What Google’s Removal of the “&num=100” Parameter Means for Your SEO Data

If you’ve noticed a sudden drop in impressions or keyword data in Google Search Console (GSC), you’re not alone. Many marketers and website owners have seen these numbers decline since mid-September 2025. But don’t panic — it doesn’t necessarily mean your rankings or visibility dropped. Instead, many of these drops are likely related to a change in how Google handles something called the “&num=100” parameter.

This update doesn’t directly affect how your website ranks, but it does change how certain data is collected and displayed in Google Search Console. Let’s break it down.

What is the “&num=100” parameter?

The “&num=100” parameter was a part of the URL that some SEO tools and crawlers used to load up to 100 search results per page from Google at once.

For example, a typical Google search URL might look like this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=your+keyword

However, with the parameter added, the URL would look like this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=your+keyword&num=100

That “&num=100” part told Google to show 100 results on a single page instead of the 10 or so
that you'd usually see with a normal Google search.

Third-party SEO tools and automated crawlers used this setting to quickly scan large batches of
search results — helping them gather keyword rankings, competitor data, and visibility metrics
for reporting.

The result? Lots of pages buried a bit deeper on Google than the average human user might
look were generating "artificial" impressions.

Why Google removed it.

In September 2025, Google stopped supporting the “&num=100” parameter entirely. That means when tools or bots try to crawl search results with that parameter, Google no longer shows them extra results or even allows the request to function as before.

This change hasn't been formally announced by Google, as many changes are. However, you can see the impact in real time if you try to use the parameter on your own — because it doesn't do anything.

This change was likely part of Google’s broader effort to:

  • Reduce automated scraping and bot traffic on search result pages.
  • Protect data integrity by ensuring metrics reflect real user behavior — not artificial visits from tools or scripts.

How this affects Google Search Console metrics.

Here’s where the confusion comes in: even though this change doesn’t alter your site’s real-world visibility, it can make your Google Search Console data look different.

Before this change, automated crawlers that used “&num=100” could trigger impressions (and sometimes even clicks) in Google Search Console. That’s because GSC records an impression anytime a page appears in a search result — whether it’s seen by a real person or a bot.

Now, those crawlers can only see 10 results (give or take, depending on the results page features), rather than 100, each time they search a given query. So, a huge portion of those "impressions" have disappeared from your GSC data.

As a result:

  • Impressions dropped significantly (because the extra crawler-generated data was removed).
  • Average position rose, since lower-ranked pages were no longer on the radar of these third-party crawlers.

So what you’re seeing is a “Correction,” not a drop.

If your Search Console data took a sudden hit in mid-September, you likely experienced what’s best described as a data correction — not an SEO performance drop.

In other words, your site didn’t lose visibility because of this change; the way Google counts that visibility simply changed.

Many businesses are noticing that when comparing the first half of October to the first half of September, impressions look way down. But when comparing October to the last half of September, the data stabilizes or even improves — showing that this is now your new baseline
for accurate reporting.

Note: Your "true" rankings and impressions will still see their ups and downs, of course — that's normal. But "normal" fluctuations are unlikely to be as severe as the impressions/rankings changes you're seeing this month.

What you should do moving forward.

You don’t need to make any technical fixes for this. However, here are a few steps to keep your reporting accurate going forward:

  • Use the new data as your baseline. Treat data from October 2025 data as the corrected version of your organic visibility.
  • Avoid comparing new data to pre-September reports without noting the change — those older numbers were likely inflated to some degree.
  • Focus on long-term engagement trends rather than month-to-month swings that may be data-related.
  • Continue optimizing for real users, since Google is now filtering out non-human views more effectively.
  • Keep on top of Google search related news. This change hasn't been formally discussed by Google, and like most of Google's changes, it might be reverted or adjusted at any time.

Bottom line.

The removal of the “&num=100” parameter didn’t hurt your SEO — it just cleaned up your metrics. Google Search Console now paints a clearer, more realistic picture of how real people find your website in search.

So if you’ve seen big dips in impressions lately, don’t panic. It’s not your rankings — it’s just the data catching up to reality.

Want to connect about your Digital Strategy?

Fill out the form below and someone from our team will reach out to you to set up a time to connect.

Fields marked with * are required

    Skip to content