If you recently logged into Google Search Console (GSC) and noticed a sharp decline in impressions, you’re not alone. Many site owners and SEO managers report seeing drops of 30% to 50% (or more) overnight, especially for desktop queries.
At ALLGOOD MARKETING, we believe data should drive decisions, not panic. In this post, we’ll explain why your GSC impressions for desktop devices might drop, what it really means for your traffic, and how to respond strategically to protect your rankings and leads.
What Changed in Google Search? Why Impressions are Plummeting
1. Removal of the &num=100 Parameter
Recently, Google disabled the ability to use the &num=100 parameter, which allowed SEO tools and bots to fetch up to 100 search results in one query.
Instead of using ‘&num=100’ to display multiple results, Google now relies on the ‘start’ parameter, which determines the starting point of the search results shown on each page.
Because many rank-tracking tools and automated crawlers depend on that shortcut, thousands of phantom “impressions” were previously being added to GSC data. With that parameter gone, GSC is now filtering out non-human traffic, resulting in a sudden drop in reported impressions.
2. Artificial Impressions Were Inflating Your Metrics
In the past, many “impressions” came from bots exploring lower-ranking pages (positions 50–100). These never turned into clicks or conversions but inflated your reporting. When Google removes that noisy data, it skews your impression metrics downward but not your real user engagement.
3. Average Position Improves as a Side Effect
When you strip out those bot impressions, the average position metric can suddenly look much better. If low-value impressions from high (worse) positions vanish, the weighted average shifts upward. That doesn’t always mean your SEO got better it may just be cleaned-up data.
What This Means for Your Website and Traffic
1. Clicks & Conversions Are What Really Matter
If your click volume, organic traffic, and conversion metrics remain steady, the drop in impressions is likely a reporting artifact, not a real decline in SEO performance. Focus on what drives business results, not vanity metrics.
2. Expect a New Baseline
Your impression numbers will reset. Comparing your September data (post-change) to past months will require recalibration. Don’t compare apples to oranges.
3. Rank Tracking Tools May Be Unstable
Tools like Semrush or Ahrefs that relied on &num=100 may now show volatility or missing data for lower positions. Use more stable metrics like Top-10 or Top-20 visibility, or manually spot-check key rankings.
What You Should Do Right Now
Track clicks, not just impressions
In GSC, monitor click trends month-over-month and year-over-year. Clicks are engagement impressions and are just an opportunity.
- Segment by pages and queries
Use the GSC Performance report’s Pages and Queries tabs to identify which pages or keyword themes saw the steepest drops. - Spot-check high-value keywords
For your most valuable target phrases, manually search or use rank-check tools that adapt to Google’s new restrictions. - Monitor CTR and conversions
If click-through rates improve on page-one positions, your titles and meta descriptions may be working better now. And monitor conversions, phone calls, form fills, and purchases. - Stabilize your content and technical SEO
Continue improving site speed, internal linking, schema markup, content depth, and relevancy. These fundamentals always matter. - Call out anomalies
Add internal notes (“annotations”) in your analytics timeline around the date of this change (around September 10–12, 2025) so future reporting has context.
Final Thoughts
The recent drop in GSC impression numbers is almost certainly tied to Google restricting automated scraping and disabling &num=100, resulting in more accurate but lower impression counts. For most websites, this shift is reporting cleanup, not a collapse in SEO performance.
What you should emphasize now are clicks, engagement, conversions, and securing your long-term SEO value.
Ready to Turn Data Into Leads with Confidence?
If your impressions have dropped but you’re worried your real traffic or conversions might also be at risk, let ALLGOOD MARKETING help. We specialize in transforming SEO data into high-impact lead generation strategies.
👉 Request your free SEO audit today and get a custom roadmap to recover lost visibility and convert more visitors into customers. Contact us now, Don’t let confusing metrics derail your growth. We’ll help you stay focused on what actually matters.
