DataForSEO: Google drops ?num Parameter

Key Takeaways:

• Google dropped the ?num Parameter from search that enabled to view 100 results for a query at one glance: https://www.google.com/search?q=paintball&num=100

• Tracking tools like DataForSEO, SISTRIX & SEMrush as well as scrapers such as from ChatGPT, Perplexity etc. relied on that parameter to initially get more than 10 results

• This results in increasing costs for both trackers and LLM chat bots to provide Google search based data / grounding

• Plus: Google Search Console data also seems affected: scrapers that scraped top 100 results created impressions for lower rankings that decreased average position - consequently now impressions decline and average position is up as reported by Bodie Clark on LinkedIn

• Personally: Due to increased costs for the DataForSEO API I am planning to decrease the provided rankings in my free tools to 10 (e.g. CrUX Analyzer, SERP Embeddings)

SISTRIX reported a drop in ChatGPT citations and Web Searches shortly after:

Furthermore, Otterly AI reported less citations in ChatGPT.

Sources:

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kateshvchnk_google-organic-serp-api-critical-updates-activity-7372612615228796928-oir8/

• https://dataforseo.com/update/google-organic-serp-api-critical-updates-depth

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stephanwalcher_it-seems-that-serp-api-now-returns-only-10-activity-7373258376383926274-h8nZ/

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/brodieclark_heads-up-if-youve-checked-your-google-search-activity-7372986557458247680-9C7p/

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/brodieclark_seo-news-if-you-missed-my-post-over-the-activity-7373206410689634304-xyad/

• https://www.sistrix.de/news/chatgpt-greift-seltener-auf-websuchen-zurueck/