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L’année 2021: Which publishers dominated Google in France?

7. July 2022
By Jennifer Helmig service@newsdashboard.com

Since the world is looking at France due to the Tour de France, why not do the same in the SEO-universe?

2021 was quite the turbulent year – a year still marked by the COVID-19-pandemic, related regulations and riots. However, vaccinations against the virus shone a ray of hope into the future.
The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, as well as the UEFA Euro, provided a sporty summer, Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the 2021 US presidential election and the container ship Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal for a whopping six days in March. In short: 2021 was a turbulent year, so news publishers had their work cut out for them.
Who made it to the top five in Google News and on the SERPs among French publishers?
Which keywords were most successful in 2021?
How do the stats compare to five years ago?
Find out this and much more here!

By the way: If you are only interested in the French publisher’s performances in the News Boxes in 2021, we’ve got a separate article here for you. Everything is – as always – based on our near-realtime crawling intervals!

 

Google News

 

Alright, let’s first have a look at the top five publishers in Google News! Who made it to the top in 2021? And how about five years ago?
Alors voyons voir!

 

Google News 2021: Overachiever France Info

 

This figure shows the top five publishers in Google News in 2021. France Info clearly stands out from the competition: At no point in 2021 do they give up first place. Other than that, France Info’s graph remains relatively flat and stable. The other four competitors’ graphs are quite tightly knit together. Ouest-France starts the year off in second place and remains relatively stable until July, where its graph rises and begins to stand out from the others’. This only lasts for two months though: In September the graph falls into third place. But luckily, at the end of 2021, they get back into second place. Le Figaro scarcely starts 2021 in third place. Their graph also remains quite stable, until it bends downward in August and then straight away goes up again; almost the exact opposite as Ouest-France’s graph. After that, Le Figaro’s graph steadily falls for the remainder of the year, putting them in fourth place in December. YouTube’s graph starts 2021 off just below Le Figaro’s in fourth place. Until April, it remains quite steady, then, in May, it suddenly falls down into fifth place, only to rise up again in June and then fall down again in July. After that, YouTube’s graph steadily rises for the rest of 2021, ultimately putting them in third place in December. Le Monde starts 2021 off in fifth place, quite far below the other competitors. Up until June, their graph steadily approaches the others, but in July and August, it suddenly falls quite drastically. In September, Le Monde’s graph rises up again and then steadily falls for the remainder of the year, putting them in fifth place.

Here we have the top five publishers 2021 in Google News. What a great year for France Info: They remain well above their competitors for the entirety of 2021 and their curve shows no real fluctuation. Solid performance, France Info! Le Figaro and Le Monde both have their lowest point in August. Ouest-France, on the other hand, has its peak at the same time. YouTube is at that point already on the rise again, since their lowest point can be noticed one month prior in July.

Google News 2021: Top five publishers measured by number of rankings

  1. France Info
  2. Ouest-France
  3. Le Figaro
  4. YouTube
  5. Le Monde

Google News 2021: Overall ranking in each category

 

Google News 2017: Gold for Le Figaro

 

This figure shows the top five publishers in Google News in 2017. Here, Le Figaro clearly stands out from the competition: At no point does any of the other graphs come even close to theirs. And if that wasn’t enough, Le Figaro’s graph steadily rises for all of 2021, except for one little slip-up in August, from which it recovers quickly though. What a great year for Le Figaro! France Info starts 2017 off in second place. Up until March, their graph falls, temporarily putting them in fifth place. In April it starts to rise again though, only to fall back down in June and July. After this, France Info’s graph rises again, making them stand out quite clearly from places three to five. Le Monde starts 017 off in third place, but their graph falls into fifth place straight away in February. Immediately after, though, it rises again, putting them into third place in May. Following that, their graph begins to steadily fall again until it reaches fourth place and their lowest ranking overall in August. After that, it rises again and Le Monde finishes 2017 in a super close fourth place. Le Parisien starts off in fourth place and, just as Le Monde’s, their graph first falls in February, only to rise back up immediately after. In May, it steadily falls back down and remains quite stable until it slightly rises starting in October. Eventually, Le Parisien finishes in third place, just before Le Monde. 20 Minutes starts 2017 in fifth place. Their graph rises until April and then quite drastically falls down into a clear fifth place. Though in September it briefly rises, 20 Minutes is not able to leave fifth place for the remainder of 2017.

In 2017, Le Figaro shows a similar course in their curve as France Info does in 2021: They stay above the competition, not giving up the pole position once throughout the entire year. 20 Minutes and Le Parisien were part of the top five in 2017 but did not make it in five years later in 2021, having to give up their places to Ouest-France and YouTube.

Google News 2017: Top five publishers measured by number of rankings

For better comparison, the blue brackets show the publishers that are in the same position in 2021.

  1. Le Figaro (France Info)
  2. France Info (Ouest-France)
  3. Le Monde (Le Figaro)
  4. Le Parisien (YouTube)
  5. 20 Minutes (Le Monde)

 

Google News Five-Year Review (2017-2021): France Info stays solid

 

This figure shows the top five publishers in Google News in the period from 2017 to 2021. Le Figaro starts the ranking off in a clear first place, but then their graph drastically falls down mid-2018, leaving them in third place. After that, it remains relatively stable and then slightly rises up starting mid-2020. They finish in third place in December 2021. France Info starts off in second place in January 2017. Their graph has its peak in March 2018 and then falls, only to remain quite steady for the remainder of the measured time-period. Due to Le Figaro’s significant drop, France Info can claim first place for themselves. After France Info, Le Monde starts 2017 off in third place. Their graph has its peak in April 2018, but after that it falls straight away into fifth place. For the remainder of the measurement, it slightly falls and rises again and again, switching between fifth and fourth place. Eventually, Le Monde finishes the ranking in fourth place. 20 Minutes starts 2017 off in fourth place and tends to fall after that. At the beginning of 2018, it rises into second place and after that gradually falls without any obvious fallouts. 20 Minutes finishes 2021 in fifth place. Last but not least, Ouest-France starts 2017 off in fifth place. After having their lowest point at the end of 2017, their graph rises drastically, even bringing them into third place shortly. After that, their graph stays quite flat until June 2019, when it suddenly starts to rise again, even making them first place for October 2019. Immediately after, Ouest-France’s graph falls again and stays flat for the remainder of the measured time. They finish 2021 in second place.

In the five-year review, the most obvious curve belongs to Le Figaro. First, they started off in pole position way above their competitors in January 2017, and remained there for another 15 months until a drastic fall puts them into third place. Ouest-France’s curve shows almost the opposite course: They start off in fifth place quite far off from the others and then fight their way up to third position with a drastic rise starting at the end of 2017. France Info’s line remains quite stable at the top of the ranking throughout those five years.

Google News 2017-2021: Top five publishers measured by number of rankings

For 2021, the publisher that was in the same place is coloured in blue, and for 2017 in red.

  1. France Info (France Info | Le Figaro)
  2. Le Figaro (Ouest-France | France Info)
  3. 20 Minutes (Le Figaro | Le Monde)
  4. Ouest-France (YouTube | Le Parisien)
  5. Le Monde (Le Monde | 20 Minutes)

Mobile SERP

 

Let’s now take a look at the data the News Dashboard extracted from the mobile SERP. The procedure will be the same as with Google News: First, we will review 2021 with its top five publishers, the overall rankings in each category, plus the top ten keywords of that year.  The same then goes for 2017, as well as the time span from 2017-2021. Let’s dive in!

 

Mobile SERP 2021: A good year for YouTube

 

This figure shows the top five publishers on the Mobile SERP in 2021. YouTube clearly leads this ranking: Their graph remains in first place for the entire year, with the exception of December, where it gets overtaken by France Info’s graph. YouTube has its peak in April and after that their graph falls down in May and goes on to remain quite flat. France Info starts off in second place. Their graph tends to fall down slightly up until May, then rises in August and falls again to reach its lowest point and fourth place in October. Immediately after that though, it rises quite drastically again, making France Info finish 2021 in first place. Wikipedia starts in third place and their curve remains the flattest out of all the competitors. Only in November it suddenly starts to fall, leading to Wikipedia finishing the year in fifth place. Le Monde starts in fourth place and then falls down into fifth. Up until May, it remains there, with its graph being really flat. Then, in June, it rises into fourth place and even finishes the year in third place. Lastly, Ouest-France starts 2021 off in fifth position. Their graph remains quite flat with a rising tendency, leading to them finishing the year off in fourth place.

On the mobile SERP, YouTube dominated the ranking in 2021. In every month, except for December, they claim the pole position. Le Monde’s prime time in 2021 starts in June, when their curve rises from fifth to fourth position and steadily increases for the remainder of the year, putting them in third place in December. France Info’s curve reaches its lowest point in October but quickly rises again to first position in December.

Mobile SERP 2021: Top five publishers measured by number of rankings

  1. YouTube
  2. France Info
  3. Wikipedia
  4. Le Monde
  5. Ouest-France

Mobile SERP 2021: Overall ranking in each category

  • À la une (Top Stories): France Info ; YouTube ; Le Monde ; Ouest-France ; Wikipedia
  • France: France Info ; Le Monde ; BFM TV ; Le Figaro ; 20 Minutes
  • International (World): France Info ; 20 Minutes ; Le Monde ; Ouest-France ; Le Figaro
  • Économie (Business): Les Échos ; Wikipedia ; Boursorama ; YouTube ; Le Figaro
  • Sciences et technologies (Science and Technology): Frandroid ; YouTube ; Wikipedia ; Journal du Geek ; Les Numériques
  • Divertissements (Entertainment): YouTube ; Voici ; Télé-Loisirs ; Gala ; Wikipedia
  • Sports: L’Équipe ; Foot Mercato ; Eurosport ; YouTube ; Wikipedia
  • Santé (Health): France Info ; Ouest-France ; Le Monde ; LCI ; 20 Minutes
  • COVID-19: France Info ; Le Monde ; LCI ; Ouest-France ; BFM TV

Mobile SERP 2021: Top ten keywords with most rankings

Here, we used the general keyword set, which displays breaking news and a selected topic range to show the most generally newsworthy topics.

  1. coronavirus
  2. cac40
  3. donald trump
  4. covid 19
  5. emmanuel macron
  6. ligue 1
  7. android
  8. vaccination
  9. euro
  10. vaccin

 

Mobile SERP 2017: A battle between 20 Minutes and Wikipedia

 

This figure shows the top five publishers on the Mobile SERP in 2017. Here, Wikipedia started the year off in a clear first place, followed by 20 Minutes in second place. Then, in March, something quite curious happens while Wikipedia’s graph falls, 20 Minute’s rises at the same time, making them number one for the month of April. Just as quickly as it rose, 20 Minute’s graph falls again, though. Wikipedia is therefore in first place once again and their curve remains quite flat until July, where it rises again and sets off from 20 Minute’s. Then, in September, it happens once again that Wikipedia’s graph falls and 20 Minute’s rises at the same time, putting them in the same spot in September. After that, 20 Minute’s graph falls once again while Wikipedia’s rises for their overall peak. At the end of the year, both publishers’ graphs approach each other again. Le Parisien starts 2017 off in third place. In March, their curve slightly rises and remains at that level until it falls back down in July. In October it then falls down once again, putting Le Parisien into fourth place for the month of November. In December, though, the publisher is able to take back third place. Le Monde starts in fourth place in January. Their curve slightly rises until May, then falls down until it reaches its all time low in August, putting Le Monde into fifth place. After that, their curve rises once again, even reaching third place in the month of November. In December, the curve falls back into fourth place. Last but not least, Ouest-France starts 2017off in fifth place. Their curve immediately rises into fourth, then falls back down into fifth in May. Due to Le Monde’s curve falling down in June, Ouest-France is in fourth place once again from June until October. In November, their curve falls and in December it rises again, but it is only enough for fifth place.

In 2017, 20 Minutes and Wikipedia compete in a real head-to-head race for the pole position. The courses of their curves are almost reminiscent of a double helix (though quite a wonky one). In the end though, Wikipedia is able to outrun its competitor and wins the overall ranking on 2017’s mobile SERP.

Top five publishers measured by number of rankings

Quick reminder: For better comparison, the blue brackets show the publishers that are in the same position in 2021.

  1. Wikipedia (YouTube)
  2. 20 Minutes (France Info)
  3. Le Parisien (Wikipedia)
  4. Ouest-France (Le Monde)
  5. Le Monde (Ouest-France)

 

Mobile SERP Five-Year Review (2017-2021): 20 Minute’s peak

 

This figure shows the top five publishers on the Mobile SERP in the timespan from January 2017 until December 2021. Wikipedia starts off in first place and then experiences a drastic downfall starting in May 2018. From then on, they alternate between third and fourth place, and even shortly in fifth place in June and July 2019. At the end of 2021, they are in fourth place, just before 20 Minutes. 20 Minutes is the publisher that starts 2017 off in second place. Their curve remains relatively even until June 2018, where it shoots up into a very clear first place, overshadowing all the other competitors completely. After that, the curve just as drastically falls back down in November on from then on it gradually falls, until it is in fifth place in December 2021. France Info starts 2017 off in third place and then alternates between third and fourth place for about one and a half years. In May 2018, their curve rises and then falls down drastically into a clear fifth place in October 2018. Starting in April 2019, France Info’s curve begins to rise again quite extremely, putting them into first place in July 2019. From then on, it alternates between first, second and third place and at the end of 2021, it ends up in pole-position. Le Monde starts off in a close fourth place, just after France Info. Their curve remains quite stable, until it rises into second place in June 2018. Remaining quite flat once again after that, in May 2020, the curve rises once again and then falls back down in fifth place in February 2021. From then on it rises again, putting Le Monde into third place at the end of 2021. YouTube’s curve path is quite interesting: They begin in a clear fifth place in 2017, well below the other competitors. From then on, the curve gradually rises, until it shows a clear peak in March and April 2019, putting them into first place. Immediately after, they fall back down but are able to rise again in September 2019. From then on, they remain in first place for the remainder of the measured time. Only in December 2021 they get overtaken by France Info and end the year in second place.

The five-year review of the mobile SERPs shows a very obvious peak for 20 Minute’s curve in 2018.

Mobile SERP 2017-2021: Top five publishers measured by number of rankings

Quick reminder: For 2021, the publisher that was in the same place is coloured in blue, and for 2017 in red.

    1. 20 Minutes (YouTube | Wikipedia)
    2. Wikipedia (France Info | 20 Minutes)
    3. YouTube (Wikipedia | Le Parisien)
    4. France Info (Le Monde | Ouest-France)
    5. Le Monde (Ouest-France | Le Monde)

Desktop SERP

 

Last but not least, we will take a look at what happened on the desktop SERP in 2021, 2017 and the years in between. How does it differ from the mobile SERP? Let’s see!

 

Desktop SERP 2021: YouTube joins the competition

 

This figure shows the top five publishers on the Desktop SERP in 2021. Here, YouTube starts the year off well above the other competitors, but quite quickly falls down into second place, just below Wikipedia. The two of them then alternate between first and second place for the remainder of the year. Wikipedia falls down into third place in December 2021. Le Monde starts 2021 off in third place and remains there until July, where they get overtaken by France Info, who have been in fourth place all year before that. For the months of July, August and September, France Info remains in third place and Le Monde in fourth place. After that they switch roles in October and while Le Monde’s curve remains flat for the remainder of 2021, France Info’s shows a rise and ends up in second place in front of Wikipedia. Lastly, Le Figaro starts 2021 off in fifth place. Their curve stays quite flat for the entirety of the year and does not leave fifth place at all.

The most striking thing about the top five publishers in 2021 on the desktop SERP is probably how flat and consistent all of their graphs are. Only YouTube shows a quite drastic downfall at the beginning of the year, joining the other competitors and from then on alternating in first and second place with Wikipedia. Le Monde’s graph also has a slight downfall in July and France Info’s graph rises slightly at the same time. Le Figaro remains in fifth place all year long.

Desktop SERP 2021: Top five publishers measured by number of rankings

  1. YouTube
  2. Wikipedia
  3. Le Monde
  4. France Info
  5. Le Figaro

Desktop SERP 2021: Overall ranking in each category

  • À la une (Top Stories): France Info ; Le Monde ; Wikipedia ; YouTube ; Le Figaro
  • France: France Info ; Le Monde ; BFM TV ; Le Figaro ; YouTube
  • International (World): Le Monde ; France Info ; 20 Minutes ; YouTube ; Le Figaro
  • Économie (Business): Wikipedia ; Boursorama ; Les Échos ; YouTube ; Le Monde
  • Sciences et technologies (Science and Technology): YouTube ; Frandroid ; Wikipedia ; Jeuxvideo.com ; Journal du Geek
  • Divertissements (Entertainment): YouTube ; Wikipedia ; Voici ; Télé-Loisirs ; AlloCiné
  • Sports: L’Équipe ; Eurosport ; Foot Mercato ; YouTube ; Wikipedia
  • Santé (Health): France Info ; Le Monde ; LCI ; Wikipedia ; Ouest-France
  • COVID-19: France Info ; Le Monde ; LCI ; BFM TV ; YouTube

Desktop SERP 2021: Top ten keywords with most rankings

Reminder: Here, we used the general keyword set, which displays breaking news and a selected topic range to show the most generally newsworthy topics.

  1. covid 19
  2. cac 40
  3. coronavirus
  4. ligue 1
  5. donald trump
  6. euro
  7. android
  8. nasa
  9. vaccination
  10. emmanuel macron

 

Desktop SERP 2017: Hello, Wikipedia!

 

This figure shows the top five publishers on the Desktop SERP in 2017. L’Équipe starts the year off in first place and falls down into second and then third place in February and March. After that the curve remains quite flat, until it shows a downfall in August. In December, L’Équipe ends the year in 2021. Le Monde starts 2021 off in a close second place and gradually rises, until they have their peak in May. After that, the curve falls down and joins the other competitors. They end the year in second place. 20 Minutes starts in third place in January. Other than a slight peak in April and a downfall in August, just as most of the other competitors, their curve remains quite flat. At the end of 2021, 20 Minutes is in third place once again. Le Figaro starts in fourth place. Their curve remains flat until it experiences a slight rise in July and then a downfall in August, just as the others do. After that it rises again, reaching its peak in November and being in third place. In December, their curve falls back down into a close fourth place. Lastly, Wikipedia starts the year off in a clear fifth place, with their curve being at zero on the y-axis until July. Then, it shoots up into a clear first place, towering over its competition. It remains there for the rest of the year.

In 2017 we see a rather peculiar twist of Wikipedia’s graph. In order to understand this, let’s look back at a bit of News Dashboard history. The first French ranking was crawled in 2015 but only tracked rankings in desktop News Boxes. Then in August 2017, we started crawling organic and other rankings which explains the sharp increase in visibility. What’s also interesting is that the other publishers’ graphs show a reduction at about the same time Wikipedia comes into the picture.

Desktop SERP 2017: Top five publishers measured by number of rankings

Quick reminder: For better comparison, the blue brackets show the publishers that are in the same spot in 2021.

    1. Le Monde (YouTube)
    2. L’Équipe (Wikipedia)
    3. Wikipedia (Le Monde)
    4. 20 Minutes (France Info)
    5. Le Figaro (Le Figaro)

 

Desktop SERP Five-Year Review (2017-2021): The mountain range

 

This figure shows the top five publishers on the Desktop SERP within the timespan from January 2017 until December 2021. Le Monde starts off in first place and then falls down into second place in August 2017. In June 2018 their graph displays a drastic rise back into first place, then once again a downfall, putting them into an alternation between third, fourth and fifth place. They end the year 2021 in fourth place. 20 Minutes starts off in second place and, just as Le Monde, rises in June 2018, just not as drastically. After that, the curve gradually falls, so that 20 Minutes ends up in fifth place in December 2021. France Info starts in third place and, just as its two predecessors, reaches its sudden peak in June 2018. In March 2019, their curve shows its lowest point and puts them into fifth place. After that, it rises gradually, leading to France Info finishing in second place. Lastly, Wikipedia and YouTube both remain at zero until July 2017. Wikipedia then shoots up into a clear first place, where it remains until May 2018. YouTube’s rise is a bit more subtle, until it also suddenly shoots up into a clear first place in October 2018, after Wikipedia has fallen back down. YouTube remains in first and Wikipedia in second place, until the shortly switch places in January 2021 due to a downfall on YouTube’s side. At the end of 2021, YouTube gets back into first position and Wikipedia gets overtaken by France Info, making them third.

Here, we see the same phenomenon with Wikipedia and YouTube in mid-2017 as described above. After joining the ranking, both of them rank at the top. Also interesting seems Le Monde’s peak in late 2018/early 2019, which is, however, quite short-lived. Additionally, represented in the top five are 20 Minutes and France Info.

Desktop SERP 2017-2021: Top five publishers measured by number of rankings

One last reminder: For 2021, the publisher that was in the same place is coloured in blue, and for 2017 in red.

    1. Wikipedia (YouTube | Le Monde)
    2. YouTube (Wikipedia | L’Équipe)
    3. Le Monde (Le Monde | Wikipedia)
    4. France Info (France Info | 20 Minutes)
    5. 20 Minutes (Le Figaro | Le Figaro)

 

Conclusion

 

Well, that was a lot of information but since a lot has happened in 2021 news-wise, that seems quite fitting.

All in all, it can be said that YouTube and Wikipedia are part of most of the rankings shown above, even though Wikipedia is a database for knowledge (which is why they are, at least not yet, represented in Google News). YouTube has the best ranking overall in 2021 if you put together Google News and the SERPs, but it should not be forgotten that publishers also publish on YouTube. Therefore both YouTube and Wikipedia are strictly speaking no competitors for news publishers.
If you want to use them being part of the rankings for your advantage, it would be advisable to publish more video-content or knowledge articles.

Other than that, it is interesting that Le Figaro is not part of the top five of the mobile SERP but is represented in both the top fives of Google News and the desktop SERP. Quite similarly, Ouest-France does not appear in the top five of the desktop SERP but is part of it in Google News and on the mobile SERP.

France Info has the most diverse articles overall, appearing in the most categories. The best ranking keywords in 2021 all have (to no surprise) something to do with Covid-19, but CAC 40, the benchmark index in the French stock market, also performs very well.

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