The year 2025 will go down in the annals of organic search! With only three Core Updates and one Spam Update, the year appeared relatively calm. Yet the movements observed in the search results reveal deep changes in how the engine ranks sites. TheSISTRIX IndexWatch 2025 analysis analysis reveals the French winners of the year and, above all, the mechanisms that explain their spectacular successes.
Key takeaways:
- The sites that progress the most take the form of answer machines that reduce the user's cognitive cost rather than simple product catalogs.
- User-generated content platforms (YouTube, Reddit, Facebook) dominate the ranking of absolute visibility gains.
- SERP presence is becoming more important than direct traffic, because it also feeds visibility in generative AI tools.
- Amazon is losing ground to sites that capture the user earlier in their search journey.
Two ways to measure SEO performance
IndexWatch analyzes the winners from two complementary angles.
- On one hand, absolute visibility point gains highlight the giants that are gaining ground on massive volumes.
- On the other, percentage-based progressions reveal the new entrants and the sites that have found the right lever for acceleration.
This double reading makes it possible to distinguish two very different dynamics. Giants like YouTube or Facebook accumulate hundreds of additional visibility points, while more modest players multiply their presence by 5, 10 or even 20.
Au Fil du Thym: top gainer with +1128%
Among the examples highlighted by the study, the site aufilduthym.fr stands out as the biggest winner in percentage terms with a 1128% increase. It went from 1.75 visibility points to more than 21.5 points in one year. This spectacular performance is explained by several technical and editorial factors executed remarkably well.
An impeccable technical structure
The analysis of the site structure reveals methodical work. The "white cabbage" directory alone captures 4,395 keywords in the Top 100, including 883 in the Top 10. For the query "white cabbage recipe", the site even occupies positions 1 and 2 simultaneously, a multi-ranking phenomenon that maximizes clicks.
The site makes perfect use of the Rich Snippets recipe sections with an Schema.org markup impeccable presentation. Each recipe shows stars, preparation time and calories directly in Google results. This technical optimization combined with excellent loading times creates a frictionless user experience.
Content that breathes authenticity
Beyond the technical aspects, it's editorial quality that makes the difference. Each recipe begins with a first-person introduction in which the author, Florence, describes her relationship to the dish, its origin, and why she likes to prepare it. This narrative choice perfectly addresses the EEAT criteria (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) that Google values.
The site does not hesitate to include external links to reliable sources in its introductions, demonstrating a transparent approach. This editorial stance, combined with a complete lack of aggressive monetization, creates an environment of trust that Google rewards.
Primomedico: how a foreign site is conquering French SERPs in Healthcare
The second biggest percentage winner (+862%) is primomedico.com, a German site specializing in connecting patients with medical specialists. Its rise is all the more remarkable because it occurs in a sector YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) considered locked by established players.
A core directory that boosts the entire domain
Directory analysis shows that the /fr/cure/ section accounts for almost all the growth. This directory alone gained over 10 visibility points, pulling the entire domain along with its momentum. For the query "flat foot", the site moved from pages 4–6 into the Top 10 after a testing phase during the August 2025 Spam Update, then a lasting consolidation during the December 2025 Core Update.
A page designed for medical trust
The page analysis shows particular care given to credibility: a professional setting, a panel of specialists clearly identified with photo, title, specialty and contact link strengthens trust signals.
Content structure answers users' questions methodicallywith an H2 and H3 hierarchy formatted as an FAQ. The site intelligently addresses related concepts like "flat foot" and "fallen arch", anticipating the comparative searches that Google groups together in its results.
From a technical standpoint, the site checks all the boxes title and meta description oriented to intent, clean canonical tag, hreflang complete (de/en/fr/ru/ar), breadcrumb in JSON-LD and even a skip link for accessibility. These details, taken individually, don't make a site rank, but their accumulation sends quality signals that Google values.
UGC platforms dominate absolute gains
In the ranking of raw visibility point gains, five of the top ten are user-generated content platforms. YouTube leads with +521 points, followed by Reddit (+279 points), Facebook (+180 points), Instagram (+140 points) and Shutterstock (+76 points).
YouTube: 521 additional visibility points
YouTube's rise illustrates a fundamental shift in how Google structures its answers. The engine now heavily favors video formats for queries with an intent for entertainment or visual learningFor a query like "funny cat", the SERP is almost entirely dominated by video content.
This evolution creates a strategic opportunity for brands: rather than trying to rank a traditional editorial website for these types of queries, it becomes more relevant to create content directly on those platforms. SEO is becoming specialized by environment.
Reddit: the community explosion
With an increase of +279 points, Reddit is emerging as the new star of French SERPsGoogle now heavily values community discussions, considering that they provide authentic and diverse perspectives. Reddit threads regularly appear on the first page for informational or comparative queries.
The notable absence: Amazon stagnates
Amazon does not appear in the Top 100 gainersThis absence is neither an oversight nor an anomaly, but reveals an important signal: Google now favors sites that capture the user early in their journey, even before purchase intent has crystallized.
The e-merchants making gains in 2025 are those who combine commerce and content : Conforama (+53 points), Ikea (+51 points), Carrefour (+28 points). These are players able to reassure, inspire, compare and explain usage, not just sell the product.
Amazon remains the leading French e-commerce site, but its visibility in the SERP is decreasing because it comes too late in the cognitive journey for a growing number of intents. The site is a catalog optimized for conversion, not for providing answers.
Answer engines: Fsolver and company
Several "tool-sites" appear in the Top 100 gainers: fsolver.fr (+54 points), littre.org (+54 points), synonymo.fr (+28 points). These sites share one thing: they deliver an immediate answer, without unnecessary preamble, with an ultra-fast interface.
On the query "solution mots fléchés", the SERP even simplified between 2023 and 2025, with the disappearance of certain features to return to more direct results. In this context, being ranked as high as possible becomes decisive. Every pixel counts, because "above the fold" visibility confers a structural advantage independent of the exact position.
What these gains reveal for your strategy
The big winners of 2025 outline a trend that could not be clearer: Google rewards setups that reduce the user's cognitive load. No friction, no unnecessary detours, no waffle. The answer must be fast, accurate, and in the right format.
This evolution is profoundly transforming SEO. Visibility now precedes the visit, and sometimes doesn't even end with a click. With the emergence of LLMs that trigger external searches to feed their answers, Being visible in the SERP mechanically increases the chances of being cited by a conversational assistant.
The debate is no longer "content vs e-commerce" nor "SEO vs AI." The real divide is elsewhere: catalog vs answer, isolated page vs ecosystem, local optimization vs occupying the space. The sites that progress are those that capture the question even before the act of purchase exists.
For SEO professionals, the message is clear: SEO is becoming a cross-functional strategic lever that must have a seat at the table with branding, UX, product and marketing. As Sistrix says, optimizing your pages like in 2015 now amounts to capitalizing on your lag.
The article “SEO 2025: the sites that exploded on Google (SISTRIX study)” was published on the site Abondance.
