The organic battle for customers ahead of this year's biggest sale event is in full swing. A new analysis of the Swedish search results on computers for the keyword "black friday", conducted by SEO expert Jorge Castro in early November, shows a clear commercial dominance compared to the same period last year.
Since Google's search results are dynamic and constantly changing – with, for example, up-to-date news articles from the tabloid press temporarily breaking into the top spots for the day – the ranking is never set in stone. But the underlying trend is clear: nine out of ten places on the first page now consist of dedicated online stores and price comparison sites, compared to eight out of ten last year.
The only non-commercial site that clings to the absolute top tier in the measurement is the encyclopedia Wikipedia.
Google has decided that anyone searching for black friday primarily wants to shop, not read. Therefore, reports and encyclopedias are pushed out and the stores that actually have the offers take their place. This is a clear change in the search landscape, says Jorge Castro.
Electronics chains take half of the top list
In the current snapshot, Elgiganten has climbed two places from last year and taken first place, meaning the chain has pushed down previous leader Prisjakt to fifth place. The strong performance of the electronics giant in search results during the campaign period is no coincidence, as Jorge Castro has also highlighted in previous years that Elgiganten has done an extra good job with its visibility during the sale.
Department store Åhléns has also strengthened its position, climbing from sixth to fourth place. At the same time, beauty store NordicFeel and marketplace CDON have fallen out of the top ten in this year's measurement, along with the newspaper Expressen, which was the only media outlet on the list last year.
Instead, the field has been filled by heavyweights in technology and price comparisons. New to the top ten are Proshop in seventh place, Dustin in ninth and PriceRunner in tenth place. This means that the consumer electronics industry now accounts for all five of ten places through Elgiganten, Webhallen, Proshop, Inet and Dustin, compared to three places the year before.
Place |
November 2025 |
November 2026 |
Change |
|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Prisjakt.nu |
Elgiganten.se |
+2 (from position 3) |
2 |
Webhallen.com |
Wikipedia.org |
+5 (from position 7) |
3 |
Elgiganten.se |
Webhallen.com |
-1 (from position 2) |
4 |
Clasohlson.com |
Ahlens.se |
+2 (from position 6) |
5 |
Nordicfeel.com |
Prisjakt.nu |
-4 (from position 1) |
6 |
Ahlens.se |
Clasohlson.com |
-2 (from position 4) |
7 |
Wikipedia.org |
Proshop.se |
New |
8 |
Cdon.se |
Inet.se |
+1 (from position 9) |
9 |
Inet.se |
Dustin.se |
New |
10 |
Expressen.se |
Pricerunner.se |
New |
Footnote: The measurement is based on a snapshot of the organic search result on computers in Google Sweden in early November 2026 compared to November 2025. Search results vary continuously over time and up-to-date news articles may temporarily appear in the feed.
Permanent strategy behind the success
According to Jorge Castro, the fact that electronics players have such a lead is due to long-term and systematic work on the landing pages. The battle for organic traffic has also become increasingly important as Google's AI search takes over more and more general keywords and changes click behavior on the web.
The electronics chains have worked with Black Friday the longest and most methodically. Every single one of them has a permanent Black Friday page with the same address year after year. It remains throughout the year, is built upon before each campaign and receives links and history. That's what the winners have in common, says Jorge Castro.
The main keyword "black friday" generates around 50,000 searches per month in Sweden. But if you count more specific search phrases where consumers combine the sale with a specific product – such as "black friday headphones" or "black friday winter jacket" – it amounts to over 300,000 searches each month during the campaign period.
For smaller and medium-sized e-retailers who do not have the muscles to break into the giants on the main keyword itself, the real business opportunity lies in these product-specific searches.
Many e-retailers think this is decided at the end of November. It's the opposite. The positions are practically set now in October, and anyone launching their Black Friday page a week before has no chance against a page that has existed for five years. And it's not the main keyword that is the big deal, it's the hundreds of thousands of searches for product plus black friday where an ordinary e-retailer can actually win, says Jorge Castro.