The first Google Update of 2019 has caused major upheaval in the global search results. What do the winners and losers of the March 2019 Google Core Algorithm Update have in common? Google has – not for the first time – adjusted the search results with a particular focus on sensitive topics. Many websites affected are those in the health industry that provide information on YMYL search queries (Your Money or Your Life). Read on for our analysis of the first official Google Update of 2019, including the top winners and losers.
The first official Google Update of 2019 has arrived. The Core Algorithm Update 2019 was rolled out on 12th March 2019, and has affected search results in Google indexes worldwide. This is the first time in 2019 that Google has officially confirmed the release of an update, following confirmation of the previous Google Core Algorithm Update, in 2018. This time around, Google has even suggested a name for the update, albeit not an overly creative one: “March 2019 Core Update”.
If we look at health websites found amongst the overall winners of last year from our 2018 Google winners and losers analysis, then we see that several of them are now amongst the biggest losers of this latest Google Update. For example, everydayhealth.com and verywellhealth.com each lost half of their SEO Visibility in the weeks after the Google Update.
At the same time, we see other health websites benefitting from others’ decline. One such site is draxe.com, which received a significant boost from this update. This health website was one of the worst hit by both 2018 iterations of the E-A-T Update – yet now the Google Core Update 2019 has increased the SEO Visibility of draxe.com by 300 percent in 3 weeks.
Another clear trend resulting from this update seems to be Google favoring websites, particularly when users are searching for sensitive YMYL keywords, that are able to provide a higher level of trust. The main beneficiaries of this focus are websites with a strong brand profile and a broad topical focus. On the flipside, this has meant that niche websites dealing with these topics have seen their rankings fall.
Almost all domains that he is responsible for have seen their traffic and turnover hit by the update. These are mostly health websites dealing with niche topics like blutwert.net (blood counts), brillen-sehhilfen.de (glasses) and erythrozyten.net (red blood cells). These domains all saw their traffic fall by around two thirds compared with before the update, and they all experienced similar losses in turnover. Mißfeldt’s theory is that his domains could – from Google’s point of view – have lost some of their expert status as a result of the update.
Google confirms Update – and even suggests a name
The first official Google Update of 2019 has arrived. The Core Algorithm Update 2019 was rolled out on 12th March 2019, and has affected search results in Google indexes worldwide. This is the first time in 2019 that Google has officially confirmed the release of an update, following confirmation of the previous Google Core Algorithm Update, in 2018. This time around, Google has even suggested a name for the update, albeit not an overly creative one: “March 2019 Core Update”.
Big Changes for Health Websites
The analysis shows that Google continues to fine-tune its search results for queries related to particularly sensitive topics, such as those dealing with health questions. Following the E-A-T Update in August 2018, which is also known as the Medic Update, and E-A-T Update No. 2 in early October 2018, we see that, once again, the March 2019 Google Core Update has had a large impact on websites in this industry.If we look at health websites found amongst the overall winners of last year from our 2018 Google winners and losers analysis, then we see that several of them are now amongst the biggest losers of this latest Google Update. For example, everydayhealth.com and verywellhealth.com each lost half of their SEO Visibility in the weeks after the Google Update.
At the same time, we see other health websites benefitting from others’ decline. One such site is draxe.com, which received a significant boost from this update. This health website was one of the worst hit by both 2018 iterations of the E-A-T Update – yet now the Google Core Update 2019 has increased the SEO Visibility of draxe.com by 300 percent in 3 weeks.
Google values trust and branding
Another clear trend resulting from this update seems to be Google favoring websites, particularly when users are searching for sensitive YMYL keywords, that are able to provide a higher level of trust. The main beneficiaries of this focus are websites with a strong brand profile and a broad topical focus. On the flipside, this has meant that niche websites dealing with these topics have seen their rankings fall.Almost all domains that he is responsible for have seen their traffic and turnover hit by the update. These are mostly health websites dealing with niche topics like blutwert.net (blood counts), brillen-sehhilfen.de (glasses) and erythrozyten.net (red blood cells). These domains all saw their traffic fall by around two thirds compared with before the update, and they all experienced similar losses in turnover. Mißfeldt’s theory is that his domains could – from Google’s point of view – have lost some of their expert status as a result of the update.
Google Update – Selected Winners and Losers
The following lists show a selections of winners and losers of the week of the Core Google Update. The rankings are ordered by the net gain of change in SEO Visibility in the US index of Google.com, based on data from 17th March 2019. For comparison, the percentage change to the pre-update week is also given. Not all changes that took place last week will be a direct consequence of the Google Core Update, but a look at the weekly winners and losers provides a good first overview of the update’s impact.
On 1st April 2019, the lists of winners and losers for Google.com were revised to to provide a clear, more relevant analysis. The selected winners and losers were filtered manually and now contain, for example, only domains that saw an increase or decrease of at least 10% SEO Visibility – with one exception. Despite losing only 9 and 8 percent respectively, the losers everydayhealth.com and verywellhealth.com have been kept in the list, because their downward trends continued in subsequent weeks – see chapter “Big Changes for Health Websites”
Selected Winners
| Domain | SEO Visibility 03/10/2019 | SEO Visibility 03/17/2019 | Net gain | Gain in % |
| yelp.com | 1,876,167 | 2,112,347 | 236,180 | 13% |
| fandom.com | 1,122,920 | 1,263,571 | 140,651 | 13% |
| kansas.com | 427,616 | 549,425 | 121,809 | 28% |
| cargurus.com | 402,900 | 459,134 | 56,234 | 14% |
| updateland.com | 45,731 | 99,794 | 54,063 | 118% |
| buzzfeed.com | 149,445 | 203,220 | 53,775 | 36% |
| yellowpages.com | 383,567 | 437,153 | 53,586 | 14% |
| techcrunch.com | 246,221 | 293,526 | 47,305 | 19% |
| poki.com | 235,489 | 282,289 | 46,800 | 20% |
| medicinenet.com | 308,011 | 345,463 | 37,452 | 12% |
| visitwichita.com | 63,778 | 97,418 | 33,640 | 53% |
| allmenus.com | 77,090 | 109,314 | 32,224 | 42% |
| freegames.ws | 11,131 | 41,230 | 30,099 | 270% |
| justinbiebermusic.com | 30,445 | 59,539 | 29,094 | 96% |
| gossipcop.com | 19,428 | 45,389 | 25,961 | 134% |
| everydaypowerblog.com | 141,922 | 167,663 | 25,741 | 18% |
| kake.com | 79,659 | 105,355 | 25,696 | 32% |
| etonline.com | 213,579 | 238,696 | 25,117 | 12% |
| wichitaonthecheap.com | 48,758 | 72,544 | 23,786 | 49% |
| kwch.com | 110,703 | 133,442 | 22,739 | 21% |
| engadget.com | 175,516 | 198,203 | 22,687 | 13% |
| warnerbros.com | 61,413 | 84,021 | 22,608 | 37% |
| wichita.com | 49,548 | 71,534 | 21,986 | 44% |
| wichita.gov | 68,397 | 90,061 | 21,664 | 32% |
| womenshealthsa.co.za | 5,344 | 26,570 | 21,226 | 397% |
| silvergames.com | 49,934 | 71,023 | 21,089 | 42% |
| cheatsheet.com | 142,873 | 163,603 | 20,730 | 15% |
| digg.com | 51,749 | 72,200 | 20,451 | 40% |
| 247mahjong.com | 9,852 | 29,024 | 19,172 | 195% |
| space.com | 123,273 | 142,258 | 18,985 | 15% |
| stereogum.com | 53,625 | 72,279 | 18,654 | 35% |
| wichita.edu | 144,319 | 162,928 | 18,609 | 13% |
| joinhoney.com | 91,136 | 109,348 | 18,212 | 20% |
| freeonlinegames.com | 32,338 | 50,463 | 18,125 | 56% |
| careerbuilder.com | 132,130 | 150,184 | 18,054 | 14% |
| babble.com | 66,818 | 84,558 | 17,740 | 27% |
| patriots.com | 35,845 | 53,300 | 17,455 | 49% |
| wellsfargoadvisors.com | 33,780 | 50,674 | 16,894 | 50% |
| downdetector.com | 112,836 | 129,489 | 16,653 | 15% |
| bradleyfair.com | 24,707 | 41,222 | 16,515 | 67% |
| homeadvisor.com | 38,644 | 54,832 | 16,188 | 42% |
| cinemark.com | 64,107 | 80,182 | 16,075 | 25% |
| wiseoldsayings.com | 97,584 | 113,485 | 15,901 | 16% |
| thewrap.com | 114,616 | 130,498 | 15,882 | 14% |
| draxe.com | 56,877 | 72,635 | 15,758 | 28% |
| thekrazycouponlady.com | 121,000 | 136,360 | 15,360 | 13% |
Selected Losers
| Domain | SEO Visibility 03/10/2019 | SEO Visibility 03/17/2019 | Net loss | Loss in % |
| nytimes.com | 2,770,099 | 2,441,477 | -328,622 | -12% |
| theatlantic.com | 648,364 | 339,129 | -309,235 | -48% |
| vanityfair.com | 528,570 | 297,657 | -230,913 | -44% |
| newyorker.com | 400,521 | 222,539 | -177,982 | -44% |
| rollingstone.com | 548,910 | 436,525 | -112,385 | -20% |
| wired.com | 417,633 | 316,853 | -100,780 | -24% |
| everydayhealth.com | -775,468 | -706,823 | -68,645 | -9% |
| verywellhealth.com | -1,184,707 | -1,126,200 | -58,507 | -17% |
| time.com | 453,747 | 376,979 | -76,768 | -17% |
| cosmopolitan.com | 540,542 | 483,091 | -57,451 | -11% |
| harpersbazaar.com | 198,837 | 143,285 | -55,552 | -28% |
| smithsonianmag.com | 327,972 | 274,614 | -53,358 | -16% |
| hbr.org | 115,741 | 67,522 | -48,219 | -42% |
| nymag.com | 294,902 | 248,063 | -46,839 | -16% |
| gq.com | 165,115 | 118,536 | -46,579 | -28% |
| thedailybeast.com | 237,664 | 193,323 | -44,341 | -19% |
| inc.com | 242,497 | 199,627 | -42,870 | -18% |
| esquire.com | 203,268 | 161,465 | -41,803 | -21% |
| fb.com | 166,313 | 129,554 | -36,759 | -22% |
| telegraph.co.uk | 264,460 | 228,582 | -35,878 | -14% |
| miniclip.com | 259,756 | 224,760 | -34,996 | -13% |
| arkadium.com | 242,456 | 208,961 | -33,495 | -14% |
| interviewmagazine.com | 42,191 | 10,040 | -32,151 | -76% |
| united.com | 180,735 | 150,849 | -29,886 | -17% |
| givingassistant.org | 222,432 | 193,395 | -29,037 | -13% |
| 6pm.com | 210,965 | 182,354 | -28,611 | -14% |
| thrillist.com | 238,564 | 210,225 | -28,339 | -12% |
| mahjon.gg | 39,219 | 11,710 | -27,509 | -70% |
| newrepublic.com | 50,507 | 24,535 | -25,972 | -51% |
| motortrend.com | 164,175 | 140,378 | -23,797 | -14% |
| fastcompany.com | 124,849 | 101,154 | -23,695 | -19% |
| ties.com | 49,336 | 26,057 | -23,279 | -47% |
| charlotterusse.com | 47,100 | 24,454 | -22,646 | -48% |
| lifehacks.io | 127,836 | 105,231 | -22,605 | -18% |
| euronews.com | 43,591 | 21,705 | -21,886 | -50% |
| mail.com | 94,475 | 74,132 | -20,343 | -22% |
| vogue.com | 152,498 | 133,119 | -19,379 | -13% |
| 6abc.com | 94,353 | 75,528 | -18,825 | -20% |
| wfsb.com | 46,231 | 27,827 | -18,404 | -40% |
| scientificamerican.com | 123,990 | 105,668 | -18,322 | -15% |
| actiongame.com | 52,717 | 34,491 | -18,226 | -35% |
| wral.com | 93,960 | 75,891 | -18,069 | -19% |
| necn.com | 30,197 | 12,161 | -18,036 | -60% |
| petco.com | 115,485 | 98,945 | -16,540 | -14% |
| waterfordlakestowncenter.com | 22,470 | 6,326 | -16,144 | -72% |
Conclusion: 3 ways to win from future Google Updates
With its first official update of 2019, Google has made another major alteration to the workings of its algorithm. But how can website owners deal with losses or how can they protect themselves from being negatively impacted by any future updates?
