Google seems to have disabled or is testing the elimination of the &num=100 URL parameter that exhibits 100 outcomes per web page.
Reviews of the change started round September 10, and rapidly unfold by means of the website positioning neighborhood as rank-tracking instruments confirmed disruptions.
Google hasn’t but issued a public assertion.
What’s Occurring
The &num=100 parameter has lengthy been used to retrieve 100 ends in one request.
Over the weekend, practitioners observed that forcing 100 outcomes typically not works, and in earlier checks it labored solely intermittently, which steered a rollout or experiment.
@tehseoowner reported on X:
Google has seemingly eliminated the power to do &num=100, can anybody affirm?
In the event you use the parameter, solely 2 pages present. This “2 pages” filter has been examined for a yr, however often in the event you clicked to web page 2 they’ve the remainder the highest 100. Now it exhibits 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 price). 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 information gaps.
A number of website positioning 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 website positioning and AI analytics instruments loading pages with 100 outcomes, which might register many extra impressions than a standard 10-result web page.
This can be a neighborhood idea at this stage, not a confirmed Google rationalization.
Re-Analyzing “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 software disruptions, provide an alternate rationalization for not less than a part of that decoupling, particularly on desktop the place most rank monitoring occurs.
This stays an interpretation till Google feedback or gives 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 mentioned:
“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 price). 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 consequence within the shutdown of most website positioning instruments. Persons are scraping a lot, so aggressively for AI that Google is combating again, and breaking all of the website positioning rank checkers and SERP scrapers within the course of.”
Issues For website positioning groups
Take a better have a look at latest Search Console developments.
In the event you observed a spike in desktop impressions in late 2024 or early 2025 with out clicks, a few of these impressions might have been pushed by bots. Use the week-over-week modifications since September 10 as a brand new baseline and notice any substantial modifications in your reporting.
Verify along 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 this can be a short-term check or a everlasting shift.
Device distributors are already adapting, and the neighborhood is reevaluating how a lot of the ‘nice decoupling’ story stemmed from methodology relatively than consumer habits.
We’ll replace if Google gives any steering or if reporting modifications present up in Search Console.
Featured Picture: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock
