Google seems to have disabled or is testing the elimination of the &num=100 URL parameter that reveals 100 outcomes per web page.
Experiences of the change started round September 10, and rapidly unfold by the search engine optimization 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 now not works, and in earlier assessments it labored solely intermittently, which advised 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 if you happen to clicked to web page 2 they’ve the remainder 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 an alternative of 1 request for 100 SERP outcomes, it now takes 10 requests (10x the associated 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 exhibiting 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 growing accordingly.
Clark’s evaluation connects the timing of these drops to the &num=100 change. He proposes that earlier desktop impression spikes had 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 traditional 10-result web page.
This can be a neighborhood idea at this stage, not a confirmed Google clarification.
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 clarification for no 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 concerning 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 an alternative of 1 request for 100 SERP outcomes, it now takes 10 requests (10x the associated 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 end result within the shutdown of most search engine optimization instruments. Individuals are scraping a lot, so aggressively for AI that Google is combating 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 take a look at current 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 modifications since September 10 as a brand new baseline and be aware any substantial modifications in your reporting.
Examine together with your rank-tracking supplier. Some instruments are nonetheless working with pagination or different strategies, whereas others have had gaps and are actually fixing them.
Wanting Forward
Google has been reached out to for remark, however hasn’t confirmed whether or not this can be a non permanent check or a everlasting shift.
Software distributors are already adapting, and the neighborhood is reevaluating how a lot of the ‘nice decoupling’ story stemmed from methodology fairly 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
