Sandboxing keywords!?

I put a major SEO spin on a site 7 months ago and for most keywords I rank decent for. There is ONE particular keyword I am trying very hard to get high in the SERPs. Right now, the site is not even in the first 300 pages of google for searching for this keyword.

I have mod rewrite for freindly URLs
I have real content / copy for customers
We sell a tangible niche product
I have a sitemap and a Google Sitemap and everything is fine
I have many industry BLs with nice anchor text
I have sematic markup and good use of H1 tags
The site overall is about 2 years old
I ran so many keyword freq tools and for the keyword i want I have the correct amount.

When I look at the competition, the sites who show up on page 3 or 4 in the SERPs for the exact keyword I ma trying to rank for , it absolutely escapes me. They are mostly out of date, rudimentary sites which don't offer a solid, service or product. I have a feeling that something is wrong.

anyone else see these things?

what is keyword? what is your site?

keyword i want to place for Dog Biscuits

CanineConfections.com

The sites my data center was returning for results on dog biscuits were:

#3 www.geocities.com/heartland/ranch/1011/dog.htm (this sub-page has 711 links showing, index page showing 1779 links - url active since 1998)

#4 www.thepoop.com (3693 links showing - url active since 2001)

#5 www.gooddogexpress.com (1467 links showing - url active since 2000)

You have 1016 links showing - url active since 2004

**Does that answer your question?**

link:www.bluedogbakery.com

they only have a few links pointing to them and they in the SERPs for that keyword. Not very high, but still there.

I AM not to be found..anywhere for that keyword. I am looking at the big picture. I totally understand the first and second pages.

almost all of your pages are supplemental results too.

Make sure you are checking your backlinks in yahoo or msn, google only shows a portion of backlinks , they normally only show 5-10% of the backlinks they have counted to the public via the link command. Hope this helps.

You're about #50 for allinanchor:dog biscuits which suggests that you might be sandboxed. But even if you weren't, you're not going to get much traffic down on page 5. As the other guys say, keep working on improving your links.

If this is true for just this one keyword, then I fail to understand the entire math behind it. Usually the sand comes and goes..with this one keyword, I have been omitted for months and months and months...

Like I said, I understand the why the site is not on page 1 or page 4 or page 20, but not showing up in the index at ALL!?

Any ideas or theories are greatly appreciated

You are sandboxed, the sandbox works on a per keyword basis, it seems like the more common the keyword, the longer the penalty lasts. I am in the same situation with a few sites. From reading about this topic, it appears there is nothing we can do but wait. I have heard of some people waiting over a year before google removes the penalty.

cool. It's reassuring that im not the only one running an audible on this subject.

cheers, beers, whatevah