Google’s March Core Update Winners & Losers in Home Services
Who were the biggest winners of Google’s March Core Algorithm update in Home Services?
The biggest growing Domains in LSG’s SERP Summary Index, our “Google weather report” that tracks 100K Home Services SERPS, since March 3rd were:
| Domain | Growth in # of Results | % Growth |
|---|---|---|
| www.yelp.com | 38,671 | 34% |
| www.lowes.com | 26,245 | 68% |
| www.angi.com | 12,635 | 5% |
| www.homewyse.com | 11,578 | 16% |
| www.homeserve.com | 7,807 | 4,045% |
| m.yelp.com | 7,424 | 78% |
| www.facebook.com | 4,950 | 11% |
| www.mrappliance.com | 4,332 | 68% |
| en.wikipedia.org | 4,299 | 21% |
| www.mybuilder.com | 4,271 | 17% |
HomeServe saw a big jump in traffic to its blog posts. It also saw a pretty big jump in linking domains (+15%), and Google Trends showed a huge increase in searches for “homeserve xcel” over the last week or two. I was probably one of those searchers as they did a promotional mailer with our power company. I imagine a lot of people got one and searched. The power of “brand demand” at work?
Who were the biggest losers of the March Core Update?
| Domain | # of Lost Results | % Loss |
|---|---|---|
| www.quora.com | -168,953 | -45% |
| www.reddit.com | -128,982 | -27% |
| www.justanswer.com | -14,761 | -55% |
| www.mumsnet.com | -8,897 | -84% |
| diy.stackexchange.com | -8,000 | -51% |
| www.homeadvisor.com | -7,134 | -25% |
| www.houzz.com | -6,630 | -18% |
| www.workshop.bunnings.com.au | -6,224 | -63% |
| www.diychatroom.com | -5,992 | -93% |
| www.bogleheads.org | -5,787 | -78% |
Despite massive losses in visibility, both Reddit and Quora remain two of the more prominent domains in our sample of 100K Home Services SERPs. Here’s a look at how these sites have grown in our index since the September 2024 Helpful Content Update:
So they’re still YUGE, but definitely getting dialed back.
Quora’s subdomains, in particular have been getting hammered. At the end of 2023, Quora launched a ton of subdomains like this classic – nutritionweightloassandautofinance.quora.com. Most of these domains generate very little traffic but in aggregrate, Semrush estimated they got 9M visits per month at their peak last year. There are currently on 54 of them in our index, and none appear in more then one hundred results.
It’s also interesting to see JustAnswer getting hammered. Lily Ray has called them out a few times, so perhaps they got on Google’s radar, and not in a good way.
Which sites came out of nowhere in March?
The following were the sites grew the most from zero visibility in March to kind of visible by the end of the month:
| Domain | Change in # of Results |
|---|---|
| adkinsandsonswindows.com | 4,230 |
| www.ecoflow.com | 1,138 |
| www.latuilerie.com | 634 |
| www.springerfloorcare.com | 553 |
| beyerplumbing.com | 436 |
SEOs love to talk about how correlation is not causation, but check out the correlation with adkinsandsonswindows.com’s backlink profile:
Which Sites Got Torched in March?
These were the top sites that went straight to zero:
| Domain | # of Lost Results |
|---|---|
| www.bladesofglory.co | -2,333 |
| www.wedohvacus.com | -957 |
| www.aucklandgaragedoors.co.nz | -732 |
| www.waterheatersnow.com | -639 |
| www.arengh.com | -510 |
| emeraldcityenergy.com | -478 |
| www.pickupandhaul.com | -406 |
| vorlane.com | -350 |
| proest.com | -337 |
Poor Blades Of Glory, a Walnut Creek, CA landscaper, appears to have lost most of the rankings for its blog posts. That shouldn’t be too big a deal as its likely most of those clicks were coming from out of their market. Don’t get me started on why this kind of content is usually a waste for SMBs.
WeDoHVACUS.com looks like it had dialed up the exact-match anchor text a wee too much:
And what about that New Zealand domain? We are still seeing a lot of non-US domains in these results, but it seems like Google is trying to clean them out:
International TLDs in SERPs:
| TLD | # of Domains in SERPs | % of Total Results | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| .co.uk | 14,089 | 4% | -2% |
| .au | 1.812 | 2% | +48% |
| .ie | 1,694 | <1% | -6% |
| .nz | 712 | <1% | +57% |
| co.in | 94 | <1% | -2,092% |
There’s nothing particularly surprising in this data. Google seems to be dialing up “brand”, tamping down a bit on the discussion and forum sites, still rewarding backlinks, but dinging smaller sites that get a little aggressive with them.
Sounds a lot like a typical month of SEO.
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