THE CROCODILE MOUTH, THE DEATH OF NUM=100 & HOW TO CUT THROUGH THE CHAOS

Summary from the TLDR Marketing newsletter

The "Crocodile Mouth" refers to the growing gap between impressions and clicks in Google Search Console that surfaced in early 2025. Brands saw impressions rise sharply while clicks stayed flat or declined. The cause was twofold. First, AI Overviews and zero-click search behaviors kept users on the search page. Second, the num=100 parameter, which previously allowed tools to track 100 search results per query, inflated impression data. Cutting through all the noise requires aligning content with how search is functioning now. This includes visibility within AI surfaces, clarity in structure, and a pivot toward transactional queries that still convert.