If your website traffic dropped suddenly in 2024 or early 2025, you’re not alone. Quietly, Google rolled out a technical change that significantly altered how web pages are indexed and displayed in search results — and most people didn’t even notice.
This update revolves around the removal of the “num=100” parameter, a small piece of Google’s URL code that once allowed users and analysts to view up to 100 results per search query on one page. It may sound like a minor tweak, but this change has major implications for Google SEO, data visibility, and how the internet itself is indexed.
What Was num=100?
Before the update, “num=100” was a search parameter used to display 100 results per page in Google search instead of the standard 10. Web professionals, researchers, and data analysts used this setting to extract or view larger batches of results for research, web scraping, and SEO analysis.
For years, marketers and SEO tools relied on this functionality to collect ranking data and measure Google visibility. It helped identify which websites appeared across extended results, not just the top ten. But as of late 2024, Google quietly disabled this capability — removing the ability to load or scrape those extra results.
Now, users and bots are limited to smaller result sets, typically capped at 10 per page. This means many pages that once appeared beyond the first set of results are no longer accessible in bulk, reducing the total visible web for users and data tools alike.
How Google’s Change Impacts Search Visibility
At first glance, the removal of “num=100” might seem irrelevant to the average user. After all, most people rarely go past the first page of Google results. But for those tracking search engines, SEO, and data transparency, the implications are far-reaching.
1. Reduced Access to Indexed Content
SEO researchers estimate that this change effectively hides 80–90% of indexed pages from view in large-scale data collection. While those pages still technically exist, they’re harder to find and analyse. In short, Google hasn’t stopped indexing them — it’s simply made them less visible.
This means websites that previously ranked between positions 20 and 100 may now see less referral traffic. The search visibility gap between top-ranking pages and everyone else just became much wider.
2. Impact on AI and Web Scraping
The removal also affects AI scraping and web scraping processes that rely on search results for training or indexing external data. Many AI tools and SEO platforms used “num=100” to gather large datasets for keyword tracking and content analysis.
Without this function, scraping must happen more slowly and in smaller segments, making it harder to collect meaningful data at scale. Some analysts believe this move is part of Google’s broader effort to limit how much structured data external tools — including AI models — can extract from its search results.
3. Data Transparency and Market Control
Google’s decision has reignited long-standing concerns about transparency in search engines. By restricting how much of the search index can be viewed or scraped, Google consolidates even more control over what data is accessible and how it’s presented.
Marketers now have to rely more heavily on Google’s own data sources — like Google Search Console or Google Analytics — to understand performance. This shift places businesses, researchers, and even AI scraping developers in a more dependent position.
What This Means for Google SEO and Website Owners
For website owners and SEO professionals, this update doesn’t mean panic — but it does mean adaptation. The google updates surrounding num=100 reinforce a pattern we’ve seen over the past few years: a move toward closed data ecosystems.
1. Visibility Shrinks for Lower Rankings
If your pages don’t appear in the top 10 results for key searches, their discoverability has likely dropped further. With the reduced ability for crawlers to access deeper pages, smaller websites may lose valuable impressions.
This places greater importance on google SEO fundamentals — quality content, technical optimization, and user experience. Google’s AI-driven algorithms continue to prioritize engagement metrics like click-through rate and dwell time.
2. More Reliance on Google Tools
Since external SEO platforms can no longer pull full datasets, businesses must lean more heavily on Google’s own ecosystem. Using Google Search Console for tracking, monitoring keyword trends, and evaluating impressions becomes even more critical.
3. The Push Toward AI-Driven Search
This change aligns with Google’s growing emphasis on AI-generated overviews and answer-focused experiences. By reducing how much of the traditional results are accessible, Google is positioning its AI-driven layers — such as Search Generative Experience (SGE) — as the primary interface for users.
That means Google SEO in 2025 will depend more on how your content integrates with AI-driven summaries, structured data, and contextual signals, not just keyword rankings.
Why the Change Matters for Marketers and Analysts
SEO professionals and data analysts have long used web scraping to track shifts in search algorithms, competitor performance, and keyword patterns. Without the “num=100” view, visibility into that data is dramatically reduced.
In practical terms, this change affects:
Keyword Research: SEO tools may return less complete datasets, affecting accuracy in ranking reports.
Market Research: Analysts can no longer easily examine niche markets beyond the first few pages of results.
Content Strategy: Identifying long-tail keyword opportunities becomes harder without access to deep search results.
While many third-party SEO tools are adapting, this update underscores the importance of diversifying data sources and focusing on high quality, human-centred content creation.
Google’s Stance on the Change
Google has described the removal as a technical update designed to improve performance and reduce strain on servers. However, industry experts suspect it’s also tied to curbing mass scraping and protecting proprietary data that fuels Google’s own AI models.
Some SEO professionals argue that this move creates a less open internet, where smaller organizations and developers have fewer tools to audit how search engines rank and display content.
What Website Owners Can Do Now
With these limitations in place, website owners need to focus on elements they can control. Here’s how to adapt to the new SEO landscape:
Strengthen On-Page SEO: Optimize titles, headers, and meta tags to increase your chances of ranking within the first 10 results.
Improve User Signals: Enhance click-through rates and dwell time by writing engaging content that matches user intent.
Leverage Internal Data: Use Google Search Console and analytics tools to measure performance directly from your own traffic.
Prioritize Content Quality: Publish in-depth, trustworthy, and well-structured content that fits Google’s AI-driven ranking signals.
Collaborate Locally: Work with web design Calgary and Calgary SEO professionals who understand how to improve your visibility within a changing system.
The Future of Search: A Smaller, Smarter Web
Google’s removal of “num=100” may seem like a technical change, but it signals a broader transformation in how the web is organized and accessed. By reducing bulk visibility, Google is nudging both users and businesses toward its AI-enhanced search model — one that prioritizes concise answers over expansive lists.
While this may improve convenience for everyday users, it narrows the visibility of countless websites that exist beyond the first page. For marketers, SEO experts, and local businesses, success now depends on quality, precision, and adaptability.
In a world where less of the internet is visible at once, your content must work harder — and smarter — to be found.