ObservationsMeasurement and KPIs

My SEO site lost 82 percent of its impressions in two weeks and kept every click

Photo of Nizam Ud Deen UsmanNizam Ud Deen Usman12 November 2026
2 minutes read
In short

In September 2025 my impressions collapsed while clicks rose. A restaurant site lost far less, and a poetry site lost nothing.

What I did

I looked back at 16 months of daily Search Console data for my own SEO website. From 15 August to 11 September 2025 it had 259,386 impressions and 779 clicks, at an average position of about 60. From 15 September to 12 October, it had 47,280 impressions and 821 clicks, at an average position of about 30. Over the same weeks, two restaurant sites I manage lost 38 and 25 percent of their impressions; clicks fell 16 percent on the first and held on the second.
Where

My own SEO website and two restaurant websites, September 2025
What changed

Nothing on my side changed; this is an observation. It matches the week Google stopped letting tools load 100 results on one page. Many rank-tracking tools did that to check deep positions, and each check counted as an impression.
What you should do

If your impressions fell sharply in September 2025 while clicks held, do not treat it as a ranking loss. Compare clicks and average position for the same weeks.
How long it took

Ten minutes with the daily data

An impression is counted whenever your page appears in a result that loads, even if nobody scrolls to it. Rank-tracking tools load results to check positions, so their checks could be counted too.

Why it matters

When that stopped, sites lost the views that tools had been creating. My SEO site lost 82 percent, because SEO searches are exactly what SEO tools track. A restaurant site lost 38 percent. My poetry site kept growing.

The average position also jumped from about 60 to about 30, not because rankings improved, but because the deep, tool-made views disappeared.

How to check your own site

  • In Search Console, compare 1 to 31 August 2025 with 15 September to 15 October 2025.
  • If impressions fell and clicks did not, the lost views were never real visitors.

At a glance

Effort to copyFive minute fix
Type of businessConsultant and personal brand, Restaurant and food
SubjectMeasurement and KPIs
-82%impressions in four weeks
+5%clicks in the same weeks
60 to 30average position
What this changed in how I work

On SEO topics, a large share of impressions came from tools, not people. Sites about SEO are checked by tools all day, so they lost the most. I now trust clicks over impressions for anything before that week.

Part of The SEO Lab, an open notebook of real SEO work, published as it happens.Recorded 12 November 2026. Filed under Observations. Everything here comes from work I did myself. If a number looks wrong, ask me how it was measured.

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