Most of the third-party Google Search tracking tools are broken and not tracking properly. This seemed to start when Google turned off the ability to show 100 search results per page. So just keep in mind, when you are looking at your reporting with these tools, the data may be off since around September 11th or so.
I did note this in my story on Friday but it is important to note again, third party tracking tools may not be working right.
This is in addition to the Search Console data being wonky as well.
All while, we are still having the ongoing Google August 2025 spam update. It makes it really hard to track and the update should be completed any time now.
I did post this yesterday:
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
Ryan thinks this is Google fighting back?
The AI tools scraping Google are going to be the end of all SEO rank checkers and SERP scrapers - as they're going so crazy Google has no choice but to fight back.
— Ryan Jones (@RyanJones) September 14, 2025
Tim from Ahrefs spoke about this tool, he wrote: "Do you need keyword ranking data below Top20 Because it's likely going away..."
Do you need keyword ranking data below Top20?
— Tim Soulo 🇺🇦 (@timsoulo) September 15, 2025
Because it's likely going away...
You might've heard the news - Google is dropping the "&num=100" parameter, which allowed SEO rank tracking tools to pull the top 100 search results in a single page load.
Ramping up the data pulls… pic.twitter.com/fIfTgGZGXw
In any event, I did reach out to Google about the 100 parameter change and I am waiting to hear back.
Just be careful reporting with third party tools until we know more. Some tool providers are saying they are okay, by the way:
Proud to announce that seoClarity users are unaffected by this change https://t.co/AO0jSZyO4F
— Mark Traphagen 🏳️🌈 (they/them) (@marktraphagen) September 15, 2025
Forum discussion at X.
Update: Accuranker posted a statement saying "Due to recent Google updates, we will no longer track the Top 100 search results. Instead, AccuRanker will now track up to Top 20 results by default."
Semrush also wrote on X, accurate top 10 results remain unaffected in Semrush and they have implemented temporary solutions to keep data flowing.
Hey marketers 👋 You may have seen by now, Google quietly removed the ability to see 100 results per page, a change shaking up all SEO rank tracking tools.
— Semrush (@semrush) September 15, 2025
What this means for Semrush:
👉 Accurate top 10 results remain unaffected in Semrush
👉 We’ve implemented temporary…
Semrush now posted it over here saying:
- You still get the best available data. Accurate Top 10 results are unaffected and continue to be collected regularly.
- Update frequency is changing, for now. To balance quality and efficiency, some rankings will now refresh every 2 days rather than daily, in tools like Position Tracking.
- Temporary limitations. In some areas, deeper ranking data may look different than before as we implement new solutions.
- Within the next week, we’ll share further updates on longer-term improvements to continue delivering the most accurate keyword and competitor data available, even with this massive industry shakeup.
