Google Oct. 2005 Jagger Update Continues Into November & Hating The Term Canonical
So I go away for vacation for two weeks, and discussion of Google’s October
2005 “Jagger” update is STILL going on when I get back. Nice (or maybe not) to know nothing
changes. Here’s a fast rundown on things, including a look at canonical issues,
what the heck that means and why after a decade of existence, maybe it would be
nice if search engines gave us a better way to indicate the domains we own and
which to use when listing our pages. Seems like that would help solve
canonical/domain name problems.
Here’s a definition from Answers.com:
The actual name of a resource. For example, a canonical name of a server
is its true name rather than an alias.To put that more in SEO terms, it means knowing which domain name a search
engine should use for your site. Search Engine Watch, for example, can be
found at:searchenginewatch.com
www.searchenginewatch.com
sewatch.comThose are just some of our domains. Usually, Google gets it right and lists
our pages using our preferred domain name, searchenginewatch.com, which is the
only one we actively promote. But sometimes, it will list our site as if it is
two different sites, searchenginewatch.com and www.searchenginewatch.com.For example, look at
this
search. You’ll see that the first page,
How To Use HTML
Meta Tags, uses the www.searchenginewatch.com domain. Then the third
listing is the SEW home page,
using the searchenginewatch.com domain.That’s a canonical problem. We’re partially at fault. Somehow, we started
doing a 302
temporary redirect rather than the 301 permanent redirect that’s
recommended, which I’m having fixed (we used to do a 301, and I don’t know how
that got messed up).Despite our bad, it’s still a search engine canonical error that it can’t
figure out these are the same site despite the wrong redirect being used. Or
perhaps a better term is a domain name error — it can’t get the domain name
right, and that’s easier to understand, much less pronounce.The entire mess also brings up the issue I’ve raised in the past, most
recently with the
MSN PageRank 2
case, about why ideally, site owners would simply be able to register the
domain names they own with search engines in some trusted manner and indicate
the preferred one that should be used. Then
hijacking
issues, canonical/domain name issues and other problems could more easily
be solved.LET’S GET ON WITH IT, SEARCH ENGINES! Who wants to continue with this type
of madness?Resources
Analytics The 2023 B2B Superpowers Index
Analytics Data Analytics in Marketing
Digital Marketing The Third-Party Data Deprecation Playbook
Digital Marketing Utilizing Email To Stop Fraud-eCommerce Client Fraud Case Study
Need to talk, discuss and commune about the update more?
Part 3 of the Update Jagger over at WebmasterWorld is the latest multipart
thread there.
Oct. 2005
Google Update “Jagger” is the far more low-key discussion at our own
Search Engine Watch Forums.