Google's "Jagger" Update

Google is once again in the middle of a major update - this one has been dubbed "Jagger" and the good folks at Google have been kind enough to tell us that Jagger is actually being rolled out in 3 parts. As of this writing, we are still waiting for the completion of Jagger2.

This update did not just begin - the changes some are seeing now have been happening for several weeks now as Google has been incorporating new backlink and PR updates into the indexes. The update was just recently given a name but probably has been underway for many weeks.

So far, both Jagger1 and Jagger2 seemed to be primarily about how links are evaluated. Real estate sites that participate in link exchanges where identical pages of links are exchanged among a group of websites have suffered. The value Google places on different links probably has changed too to which has caused some sites to go up and others to go down.

Duplicate content (anytime Google sees the same content on more than one web page in its index)and improper redirections (not using a 301 redirect) have been an ongoing issue with Google and with this upddate more sites seem to be hit with penalties because of this.

It will be at least another week until Jagger is finished and it is best to wait until it is all over before evaluating how your site is affected. However, here are a few recommendations.... if you do participate in any link schemes where the same block of links are exchanged between participants I think you can safely discontinue that. If you have a template site where your provider links your site with other sites they produce - you can bet Google and Yahoo have you in their sites if you are not already penalized for this. If you have pointer sites that are redirected to your primary website using the redirection service offered by your domain registrar - you should be aware that usually these are not 301 redirects - the only safe redirect to use these days. Make sure that you always use the same url when linking - either http://www or http:// - if you interchange the two Google picks up on this and often thinks you have duplicate content and penalizes.

None of this is new really - it has been going on for a long time. Google just seems to be tightening the screws more with each update.