What the Heck Just Happened with Google’s &num=100 Update. A Deep Dive

If you follow SEO news, you may have noticed a lot of chatter recently about something called the &num=100 parameter, and how Google seems to have changed how it works. Many sites are seeing sharp drops in Search Console impressions, confusing shifts in keyword visibility, and rank-tracking tools are acting “broken.” What’s really going on? In this article, we’ll walk through everything we do know, what people are speculating, and how you should respond.

What is the &num=100 Parameter?

• When you search Google, you usually see about 10 results per page.
• &num=100 was a parameter people (and many SEO tools) could add to a Google search URL to ask Google to show 100 results at once instead of 10.
• Using that, tools and scrapers could see a lot more “deep search” data (rankings past page 1, page 2, etc.), and that tended to show up in metrics like impressions in Search Console because lower-ranked results (pages 2-10+) were being counted.

What Changed

Around September 10-12, 2025, a bunch of SEO folks reported that the &num=100 parameter stopped working reliably. Google appears to have disabled it (or at least greatly limited its effect). (Search Engine Journal)

As a result:

• Many sites saw a big drop in impressions in their Google Search Console (GSC) data. (Search Engine Land)
• Many also saw drops in unique ranking terms (keywords) – especially mid-tail and short-tail ones. (Search Engine Land)
• Average positions in reports improved (i.e. looked better) because those very low position appearances (deep in the SERPs) were no longer being “seen” or counted. (Search Engine Land)
• Tools and vendors that use scraping to get large sets of SERP data are scrambling, because without &num=100 they either have to make many more requests (one per page of results) or accept less depth. (Logical Position)

Data & Stats

Here are some of the numbers people are observing (keep in mind these are from third-party analyses, not from Google itself):

What We Don’t Know / What Google Has Not Confirmed

• Google hasn’t publicly confirmed via a statement that &num=100 has been permanently deprecated, though many signals suggest it’s disabled or restricted. (Search Engine Journal)
• It’s not totally clear whether the change is global, or being rolled out in phases, or in specific devices/regions. Some reports suggest desktop impressions are especially impacted. (Search Engine Journal)
• We don’t know how Google will treat “deep SERP appearances” in future metrics (if at all), or whether rank-tracking tools will find workarounds that restore similar depth.

Why This Feels “Bad” But Why It’s Not as Bad as It Looks

Many site owners see a drop in impressions and assume something is wrong with their SEO (lost rankings, penalties, etc.). But the evidence suggests:

• The drop is often a reporting artifact, not an actual loss in real traffic. If people are still clicking and visiting, your site’s actual visibility likely hasn’t dropped in a meaningful way.
• Bots / scraping behavior with &num=100 likely inflated impressions in the past, especially for low-ranking (deep) results. With that gone, we’re seeing cleaner metrics. (Search Engine Land)
• Average position improving is misleading: it might look like you “ranked up,” but really “lower ranked” appearances are just no longer counted.

What This Means for Rank Tracking Tools, SEO Reporting

• Tools are going to have to make many more requests if they want to collect full depth (top 100). That increases cost, time, and complexity. (Logical Position)
• Many tools might reduce how far “down the results” they track (e.g. maybe only top 20, or top 50 instead of 100) because the cost/complexity for deep tracking just went up. (Etavrian)
• Historical reports will no longer exactly compare apples to apples: the “before” period included deep appearances; the “after” period might exclude many of them. Unless you adjust baselines, you will see sudden “drops.”

What SEO Managers & Site Owners Should Do Now

Here are things to do to make sense of what’s happening, and adjust:

Don’t freak out over falling impressions alone

• Focus on clicks, traffic, user behavior, conversions. If those are stable, your SEO is probably fine.

Re-baseline your metrics

• Recognize that reports after mid-September 2025 may look substantially different. Adjust expectations.
• Annotate in your reporting tools / dashboards when this change likely took effect (so that future analyses account for it).

Evaluate which tools you rely on

• Ask your rank-tracking or SEO platform: How are you handling the removal of &num=100? Are they reducing depth, increasing cost, changing query methods?
• If the tool still shows past results up to 100, check how reliable they are and whether data is being backfilled or interpolated.

Shift focus toward what matters more

• Top 1-3 positions, top 10. Moves from page 2 to page 1 are much more meaningful than page 20 to page 30.
• SERP features (snippets, local packs, etc.) might become more important to track, since deep appearances are less visible and worth less in most cases.
• Client‐facing reporting: emphasize what clients care about-traffic, conversions-rather than technical metrics that may confuse.

Use multiple data sources

• Google Search Console is still crucial.
• Combine with analytics (e.g. GA or whichever you use) to see actual user behavior.
• Use rank tracking tools, but with awareness of the change and its limitations.

What This Might Mean for the Future

• We may see tool price increases (or fewer features) especially for deep SERP depth, because the infrastructure cost for tracking increases. (Etavrian)
• We might see some tools get better about sampling or modeling deep SERPs (instead of full brute force scraping).
• SEO strategies might shift to prioritize low-hanging fruit (page-1/2 keyword improvements) more heavily, because those are what most users see anyway.
• Reporting standards may evolve: clients and marketers might begin expecting context or disclaimers around impression/average position drops due to methodology changes.

Conclusion

Google’s removal or disabling of the &num=100 parameter is a big shift for how SEO data is collected and reported. It’s messing with numbers, yes but that doesn’t necessarily mean your site has lost ground. Often, what has changed is what is counted, not what is seen by real people searching.

If you adjust your expectations, focus on what matters (traffic, real user engagement), and understand the tools you rely on, you’ll weather this change just fine. And keeping transparency with stakeholders/clients helps: explain the “why” behind the numbers.

If you’re curious, here are some good reads / original reports:

“77% of Sites Lost Keyword Visibility After Google Removed num=100: Data” – Search Engine Land (Search Engine Land)

“Google Modifies Search Results Parameter, Affecting SEO Tools” – Search Engine Journal (Search Engine Journal)

“Google Retires the &num=100 Parameter: What it Means for SEO Data and Tools” – SEOteric (SEOteric Digital Marketing)

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did my Google Search Console impressions suddenly drop?

Likely due to Google disabling the &num=100 parameter, which inflated impressions by counting deep SERP appearances that never drove traffic.

Does this change mean my site is ranking worse on Google?

Not necessarily. In most cases, rankings for meaningful positions (pages 1–2) haven’t changed. The reports just stopped counting very low, low-value placements.

How should I update my SEO reports after the &num=100 update?

>Re-baseline metrics starting mid-September 2025, annotate dashboards, and shift focus to traffic, conversions, and top-ranking positions instead of impressions alone.

What should small businesses do in response to this update?

Focus on what drives revenue—appearing on page 1, optimizing Google Business Profiles, and monitoring real traffic trends rather than raw impression counts.