I'm sure there was a post here on this a while ago but I couldn't find it. Anyway I was reading a thread on Reddit earlier all about it and the Google num=100 update has really hit Ahrefs hard, it seems.
Google quietly pulled the rug out from under a lot of third-party tools. Overnight, data that once looked “solid” now feels a bit soft underfoot!
It’s wild that multi-million dollar outfits like Ahrefs and SEMrush built their empires on scraping - something Google can (and clearly will) change whenever it feels like it. It’s a house of cards.
My web guy uses SEMrush daily. But we're not feeling confident with the data now and this Reddit thread seems to confirm what we're seeing! I'm starting to think only tools from Google are worth using. GSC, Analytics etc
DA was a decent estimated metric but I was never mad about it. We always see low DA domains on P1. It’s just funny that those those graphs were like gospel when they were really just… very pretty estimates.
If anything, the num=100 change was a good reminder not to put all your eggs in one basket.
But where does that leave us marketers whose life is data! lol
There was a post on this a while back - I remember because I commented on it saying how shocked I was at how deep the SEO rabbit hole goes! 😅
At the time I was just starting to get my head around things like “scraping” and how these tools actually pull data. I genuinely thought Ahrefs and SEMrush had some kind of insider info! Turns out it’s just informed guesswork at best.
The num=100 change kind of blew my mind too. It’s wild how one little parameter can shake up whole companies.
Good one Sarah ... this whole num=100 thing really did shake the tree.
The irony is when Google pulled that parameter, a ton of sites suddenly “lost” impressions in their reports. Not because human traffic dropped, but because all these tools had been scraping up to 100 results per query. It seems a lot of that “data” was just phantom ... no real person ever clicking into page 9 of Google. Just bots.
The big 'long tail' mirage!
So in a way, Google just forced everyone to admit how much of SEO reporting was smoke and mirrors. These tools were built on access they never had a firm hold of and they created their own ecosystem almost!
If your strategy crumbles because a URL parameter disappears, maybe it wasn’t much of a strategy ... although many have cashed in big time.
I think the real win from all this will be less obsession with vanity metrics, more focus on what actually drives clicks and conversions.
Honestly, I think this update is a blessing in disguise. Clears the fog a bit.
Now let's see what happens to the backlink industry behemoth ... lol
@cyrusmerry we all started somewhere :-) So, when you search Google you see 10 results on page 1. You used to be able to increase this to 100 results by appending &num=100 onto the end of the URL. But Google have now removed that functionality.
A lot of SEO tools used that functionality to build their reports and that's how you could track your rankings up the charts. If you could see your page moving from position 60 to 50 then to 40, for example, you knew you were doing something right.
That's all gone now, unless you want to manually trawl through the SERPs looking for your page (that'll drive you mad and consume a lot of your time).
It's another example of Google flexing their muscles and showing us all who's boss!
The whole “average position” thing cracks me up. I’ve been down a couple of rabbit holes on this one as it fascinates me!
Google nukes positions 50–100 and suddenly everyone’s rankings look better. Congrats, we all got promoted without doing a thing.
Makes you wonder if those rank trackers were ever showing real life, or just fancy fiction with graphs. Between personalisation, location, and now this, “average position” feels about as solid as a sandcastle at high tide.
I’ll stick to watching what actually moves … clicks, sales, and maybe my caffeine intake!
