The 1,000 Biggest Losers in Google’s March Update

During March, Google rolled out one of the biggest algorithm updates in a long time. In fact, two at the same time: a so-called Core Update and a Spam Update. We have evaluated the 1,000 sites that lost the most in the update and can draw some clear conclusions about how the update is affecting Sweden. Here’s what we know.

We can start by looking at what Google themselves have communicated. This is often at least an indication of what they want to achieve, even if it’s rarely very precise or something to act on directly. During March, they mainly spoke about two things:

• Low-quality content that is not original
• Spam in three main forms: scaled content, reputation abuse, and expired domain abuse

To understand what’s happening, it may be worth looking at the background. You’ve probably realized that there are opportunities with AI-generated text. You’re not alone in that.

One of the sites in Sweden that took a hit in the update had scaled up its content.

This has taken different forms, but what has happened is that Google’s search results, especially in the US, have been flooded with very low-quality content, and Google needs to address this in order not to lose users’ trust. Every beginner in SEO has realized that if you have a strong domain, you can fill it with thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of landing pages — all with “unique” text.

The three forms of spam that Google highlights are:

Scaled content

By scaled content, Google means publishing content on a completely new scale on an existing, solid website — your company site, for example. I’ve seen cases where sites that had 200 pages of content before 2023 suddenly had 700,000 pages and multiplied their traffic from Google. A rapid growth that risks a real crash landing (see the image above).

Reputation abuse

When a site with a very strong reputation — a good example in Sweden could be daily or evening newspapers — adds大量third-party content filled with, for example, affiliate links. I can’t help but think of all the discount code pages that have popped up on media platforms in recent years. Google’s view is that this exploits the site’s good reputation to make easy money from search results.

Expired domain abuse

Buying an expired domain that still has inbound links pointing to it and filling it with content to rank for a wide range of keywords is the third form they want to address.

As you can see, the difference between these is marginal. It’s really about how authority is leveraged to get content to rank well in search results. The foundation is the same: flooding with content that doesn’t really add value, ranking for lots of keywords with it, and then monetizing that traffic — often through affiliate links.

What does the data say?

We have reviewed the 1,000 sites that lost the most during the month (in Sweden), and after filtering out those that made other major changes — such as switching domains or platforms — the picture becomes clear. Sites that added very large amounts of questionable-quality content have taken a significant hit. There are plenty of examples of sites that are essentially just one domain linked together with others of the same type, with nearly endless numbers of pages.

Some such examples:

• mylunch.se (-90%)
• popularaplatser.se (-65%)
• popularagym.se (-63%)
• oppettider.org (-58%)

We also see some more legitimate companies that have scaled their content, for example:

• playpilot.com (-65%)
• campadre.se (-44%)

And we see a number of e-commerce sites:

• temu.com (-27%)
• tyngre.se (-36%)
• mathem.se (-27%)
• cellbes.se (-37%)
• eurosko.com (-40%)

Has anyone won?

Yes, without a doubt. Playing in the search results is a zero-sum game — there always has to be someone in first place. The truth is that, as with all Google updates, it’s fuzzy, because it’s difficult to get the algorithm exactly right. It’s hard to say that any of the other lunch sites that have popped up instead of mylunch.se are actually better (because they’re not); it’s just that they didn’t have quite as clear signals to the new algorithm (which, by the way, shows many signs of being similar to the Panda update).

What can I do?

We haven’t yet seen any sites recover, and my guess is that it won’t happen — at least not in the sense of returning to the traffic levels they had with their scaled content. If you know you’ve been balancing on the edge with your content and have now fallen back to the traffic you had before, you should probably be grateful that this update is kinder than the previously mentioned Panda, which would have thrown you out completely.

If you’ve lost more than you feel you deserve, you likely have a long and fairly painful cleanup ahead of you. You’ll need to remove all the junk from your site, and you’ll have to cut away so much that it hurts. After that, time, high-quality content, and authority are the way forward.