Are you seeing a sudden drop in Google Search Console (GSC) impressions? You're not alone.
A recent change by Google: disabling the `&num=100` parameter.
Has revealed a major disconnect in our understanding of "The Great Decoupling." It turns out that a significant portion of the impression data we’ve been seeing wasn't from human users at all, but from SEO tools scraping search results. This change has put a spotlight on the true impact of AI Overviews and the accuracy of our data.
Key Learning
Our first-party GSC data has been heavily influenced by bot traffic from SEO tools, skewing our understanding of impression trends. What many of us took as a significant impression spike from AI Overviews may have instead been a reflection of increased scraping activity. This reminds us to always question our data sources.
Actionable Item
Review your GSC data with this new context. Focus on long-term trends and cross-reference your findings with other data sources like Google Analytics to get a more accurate picture of user behavior and organic performance. Don't rely solely on GSC impressions for critical performance analysis.
Credit where credit is due, goes to Brodie Clark.
