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Across Google’s 2026 core updates, the sites that gained visibility were mostly the ones that own the thing being searched for: brands, airlines, hotels, government agencies and streaming services. The sites that lost were mostly ones that collect or discuss other people’s content: forums, review platforms, comparison sites and job boards. That is how analyst Lily Ray summed up the March 2026 core update, using Sistrix visibility data.
The twist came eight weeks later. The May 2026 core update reversed several of those moves, lifting job boards and travel marketplaces while pushing Reddit down again. So the honest answer to “who is winning on Google” is: whoever best fits the intent behind each search, and that can change between updates.
This post started in March 2025 as a look at a few charts. It now covers what has happened since.
What the March 2025 charts showed
The charts measured visibility: how often a site appears in Google results for a large, fixed set of keywords, weighted by position and search volume. Visibility is not traffic, but it moves with it.
Going up in the UK
- Patient.info, a health information site, jumped sharply in March 2025.
- Uniqlo.com, the clothing retailer, had been flat for a long time and started to climb.
The timing fits Google’s March 2025 core update, which ran from 13 to 26 March 2025. In our first version we guessed that more people were searching for health advice. The more likely explanation is that the update rewarded sites Google judged to be reliable on health topics.
Winning and losing in the US
- Hulu.com gained visibility.
- PrimeVideo.com dropped.
We suggested Hulu may have improved its content or site. There is a simpler business story worth adding. In August 2025, Disney said it would fold Hulu fully into the Disney+ app during 2026. If you own a brand that is being merged or retired, expect its search visibility to move with that decision, whatever you do on the page.
Google updates since March 2025
Google lists every confirmed ranking update on its Search Status Dashboard. Since our original post:
| Update | Started | Finished (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| March 2025 core update | 13 Mar 2025 | 26 Mar 2025 |
| June 2025 core update | 30 June 2025 | 16 July 2025 |
| August 2025 spam update | 26 Aug 2025 | 21 Sept 2025 |
| December 2025 core update | 11 Dec 2025 | 29 Dec 2025 |
| March 2026 spam update | 24 Mar 2026 | 25 Mar 2026 |
| March 2026 core update | 27 Mar 2026 | 8 Apr 2026 |
| May 2026 core update | 21 May 2026 | 1 June 2026 |
| June 2026 spam update | 24 June 2026 | 26 June 2026 |
| August 2026 spam update | 18 Aug 2026 | 20 Aug 2026 |
| September 2026 spam update | 24 Sept 2026 | 7 Oct 2026 |
That is five core updates in about fifteen months. A site’s visibility can swing several times a year without anything changing on the site itself.
Who won and lost in the March 2026 core update
Lily Ray’s analysis for Amsive found a consistent pattern in US Sistrix data.
Winners
- First-party entertainment platforms: IMDb, Amazon, Apple, Spotify and Netflix.
- Government sources such as NPS.gov, NIH.gov and IRS.gov.
- Brand-owned travel sites: Spirit Airlines up about 70%, Hilton, and airport websites such as LaGuardia and JFK.
- Health and finance brands such as GoodRx (up 54.5%) and American Express.
Losers
- YouTube, the largest single drop in the dataset.
- Reddit, Instagram and X.
- Travel aggregators TripAdvisor, Yelp and Expedia.
- Wikipedia, and job boards Indeed and ZipRecruiter.
- Consumer health publishers such as WebMD and Cleveland Clinic.
Her summary: “the company that owns the thing” won, while “the platform people use to talk about the thing” lost. She also suggested it might be an overcorrection, since Reddit and Indeed partly recovered within weeks.
Then the May 2026 update moved things again
Aleyda Solis analysed the May 2026 core update using Sistrix data for the US and UK. Several March patterns flipped:
- Job and travel marketplaces recovered. Trip.com rose 82% in the US, Skyscanner 47%, ZipRecruiter 45% and Indeed 26%.
- Forums fell. Reddit lost about 24% of its UK visibility, with Quora and Stack Exchange down around 31%.
- GoodRx swung back. After gaining in March, it lost about 80% of its UK visibility.
- Local versions beat global ones. In the UK index, amazon.co.uk and ebay.co.uk rose about 21 to 23%, while amazon.com and ebay.com fell more than 50%.
- Canonical references won. Cambridge.org, Merriam-Webster and Thesaurus.com gained, while smaller reference tools such as WordReference and Forvo dropped.
Her reading is that Google moved visibility toward the type of source that best fits each query’s intent and market, not simply toward big or authoritative brands.
What we can learn from two years of swings
- One update is not a trend. GoodRx, Reddit and Indeed all moved one way in March 2026 and the other way in May. Judge your site over several updates before rebuilding it.
- Be the source, not the summary. In both updates, pages that only repackage other people’s information were the most exposed. If you sell the product, run the clinic or employ the staff, say so clearly and publish what only you know.
- Match the market. The UK results show Google preferring the local version of a site. For Nigerian businesses that means naira prices, Nigerian addresses and phone numbers, and content written for buyers here.
- Match the format to the intent. Someone wanting a definition gets a dictionary. Someone wanting a flight gets a booking site. Check what currently ranks for your main searches and ask whether your page is the same kind of answer.
How to keep your website visible on Google
The basics from our original post still hold, sharpened:
- Keep important pages current. Update prices, stock, staff and dates. Stale pages lose trust with both users and Google.
- Study what people do on your site. Search Console shows which queries bring visitors and where they drop off. Do more of what works.
- Stay fast on a mid-range phone. In Nigeria, three quarters of web traffic is mobile, according to our State of Search in Nigeria 2026 research.
- Follow Google’s spam policies. Five spam updates since August 2025 show Google is still enforcing them. Our explainer on Google’s site reputation abuse policy covers one of the most common traps.
If your traffic has already dropped, work through our guide on what to do when your top pages drop in Google rankings. And for why a position alone no longer tells the whole story, read Ranking #1 Used to Mean Something.
Frequently asked questions
What does “visibility” mean in SEO tools?
It is a score that estimates how often a domain appears in Google results for a fixed set of keywords, weighted by ranking position and search volume. Tools such as Sistrix publish it as a running index. It is a useful trend line, but it is not the same as real traffic.
How many core updates did Google release in 2026?
By early November 2026, Google’s Search Status Dashboard listed two core updates in 2026, in March and May, plus four spam updates.
Why did my site lose visibility after a core update?
Core updates reassess which pages best answer each search. A drop usually means Google now prefers a different kind of page for your queries, not that you were penalised. Compare your page to the ones that gained before changing anything.
Can a site recover between core updates?
Some recovery can happen at any time as Google reprocesses pages, but larger recoveries often show up at the next core update. In 2026 several sites that lost in March recovered in May.
If you want a clear read on how recent updates affected your site, our team can run a free SEO audit.
Sources
Reports, articles and industry research, by email
Original Nigerian search data a few times a year, new guides as they are published, and a short note when Google or Meta changes something that affects businesses here. No sales emails, unsubscribe in one click.
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