What is the sandbox?
A site is sandboxed when it is has been made ’search engine friendly’ for search phrases that are not overly competitive (such as the unique company name) yet still does not rank for the phrase(s) in Google even though it has been indexed.  Sandboxed sites are indexed but not ranking.  Don’t confuse that with not yet having been indexed, which can take time, especially for new domains or completely rebuilt sites.   Sandboxing does not happen to existing sites that make a lot of updates.  Sandboxing happens to new domains and sites that undergo change so rapidly they are seen as being completely new sites, such as a complete re-build.

How to tell if a site is in the sandbox
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/sandbox-vs-poor-seo-for-google

How to get out of the sandbox
There are many theories on this subject.  The short version is this:  Google (etc) are in the business of giving the right answer.  They are rewarded for doing so by end users choosing them as the search engine to use.  Our job is to convince the search engine that our site is the right answer to the question using our key phrases.  Here’s how we do that.

1. Gain trust. Most SEOs believe that sandboxing happens because Google doesn’t trust the site as being the best answer to the question associated with the key phrase(s).  It is therefore about gaining Google’s trust.  How do you gain Google’s trust?  By making the site more trustworthy.  Use techniques such as:
   • Incorporating trusted links to and from trusted sites
   • Making sure you have quality content
   • Use an old domain name that has been live, which can be accomplished by purchasing a site
2. Be remarkable. If you publish content that will skyrocket the site to internet celebrity by getting mention on huge blog sites, slashdot, digg, del.icio.us, etc., Google won’t ignore that and you’ll get rank for the associated key phrases.  Remember, the end user is really in charge and Google will bow to their demands.  It doesn’t have to take months to get good rank but it takes lots of end users to pull that rank instead of waiting for Google to push it.
3. Change gears. If you identify and super-target non-sandboxed keyword terms, you can build up the site until it gets released from the sandbox.
4. Play at a different park. Start a buzz marketing campaign and use other SEM techniques.  In other words, gain popularity outside of SEO.  This accomplishes two things:  You gain site traffic organically, which builds trust and it buys you time to wait out the sandbox.

I’ve been hearing tales of late that people want to use our services but they’ve heard through the grapevine that we’re too busy. Oy.  I know where that comes from.  Keith and I ran this business alone for longer than we should have.  We got overwhelmed.  Our turnaround times became longer than we like and our patient customers suffered as a result.  These are NOT the principles on which this company was founded!

And so we took the big leap and expanded.  We purchased the building we now occupy and hired a stellar group of people.  We trained.  We learned.  We got caught up.  We took some time to make sure we would never again find ourselves unable to meet our own company mission:

• to do outstanding work
• to return something to the community
• to make profits for our clients and ourselves
• to enjoy ourselves and feel good about what we do.

We have been meeting our mission with gusto and are open for business to give you the expectation-exceeding experience you’ve come to rely upon.  And so, as we enter our 11th edition of the Beach Vacation Planner, we have good news for website owners.

For the first time in our history, we’re open to take on new web business during ‘planner season’! Karl and Sabrina have been training and working hard and have taken over most aspects of web projects, leaving the rest of the team to work on the Planner and other projects without interruption of our regular business.

We’re very excited about this change; we know this is the time of year our tourism-dependent business owners are winding down their season and ready to start tackling marketing projects pushed aside in the rush and we’re thrilled to be able to help you now, while thoughts are fresh.  So zap a note to webmaster@beachdog.com or give us a call at 360-642-4431.  We’d love to show you what we can do for you.

–Keleigh

After a spate of shark attacks in Australia, the Week asked its readers to create that country’s next tourism slogan.  Here’s what they came up with:

“What happens off the coast of Australia, stays off the coast of Australia”

“We’ll throw another limb on the barbie”

“Australia: Disarmingly Beautiful”

“Our visitors: The other white meat”

“Not quite heaven, but you can get there from here”

We can’t help but poke a little fun.  After all, Tourism Australia seems to be pretty good at choosing, er, unpopular slogans.  Remember their 2006 choice, “where the bloody hell are you?”.

Trade Minister Simon Crean is determined to avoid making a mistake like that again and is spending $20 million on a new ad campaign, the first step of which is asking creatives to compete to come up with a slogan which accurately reflects Australia’s brand.

“What we’ve got to convince people about is it’s a great place to invest, it’s a great place to come and be educated, it’s a great place to live, it’s a great place to build your business base from.”  The brand should also embrace the friendly and relaxed nature of the country. “I don’t think we should be moving into the sophisticated, world-class scene, because we compete with cities and countries that are far ahead of us in that area,” he said.

The final result is set to be launched in February.  You know we’ll be waiting…with baited breath.

While we’re on the subject of tourism branding, what do you think of the Long Beach Penisula slogan, “Discovery Awaits!”

Mashable.com turned us on to the video below from The Economist, which includes stunning factoids such as:

• 40 million people have been rick-rolled
• 95% of all downloaded songs last year weren’t paid for
• There are 2 million TVs in bathrooms in the U.S.
• 90% of some 200 billion emails sent per day are spam.
• As print newspaper circulation has declined by 7 million over the last 25 years
• Online newspaper readership has soared up 30 million unique visitors in the past 5 years
• While ABC, NBC and CBS combined (companies that have been around for a combined 200 years) receive 10 million viewers per month,Myspace , Facebook and YouTube reach 250 million monthly uniques — and none existed 6 years ago.

Check out the video below and let us know what you think. Did any of the stats surprise you and if so, which ones stood out?

Retirement, it seems, is wearing well on co-owner Keith.  He’s been spending a fair amount of time playing with his photography hobby.  He has a particular affinity for taking photos of plants and bugs; appropriate for a guy who majored in biology, botany and entomology. He got great news today; the photo below has been selected by the Friends of the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge as a winner in their recent photo contest!  That means it will be in their 2010 calendar (you KNOW we’ll be buying one…or two…).

Keith has been sharing his photos on pnwphotos.com and enjoying feedback from fellow shutterbugs.  He says,

“Born, raised and formally educated in Minnesota, I caught the camera bug one Christmas when I was infected by a gifted Kodak Instamatic. After a couple of months I knew I had to upgrade! So began my photographic journey. Within a year I sold my first photo of a mirror image, lake/swamp-reflection in fall colors to a puzzle company. I received $50 and a free copy of the puzzle. That was a lot of money to a kid in the ‘50s. I’m strictly an amateur and with few exceptions don’t shoot anything except as a hobbyist. Over the years I have been lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time with camera in hand. I’ve moved completely away from film and now only shoot digital. Friends tell me I find the “unusual in usual” and if that’s true, it works for me!”

Pop on over to www.pnwphotos.com if you’d like to see more of his images.

We’re proud of you, Keith!