Earlier this month, Google made a change that left many site owners puzzled by sudden drops in impressions. Between September 8 and September 12, these declines weren’t penalties but the result of Google disabling support for the &num=100 URL parameter. Rankings and actual traffic weren’t significantly impacted, but you should expect reporting fluctuations during this window – especially around impressions.
What Was &num=100?
Appending &num=100 to a Google search URL (for example, ?q=keyword&num=100) told Google to return up to 100 organic results on one page.
- Rank trackers and SERP (search engine result page) tools loved it because they could scrape a large chunk of rankings in a single request.
- Marketers and SEOs relied on it for faster, broader visibility of where pages sat in search results.
- Google Search Console (GSC) impression counts often included these “artificial” impressions for pages ranking far beyond page one.
What Changed & When
Between September 10–14, 2025, Google began making the parameter unreliable, then nonfunctional. Sometimes it would return partial data, other times it defaulted back to 10 results per page. Shortly after, Google confirmed the results-per-page parameter is no longer supported.
The Immediate Impact
On Rank Tracking & SEO Tools
- Tools now need 10× more requests to fetch the same number of results. That means more infrastructure strain, higher costs, and slower or less complete data.
- Several providers (Semrush, Ahrefs, AccuRanker, etc.) have reported outages, lags, or inaccuracies as they adjust.
On Google Search Console
- Many sites have seen sudden drops in impressions since mid-September.
- Average position often looks “better,” not because sites suddenly improved rankings, but because the lower-ranking phantom impressions (positions 30–100+) are no longer counted.
- Clicks, conversions, and traffic are largely unaffected, reinforcing that the shift is in measurement, not in actual visibility.
Why Google Likely Did This
Google didn’t give an exact reason, but the motives are fairly clear:
- Cutting down on bots/scraping: The parameter was heavily exploited by automated tools.
- Cleaning up impression data: If nobody scrolls to page 8, do those “impressions” matter?
- Reducing system strain: Fewer mass requests from tools = less server load.
What Businesses & Marketers Should Know
- Don’t panic when you see September’s drops in GSC impressions. This is a reporting artifact, not a collapse in visibility.
- Average position will look better, but that doesn’t mean your rankings suddenly improved. It means junk impressions are gone.
- Focus on the metrics that matter: clicks, CTR, conversions, and engagement. These are real user signals. Note: CTR factors in impressions which will be temporarily impacted.
- Update your internal reporting expectations. Stakeholders may ask why impressions fell off a cliff. The answer: new Google policy, not underperformance.
Adapting to the New Norm
- Prioritize the top ~10 rankings. That’s where users actually click.
- Rely on GA4/analytics and real user data to validate trends.
- Frame reporting around outcomes — leads, sales, engagement — not vanity impressions.
- Educate clients/stakeholders that this is the “new normal” for SEO reporting.
Google didn’t tank your traffic. It just cut off an old workaround that inflated impression counts and powered third-party tools. The industry will adapt (as it always does) but reporting will look different starting September 2025.
This isn’t a problem to solve; it’s a shift to acknowledge. Until Google does something else unexpected, this is the baseline we work from.
