An analysis by Zyppy founder Cyrus Shepard has identified five characteristics associated with whether a site gained or lost estimated organic traffic over the past 12 months. The study classified sites by revisiting many of the same ones covered in Lily Ray’s December core update analysis. Sheavily Ray categorized them by business model, content type, and other features, before measuring correlation with traffic changes. Five features identified as five: Offers a product or service, with 70% of winning sites offering their own service or service compared to 34% of losing sites. 92% of winners owned something difficult to replicate, such as unique datasets, user-generated content, or specialized software, among losers. Despite these findings, the study did not establish causation.