Today Google announced that they would be making two changes to their search algorithm.  As any top SEO company will tell you, it is important to keep all internet marketing strategies up to date and we at the Creare Group are monitoring these changes very closely.
The first of these changes is the introduction of the concept of related search terms.  What this means is that if you were searching for say ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ then the Google algorithm will now link it with related search terms such as ‘Search Engine Marketing’, ‘Internet Marketing’, ‘Organic Search Engine Optimisation’ etc.

The second change to the Google algorithm is the introduction of longer page descriptions for each result (also known as snippits).  
We at the Creare Group are keen to find out if these changes make any real difference to search behavior and search results.

We have recently had a client penalised for duplicate content, Our clients sites content had been too similar to a different client in a similar area. What this meant was that the site was removed from Google‘s listing for the phrases we were optimised. We are proud to say we took the following steps and the site was quickly re-listed and the client is now receiving good results and traffic.

5 Ways to avoid duplicate content issues….

1. IP Address -  If you have two sites that you feel potentially can have duplicate content issues the first point of call is to ensure that the sites are hosted on seperate IP addresses, this means that Google will note the imediate differeniation between the two sites.
2. Website Build – Do not use a templated sites, i.e. a bespoke design and build will mean that imagery and CSS will have different properties.
3. SEO / Keywords – Ensure that the key phrases are not the same across the two sites. The closer the key phrases are, the more potential of the sites getting penalised.
4. Networking – Try not to network your customers sites i.e. Reciprocal links, 3 way links, links back to your company website.
5. Content – The most effective way of ensuring your sites do not get penalised is the use and writing of good quality content. You can use http://www.copyscape.com/ which is an excellent tool that searches your specifoed URL and any indexed pages in the popular search engines.

Recently i read an article regarding the existence of the Google ‘sandbox‘ and the effect it has on SEO companies clients. The article claimed the existence and effects as well as having a case study to back up there suggestions. One section that i thought interesting was one of the points regarding ‘how to work your way out’.

Well with any sandbox situation or whatever Google may call it internal i use the same preceedure to try and work my clients site out.

Don’t:

• Build Low Quality Links.
• Buy site wide links.
• Buy Links.
• Constantly change the content of your site.
• Over populate your site with blog posts.
• Panic

Do’s

• Build individual quality backward links
• Check your site for duplicate content
• Enhance your time on site with good design and content.
• Explain the situation your client.
• Look at on forums / Blogs for rumors of ‘sandbox’ release dates.
• Ask for advice / Do your research.