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On September 14, 2025, Google made a significant change that’s impacting how SEO professionals work – and if you’re an Amazon seller who relies on keyword research and competitive intelligence, you need to understand what this means for your business.

The tech giant quietly eliminated what’s known as the “n=100” search results parameter. By doing so, Google has killed the n=100 SERP parameter. Instead of 1 request for 100 SERP results, it now takes 10 requests (10x the cost).

This seemingly minor change has massive implications for how sellers research keywords, track competitors, and optimize Amazon listings for organic Google traffic.

What Actually Changed?

For years, SEO tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and countless others could pull 100 Google search results in a single request. This made tracking long-tail keywords efficient and cost-effective for power users who needed to dig deep into search results.

When researching keywords for Amazon products, sellers don’t just care about what’s ranking in positions 1-10. The real goldmine often sits in positions 11-100, where you can spot emerging competitors, identify content gaps, and find those precious long-tail opportunities that aren’t oversaturated yet.

Now? Those same tools have to make 10 separate requests to get the same data. That’s a 10x increase in system load and operational costs—costs that inevitably get passed down to users.

Why This Matters to Amazon Sellers

Amazon sellers wear multiple hats—managing inventory, running PPC campaigns, and serving as their own SEO specialists when it comes to driving organic Google traffic to their listings.

Amazon product listings can and do rank in Google search results, particularly for informational queries and branded searches. When someone searches for “best wireless headphones under $100” on Google, they might find an Amazon listing right there on page one. That’s free, organic traffic that doesn’t cost a penny in PPC spend.

But capturing that traffic requires understanding what keywords to target, which competitors are already ranking, and how to structure product titles and descriptions to satisfy both Amazon’s algorithm and Google’s search crawlers.

Why Google Made This Change (And Why They Won’t Say)

Google hasn’t officially commented on the change, leaving the SEO community to speculate about their motives. Industry experts believe this serves multiple purposes:

Combating AI scraping: The timing coincides with concerns about AI-powered content generation tools aggressively scraping Google’s search results for training data.

Protecting search infrastructure: Google may be responding to increased data scraping that has intensified as AI-powered content generation becomes more widespread.

Improving data quality: By reducing artificial impressions from automated tools, Google Search Console data becomes more representative of actual user behavior.

The lack of official communication has frustrated the SEO community, especially given Google’s track record of announcing major changes to developers.

The Immediate Impact on Seller Workflows

Here’s what the industry is seeing already:

Rank tracking disruptions: SEO tools that were tracking keywords beyond position 10 are experiencing gaps and inconsistencies as platforms adjust their data collection methods.

Surface-level keyword research: Deep-dive competitive analyses that helped sellers find untapped niches now require more patience and potentially bigger budgets.

Long-tail discovery challenges: Finding those 4-6 word phrases that perfectly match customer search intent becomes more challenging when you can’t easily see what’s ranking in positions 11-100.

Until now, sellers could pull 100 search results and see the entire competitive playing field, identifying:

• Long-tail opportunities in positions 20-50 that might be easier to rank for 
• Emerging competitors that haven’t hit page one yet but are gaining momentum 
• Content gaps where no one is properly addressing specific customer pain points 
• SERP patterns showing which types of content Google favors for specific keywords

The Industry Response: Pivoting to Generative Search

The most forward-thinking agencies and sellers are already adapting by shifting focus from traditional rank tracking to generative search optimization. This means optimizing for how AI systems like Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity, and other generative search platforms discover and cite content.

Key strategies emerging from the industry include:

AI-first content optimization: Restructuring product listings to be “RAG-friendly” (Retrieval-Augmented Generation). This means creating content that AI systems can easily parse, understand, and cite using clear headings, concise answer formats, and structured data markup.

Entity-based SEO focus: Instead of chasing individual keyword rankings, building topical authority around brands and products. AI systems understand entities (people, products, brands) better than isolated keywords.

Multi-platform visibility strategies: Rather than relying solely on traditional Google rankings, optimizing for visibility across Google AI Overviews, Perplexity AI, Bing Copilot, and other emerging generative search platforms.

How Sellers Can Adapt Right Now

This change is disruptive, but it’s not catastrophic. Here’s how to adapt:

Focus on page-one keywords first

The keywords that rank in positions 1-10 are still easily trackable and arguably more valuable anyway. Maximize these opportunities before worrying about deeper rankings.

Set up Google Search Console

Navigate to search.google.com/search-console and verify ownership of any external landing pages that link to your Amazon products. This gives you first-party data straight from Google about what search terms are driving traffic.

Leverage Amazon’s own search data

Amazon search term reports from PPC campaigns are goldmines of keyword intelligence that don’t rely on Google at all. Look at what customers are actually searching for when they find and buy your products.

Start optimizing for AI citations

Structure product listings with clear, direct answers to common customer questions. Use FAQ formats, include technical specifications in easily digestible formats, and ensure key selling points appear early in listing copy.

Looking Ahead

This change reflects Google’s broader pattern of making search data less accessible to third parties. It’s part of their ongoing effort to keep more users within their ecosystem and reduce the effectiveness of competitive intelligence gathering.

For Amazon sellers, this means becoming more self-reliant in SEO strategies. The days of easy, comprehensive competitive analysis are waning. Success will increasingly go to sellers who can combine multiple data sources, understand customer search behavior at a deeper level, and create content that genuinely serves customer needs.

The bottom line:

Google’s message is clear—they want to reduce the effectiveness of large-scale automated data collection. For individual sellers willing to put in strategic work and adapt to generative AI search patterns, there are still plenty of opportunities to succeed in both Google search results and Amazon’s marketplace.

The game has changed, but it’s far from over.

Canopy Management is a full-service marketing agency for Amazon, Walmart, and TikTok sellers. Our team consists of multi-million dollar, omni-channel entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and award-winning experts.