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So if you've gone inside of Google Search Console recently,
you may have noticed some data like this.
You're gonna see your average position climbing.
Now, you might think you produced
some sort of amazing SEO result,
but the truth is this is not what it appears to be
because if you click on Impressions,
you'll see what's going on here.
We're seeing a huge decline in Impressions
and an increase in average position.
Clicks are staying about the same.
Nothing is gonna change there,
but these two data points are changing.
And it's because of the way that Google
is changing its settings within the search.
AI-generated overview
Nathan Gotch explains why Google Search Console shows artificial ranking improvements following Google's removal of the "top 100 results" display setting. Sites are seeing average position climb while impressions plummet because SEO tools and bots previously scraped pages 2-10 by setting Google to show 100 results. With this option removed, impressions from positions 11-100 disappeared, creating the illusion of ranking gains. Gotch estimates 50-60% of online traffic comes from bots/scrapers, not humans. The real SEO value: keywords ranking positions 50+ are "always the best opportunities for building more topic support" to enhance clusters. Strategy: Use Google Search Console filtered by URL to track overall page performance rather than individual keyword fluctuations; identify position 50+ keywords as signals for either dedicated asset creation (if different intent/topic) or topic injection into existing content. Gotch demonstrates his Looker Studio AI search tracking dashboard integrating Google Analytics, Search Console, and manual ChatGPT monitoring, emphasizing segmented tracking between AI chat platforms and traditional organic search.
The ranking improvement is an illusion caused by Google removing the top 100 results setting—impressions from positions 11-100 (mostly bots/scrapers) disappeared, making average position appear to climb while clicks stayed flat.
"Anywhere between 50 to 60% of all traffic online comes from bots or scrapers," meaning Google Search Console impressions aren't "always humans"—the data includes non-human crawlers.
Keywords ranking "positions 50 and beyond are always the best opportunities for building more topic support" because they reveal topic mismatches with current pages.
The strategy for position 50+ keywords: if different intent from the ranking page ("would I run paid ads to this page for these keywords?"), build a dedicated asset; if aligned intent, inject the topic into existing content.
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