Did I get sandboxed?

Hello I have a new domain that is about a month old.

Yesterday, my domain was ranked 32 for one keyword and 40 for another. A subpage on my site was rank 13 and 16 for other keywords.

Today, my domain is ranked 91 and 155 for those same keywords, but my subpage ranks have stayed the same.

Did I just get sandboxed by google?

No you're not sandboxed. Continue building good quality links.

Do you know what happened then?

My domain was slowly increasing for the two keywords and has been top50 for them for 2 weeks+, then overnight I dropped a massive amount of ranks.

I'm just confused as to what happened.

It happens often that you get a new site ranked pretty high for some keywords first. After a while Google determines where you really belong. Just add more quality content to your site and continue getting quality backlinks, and you should improve your rankings soon.

Everything happens for a reason including the "google dance". So what is the reason that google move you around the SERPS? Google have no reliable way of knowing how relevant your page is to the query so they put you in a trial position to see how people interact with your site.

So what might google be monitoring?

1) The clickthrough rate into your site

2) How long visitors stay on your page

To improve your clickthrough rate have a look at your title and description. Model them from high performing sites.

To improve how long visitors stay make sure your site doesn't look spammy, delivers real value and hooks them immediately. An embedded video also words wonders to keep visitors there.

Hope that's given you some food for thought.

Now my subpage keywords have dropped to 40's overnight and have stayed there fore a few days. I am pretty sure I have got a penalty for comment spam. I was doing maybe 10-15/day but on high PR blog pages with 3-5 or so on each site. My main page is below pages that don't even have the medium-tail keyword anywhere on the site. I guess I left a footprint.

I would agree with the others...it is unlikely that you are "sandboxed". I would continue to build links as they suggest. You should also build links from sites/pages with lower PR. This may be your problem. Too many links from high PR sites/pages without a large number of links from lower PR sites will look "unnatural" to Google.

Never thought of that but it could be true. I will make some links from some lower pr sites as well.