How To Respond To Google’s New 30-Day Links Sandbox?

July 9, 2014 by Terry Kyle 40 Comments

[OFF TOPIC] Notice how fast my blog here is? That’s because it’s hosted on Traffic Planet Hosting (50% my company), probably the fastest WordPress hosting in the world and very reasonably priced too.

Judging by conversations I’ve been having with other SEOs (including some VERY experienced ones with a lot of data to review) in the last couple of days and the experiences of members inside my private SEO training program at SEO Traffic Hacks, it now looks like there is a new kind of new 30-dayish links sandbox for new sites and new pages on old sites. Curiously – and we’re testing a lot of things now – Google runs the risk of not showing genuinely viral new content in different industries (not just compelling stories about Kim Kardashian’s new haircut or shoes) in the SERPs and that could seriously damage the perceived quality of their search results – that’s something they do give a damn about, to a certain extent.

So how does this new 30-day links sandbox work exactly?

Well, in my test sites, say in a batch of 5 or new 10 domains to see which one/s is the Google darling to build out a whole site on, none of them can get past Page 2. They reach Page 2 and then get stuck. Penetrating Page 1 within 24-72 hours with such sites used to be pretty straightforward before Panda 4/Payday but this new (probably) links filter looks like it’s blocking that outcome now. At least in the short term. The experience of other SEOs that I do respect is that such sites go into a ‘holding pattern’ for roughly 30 days before ranking normally. I’m yet to reach that time lapse period on a load of test sites but I’ll report back on what I see when we get to that point.

How do we as professional SEOs react to this ?

My best advice – but you should follow your own intuition – is: [sociallocker id=”1586″]

1. Don’t give up on SEO.

This type of Google action is normal in the whole SpyVsSpy war between SEOs and Google. Paid traffic isn’t easy (please use retargeting/remarketing if you do – perfectaudience.com works well for me but it’s still expensive to test) and requires serious investment in your expertise (read Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” to see what I mean). And there are of course other traffic generation options apart from SEO and paid traffic, like forum marketing, using JV partners and working with platforms like Udemy or Themeforest, to name a few.

They all have their pros and cons and may/may not suit your target niche. Actually, part of my team is currently doing deep research on a MASSIVE Google alternative that basically nobody is using right now – pretty exciting stuff but I won’t be making any announcements on that for a few months, sorry, until we do a lot more research and testing. If you master that other HUGE untapped traffic source that I mean, you may forget all about Google and it’s nothing to do with paid traffic.

2. Factor the 30-day delay into your SEO program.

I can actually think of a load of far worse anti-SEO changes that Google could have made and if we have to wait an extra 30 days or so, that just means changing [a] our mental timetable of ranking expectations, and [b] changing our clients’ mental timetable of ranking expectation i.e. develop more patience (ironic coming from me!).

3. Focus on the SEO of your existing sites.

This change mainly affects new sites and pages so look at your existing portfolio of sites and improve their rankings instead of worrying about new projects (or work on both at the same time). So far, I’m not seeing new links to old established sites being obviously affected (not yet anyway). If you’re not happy with the rankings on your existing sites, work on the SEO of those while waiting the 30 days or so on new project sites.

4. Work on improving the conversions of your existing sites.

When I build new affiliate sites, I model very closely the style, layout and approach of the established heavyweights in those niches. When I keep close to them, I make more money. When I stray from that, I make less money. The current SERPs are goldmines of conversion optimization info and if you use tools like mixrank.com, whatrunswhere.com and/or semrush.com, you can see exactly what hooks and calls to action the established heavyweights have expensively tested for you. Investing more time in CRO (I need to do this too) will probably yield more money for your online business than more new SEO projects in the short term anyway.

5. Check the SERPs for new Parasite Pages still ranking fine.

Some new Parasites still work but I don’t want to out them here and get them blacklisted by Google. Check the SERPs in your niche, find the Parasite Pages on Page 1 and see when they were created. Then attack your niche with new Parasite Pages using those platforms. Now I know that I haven’t suggested anything incredible or radical above but keeping changes like this one in perspective is really important to keep or maintain your online business progress. Please add your experiences of this new sandbox below – the more info the better! Thanks in advance for sharing. [/sociallocker]

As I have switched over to FB comments for my blog here, I wanted to keep the original WP comments so they are added as an image below i.e. you can’t ‘Reply’ to them – it’s an image, please add your comment/questions in the FB comments area below the WP comments image:

hello terry. any good news about 30day s sandbox

Some sites come out of it sooner, some longer and some not at all! That’s why it’s crucial to work with several test site vehicles in a niche before building out the whole site.

Hi Terry,
Well, it seems I have having this update on one of my blog which I started early this month. So, for What I have seen in this post I just have to wait for a month more to see results. Right?
But due to the awkwardness of this update, Google should get rid of this fast.

That’s unlikely Anurag as it looks like it’s working in separating link buyers from link sellers.

Anyone else having any luck launching a new site on a purchased aged domain? I’m getting ready to run that test myself.

Hi Wilson, we’re doing that a lot now with PR5s and will report back on what we see.

Does that makes news sites a thing of the past?

Some have survived Jack but most of the heavyweights took a hit in May (and PRWeb nofollowed all links) but some are still doing well. If I name them publicly, that may stop!

Hi Terry,
does the new sandbox also targets new pages on existing sites.
i mean a post on my blog where i write regulary?

thanks

By the look of it Simon, no – but I’m testing adding new posts on irrelevant topics to established blogs (on other topics) now and will report back.

Tweeted the link while on my iPad mini but content still locked

Please advise

I will send an email shortly Jimmy.

I bought a 2 years old domain and in 4 days it was on first page. I should think that is only luck ?

A lot will depend on SEO competition and the ‘newness’ of the term too Chad. I’m seeing plenty of new pages ranking on Page 1 for brand new product names (with decent competition but hard to define search volume e.g. new product launches).

Hey, Terry.

I really like that you test what you talk about. You are one of only two people that I trust out of everyone talking about SEO. I have an unrelated question. What are your thoughts about money sites on the same registrar account? For example, would have 20-30 money sites on a single registrar account hinder each individual site’s ability to rank? In your experience, does putting whois privacy on the domains prevent this issue, if there is an issue.

Through my own testing, I have some pretty decent evidence that more than 3-4 money sites, without whois privacy, on the same registrar account affects how the sites rank. For example, I had 5 money sites on one account. Out of this batch, one of them didn’t do anything when linbuilt ect. Webmaster tools showed virtually zero impressions ect. Google was recognizing the links to the site, but it was basically ignoring them. I eventually sold all but the last site, which meant I transferred all of the sites except for the ‘dud’ to new owners, and heres the funny part — within about a week or so the site sprang to life.

Basically, Google went from seeing all five of the sites having the same owner, to only the ‘dud’ site in the account, and once it had time to process the registrar change, it started ‘counting’ the links and the site came to life. Keep in mind, this is with no whois privacy on all of the domains. Oddly enough, I don’t usually put privacy on my money sites, so I don’t know how it affects things. I already have about 15 accounts through Godaddy to hold my PBN domains, and godaddy is starting to send me “invalid contact information” emails saying that my websites could be suspended or worse if the info isn’t valid (I use fake info on these accounts), so I don’t want to register more domains with godaddy unless it’s on my main account.

That’s why I want to know how you feel about this. From my own testing, I also believe that putting whoisprivacy on your PBN sites greatly reduces the linkjuice that they provide — what are your thoughts on these issues? Thanks.

Julian

Hey, Terry. I really like that you test what you talk about. You are one of only two people that I trust out of everyone talking about SEO.

Thanks Julian.

I have an unrelated question. What are your thoughts about money sites on the same registrar account? For example, would have 20-30 money sites on a single registrar account hinder each individual site’s ability to rank? In your experience, does putting whois privacy on the domains prevent this issue, if there is an issue.

I always use whois protection on Money Sites and also try to vary my Money Site hosting as much as possible, especially when I am using pretty much the same SEO resources for each of them. However, I have run one (10x) subdomain test in 2014 on the same hosting account where [a] the root domain and subdomains were hosted in the same account, [b] each subdomain was targeting different niches and [c] each subdomain received 50 PBN backlinks from different blogs to each other. Result? Most of them ranked well i.e. Page 1-2 with 24-96 hours. But, that was run before the May algo updates and repeating that could be trickier now.

Nice – it’s exactly those kinds of details that can be crucial in SEO.

Sure, see above.

I already have about 15 accounts through Godaddy to hold my PBN domains, and godaddy is starting to send me “invalid contact information” emails saying that my websites could be suspended or worse if the info isn’t valid (I use fake info on these accounts), so I don’t want to register more domains with godaddy unless it’s on my main account.

When using fake contact details, it’s crucial to use a working email address as you can lose the domains otherwise (we’ve made that stooped mistake).

Also, don’t forget that my hosting company (https://trafficplanethosting.com/) gives free whois on domain buys and not just for the first year either – another reason why TPH is awesome!

Not having whois is pretty risky on PBN sites IMO and in the past, I have lost a lot of domains (deindexed) because they didn’t have whois protection. Even if their power is diminished with whois added, I’m pretty reluctant to remove it on my current 800+ PBN sites.

But sites get links from new posts or pages all the time. That’s the natural process. Getting a link from a page which is old is not the natural process i think.

They do indeed John and without redirects, how can old links be ‘built’ to new pages? Google also claims that changed links lose trust but that could just be misdirection.

I wonder if the 30 day wait time is for each new link acquired. thoughts?

It does look like a new links issue Lance, yes.

Sound advice here. The way I see it, whether the 30 day filter remains or is temporary, the sooner you get going on the new Parasite pages the sooner the 30 day count down can begin. In light of that, back in February you gave a top ten Parasite page list but then in June you briefly discussed how PRWeb got hit hard. With that in mind, is Youtube now our top option? Give us your top 3 Parasite pages given the current state of SEO.

Lastly, this new Google alternative; will you be releasing info on it inside of SEO Traffic Hacks soon?

Hi James,

Newly-created Facebook pages and YT videos look to be still ranking well so they’re OK.

As to the current state of SEO, that’s a much longer reply and post but I’ll do that soon!

That new angle won’t be ready for a few months (it’s so big that we want every detail perfect and thoroughly tested) but will be added to STH.

Do you think we can pass sandbox by adding social signals.

I doubt it, sadly.

I did the Tweet thing Terry but the post remained locked. The other two options appear empty?

I will email you on this shortly Ian – did you try different browsers?

Great article Terry, thanks for sharing this info.

Would you recommend publishing as many posts/pages as possible with content placeholders so we can go back later and place our quality content.

Sort of like preparing the soil before we plant.

Oh yeah, I loved the photo of the dog. Yours?

Not mine Chad but I do have a ginger cat called Sasha and we’re getting a Golden Retriever puppy pretty soon – can’t wait for that!

I would wait a little while Chad until we see more test results and feedback.

My SEO CSI team have already uncovered a few clues but we need to check them out thoroughly.

This unlock content way sems that doesnt work when done through phone i have galaxy s5.

Thanks

Thanks Goran, we’ll check it out and sorry for the hassle.

I will email on it shortly too.

Hi Terry,

Just curious why your post is titled 30-Day “Links” Sandbox?

I understand the waiting period you are referring to but I’m not sure what is has to do with “links”, can you elaborate on that please.

Also, as far as the 30 days goes, I would have to question that number as I have seen many discussions that indicate longer periods, I for one am experiencing the “Wait Period” on a new site that shot to page 2 very quickly and has been stuck ever since, no matter what SEO I throw at it (on-page or off-page)…. My site has been “stuck in the wait” for 51 days now.

I think the waiting period may have a lot to do with search volume and competition, therefore varying greatly depending on those factors ( and other factors, I assume)

Looking forward to your reply

Hi Pat,

30 days seems to be a general consensus period from those affected so far.

There may well be shorter and longer filters at work here but my team is sifting through the results, looking for the answer.

Great post, we are seeing the same thing with our new domains and then we add pages for new cities on great old domains and nothing right now either. I would say you are dead on