Update November 2025: 

As predicted, we’ve started to see the reversal of this trend, with impressions once again rising and average position falling. This seems to be due to the fact that many SEO tools and bots have since adapted to the removal of the &=num parameter.

What caused Impressions to drop and Rankings to increase in Google Search Console?

Since the 9th September 2025, you may have noticed that your Average Position in Search Console has suddenly shot up, while Impressions have fallen.

This is due to a change in a Search parameter, which has led to more accurate reporting in Search Console. 

You may have wondered in the past where competitive queries at high positions were getting thousands or even tens of thousands of impressions from, when over 99% of searches never go beyond the first page of Google.

Before this update it was possible to add &num=100 to the end of a search string to see the top 100 results, rather than the standard 10 results. 

This functionality was mostly used by bots to track positions for numerous keywords, but Google has now removed this feature.

This means that previously, Search Console reported:

• Artificially high numbers of Impressions
• A worse average Position, as bots checked positions 1-100, whereas most visitors only check positions 1-10 (the first page of results)

Additionally, this change will have led to a slight improvement in Click Through Rate. 

We may see this trend reversing over time, either due to Google treating this change as a test and reverting it, or as position tracking tools adapt to the lack of a &num=100 option.

Currently however, the new positions and impressions are a more accurate indicator of what the average human sees. 

What about clicks and traffic?

You should see no changes to your clicks from this update as it won’t be affecting the actual people searching for your site.

What has Google said about this change?

Google has remained true to their usual form and have currently made no statements regarding this change.

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Alex Szwabowicz

Digital Marketing Executive at MeasureMinds Group

Alex is a digital marketing executive at MeasureMinds. With a background in web development he is able to handle complex technical SEO tasks and is able to deliver actionable auditing and programmatic SEO to drive traffic that matters and ultimately conversions. He has certifications from Google in Digital Marketing, GA4, and other certificates in Technical SEO and Backlink Management.

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