Google's Latest Change Disrupts SEO Rank Trackers (September 2025)
If you’ve been noticing unusual drops or missing data in your SEO rank trackers recently, you’re not alone. Across the board, many popular tools like Semrush and others are experiencing significant data disruptions that are affecting keyword rankings and SERP visibility reports.
What’s Happening?
The root cause seems to be Google’s removal of the “&num=100” search parameter. This parameter previously allowed rank trackers to pull 100 search results in one go, making tracking beyond the first page straightforward and efficient. With this gone, third-party SEO tools now face major challenges in how they collect and report ranking data, especially beyond page one.
Many platforms have confirmed this is a real issue and are actively developing fixes. However, in the meantime, you might see reports that seem incomplete, unreliable, or just “off.” This change marks the second major hurdle for SEO tools in 2025, following Google’s January update that enforced JavaScript for search results and caused a large-scale data blackout.
A Glimpse Into The Impact
To give you an idea of what this looks like in practice, here are some examples from my monitoring tools:
Semrush keyword tracker showing a dramatic drop in rankings across the board.
A side-by-side of the SERP checker in Semrush and Mangools showing errors
Why This Matters
At this point, it’s still unclear whether Google’s removal of the “&num=100” parameter was accidental or intentional—possibly aimed at reducing automated scraping. Whatever the reason, this development is a crucial reminder to approach SEO data with caution right now. Your own understanding, combined with insights from Google Search Console, is likely your best source for accurate SEO reporting during this time.
Both Semrush and AccuRanker have issued formal statements addressing how they’re handling this change. You can find Semrush’s update, and AccuRanker’s details.
For Further Reading
Let’s keep this conversation going and share strategies to navigate this tricky time in SEO data tracking.
