A SISTRIX analysis of German search data found far more losers than winners after Google’s March core update.
The analysis revealed 134 domains experiencing confirmed visibility losses and 32 with gains. SISTRIX determined these figures by examining 1,371 domains showing significant visibility changes, then applying filters such as a 52-week Visibility Index history, 30 days of daily data, and visual confirmation of each domain’s trend.
The update began rolling out on March 27 and was completed on April 8, 12 days after launch. It was the first broad core update of 2026 and arrived two days after Google finished the March 2026 spam update.
The SISTRIX data covers the German search market specifically. Results in other markets may differ.
What The Data Shows
Online shops accounted for the largest share of losers, with 39 of 134. Losses cut across verticals, hitting fashion (cecil.de, down 30%), electronics (media-dealer.de, down 37%), gardening (123zimmerpflanzen.de, down 27%), and B2B supply retailers. Larger German brands like notebooksbilliger.de and expert.de also declined, each losing about 11%.
Seven language and education tools lost visibility together, forming the most distinct cluster among the losers. verbformen.de fell 30%, bab.la dropped 22%, and korrekturen.de, studysmarter.de, linguee.de, openthesaurus.de, and reverso.net all declined 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 Overviews. The March update affected several of them. kuechengoetter.de lost 29%, schlemmer-atlas.de fell 25%, and eatsmarter.de dropped 18%. chefkoch.de, Germany’s largest recipe site, remained stable.
Among user-generated content platforms, gutefrage.net (Germany’s equivalent of Quora) lost about 24% of its visibility. SISTRIX noted that the site has been declining since mid-2025, when its Visibility Index peaked at 127. It was around 62 before this update and dropped to 47. x.com also fell 25% in German search visibility.
Who Gained
The 32 winners were dominated by official websites and established brands.
audible.de was the largest gainer at 172%, jumping from a Visibility Index of about 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 grew in parallel. Stuttgart Airport rose 22%, Cologne-Bonn 18%, Hamburg 17%, and Munich 8%. SISTRIX described the airport gains as the clearest cluster signal among winners, which may point to a broader ranking pattern rather than isolated site-level changes.
chatgpt.com gained 32% and bing.com gained 19% in German search visibility, though both started from low baselines (Visibility Index under 5). SISTRIX attributed this more to rising demand for brand search than to algorithmic preference.
Why This Matters
The German data covers a single market, and SISTRIX’s methodology captures domains with a Visibility Index above 1, so smaller sites aren’t represented in this dataset. But the patterns are worth watching.
The language tool cluster is notable. Seven sites offering similar functionality all lost visibility at the same time. SISTRIX raises the question of whether these losses reflect Google devaluing such sites or a shift in user behavior as AI tools cover similar functions.
If you’re tracking your own site’s performance after the March core update, Google recommends waiting at least one full week after the update is complete before drawing conclusions. Your baseline period should be before March 27, compared with performance after April 8.
Looking Ahead
SISTRIX plans to publish additional market analyses. Their English-language core update tracking page covers UK and US radar data but hasn’t yet published the detailed winners-and-losers breakdown for those markets.
Google hasn’t commented on what specific changes the March 2026 core update made. As with all core updates, pages can move up or down as Google’s systems reassess quality across the web.
Featured Image: nitpicker/Shutterstock
