Introducing: Jill Whalen

I'd like to introduce you to Jill Whalen, her website HighRankings.com, and the HighRankings.com Forum.

Jill's been in this business about 10 years. She's been my mentor, virtually, for the past several years through her regular newsletters.

I have learned a lot from Jill in that time, and I've had my own internet marketing philosophy validated. We both teach (preach?) that it's the content on your site that's important, and to forget the quick fix tricks as they will bite you in the end. (pun intended.)

Interestingly enough, the day after my post about Google's sandbox, Jill's newsletter arrived. Her featured article was about Google's patent application and it's implications for web site owners. In it she sets the record straight. There is more to the Google sandbox than just an aging delay.

"The aging delay ...is actually a subset of the sandbox. In other words, the aging delay is just *one* reason why a URL might get placed in the sandbox."

If you just opened a new web site, it will go into the sandbox. Period. The length of time it remains is affected by what you do once you go live. (Adding new content, getting quality links, etc.) Some site owners have reported showing up in the search results as soon as six months. Others have stayed in the sandbox for a year, or more. Jill says the average is currently around 9 months.

If you have had your site up for years, however, you can still find yourself in the sandbox if you use "black hat SEO" techniques to artificially influence your site's position in the search results. Google takes such search engine spam very seriously. Simply put, don't spam the search engines!

"I cannot stress enough that the ideas in this patent have been put forth as spam fighting measures. Unfortunately, as soon as the search engines start giving things like links any kind of prominence in their ranking algorithm, they get abused by those whose only goal is to "game" the engines." ~ Jill Whalen

Be sure and read Jill's full article, "Google's Patent Implications". And while you're there, bookmark the forum address and sign up for her newsletter. Both will be invaluable resources for you.