Google seems to have disabled or is testing the removing of the &num=100 URL parameter that reveals 100 outcomes per web page.
Studies of the change started round September 10, and shortly unfold via the search engine optimization neighborhood as rank-tracking instruments confirmed disruptions.
Google hasn’t but issued a public assertion.
What’s Taking place
The &num=100 parameter has lengthy been used to retrieve 100 ends in one request.
Over the weekend, practitioners observed that forcing 100 outcomes usually not works, and in earlier assessments it labored solely intermittently, which prompt a rollout or experiment.
@tehseoowner reported on X:
Google has seemingly eliminated the power to do &num=100, can anybody affirm?
For those who use the parameter, solely 2 pages present. This “2 pages” filter has been examined for a yr, however normally in the event you clicked to web page 2 they’ve the remaining the highest 100. Now it reveals nothing after web page 2.
— SEOwner (@tehseowner) September 11, 2025
Key phrase Insights wrote:
‼️ Google has killed the n=100 SERP parameter. As a substitute of 1 request for 100 SERP outcomes, it now takes 10 requests (10x the fee). This impacts Key phrase Insights’ rankings module. We’re reviewing choices and can replace the platform quickly.
— Key phrase Insights (@keywordinsights) September 14, 2025
Ripple Results On Rank-Monitoring Instruments
Clark and others documented instruments displaying lacking rankings or error states because the change landed.
Some platforms’ search engine outcomes web page (SERP) screenshots and each day sensors briefly stalled or displayed knowledge gaps.
A number of search engine optimization professionals noticed sharp declines in desktop impressions in Google Search Console beginning September 10, with common place rising accordingly.
Clark’s evaluation connects the timing of these drops to the &num=100 change. He proposes that earlier desktop impression spikes have been partly inflated by bots from search engine optimization and AI analytics instruments loading pages with 100 outcomes, which might register many extra impressions than a standard 10-result web page.
It is a neighborhood idea at this stage, not a confirmed Google rationalization.
Re-Inspecting “The Nice Decoupling”
Over the previous yr, many groups reported rising impressions with out matching clicks and related that sample with AI Overviews.
Clark argues the &num=100 change, and the ensuing device disruptions, provide an alternate rationalization for at the least a part of that decoupling, particularly on desktop the place most rank monitoring occurs.
This stays an interpretation till Google feedback or supplies new reporting filters.
What Folks Are Saying
Clark wrote in regards to the shift after observing vital drops in desktop impressions throughout a number of accounts beginning on September 10.
He wrote:
“… I’m seeing a noticeable decline in desktop impressions, leading to a pointy enhance in common place.
“That is throughout many accounts that I’ve entry to and appears to have began round September tenth when the change first begun.”
Key phrase Insights stated:
“Google has killed the n=100 SERP parameter. As a substitute of 1 request for 100 SERP outcomes, it now takes 10 requests (10x the fee). This impacts Key phrase Insights’ rankings module. We’re reviewing choices and can replace the platform quickly.”
Ryan Jones suggests:
“The entire AI instruments scraping Google are going to outcome within the shutdown of most search engine optimization instruments. Persons are scraping a lot, so aggressively for AI that Google is preventing again, and breaking all of the search engine optimization rank checkers and SERP scrapers within the course of.”
Concerns For search engine optimization groups
Take a better have a look at latest Search Console traits.
For those who observed a spike in desktop impressions in late 2024 or early 2025 with out clicks, a few of these impressions could have been pushed by bots. Use the week-over-week adjustments since September 10 as a brand new baseline and notice any substantial adjustments in your reporting.
Test together with your rank-tracking supplier. Some instruments are nonetheless working with pagination or various strategies, whereas others have had gaps and at the moment are fixing them.
Wanting Forward
Google has been reached out to for remark, however hasn’t confirmed whether or not it is a non permanent take a look at or a everlasting shift.
Instrument distributors are already adapting, and the neighborhood is reevaluating how a lot of the ‘nice decoupling’ story stemmed from methodology moderately than consumer habits.
We’ll replace if Google supplies any steering or if reporting adjustments present up in Search Console.
Featured Picture: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock
