Recently, Google removed the num=100 parameter from Google search results. This change immediately had a significant impact on SEO tools and how they track rankings, causing headaches to software providers and users who relied on it for efficient data scraping.

What Was the num=100 Parameter?

The num=100 parameter was a URL parameter that allowed users and SEO tools to display 100 search results on a single page instead of the standard 10. It was a simple yet powerful way to gather more data with each page load. For example, you could add &num=100 to a Google search URL to see more results at once.

For years, SEO tools used this to efficiently pull 100 search results in a single request, making rank tracking cost-effective and comprehensive. However, this changed when Google removed the num=100 parameter.

What Happened When Google Removed It?

The impact has been dramatic across the industry:

On Google Search Console Data:

• 87.7% of sites experienced a drop in impressions
• 77.6% of sites lost unique ranking terms
• Average ranking positions appeared to improve dramatically, not because sites suddenly ranked better, but because low-ranking keywords (positions 50-100) stopped being recorded

Why the Drop? When rank-tracking bots loaded a page with 100 results, a website ranking at position 99 would register an impression, even though no real user would scroll that far. This meant that impressions were being counted for pages that users would never actually see. The removal eliminated this inflated bot traffic, resulting in impression data that more accurately reflects actual human search behaviour.

On SEO Tools: Rank tracking tools now have to make 10 separate requests to retrieve the top 100 search results for a keyword, potentially multiplying their infrastructure and bandwidth costs by a factor of ten. This has led to increased operational expenses for these services. Some tools have adopted hybrid approaches – tracking the top 20-30 results daily but only checking positions beyond that weekly or monthly.

This change resulted in some strange ranking movements as the SEO tools adjusted to the new reality of fetching results. If you’re a business owner who noticed some wild ranking fluctuations or drops in your tracked positions, you’re not alone. This was a direct consequence of how SEO tools had to adapt to the new search result fetching mechanism.

Why Did Google Do This?

The prevailing theory is that Google wanted to cut bot and AI scraping of deep results, reduce server load, and nudge the industry toward using official APIs instead of parameter manipulation. This would lead to more accurate data for Google and potentially better search results for users.

Seeing the top 100 rankings for a keyword is definitely beneficial for businesses in the early phase of an SEO campaign as it allows them to see that traction is being made and that their website is steadily moving up the rankings. This will no longer be possible using a lot of software tools, and will likely require them to pay more for their subscriptions, or they may not be able to see their rankings at all until they start to rank within the top 20-30 results.

What It Means for SEO Strategy

The silver lining: This shift could actually improve SEO by forcing professionals to focus on what real users care about, not just what Google shows on page 5. This is a positive development for SEO professionals, encouraging a focus on user experience and content quality over vanity metrics. This is a much-needed recalibration that will ultimately lead to more sustainable and effective SEO practices. It’s prompting SEOs to ask strategic questions about whether they’re obsessed with ranking data at the expense of content quality or chasing long-tail keyword rankings that bring minimal traffic.

The bottom line? Your actual rankings and clicks haven’t changed – just the way they’re measured. The data is now more accurate, though less comprehensive for deep positions that real users rarely see anyway.