Have your rankings been fluctuating in Google? Blame Jagger.

By Susanne Svette, IdeaStar search engine expert

If there is one thing that keeps search engine marketers up at night, it is a major algorithm update, especially by Google - which recently completed a major overhaul.

The last major Google algorithm update, called the Florida update, happened in November 2003 and created quite a stir with Web site rankings - just in time for the holiday shopping season. Now Google has done another major algorithm update, nicknamed “The Jagger Update.” The update rolled out in late September but had its greatest impact in early October and continued throughout November.

What did Jagger do? It seems Jagger had many purposes, including allowing for indexing other types of files (like video and audio). But what we witnessed and heard from other industry experts is poor results from some of the most widely affected on-page elements, including:

· Hidden text, especially text that is hidden in CSS or DIV layers

· Paid linking or reciprocal linking that is considered outside of “Google Guidelines”

· Use of internal links or anchor text as one’s sole source of optimization

The Jagger Update was introduced for many reasons, but the most obvious seems to deal with manipulative link-network schemes. Google wants to make its search engine results pages more relevant by removing spam. Google is judging sites on who they link to along with who links to them. But beware, as stated in Google’s Guidelines, “Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your 'Page Rank'."

So what are you to do? If you’ve been following best practices and aren’t engaging in any scheming link practices, you should be fine. You may have even seen your rankings increase.

But what can you do if your Web site rankings have dropped? Don’t panic.

· Make sure that you have links from the right Web sites. While it is not important if a link is a reciprocal link or not, it is very important that the links are from related sites

· Contact your Search Engine Optimization firm and ask them to check if your web pages use elements that might be considered spam and work to correct.

After having removed the spam elements from your pages, continue an ongoing optimization campaign and consider participating in pay-per-click advertising. Chances are good that your high rankings will return.

Copyright © 2005 Susanne Svette
All rights reserved.