Google's "sandbox" search engine. Google is trying a new, or at least slightly modified, algorithm, at "http://www2.sandbox.google.com/".

[gobeyond]

Links are not the same. Good links can get your site ranked at the top fast, while the bad links don't help, and they can hurt you sometimes. Google can tell good links from bad links. So, if all of sudden, a new site has a lot of good natural links, Google will like it. On the other hand, if a ton of bad links start popping up, that can be a different story.

[OM2]

Links are not the same. Good links can get your site ranked at the top fast, while the bad links don't help, and they can hurt you sometimes. Google can tell good links from bad links. So, if all of sudden, a new site has a lot of good natural links, Google will like it. On the other hand, if a ton of bad links start popping up, that can be a different story.

thanks: that does help a lot actually
it seemed a bit weird if google started penalising u if u did indeed get loads of good links

[CaseyC]

Last year we launched a new website and againt mine and our webmasters advice, our owner went on a full scale link building frenzy which included using a Submission company to submit to hundreds of directories and do hundreds of article submissions. Well, it took that site about 9-10 months to start ranking for its primary terms and now about 4 months after being released from the sandbox it is doing well. However, to contrast that, last month we launched a brand new website. This time we convinced him to take it slow and easy and utilize the link partners we have to focus on adding quality links slowly. Well a little over a month later we are on the first page for many of the terms we have optimized for. SO I definitely believe in quality over quantity when starting a new site and trying to avoid the sandbox.

[OM2]

thanks for the reply - it's really helpful to hear from a real example experience

the problem still remains for me (and i would say others as well)

it's all to do with 'quality'
what is a quality link??

i pay someone $XXX and get links - does that make it quality??
some could call it cheating your way to the top
others would say, it's legitimate and completely acceptable

so, maybe it's knowing WHY the 'someone' is that counts?
i.e. knowing whether they are considered reputable or not

i suppose it would be toooo easy to have a list of good people to buy from and bad people to buy from? :)

am i making any sense?

[CaseyC]

When I say quality links, I meant links from high PR sites with a good backlink profile. However, these sites really are unrelated, content wise, but they still have worked. Now if I could get some quality text links from related sites, we would really be in business.

I can also tell you that as far as paid links go, we have been working with a company that specializes in obtaining permanent blog links for websites. We have been doing this for a few months and it has been working very well. Of course, this prinicple works on volume and quality as most of the blogs are low PR sites, but they all are independently owned and on different IP addresses. I dont know if this would be a good plan for a beginning site, but I know we have seen results on our older sites by adding an influx of text links to expand our own link profile.

[OM2]

When I say quality links, I meant links from high PR sites with a good backlink profile. However, these sites really are unrelated, content wise, but they still have worked. Now if I could get some quality text links from related sites, we would really be in business.
...

hmmm interesting
i'm kinda learning and reading it like an 'A B C' book
i learned: *don't* get links from meaningless websites
this won't be counted and even might count against u!

but ur saying u've done this?
what are the limits?
are there limits?
do u get penalised?

let me know
thanks

[CaseyC]

My personal feeling is a bunch of links from meaningless sites may not necessarily hurt you unless you get them very quickly or if your site just doesnt have that many links to begin with. I think sites that are older and more established can get away with some linking mishaps better than a fresh site. That is what we feel like happend with our site that took 9-10 month to start ranking. Too many links, too fast and not balanced with enough quality links...just looked bad to Google. But this new site by only submitting to a few top directories and by only obtaining links from high PR/ Quality sites has seem to be a much better strategy. Another note...you might also vary the landing pages of the links you get and not just send all of them to the homepage. Try doing some deeplinking too.

[OM2]

thanks a lot for the advice
i'm learning just as much as my reading up as i am by posting questions :)