On Friday we reported that Google Search was removing the ability to show 100 search results per page. And now, we are seeing a lot of people notice that their Google Search Console performance reports are showing big changes with the data.
I did reach out to Google for a comment on the 100 results per page change but have not heard back if this is a bug or a feature. I'll keep you posted on that.
Brodie Clark I think was the first to notice the change and he posted on Sunday on X and LinkedIn about it. He noticed that a "noticeable decline in desktop impressions, resulting in a sharp increase in average position," as he wrote. "Either way, if you've just checked GSC and are noticing a significant drop to overall impressions in the past couple of days of data, you're not alone - we'll likely know more on this soon so stay tuned," he added.
Here is a sample chart but a lot of people are noticing the same pattern:
The theory is that scraper tools that often use the 100 page parameter feature are no longer able to work because of this change, and thus, Search Console data is severely impacted. These third party tracking tools are mostly broken:
Careful with the Google rank tracking tools - seems like many may be having difficulty related to this change https://t.co/Rw7baTLeoK
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) September 14, 2025
Then Brodie posted on his blog asking if the great decoupling was wrong or not based on these insights? It is worth a deep read on Brodie's site...
Here is a chart Brodie shared to illustrate this:
I did reach out to Google's PR team and also John Mueller and Daniel Waisberg for clarity on this (over here) - so when I hear back, I'll let you know.
