If you’ve noticed sudden changes in your Google Search Console data recently, you’re not alone. Google implemented a significant change on September 12-14, 2025, that’s affecting how website performance data appears across the SEO industry. While this change doesn’t impact your actual search visibility or rankings, it may create some confusion in your reporting data.
What Changed?
Google has disabled the &num=100 parameter, which previously allowed users and SEO tools to view 100 search results on a single page instead of the standard 10. This change was first spotted by the SEO industry and has been confirmed to affect rank tracking tools that relied on this parameter to efficiently collect search result data.
Why This Matters for Your Data
Many SEO professionals have observed significant changes to Google Search Console data, with impressions declining dramatically for websites, particularly on desktop devices. This appears to be related to a reduction in “bot impressions” – artificial impressions generated by SEO tools scraping Google’s search results.
Examples below show a clear deviation away from previous trends and year-over-year patterns where average position significantly improved and impressions dropped.
The Background: SERP Scraping and Artificial Impressions
For years, SEO tools have used automated systems (SERP APIs) to collect search ranking data. These tools would pull 100 search results at once, meaning a website ranking at position #99 would still register an “impression” in Google Search Console, even though no real user would typically scroll that far down.
Example of SERPs with &num=100 Active
Previously, you could see SERPs containing 100 search results on a single page, which means every one of these 100 results would get an impression and an associated ranking position.
This is why many rank tracking tools report on keywords from positions 1 to position 100, because this data could easily be scraped from a single results page where each organic listing gets an impression and associated ranking position.
Example of SERPs with &num=100 Disabled
Now that Google has disabled the num= param, Google only serves 10 results per page.
This fundamentally changes how impressions and average position are calculated moving forward. An impression (as per Google) means that a link to a site appears in the current page of results, and average position is only recorded when a link gets an impression.
For example, if the result is on page 3 of search results, but the user only views page 1—then its position is not recorded for that query.
Inflated impressions and “lower” average positions are now less likely to be reported, because that would require a user to navigate through pagination, which most users only go through the first few pages (if even).
SERP API’s Impact on Average Position
Average position is directly impacted by impressions, especially when considering SERP APIs. SERP APIs can automatically pull data from positions 1-100, meaning that even if your website ranks at position #85 for a keyword, it would still register an “impression” in Google Search Console when a bot views that extended results page. This can create an inflation of artificial impressions for lower-ranking positions.
Let’s Walk Through a Scenario
When Google calculates your average position, these “bot-generated” impressions from positions 50, 60, 70+ get factored into the calculation, pulling your average position down significantly.
For example, if you have:
– 500 bot impressions at position #67
Then your average position would be calculated as 57.2 (based on weighted average), which is much lower than the #8 where real users actually see you. Now that Google has eliminated the &num=100 parameter, those artificial impressions from position #67 are no longer being recorded, so your average position naturally appears to improve and becomes more representative of where real users actually encounter your website in search results.
What You’re Seeing in Your Reports
Based on industry analysis and reports, you may notice:
- Sudden Drop in Impressions: Particularly noticeable on desktop searches, with some sites seeing large daily decreases in impressions
- Improved Average Position: As artificial impressions from lower-ranking positions are removed, your average position may appear to improve
- More Stable Click-Through Rates: With fewer artificial impressions inflating your data, CTR should become more representative of actual user behavior
Example, dropped impressions improved average position:
What This Means for Your Website
The Good News: Your actual search visibility hasn’t decreased. This change primarily affects how data is collected by SEO tools, not how real users find and interact with your website.
More Accurate Data: Moving forward, your Google Search Console data should provide a more accurate representation of how real users interact with your website in search results.
Why Google Made This Change
Industry experts believe this change serves multiple purposes:
- Combating AI Scraping: The timing coincides with concerns about AI-powered content generation tools aggressively scraping Google’s search results
- Protecting Search Infrastructure: Google may be responding to increased data scraping that has intensified as AI-powered content generation becomes more widespread
- Improving Data Quality: By reducing artificial impressions, Google Search Console data becomes more representative of actual user behavior
Impact on SEO Tools and Costs
This change has significantly impacted SEO tool providers, who now need to make 10 separate requests instead of one to gather the same data, potentially increasing costs by 10 times. Many providers are adapting their systems to continue providing reliable data.
Note: This doesn’t directly affect SEO performance, but if you use SERP APIs then there may be some API changes in effect.
What You Should Do
- Don’t Panic: If you see a sudden drop in impressions around September 12-14, this is likely related to this change, not actual performance decline.
- Monitor Your Data: Keep an eye on your Google Search Console data and look for patterns that align with this change
- Focus on Real Metrics: Pay attention to actual clicks, qualified traffic, and conversions rather than just impression counts:
Clicks / Organic Traffic for your key terms
Engaged organic traffic
Primary Conversions
Looking Forward
This situation is still evolving, and Google has not yet commented publicly on whether this change is permanent. The SEO community will continue monitoring developments and providing updates as more information becomes available.
Key Takeaways
Understanding these changes in reporting data is important for anyone managing a website. This change represents Google’s ongoing efforts to maintain the integrity of their search ecosystem while providing more accurate data to website owners. Ultimately, this should lead to better, more actionable insights for SEO strategies.
The most important thing to remember: your actual search performance likely hasn’t changed. What’s changed is how accurately that performance is being measured and reported.
Additional Resources:
This article is based on the latest industry research and analysis of the September 2025 Google search changes. We will provide updates as more information becomes available.
