The deployment of the Google Core Update for March 2026 was completed on April 8. According to two analyzes carried out by SISTRIX, In France And in Germanythe verdict is harsh: Google massively redistributes visibility in favor of official sources and established brands, to the detriment of online stores, forums and language tools. In France, there are 14 losers for 1 winner. In Germany, the ratio is 4 to 1. Comparative overview.
What to remember:
- Google favors institutional sources and market leaders in both countries.
- Linguistic and educational tools are the hardest hit sector, probably linked to the rise of AI tools.
- Online stores are losing massively, regardless of size or industry.
- The imbalance between losers and winners is much more marked in France (14 to 1) than in Germany (4 to 1).
The same signal, two different amplitudes
On March 27, 2026, Google launched its March Core Update with a deployment that ended on April 8. The logic is identical on both sides of the Rhine: the authority of a source takes precedence over the interchangeability of its content. But the extent of the damage is not the same.
In Francethe analysis of 2,991 domains with significant variations identified 239 losers and only 17 winners with a demonstrable update effect.
In Germanyout of 1,371 domains analyzed, there were 134 losers for 32 winners. The French market is therefore hit much harder proportionally, with a loser/winner ratio of 14 to 1, compared to 4 to 1 across the Rhine.
Online stores: the most affected sector in both countries
This is the clearest and most transversal trend.
In France80 of the 239 losers are online stores, or exactly a third. The losses are not concentrated in a single segment: furniture (alinea.com -37%, pierimport.fr -28%), food (elmut.fr -50%, grains-semences.com -28%), music (paul-beuscher.com -58%), automobile (europcar.fr -26%) or even tech (backmarket.fr -25%).
In Germany39 of the 134 losers are e-tailers, also making them the largest group. Same observation: losses cross all categories. Fashion (cecil.de -30%), electronics (media-dealer.de -37%, alternate.de, conrad.de), plants and gardening (123zimmerpflanzen.de -27%, samenhaus.de -26%), B2B supplies (otto-office.com, hygi.de). And contrary to what one might imagine, the big brands are not spared: notebooksbilliger.de and expert.de each lose 11%.
The message is clear : having an online store is no longer enough. Without strong brand awareness behind it, organic visibility erodes.
Linguistic and educational tools in the face of AI
This is arguably the most telling trend in this update. In both countries, conjugation, translation, definition and learning tools are falling simultaneously.
In France : toutaconjugaison.com (-32%), littre.org (-30%), bab.la (-20%), glosbe.com (-25%), lingolia.com (-15%), kartable.fr (-14%), reverso.net (-12%), francaisfacile.com (-7%). The case of Littré is particularly symbolic: this historical reference of the French language goes from a visibility index of 61 to 43. This is a brutal fall for a site that has been an authority for decades.
In Germanythe pattern is almost identical: verbformen.de (-30%), bab.la (-22%), korrekturen.de (-15%), studysmarter.de (-15%), linguee.de (-10%), openthesaurus.de (-9%), reverso.net (-7%). Seven tools touched simultaneously.
What makes this cluster special is the context in which it takes place. These sites offer functionalities increasingly covered by AI applications : conjugations, translations, synonyms, grammar exercises. In Germany, chatgpt.com gained 32% visibility on Google at the same time. It’s hard not to make a connection. But caution is required: is it Google actively devaluing these sites, or is it the search behavior of users that is evolving? Future updates will provide some answers.
Forums and user-generated content
UGC (user-generated content) platforms are also under pressure, but Google makes notable distinctions.
In Francesupertoinette.com, the cooking forum, lost 46% of its visibility. stackoverflow.com declines by 45% on the French market. jecontacte.com (-31%) is also affected.
In Germanygutefrage.net lost almost a quarter of its visibility (from 62 to 47). The trajectory of this site is particularly telling: its visibility index peaked at 127 in the spring of 2025. It had already fallen to 54 at the start of 2026 before the Core Update, which pushed it further down to 47. X.com lost 25% and xing.com 14%.
But Google does not sanction all forums in the same way: Reddit has instead gained visibility during the last updates. It is therefore less the UGC format itself that is penalized than certain specific platforms, probably for reasons of quality or perceived authority.
In Franceseveral media and publishers are affected: dvdclassik.com (-33%), hatchette-vins.com (-46%), herodote.net (-26%), as well as nouveauobs.com and lesechos.fr.
In Germanyrecipe portals are particularly targeted: kuechengoetter.de (-29%), schlemmer-atlas.de (-25%), eatsmarter.de (-18%), essen-und-trinken.de (-11%), lecker.de (-6%). But chefkoch.de, the German recipe market leader, remains stable. The signal is consistent with the general logic of this update: the leader holds, the secondary players retreat.
The winners: few in number, but revealing
On the winning side, the list is short. 17 areas in France, 32 in Germany. But their profile is very informative.
In Francefour government sites are progressing simultaneously: pole-emploi.fr (+11%), Hautsdefrance.fr (+7%), paris.fr (+3%), interieur.gouv.fr (+1%). societe.com, the reference for consulting French company data, gains 50% visibility (its index goes from 13 to 19). conforama.fr (+7%) and cuisineaz.com (+2%), both leaders in their segment, are also progressing. pleinvie.fr, a general magazine founded in 1981 with nearly 800,000 copies distributed, doubles its visibility.
In Germanythe strongest signal comes from an unexpected cluster: four official airports win simultaneously. Stuttgart (+22%), Cologne-Bonn (+18%), Hamburg (+17%) and Munich (+8%). When four fields in the same niche progress at the same time and in parallel, it is not a coincidence. Google appears to have reorganized airport-related search results in favor of official sites, to the detriment of third-party comparators and aggregators. Other notable winners on the German side: ratiopharm.de (+12%), commerzbank.de (+11%), the government sites hessen.de, arbeitsagentur.de, wwf.de. And audible.de, with +172%, which constitutes the biggest winner of this update in Germany, although its effect was only noticeable from April 3, a week after the start of the deployment.
What this update says about Google's strategy
In both countries, the direction taken by Google is the same: the authority of a source takes precedence over the simple usefulness of its content. Institutional sites, market leaders and long-established brands are rewarded. Content that is interchangeable, general or covering functionalities now provided by AI is penalized.
The difference in ratio between the two countries (14 to 1 in France, 4 to 1 in Germany) could be explained by structural differences in local markets and in the composition of the sites analyzed, rather than by a different intention from Google. But it's worth keeping an eye on in future updates.