A SISTRIX analysis German search data revealed far more losers than winners after Google’s core update in March.
The analysis found 134 areas experiencing confirmed visibility losses and 32 gaining. SISTRIX determined these numbers by reviewing 1,371 domains with significant viewability changes, then applying filters such as 52-week Viewability Index history, 30 days of daily data, and visual confirmation of each domain’s trend.
The update deployment began on March 27 And was completed on April 812 days after launch. This was the first general update of 2026 and arrived two days after Google completed the update. March 2026 Anti-Spam Update.
SISTRIX data specifically covers the German search market. Results in other markets may differ.
What the data shows
Online stores accounted for the largest share of losers, at 39 out of 134. Losses spanned all verticals, affecting fashion (cecil.de, down 30%), electronics (media-dealer.de, down 37%), gardening (123zimmerpflanzen.de, down 27%), and B2B supply retailers. Large German brands like notebooksbilliger.de and expert.de also declined, each losing around 11%.
Seven language and educational tools together lost visibility, forming the most distinct group among the losers. verbformen.de fell by 30%, bab.la by 22% and korrekturen.de, studysmarter.de, linguee.de, openthesaurus.de and reverso.net all fell by 7% to 15%. These sites offer conjugation tables, translations, synonyms and study tools.
SISTRIX reports that recipe and food portals have faced pressure from featured snippets and, more recently, AI previews. The March update affected several. kuechengoetter.de lost 29%, schlemmer-atlas.de fell 25% and eatsmarter.de fell 18%. chefkoch.de, Germany’s largest recipe site, remained stable.
Among user-generated content platforms, gutefrage.net (the German equivalent of Quora) lost around 24% of its visibility. SISTRIX noted that the site has been in decline since mid-2025, when its visibility index peaked at 127. It was around 62 before this update and fell to 47. x.com also fell 25% in visibility in German searches.
Who won
The 32 winners were dominated by official sites and established brands.
audible.de was the biggest gainer with 172%, going from a visibility index of around 3 to over 8. ratiopharm.de gained 12%, commerzbank.de gained 11% and government sites like hessen.de and arbeitsagentur.de gained 5-8%.
Four German airport websites developed in parallel. Stuttgart Airport grew by 22%, Cologne-Bonn by 18%, Hamburg by 17% and Munich by 8%. SISTRIX described airport gains as the clearest cluster signal among winners, which may indicate a broader ranking pattern rather than isolated site-level changes.
chatgpt.com gained 32% and bing.com gained 19% in visibility in German searches, although both started from low bases (visibility index below 5). SISTRIX attributed this more to the growing demand for branded search than to algorithmic preference.
Why it matters
The German data covers a single market and SISTRIX’s methodology captures domains with a viewability index greater than 1, so smaller sites are not represented in this dataset. But the patterns are worth watching.
The cluster of language tools is remarkable. Seven sites offering similar functionality all lost visibility at the same time. SISTRIX raises the question of whether these losses reflect Google’s devaluation of these sites or a change in user behavior, with AI tools covering similar functions.
If you’re tracking your own site’s performance after the March Core Update, Google recommends wait at least a full week after the update finishes before drawing any conclusions. Your baseline period should be before March 27, compared to performance after April 8.
Looking to the future
SISTRIX plans to release additional market analyses. Their Main updates tracking page in English covers radar data from the UK and US, but has not yet released the detailed breakdown of winners and losers for these markets.
Google has not commented on specific changes made by the March 2026 core update. As with all core updates, pages may move up or down as Google’s systems re-evaluate quality across the web.
Featured Image: nitpick/Shutterstock
