If you’ve logged into Google Search Console (GSC) recently and spotted a sharp drop in impressions, you’re not alone.
Across the board, nearly every business is noticing a sudden drop in their search impressions, leaving a lot of business owners and marketing teams scratching their heads.
The good news is, it’s nothing to panic about.
Google recently rolled out a change that affects how impressions are tracked and reported in Search Console.
While it looks dramatic in your reports, the sudden drop likely isn’t due to a decline in your actual SEO performance.
Instead, what you’re seeing is a shift in how Google filters out certain types of data to provide more accurate impression reporting.
That said, we know it looks a little scary, so we’ve written this article to explain this recent change, what it means for your SEO, and what metrics you should look at going forward.
What has Google changed in Search Console?
Google has quietly removed the &num=100 parameter from their search results systems.
Most SEO tools, like Semrush and Ahrefs, use this parameter to fetch the top 100 search results for a given keyword in bulk. This is how these tools track ranking positions, report on changes and monitor ranking fluctuations.
The issue with the &num=100 parameter is that Google previously counted these automated bulk requests as search impressions.
So, when these bots “scraped” the search results to gather ranking data, it inflated impression numbers in GSC.
To fix this, Google has stopped supporting the parameter to prevent automated bot requests from being counted as impressions.
That’s why your Search Console data shows an immediate drop in impressions. It’s not that your site has suddenly lost visibility. It’s that the “phantom” impressions from bots have been stripped out of your data.
Why did Google make this change?
Google’s main goal here is accuracy.
A lot of businesses rely on Google Search Console to measure their SEO performance, and inflated impression figures create a distorted view of that performance.
By removing bot impressions from the performance reports, GSC now reflects a clearer picture of how real users interact with your website on Google.
This means:
- Your impression numbers may be lower, but they’re closer to reality
- Reporting data should become more reliable and accurate
- SEO tools will need to adapt their tracking methods, but this will stabilise over time
What does this mean for your business?
If you’ve been relying on impression data in GSC to measure success, this change will be a bit unsettling.
But the important thing is that this change shouldn’t affect your real user traffic, engagement, or ranking positions.
The only thing that’s changed is how Google is counting impressions.
In fact, this update should be positive in the long run because you’ll now have a more accurate view of your visibility in search. Your reports won’t be skewed by automated bot traffic, which makes it easier to measure how your SEO is really performing.
It also means that when you see an increase in impressions, you can be confident that it reflects genuine user searches, not bots or crawlers.
What you should do next
The biggest issue with this change is that, on paper, it looks like your SEO performance has dropped off a cliff.
But it’s nothing to panic about.
This isn’t an isolated issue. Right now, everyone is experiencing the same thing.
Here are some recommendations from our SEO Specialists on what you should be doing over the coming weeks:
Focus on different metrics
Instead of focusing on search impressions alone, keep a close eye on:
- Clicks: Are people still visiting your site from search results?
- CTR (Click-Through Rate): Are the same proportion of people clicking when they see your site?
- Engagement metrics in GA4: Are users spending time on your site and converting?
These are better indicators of your SEO performance than impressions, especially in light of the recent changes.
Monitor your traffic closely
While impressions may drop, monitor your organic traffic metrics in GA4 and keep an eye on your inbound lead and sales volumes to see if they are affected.
If your traffic and conversion volume are steady over the next few weeks, this will confirm that your drop in impressions is due to Google’s recent change and not a wider issue with your SEO performance.
Be patient and wait for things to settle
Platforms like Semrush and Ahrefs will be adjusting to this change, too.
Because their current keyword tracking and positioning reports previously relied on the &num=100 parameter, they will need systems to align with Google’s new way of handling impressions and tracking.
So, if you’re using these tools to track your keyword positioning, you should expect to see some inconsistencies in this data for the next few weeks as they adjust.
As we mentioned in the last point, monitor your traffic levels and website engagement in GA4 to get an accurate sense of how your website is performing.
What we’re doing at Damteq
We’ve been speaking with other agencies and SEO professionals we collaborate with, and it’s clear that this is affecting nearly everyone.
All we can do right now is ride out this wave of Google updates and volatility, and continue to optimise our clients’ technical and on-page optimisation to steady the ship.
While we’re confident this change in the Google Search Console will not adversely affect traffic levels or ranking positions, we are closely monitoring all our SEO clients’ projects and performance in GA4 as usual to be on the safe side.
We will update our SEO clients if anything changes or if any actions are required.
Worried about your SEO performance?
If you’re concerned that Google’s recent updates and changes have impacted your SEO performance, our SEO Specialists can run a detailed SEO audit and website health check to benchmark your performance and identify potential issues and areas for improvement.
You can learn more about our SEO services here, or to speak with a specialist about arranging an SEO audit, call us on 01329 565001 or use our contact form.
