Have you noticed a sudden and/or dramatic drop in your Google Search impressions on your Google Search Console lately?

You’re not alone. There’s a distinct reason for this – but you need not panic!

KEY INSIGHTS

Google Search Console is a free tool Google provides that helps webmasters, SEO providers, and website owners to track, monitor, measure, troubleshoot, and improve a website’s visibility and performance in Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
Google recently updated its algorithm to disable the &num=100 parameter, which artificially inflated impressions using bot results. This makes impressions appear to have dropped dramatically; however, it does not impact ranks or genuine human clicks.
While your impression numbers may appear to have dropped, they’re the same as they were in human terms. The change means that reporting data on Google Search Console will theoretically become more accurate and reliable.
SEO tools will need to respond by adapting tracking methods and will stabilise.
SEOcycle is an SEO company in Northwest Sydney serving clients Australia-wide and internationally. We can help.

What is Google Search Console?

Google Search Console is a free tool Google provides that assists webmasters, SEO providers, and website owners by enabling them to track, monitor, measure, troubleshoot, and improve a website’s visibility and performance in Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). It provides data relating to search queries, impressions, clicks, and ranking position, as well as reports to help identify and address crawling issues, indexing errors, and other problems, such as spam, which negatively impact your site’s appearance and performance in Google Search.

My Impressions Have Recently Dipped – Why?

It may look dramatic in your reports, but don’t be alarmed – the sudden drop in your search impressions likely isn’t due to an issue with your SEO performance.

As it so frequently does, Google recently rolled out another change to its algorithm. This particular update impacts how impressions are tracked and reported in Google Search Console. The dip in impressions you’re seeing right now is most credibly due to a shift in how Google filters out certain types of data. This enables the platform to provide more accurate reporting.

So, exactly what has changed?

Google has (very quietly) disabled the &num=100 parameter from their search results systems and will no longer support it. This parameter has been used by most technical SEO tools to collect and deliver, in bulk, the top 100 search results for a prescribed keyword, as well as tracking, reporting, and monitoring fluctuations in rankings.

The issue with the &num=100 parameter is that, until now, Google has counted these automated bulk requests as legitimate search impressions. They were, instead, bots that ultimately inflated impression numbers rather than providing authentic, valuable data.

Almost 88% of websites lost impressions in response to this[1].

Despite appearances, this is NOT a loss in ranks – it simply removes the bots from reporting so that, even though reports may look weaker, ranks remain steady.

To address and amend this issue, Google has stopped supporting the parameter; this will prevent automated bot requests from being counted as impressions.

Your Search Console data suddenly shows an immediate drop in impressions, but this in no way means that your site has suddenly lost visibility or that SEO isn’t working. It’s simply that the artificially manufactured impressions from bots have been stripped from your data.

Why Has Google Implemented This Change?

Google is striving for accuracy in its reporting with this update. Many businesses rely heavily on Google Search Console to measure their SEO performance. Artificially inflated impression figures distort this reporting perspective. By removing bot impressions from these reports, Google Search Console can reflect a clearer, more accurate picture of how real human users interact with your website on the platform.

What does this mean?

Your search impression numbers may appear to have dropped, but they’re the same as they were in human terms and are now simply being reported more legitimately.
Reporting data on Google Search Console will theoretically become more accurate and reliable.
SEO tools will need to respond by adapting tracking methods and will stabilise.

Most Importantly For You – What Does It Mean For Your Business?

This change may be unsettling for you if you’ve relied on Google Search Console to track and measure your success in terms of SEO, but let us reassure you:

The only real change is in how Google is measuring impressions
Your real user traffic, ranking positions, and engagement should be unaffected
You’ll ultimately have more accurate data on your search visibility
Your reports will no longer be influenced by automated bot traffic
You’ll gain a more accurate view of how your SEO is performing
Increases in impressions will reflect genuine, human user searches

How To Analyse Your SEO Performance

Focus not just on impressions but also on Clicks, Click-Through-Rates, and Engagement metrics. Consider how many people are visiting your site from SERPs, clicking through your site landing pages, spending time on your site, and ultimately converting.

Monitor your actual organic website traffic and conversion volume.

Be patient. It takes time for things to settle when updates such as this are implemented, and literally everyone online has to adjust and align with the changes.

Want to Improve Your SEO Performance?

Are you concerned about your online ranks and performance?

Do you need help with SEO?

SEOcycle is the answer.

SEOcycle can provide you with a detailed SEO audit to check the optimisation and “health” of your website and its performance, identifying potential issues and areas for improvement. We can also tailor an economical SEO campaign that meets your needs and online goals.

Get in touch with us today to explore how we can help you with SEO and much more.

[1] https://searchengineland.com/google-num100-impact-data-462231