Moz Pro Adapts to Google’s &num= Parameter Removal Impact

Google's recent removal of the long-standing `&num=` parameter has significantly reshaped the landscape of SERP (Search Engine Results Page) scraping, incurring industry-wide impacts on data collection costs. This parameter previously allowed users to specify the number of organic results displayed per SERP, often up to 100, a functionality widely utilized by SEO tools for efficient data gathering.

Moz Pro, a prominent SEO analytics platform, has swiftly adapted its technology to this fundamental change. Prior to the removal, Moz Pro could leverage the `&num=` parameter to retrieve extensive SERP data, such as 100 results, from a single page request. With `&num=` no longer functional, Google's default behavior now presents approximately 10 organic results per page. Moz Pro's internal systems have been updated to intelligently determine the actual number of organic results present on a SERP, typically reflecting this new default of 10.

The primary benefit for Moz Pro users is the assurance of continued accuracy and reliability in their SERP data, despite Google's core alteration. Moz Pro maintains its robust capability for tracking keyword rankings, analyzing competitive landscapes, and providing essential insights into search engine visibility. The target audience for these updates includes SEO professionals, digital marketers, and agencies who rely on Moz Pro for comprehensive keyword tracking and competitive analysis.

Technically, the implication is that obtaining a dataset equivalent to 100 results now necessitates scraping ten separate pages (each with 10 results), rather than one. This directly affects the resource consumption and time efficiency of large-scale data collection. Moz Pro has re-engineered its scraping mechanisms to account for this, ensuring that its users continue to receive consistent and relevant data, albeit through an internally adjusted process that manages the increased page requests required under Google's new default SERP length.

(Source: https://moz.com/blog/num-100-and-changing-serp-lengths-in-moz-pro)