Posts tagged: poor navigation

Combating Google sandbox

By , August 30, 2010

For those who are not hugely familiar with it, Google sandbox is one of the most successful search engine optimisation tools available and the purpose of it is to monitor both new sites and spam sites that are being searched for within Google. The best way to think of it is like a monitoring system to ensure that not every site is displayed in the top pages of Google so easily. New sites in particular will usually spend several months in the Google sandbox stage, whilst Google monitors their trustworthiness and strength. There is no exact time period which a website will stay within the sandbox, and even better news is that there are a few strategies you can adopt to make Google favour your new website more and spend as little time as possible in the sandbox.

At seoconsult.co.uk we have a good understanding of what makes Google sandbox tick, which is why we have put together some hints and tips which will make any new sites get through the sandbox stage a little easier and quicker. There are a few basic elements of search engine optimisation which are the most crucial in Google sandbox; these are mainly primary keywords, internal links and fresh content.

Strong and original keywords are the key. It is tricky to get your keywords right in some instances as one factor that is picked up within sandbox is keywords which are very frequent or highly competitive; however these are often necessary if you are going to get ahead of your competitors. Trying to adapt key phrases to make them more original and bespoke to your business is one of the best things you can do to combat this problem.

Rather than just having one or two good links to your website, ensure that the internal linking structure is strong. Think of your website as an all or nothing situation, there is no point having a very robust homepage with good links to it if there is poor navigation and linking structure between the rest of your pages. Internal pages can let a website down, so do not make the mistake of ignoring any element of your site as this can be detrimental to SEO results.

Lastly, fresh content is of course one of the most favoured things within any web page. Anybody undertaking any form of web optimisation will no doubt know the importance of content as one of the prime SEO resources, and this is even more important when you are starting out with a new website. Throughout the first few months of your new site being launched, keep on top of your content and update and post new content wherever possible. Article and blog pages can also help with content and with these also increasing links to your website it can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

When you are writing article or news items you will need to source information from other resources. Whilst this is fine to do, do always ensure the actual content you post is your own and written in your own words to avoid any duplicate copy accusations.

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