If you look at some of the profiles/sites in your Google Search Console performance reports, you may notice a significant increase in the average position being reported. This happened when Google removed the num=100 parameter and is likely due to scrapers not messing up your data.
Here is an example showing the increase/improvement in the average position in this report:
I posted about this across X, LinkedIn and other networks and the answer is the num 100 change.
We had this explanation earlier, which I covered here but now a couple months later, it is much more noticeable.
Elie Berreby wrote:
With the parameter's removal, Google results are now paginated for all queries, meaning an impression should only be counted when a URL appears on a page a user actually views.This has led to the drop in total impressions for many websites (not just yours), but each impression now represents a more accurate measurement of actual user visibility.
Dan Lauer wrote:
Yup, I am seeing this across clients Barry Schwartz and it 100% aligns with the Google 100=NUM parameter change, however, impression data is inconsistent --- some see no change after the big impression drop on 9/10, others more recently have seen impressions almost get back to pre 9/10 levels - especially in the last 2 to 3 weeks --- assuming that is more seasonality with BF/CM...... I do see a correlation recently with big impression spikes coinciding with avg. position declines for those date(s).
Alexander Rodionov wrote:
num=100 was depreciated = SEO tools could not crawl easily anymore = less impressions from bots. I see a variety of results across accounts, mostly affected are the ones where the search terms the website ranks for are popular among those using SEO tools.
Is this when they dropped "&num=100"? (resulting in fewer impressions after position 10)
— Cyrus Maxx (@zyppy.com) December 4, 2025 at 3:31 PM
That Average Position UP / Impressions DOWN trend you're seeing is the "Mathematical Illusion" in action. Google killed the &num=100 parameter, cleaning out spammy "ghost impressions" from Page 2+. Your ranking didn't improve, the data just got cleaner. Don't panic, but DO reset…
— Eric Smith (@ESmithdigital) December 4, 2025
This is from the removal of &num=100 query parameter. Avg ranking improves because all of the rank tracking tools that looked at deeper pages stopped working overnight. There was no real clicks coming from those tools, so clicks are unchanged. Imp diff is negligible as well. https://t.co/Z0TJoADfXE
— Robert Ramirez (@ramirez_robert) December 4, 2025
It’s from Google dropping the num=100 parameter. A lot of tools either stopped scraping or limited their checks to 1-2 pages, and those tools were the biggest viewers of the page 3+ SERPs.
— Zak Kann (AI Automation) (@zrkann) December 4, 2025
I’ve been seeing this for a while now and when I asked my husband (also an SEO) he guessed it had to do with the results = 100 change but I didn’t look into it further to confirm
— Taylor Berg Chapa bluesky @taylorberg (@taylorannberg) December 4, 2025
It’s because num=100 parameter was removed on that exact day. Go read on it, it’s just reporting
— Dylan Ander | CRO & SplitTesting (@DylanAnder) December 4, 2025
Seeing it across many sites. But impressions are also down. No site with an average position lower than 10 anymore, not even the testing ones. Seems related to num=100 removal.
— Mirela Iancu (@SEOPuzzleSolver) December 4, 2025
Could it have anything to do with Google removing the ability to show up to 100 results per page in Mid-Sept? Essentially pushing up avg position. pic.twitter.com/WkaPoipgDG
— Best. Doug. Ever. (@Baxter23603538) December 4, 2025
Yes. I think is for the change of 100 limit of results on Google too, but... interesting thing: This site over the competition (blue line) has also greatly improved visibility on Semrush pic.twitter.com/U0hRhwG0sy
— Rafa Martin 👽🖖 (@rafainatica) December 5, 2025
Yeah, the num=100 fix removed many botted impressions.
— Joe Manna 🌵 (@JoeManna) December 5, 2025
So don't be shocked when you see this in your Search Console performance reports. Many sites are seeing this.
