Would you Want Know about Google Update 2019: Winners and Losers of the March 2019 Core Update

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.

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 17^th 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?