"John Mueller from Google somewhat/kinda made a comment, finally, on the impression decreasing with the average position increasing within the Search Console reports. This came after Google dropped the 100 results per page function, resulting in the third-party tools totally becoming a mess. As a reminder, many, not all, but many, are seeing a noticeable decline in desktop impressions, resulting in a sharp increase in average position."
"Many speculate this is being we are no longer seeing scraper tools inject fake impressions and keywords into Google Search Console by faking searchers. But we don't know for sure, since Google has not commented - despite me reaching out numerous times to Google's comms team and to our Google friends on social. John Mueller from Google kind of commented on Bluesky this morning, he said: Maybe the real impressions were the friends we made along the way."
Search Console desktop impression counts have dropped while average position metrics have risen. The timing follows removal of the 100-results-per-page feature, which disrupted many third-party SEO tools. Numerous sites report noticeable desktop impression declines and sharp average position increases. A leading hypothesis holds that scraper tools previously injected fake impressions and keywords by simulating searchers, and that the feature removal reduced those fake signals. No definitive confirmation has been issued by Google despite outreach to communications channels. A brief social-media reply implied some impressions might not have been genuine, prompting ongoing forum speculation.
Read at Search Engine Roundtable
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