Tag: semrush

  • GOOGLE SUNSETS THE ”&num=100” PARAMETER

    GOOGLE SUNSETS THE ”&num=100” PARAMETER

    GOOGLE SUNSETS THE ”&num=100” PARAMETER

    The affects on SEO data, and how it acts as an important reminder for Marketers

    September saw a big change in SEO data that caused alarm bells to sound for anyone who pays attention to site vitals. Across the web, spanning industries and interests, sites saw a decrease in impressions, but why? Today we will be diving into the changes that Google made to cause this decrease, the impact it has had on site data and why it is important to zoom out when assessing problems.  

    OUR FIRST DISCOVERY

    The first client of ours where we noticed this drop in impressions, just happened to be a client that we had made site changes on the day before the drop. Which, as you can imagine, led to an “oh sh*t moment” for us. Overnight impressions were down by 30%, not just on the services pages we had made the changes to, but across the site, including the homepage. Now, the changes we made weren’t small, but they should not have caused a 30% decrease in impressions. Here lies our first red flag. 

    Our initial reaction was to revert the site changes we made or at least scale back. However, we also noticed that despite our drop in impressions, our clicks remained consistent and our position improved. Red flag number two. 

    This is where we had the important self reminder to zoom out. After we took a step back from this initial client, we quickly saw that the majority of our clients across industries had also experienced a drop in impressions at the same time. Taking a second step back showed us that sites everywhere saw similar decreases and the SEO Community was already buzzing with people questioning this change. 

    THE SOURCE OF THE IMPRESSION DROP

    According to  Search Engine Land, 87% of sites saw a drop in impressions. The fact that we saw this drop right after we made site changes for our client was purely a coincidence. Good thing we didn’t have a knee jerk reaction and start reverting all of our changes! 

    So what actually happened to cause such a drop for all these sites? 

    Google quietly sunsetted the ​​”&num=100” Parameter around September 11th. 

    This parameter originally allowed 100 search results to show for one query on a single SERP page. 

    Reporting tools, like SEMRush used this parameter to efficiently and cost effectively gather and report data. Before this change, SEO platforms could fetch up to 100 results in a single query using the &num=100 parameter. Now, they can only grab 10 results per query, which forces them to make 10 separate requests to Google for the same amount of data.

    This change has caused a significant disruption in tracking across reporting tools and Google Search Console. 

    WHY THIS MATTER FOR PROFESSIONALS

    The most glaringly obvious change to SEO professionals’ site data is the drop in impressions.​​This isn’t because fewer people are searching, but because Google’s change removed what are now understand to be “bot impressions.”

    While tools like SEMrush didn’t directly create impressions in the same way a human searcher does, their large-scale scraping activity inflated impression counts by surfacing lower-ranking pages that real users rarely saw. The result was that sites appeared to be getting more impressions than they truly were. Yikes! Now that these tools can’t use “&num=100”, those impressions are gone. 

    Though the idea that bots and scraping could affect impressions was always something that was acknowledged by professionals, the extent to which it inflated the impressions is eye opening. The silver lining being, now we (hopefully) are seeing a more accurate representation of user search volume and site ranking. 

    HOW SUNSETTING THE “&num=100” PARAMETER IS AFFECTING SITE DATA 

    Impressions drop: As we said before, the most obvious change is the noticeable decline in impressions. We have seen reports of impressions dropping as much as 60% and Search Engine Land observed that “77.6% of sites lost unique ranking terms”. 

    Clicks consistent: Despite the drop in impressions, clicks remain relatively steady. That’s because the majority of clicks come from the first page of results, and those user interactions are unaffected by the parameter change.

    Position Increasing: average position metrics are improving, but not necessarily due to better rankings. With fewer lower-ranking impressions being counted, the data skews upward, making it look like performance has improved when in reality the reporting method has just shifted.

    WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR SEO EXPERTS

    At this point, Marketing tools like SEMRUSH have put out statements acknowledging the situation, reassuring customers that the most important data is intact and they are looking into ways to adjust their systems to keep up with Google’s changes, but no updates have been made yet. Oka, cool. That is for the use of the marketing tools themselves, but what about how to manage your site with this very new landscape. .  

    Now what about 

    So, at this time, we advise marketers and SEO experts to do three things. 

    Set a New Baseline
    Since the way impressions and positions are being measured has changed, the first step is to establish a new baseline. Marketers should note that comparisons to pre-change data won’t be apples-to-apples, and moving forward, performance should be measured against the updated reporting standards.

    Manage Expectations
    It’s important to communicate these shifts to clients, leadership, or stakeholders. Explain that drops in impressions and jumps in average position are tied to Google’s change, not necessarily actual user performance shifts. Setting this context helps prevent misinterpretation of results.

    Monitor Trends
    While the raw numbers may look different, trends over time are still valuable. Keep monitoring for consistent movement in impressions, clicks, and positions relative to the new baseline, and watch for genuine performance changes that stand out from the reporting adjustments.

    WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED

    Google can make changes quickly and quietly that have lasting effects on data. The removal of the ”&num=100” parameter isn’t the first and it won’t be the last. This update was a good reminder that not every sudden drop in a metric means something is broken, sometimes it’s the way data is being counted that shifts. By zooming out, checking trends across multiple clients, and staying connected to the SEO community, marketers can separate real performance issues from reporting noise and make smarter, steadier decisions in the face of change.

  • Comparing Website Authority Scores (DA vs DR vs AS)

    Comparing Website Authority Scores (DA vs DR vs AS)

    Domain Authority vs. Domain Rating vs. Authority Score

    One of the primary selling points of popular SEO tools such as Moz, Ahrefs, and SEMRush are the website authority metrics. These metrics proport to calculate a website’s “authority” based, for the most part, on the quantity and quality of its backlinks.

    Website Authority Tools

    While these metrics measure roughly the same thing, each tool uses different factors in their calculations which can result in radically different scores.

    In this post, we’ll offer a head to head of Domain Authority vs Domain Rating vs Authority Score by first looking at the original authority metric, PageRank. Then we’ll dive into each metric, their individual input factors, and compare the outcomes by looking at our own website’s performance on each.

    But first, a short history lesson.

    It all Begins with PageRank

    What is Google PageRank? This was one of the most important SEO metrics a decade ago. Back then, an update to the PageRank toolbar provided an opportunity to determine if the recent steps you took helped to improve the positioning of the website – and that Google viewed your site as one with more authority. Where does PageRank fit into metrics today?

    To understand the value and place of PageRank and authority scores, you need to consider the application in today’s industry and how they may or may not matter to your link building strategy. 

    What You Should Know About PageRank

    PageRank is quite a complex algorithm. It provides a score in a numerical format that is supposed to give you an idea of where your website stands. PageRank is more of a linear representation of that rather than a true way to know how well your website is going to rank in the search engines.

    A low score, for example of 0, means that your website is low quality. That often means that it is not seen as an authority website by Google, and as such, Google may not value it high enough to position it high in search engines. 

    A score of 10, on the other hand, seems like a good figure, and it does indicate that the website is more authoritative than other sites. 

    What Factors Influence PageRank?

    While we know that PageRank is no longer used in the way it once was, there are still some key components of it that do make a difference. For example, things like anchor text and how likely it is that the link will be followed can still play a role in your success. 

    While Google retired the PageRank Toolbar that was often used to help with this figure, we know that PageRank still matters to some degree. That’s why several other organizations decided to create their own tools to help you better understand how well your website ranks. 

    Difference Between DA, DR, and AS

    When considering website authority scores, you will find a lot of different acronyms out there. It is easy to become overwhelmed with trying to navigate all of your options. Here are some of the explanations you need to do that.

    Domain Rating

    Domain Rating, DR, is one of the terms you will see readily used. This metric was developed by Ahrefs. It helps to show the strength of your website’s backlink profile. It provides this information on a scale that ranges from 1 to 100. How does Ahrefs determine what this number is? 

    Key factors that DR uses

    To calculate this information, the tool will look at the following:

    • Referring domains
    • Link root domains
    • Domain age
    • The total number of links

    Fanatically Digital’s Domain Rating

    domain rating

    Fanatically Digital’s Domate Rating is 39, apparently. Cool.

    They have also found 139 unique websites that link to us. Ahrefs relies heavily (if not exclusively) on backlinks in order to calculated their score.

    This can be a positive because it keeps things relatively simplified. We know what is being measured. That is, where a website generally stands within the backlink hierarchy of the internet.

    However, having only a few variables impacting this score (quantity and quality of links) means it’s more susceptible to spamming and manipulation.

    Anyway, let’s see how this compare to what the others found.

    Domain Authority 

    Domain Authority, or DA, is a bit different. It is a Moz calculation. That means it provides a bit of a different source of data. It aims to provide you with insight into how well your website may rank in the search engines.

    What factors does DA use?

    • The age of the domain itself
    • The spam score it has
    • The amount of traffic volume the website sees
    • The total number of backlinks that are on the website
    • The quality and the quantity of backlinks in comparison to each other
    • Social signals pointing to the website
    • The linking root domains

    Fanatically Digital’s Domain Authority

    Domain Authority

    Rather than focus exclusively on backlinks, which is what PankRank did, Moz takes things a step further by factoring in performance on search engines.

    Domain Authority isn’t merely attempting to mirror PageRank. It’s not trying to gauge the quality of the inputs (i.e. quality of it’s backlinks). It’s using the outputs (i.e. search engine performance) to predict Google’s assessment of authority.

    You can see this reflected in Fanatically Digital’s lower Domain Authority, only 22 compared to our 39 Domain Rating. That’s because Moz’s evaluation of our search engine performance is lower than one might expect given our backline profile. Only 44 keywords, according to Moz (although according to Search Console, this metric is off by a factor of 100).

    They also take into account our Spam Score, which is only 1% so that’s nice, I guess.

    Authority Score

    The third option is Authority Score, or AS, which SEMRush designed. It provides a different viewpoint as well. Here, the score is more explicitly a prediction of the overall quality of the webpage or the website itself. It is best used to compare domains.

    What factors does AS use?

    Your AS is dependent on numerous factors but specifically focuses on these areas:

    • The link power of the domain. By this, the organization focuses on the quality as well as the number of backlinks for the website.
    • Organic traffic. The second key factor here is the amount of organic traffic that is coming to your website. This is estimated on a monthly average. Organic traffic stems from people landing on your page from search engine results often thanks to your SEO efforts.
    • Spam factors. The third factor that plays a significant role in this process is spam. That is, the tool looks for anything that seems spammy and whether or not there is a natural link profile.

    To provide some additional insight into Spam Factors, SEMRush shares that there are six key things it does to determine this:

    • If you get no organic rankings on the search engine results page
    • Having a super high percentage of do follow domains
    • Having too many referring domains that come from the same IP address or the same IP network
    • An imbalance in the amount of organic traffic the website gets compared to the number of links it has
    • Another domain that has the same (identical even) backlink profile

    Fanatically Digital’s Authority Score

    Authority Score

    While our Domain Rating is a cool 39 and our Domain Authority was a respectable 22, our Authority Score is a meager 5.

    These are all out of 100.

    As you can probably tell just from these numbers here, SEMRush weighs organic search performance A LOT. Our organic traffic is 0 visitors per month, apparently (also heavily contested by Search Console).

    So despite our relatively respectable backlink profile, our Authority Score has been given an F–

    This all begs the question, what exactly are these tools purporting to be measuring? And how do we as search marketers or business owners find value in them.

    It’s interesting how, over time, these tools try less and less to be mirrors of PageRank, focused exclusively on the quality and quantity of backlines. Instead, they shift further towards an all encompassing SEO score.

    Where Do You Stand on the Use of PageRank?

    We find that these website authority metrics are a viable bit of information, and all of these versions, AS, DR, and DA, are great tools to have. However, this is just one component of a much larger picture. You cannot determine how well your website is optimized for search engines using these tools. They cannot provide you with enough insight to know what you need to improve either.

    The key here is that these scores can be used as a component of an overall marketing strategy but not the total picture. They are merely proxies, and what is worse, they are highly susceptible to manipulation. For that reason, they are often overvalued in today’s use.

    Don’t rely on this as the sole component of your marketing campaign. Instead, use it along with the help of a professional organization to customize your marketing strategy.