IndexWatch Q2 2025: UK Winners & Losers

From:

Luce Rawlings

Published: 29.07.2025

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Methodology

We’ve reviewed the top 250 domains that gained and lost the most visibility on Google UK between 1st April and 30th June 2025. The Visibility Index is explained in detail here.

Winners

Netflix

Popular streaming platform, netflix.com, saw a 55.13 boost in its Visibility Index score. Delving into the domain’s directory data confirms that the section that saw the most notable visibility increase was /title (+74.91%).

As the name suggests, the Title subfolder contains the individual pages for Netflix content (TV shows, movies, etc). These pages have been around for a long time; however, until recently, their design did not offer an optimal user experience for prospective subscribers. The layout failed to present key details, such as genre and cast, in a clear and digestible manner, and the messaging about joining the platform was minimal and unconvincing.

The new design is not only more engaging but also more helpful and better aligned with the user’s intent to subscribe. Each page now includes a video preview of the content and better presents information, which has been expanded to include information regarding subtitles and audio languages. There are also stronger conversional elements, such as a dedicated pricing table and multiple “Join now” Call-To-Action (CTA) buttons.

EBSCO

Ebsco.com has seen a 405.42% improvement in Google visibility since the beginning of April. EBSCOhost is an online database used by institutions worldwide (such as universities and hospitals) to find research papers, ebooks, audiobooks and more.

Despite being online for over a decade, the EBSCO website had very limited organic visibility until the March 2025 Core Update. Since then, it has reached its highest visibility levels to date – but what has driven this positive uptick?

To help users more easily navigate their library and discover relevant resources, EBSCOhost introduced a new subfolder called /research-starters; an A-Z directory of topics that users can browse directly. Previously, visitors had to rely solely on the site’s internal search engine to locate content.

This change has created strong, highly relevant topic and subtopic hubs, which have not only improved content accessibility but also strengthened the site’s internal linking structure. As a result, link equity is better distributed across pages, increasing the domain’s overall organic rankings (from 23,401 ranking keywords to 141,345) and increasing its Visibility Index (VI) score from 6.663 to 28.276 (+325.87%).

Subtopic page:

Information page:

Austen & Blake

Over the past 3 months, austenblake.com has seen a significant improvement in their visibility (+269.25%). Austen & Blake is a British jeweller with shops across the UK, including London, Manchester and Cardiff. 

During this period, three subfolders saw notable growth on the Google SERPs: /wedding-rings (+151.81%), /engagement-rings (+179.28%) and /diamond-rings (+730.11%).

In line with this quarter’s uplift, Austen & Blake’s domain-wide Page 1 rankings have doubled, increasing from 150 to upwards of 300 keywords.

Analysing austenblake.com’s URL change data highlights natural keyword cannibalisation across subfolders, due to the universal relevance of stone types, shapes, colours, and ring styles.

Consequently, in the last three months, many popular jewellery queries – including “oval ring,” “marquise” and “emerald cut diamonds” – have shifted between subcategories, with many moving from “engagement-rings” to “diamond-rings” and vice versa.

While the exact cause is difficult to determine, a review of the domain’s most linked-to pages reveals that certain subcategories within the Engagement Rings section attract more backlinks than those in Diamond Rings. This stronger backlink profile may have given these pages an authority boost, contributing to the recent changes to ranking URLs. Additionally, Google may view these subcategory pages as more relevant and trustworthy – with better E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness & Trustworthiness) signals – reinforcing their visibility on the results pages.

We also cannot eliminate a more straightforward reason – overlapping keyword targeting across similar pages. This in itself may be causing confusion for Google, resulting in ongoing fluctuations in rankings as the algorithm reassesses which page best aligns with user queries.

All Q2 winners

Below are the winners by absolute change:

And percent change:

Losers

Hostinger

Last quarter, web and cloud hosting provider hostinger.co.uk saw its visibility index (VI) score drop by 87.59%.

A closer look at the domain reveals that the company has recently implemented a new internationalisation strategy. As part of this, all UK content has been migrated from the .co.uk domain to a dedicated /uk subfolder on .com.

Following the migration which took place in mid-May, Hostinger has yet to reach its pre-migration levels of visibility, with only 77.71% of its Visibility Index score regained as of 30th June.

Cartoon Network

Cartonnetwork.com has experienced an 86.59% decrease in organic visibility on Google UK. Established in 1992, Cartoon Network is a globally recognised television channel best known for its animated series such as The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory and Johnny Bravo.

In late 2022, Warner Media – the parent company of Cartoon Network – merged with Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discovery. Since then, the company has gradually implemented cost-cutting measures in response to the growing dominance of streaming platforms over traditional cable TV. One such measure was the decision to deactivate the Cartoon Network websites.

For years, the channel’s UK website served as an online hub for show information, videos, games and interactive content. However, after its deactivation in August 2024, cartoonnetwork.co.uk now redirects users to the Cartoon Network’s UK YouTube channel. As a result of the redirection, the domain is steadily disappearing from search listings.

Microsoft

American technology giant Microsoft has seen a 21.6 point decline in its VI score since April. Directory data for the domain confirms that the largest drops are linked to its support subdomain: support.microsoft.com.

Delving deeper into the subdomain’s directories reveals a sharp and sustained decline in the rankings of “en-us” content beginning in 2022, alongside a corresponding surge in search prominence for the “en-gb” subfolder – driven by regionally-relevant support content ranking appropriately. However, the Visibility Index indicates that the “en-gb” trend has taken a negative turn over the past month.

The reason? Nearly 2,000 search queries that previously led to pages on the support subdomain are now directing users to the “apps” section on the root domain or to product-specific subdomains such as “azure” and “learn.” As a result, 52% of these search terms have lost between 9 and 91 ranking positions – proof that Google reassessing rankings for greater relevance doesn’t always deliver a positive outcome.

All Q2 losers

Below are the losers by absolute change:

And percent change:

Conclusion

What are the key takeaways from this quarter’s winners and losers analysis?

• UX enhancements are essential to boosting organic visibility and conversion rates. In the case of Netflix, their Title pages were previously missing the mark and not aligning with purchase intent. Now, users are more likely to engage and subscribe to their service.

• Internal linking remains crucial for informational content as we journey deeper into an AI-driven search experience. EBSCO’s introduction of Research Starters perfectly illustrates that intuitive content hubs are, and continue to be, vital for content discovery for both robots and users. Better content and smarter linking strategies = strong E-E-A-T signals, clearer site architecture, more effective authority distribution between pages, and ultimately, improved rankings and SERP visibility.

• Keyword cannibalisation, backlinks and citations continue to influence organic rankings for now. As search engines evolve to deliver a more personalised experience for individual users, and as we shift from measuring success by keyword metrics to topic-based performance, cannibalisation may become far less of a concern. However, the same is unlikely to be true for online brand mentions and high-quality external links, which are expected to grow in importance as key signals to support E-E-A-T.

• Even the most carefully planned migrations carry inherent risks. Hostinger’s decision to migrate from ccTLDs (country-code top-level domains) to a gTLD (generic top-level domain) as part of its internationalisation strategy was valid but there is always the potential for short, or even long-term impacts on SEO visibility and traffic acquisition. Only time will tell.

• Website deactivation and redirection is a common yet disappointing occurrence, causing the greatest heartbreak for SEOs who appreciate the years of time, effort and authority required to build a high-performing domain like Cartoon Network’s. The 301 redirects from pages on cartoonnetwork.co.uk will also have minimal to no impact on the performance of their YouTube channel, aside from simply guiding users to the right alternative destination for their cartoon fix.

• Never assume that Google’s efforts to reallocate and reassess relevant resources for search queries will automatically result in improved rankings. For a large and complex entity like Microsoft, keyword cannibalisation is an expected challenge. The negative ranking shifts observed, as the algorithm works to boost user experience and engagement, suggests underlying content issues related to quality, relevance, helpfulness or a combination of these factors.