The Messy State of Google Search Rank TrackingBlog

If you’ve checked your website’s search engine rankings recently, you might have noticed some strange fluctuations. Your reports might show dramatic drops in impressions or sudden, sharp improvements in average position. Before you panic, it’s important to understand that you’re not alone. Across the digital marketing world, SEO professionals and businesses are seeing confusing data, and it all stems from a significant change made by Google.

In September 2025, Google quietly removed a long-standing feature: the ability to view 100 search results on a single page. This small adjustment has created a ripple effect, causing widespread disruption for the tools we rely on to track performance and even affecting the data within Google’s own Search Console. This post will break down what happened, explore the impact on your data, and discuss how you can navigate this new landscape.

What Did Google Change?

For years, power users and SEO tools could add a simple parameter (&num=100) to a Google search URL to display 100 results at once, instead of the standard 10. This was incredibly efficient for anyone needing to gather large amounts of ranking data. It allowed rank-tracking software to determine a website’s position for a given keyword with a single query, up to the 100th position.

However, Google has now disabled this functionality. The &num=100 parameter no longer works, and all searches default to the standard view of 10 results per page. While Google has not explained why they did this, the consequences have been immediate for the SEO experts and rank tracking software companies.

The Impact on Third-Party SEO Tools

The first victims of this change are the third-party rank-tracking tools that many marketers use every day. The num=100 functionality was the foundation of their data collection process, allowing them to provide comprehensive ranking reports efficiently and cost-effectively.

With this feature gone, these tools now face a challenge. To find out if your website ranks at position 35 for a keyword, they can no longer perform one search. Instead, they must now perform multiple separate searches, loading the first, second, third, fourth and so on pages of the search results. This multiplies their operational costs and data collection efforts by a factor of ten.

What does this mean for you, the user?

• Data Delays and Inaccuracies: Many tools have been scrambling to adapt their systems. During this transition, you may have seen incomplete data, missing keywords from your reports, or rankings that seemed completely wrong. Some providers have been transparent about these challenges, issuing statements to inform users they are working on a fix.

• Potential for Increased Costs: Since the cost for these companies to acquire the same amount of data has skyrocketed, it’s possible that these increased operational expenses could eventually be passed on to customers.

Confusing Data in Google Search Console

You might assume that Google’s own platform, Search Console, would be immune to these issues. However, many webmasters and analysts have reported bizarre data trends in their Search Console performance reports that coincide with the removal of the num=100 parameter.

The most common anomaly is a significant drop in desktop impressions, accompanied by a sharp and seemingly positive increase in average position. For example, a website’s reported desktop impressions might fall by 30%, while its average ranking position jumps from 15 to 8 overnight.

One theory, popularised by SEO consultant Brodie Clark, suggests this is linked to the scraping activities of the very SEO tools we just discussed. For years, these tools have been sending countless automated queries to Google to gather ranking data. This large-scale scraping activity generated a massive number of “artificial” impressions. A tool checking your rank for 1,000 keywords every day could create thousands of impressions that were never seen by a real user.

Now that the num=100 parameter is gone, scraping has become more difficult and expensive. It’s theorised that this has led to a reduction in bot-driven impression traffic. The result is that the data in Google Search Console might actually be cleaner now, reflecting impressions from real human users more accurately. The “drop” in impressions may simply be the removal of background noise that was always there. The corresponding improvement in average position could be a side effect of how Google calculates this metric when impression counts change so drastically.

How to Adapt to the New SEO Landscape

While the current situation is messy, it’s not a reason to abandon your SEO efforts. It is, however, a critical moment to re-evaluate your approach to performance measurement. Here are some practical steps you can take to adapt:

1. Be Patient with Your Tools
   Understand that your favourite SEO tools are working hard to find a new, sustainable way to collect data. There will be a period of adjustment. Keep an eye out for official communications from your tool providers and be prepared for potential changes in their reporting dashboards and features.
2. Shift Your Focus Beyond Raw Rankings
   For years, SEO professionals have argued that focusing solely on a specific ranking number (e.g., “Am I position 3 or 4?”) is a limited strategy. This recent disruption serves as a powerful reminder of that. Instead of obsessing over daily position fluctuations, broaden your focus to metrics that reflect actual business impact. Look at:

• Organic Traffic: Is your overall organic traffic growing?

• Conversions: Are you getting more leads, sales, or sign-ups from organic search?

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Are your page titles and meta descriptions compelling enough to earn clicks?

• Visibility Trends: Are you ranking for a wider range of relevant keywords over time?

These metrics provide a much clearer picture of your SEO performance than a simple ranking position ever could.

3. Lean More Heavily on First-Party Data
   Google Search Console is now more important than ever. While its data may also seem strange right now, it is your most direct source of information from Google. Use it to understand which queries are driving clicks, which pages are performing well, and where you have opportunities to improve. Pay close attention to trends over weeks and months rather than days.
4. Communicate with Stakeholders
   If you report on SEO performance to clients or internal teams, it’s crucial to proactively explain these changes. Let them know that the data might look unusual for a while and that the industry is adapting. Frame it as a shift in measurement strategy, moving away from volatile vanity metrics towards more stable, business-oriented goals. This will help manage expectations and prevent misinterpretations of the data.

Need Help Navigating Your SEO Strategy?

The world of SEO is always changing. If the recent shifts in Google have left you feeling uncertain about your digital marketing strategy, we are here to help. Our team of experts can help you make sense of your data, adapt to new industry standards, and build a resilient SEO strategy focused on long-term growth.

For more information, please visit our search engine optimisation page here.