If you noticed a sudden, huge drop in your Google Search Console impressions in mid-September, you’re not alone. This was a change felt across the industry, and our SEO team explained exactly what we saw and what it means.
Global effect of &num=100
As SEO experts in conversion marketing, we spend a lot of time monitoring our clients’ Google Search Console (GSC) data. Typically, these metrics align with recent algorithm changes or adjustments made to the client’s site as part of regular SEO optimization.
In mid-September, we encountered some confusing data (a huge drop in impressions along with an increase in average position on all of our clients’ sites). The skewed metrics we were seeing were enough to make any customer uncomfortable or even nervous.
True to our part, we did some digging and found that this was a phenomenon affecting the entire SEO world. Our industry was discussing what a performance issue looks like. However, we soon learned that this was due to Google removing the &num=100 search parameter. This is a feature that rank tracking tools rely on heavily.
The “lost” impacts did not belong to human discoverers. With their removal the data landscape has become much better.
Description of the sudden, global drop in search impressions
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Around September 10, websites around the world saw a large drop in impressions shown in Google Search Console (GSC). According to an article in Search Engine Journal on September 18, Danny Goodwin reported that:
- 87.7% of websites lost impressions
- 77.6% of websites lost unique ranking terms
Also, fewer queries are now appearing on page three and beyond while more are appearing on the first page or in the top positions. This corresponds to a large improvement in the average situation. We saw a similar effect in our conversion marketing GSC account:
What happened? Missing a key data parameter
Google removed support for the `&num=100` parameter. Using this parameter allowed the tool to display 100 search results per page instead of the standard 10.
This change had a major impact on rank tracking tools and data providers (as detailed by companies like DataForSEO). These tools relied on this parameter to quickly gather large amounts of search result data such as website rankings. At the same time Google began to decline support for the parameter, the SEO world began to notice dramatic changes in the metrics you may have noticed.
What is the connection? data were never real people
The consensus is that these “lost” effects were not coming from humans in the first place; Instead, they were bot hits from SEO tools.
Since tools are now scraping much less beyond the first 10 results, we’re seeing far fewer of these low-status “impressions.” You can find an in-depth conversation on this here.
What does this mean for your data? Focus on real customers
This situation highlights that Google Search Console (GSC) does not differentiate between genuine human visits and bot traffic.
Any change in bot traffic may affect your GSC data. This includes both decreases like the recent one, and increases from other instruments. This can happen even if actual user search behavior has not changed.
You can rest assured that our job as your SEO team is to separate reality from noise by focusing on the metrics that really impact your business:
- traffic to your website
- sales from organic traffic
- Brand Awareness and Perception
We track what matters and don’t just report on “vanity metrics” like rankings, which are easily distorted by such technological changes.
Your trusted SEO team
We stay ahead of these technological changes so you don’t have to. Our goal is to alert you to any changes that could harm your income. You can feel confident because your SEO strategy is focused on real customers and real organic conversions.
Contact us to learn more about your SEO data. Let the Conversion Marketing SEO team help you build a strong organic strategy for your online business.
Contact us today!
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