On April 3rd, Google updated its Data Anomalies page to confirm that a logging error has been over-reporting impressions in Search Console since May 13, 2025. The fix is rolling out over the next few weeks. When it does, your impressions will drop.
SEO consultant Brodie Clark had flagged earlier in the week that something looked off with the data, and Google has now confirmed it. His advice here is worth heeding: don’t panic when you see the drop, because you now know it’s coming.
Glenn Gabe raised a question that’s been rattling around since the announcement – could this logging error explain some of those alligator graphs? You know the ones. Impressions climbing steadily while clicks stay flat. For months, that pattern had people blaming AI Overviews for swallowing their traffic. Some of that may well have been true. But some of it might have just been bad data all along.
What have Google said about those erroneous impressions?
The official notice is brief. A logging error. Impressions affected from May 13, 2025. Clicks and other metrics were not affected. Fix coming over the next few weeks.
SEO Andrew Cock-Starkey pointed out what Google glossed over: average ranking position and CTR are both calculated using impressions. Which means those metrics have been off too. Nearly a year of Search Console data, and Google slips a five-line note onto an anomalies page. It is hugely frustrating, and it’s fair to be fucking annoyed about it.
That said – and I appreciate this is unsatisfying – there’s not much to be done about the data that’s already been recorded. Google’s reporting infrastructure isn’t something any of us can audit or correct. What we can do is think clearly about what comes next.
What to do when the numbers are fucked
If you report to a client, a director, or anyone who looks at Search Console impressions as a measure of SEO performance, now is a good time to get ahead of the conversation. The drop is coming. It will look alarming if nobody’s expecting it. A quick heads-up now saves a difficult call later.
More broadly, this is a reasonable moment to reconsider how much weight impressions ever deserved. An impression just means your listing appeared somewhere on a results page. It doesn’t mean anyone saw it, read it, or had any interest in clicking. Clicks, actual traffic, leads, conversions – those are the numbers that tell you whether your SEO is working. Those weren’t affected by the error.
So yes, your impression numbers are about to get a lot smaller. They’ll also be a lot more accurate. You’re allowed to be annoyed about it. Then close the impressions tab and look at your clicks.
