Does this sound like a case of sandbox?

Trying to get a second phrase

[pholmstr]

My website is only about 2 months old, but I already have a PR6 and rank in the top 4 for a couple of key phrases. My key phrase is like:

see many widgets

A couple of weeks ago after searching the overture inventory, I discovered that far more people search for the phrase:

see multiple widgets

Neither had very relevant or interesting sites in the top 50 results so I figured I had a good chance of taking a top spot. So I changed my title, header, and content to try to grab the second phrase.

Then I wait.

After a day or so I see google has re-cached my page with the new phrase, but the search results have not changed at all. If I use the allinanchor: command for the second phrase I am #1, but for regular search I am not even in the top 100.

What's really funny is there are even a couple pages/blog entries that only talk about my site that show up for the second phrase. They all link my site so shouldn't I be be above them at least?

Does this sound like a case of the sandbox? If so, what is the usual expiration time or is there certain things that need to happen for me to get out?

I am still doing well with other search phrases and I see a lot of google traffic, but my site is a good fit for the second phrase and I can't see any reason to get punished in this case.

Any ideas would be great, thanks!

[jeremy goodrich]

>>> So I changed my title, header, and content to try to grab the second phrase.

For Google, generally speaking, the anchor text has a lot more to do with the placement & position of a site in the search results than the title or header do.

So, if possible, you could get a link from another related site site with the phrase "see multiple widgets", perhaps if you write an article related to your widgets & get it listed in an online magazine, you could get the link in context on a relevant page from another domain, and that would help much more than simply changing around the title & header of the page.

Best,

Jeremy

[pholmstr]

Thanks for the reply... I do have quite a few inlinks, one that has my site linked with the "see multiple widgets" text linked.

Like I was saying the weirdest part is in the top 200 results there are 3 pages that link my website that are listed, whereas I am nowhere to be found. A couple of the pages are blog entries that are dedicated to talking about my site and linking it.

Just thinking that it all seems a bit weird and I was wondering if the sandbox phenomena could explain it.

[shri]

>> They all link my site so shouldn't I be be above them at least?

Can take some time for that effect to transition. I'd give it a couple of weeks at the very minimum.