The Day Google Broke the Internet (Except It Didn’t)

Let me tell you about the day my phone wouldn’t stop ringing.

It was mid-September 2025, and client after client was calling in a panic. “Our rankings disappeared!” “Google penalized us!” “We lost 80% of our visibility overnight!”

The marketing world was on fire. Articles with terrifying headlines were everywhere. One actually claimed that “90% of the internet just vanished.”

Here’s the truth: I’ve been doing this for over 25 years. I’ve survived Google’s Panda update, Penguin, the mobile-first shift, and more algorithm changes than I can count on both hands. And I can tell you with absolute certainty this wasn’t one of those moments.

But boy, did it feel like one.

Picture this scenario:

You walk into your favorite coffee shop (the one you’ve been going to for years). Today, instead of the barista bringing all the morning pastries out at once for you to browse, they only show you three at a time. Want to see more? They’ll bring out three more. Then three more after that.

The pastries didn’t disappear. The selection didn’t shrink. You just have to ask a few more times to see everything.

That’s basically what Google did.

For years, there was a secret code (nerds called it “&num=100”) that let certain tools grab 100 search results in one shot instead of just 10. In September, Google shut that down. Now? Everyone gets 10 results at a time. Want more? Click to the next page like the rest of us.

Simple, right?

So why did the internet lose its mind

Within 48 hours, the “hot takes” started flooding in:

“The long tail internet is dead!”

“Small businesses just became invisible!”

“AI can’t find your content anymore!”

Look, I understand the fear. When you’ve built your business on being found online, any change from Google feels like someone’s messing with your livelihood.

But here’s what nobody was saying in all that chaos: Your website didn’t go anywhere.

Remember when I said my phone was ringing nonstop? Every single client was staring at their Google Search Console dashboard watching their numbers crater like the stock market in 2008.

“We lost 75% of our impressions!”

“Our rankings are gone!”

“Google hates us!”

Deep breath. Let me explain what you were actually seeing.

You know all those SEO tracking tools out there? SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz, all the ones checking where your website ranks every single day? They’re not humans. They’re robots.

And those robots were using that secret code to check rankings 100 results deep, all day, every day. Every time they checked? Google counted it as an “impression” in your dashboard.

Think about that for a second. A robot checking your ranking on page 7 at 3 AM looked the same in your data as a real customer searching for your business at lunchtime.

When will Google pulled the plug on that code? All those robot “impressions” vanished.

That’s why your numbers dropped. Not because real people stopped finding you. Because fake robot traffic stopped inflating your stats.

Plot twist: Your new, lower numbers are actually more accurate. They represent actual humans who might actually become customers.

Tons of businesses saw their “average position” suddenly improve in their reports. Sounds good, right?

Then someone told them, “Wait, if your position went up but your impressions went down, that’s actually bad!”

No. Stop. Deep breath.

Here’s what happened: Remember all those robot checks on page 7 where you ranked at position 68? Those were dragging your average down. When those disappeared from the data, suddenly your average only includes the pages where you actually rank well.

It’s like if you usually bowl a 150, but one night you only count the frames where you didn’t throw a gutter ball. Your average looks amazing! Did you suddenly become a better bowler? No. You just changed what you’re measuring.

Your content is still out there. AI can still find it. People can still read it.

Let me answer the questions you’re probably thinking right now:

“Should I be worried?”

Only if you were already worried before September. If your business was doing fine, you’re still fine. This change didn’t hurt your actual business, it just made your tracking tools work differently.

“Did my competitors gain an advantage?”

Nope. Everyone’s in the same boat. Same rules for everybody.

“Will I lose traffic?”

If your actual traffic (the real people visiting your website) is stable, then no. If it’s dropping, that’s probably something else worth investigating but it’s not this change.

“Should I change my marketing strategy?”

Only if your strategy was “hope people find us on page 5 of Google results.” Because honestly, that was never a great strategy to begin with.

After doing this for 25 years, I’ve learned something important: Most people never leave page 1 of Google results.

Study after study confirms it. The vast majority of clicks go to the top 3 results. Most of the rest go to results 4 through 10. And page 2? It’s basically a graveyard.

Harsh? Maybe. But it’s been true for years.

This change didn’t create that reality, it just made it more visible to everyone. The data now reflects what we’ve always known: the competition is for those first 10 spots.

Forget the doom and gloom. Here’s what actually matters for your business:

1. Check Your Real Numbers

Don’t stare at Google Search Console impression counts. Look at:

• Actual visitors to your website
• Phone calls from potential customers
• Contact form submissions
• Sales and revenue

If those numbers are stable, you’re fine. Everything else is just noise.

2. Double Down on Page 1

Stop hoping your page 4 rankings will save you. They won’t. They never did.

Instead, ask yourself: “What would it take for us to rank in the top 10 for the searches that actually matter?”

Then do that.

3. Create Content People Actually Want

I know. I know. Everyone says this. But here’s why it matters now more than ever:

Google’s getting smarter. AI is getting smarter. The systems can tell the difference between content written for humans and content written to game the algorithm.

Write for your customers. Answer their real questions. Solve their actual problems. The rankings will follow.

4. Stop Putting All Your Eggs in Google’s Basket

This whole mess is a reminder: You don’t own your Google rankings. Google does.

What you do own:

• Your email list
• Your social media followers
• Your customer relationships
• Your reputation in your community

Build those up. They’re insurance against the next time Google decides to change the rules.

Here it is: If your business model depends on ranking on page 3 of Google, you don’t have a sustainable business model.

I’m not trying to be mean. I’m trying to save you years of frustration.

The businesses that thrive online are the ones that earn their way to the top. They create the best content. They serve their customers exceptionally well. They build brands people trust and recommend.

Those businesses rank on page 1. And when Google changes something (because they will, again and again), those businesses survive.

Look, change is uncomfortable. I get it. When you see your metrics drop by 75%, your stomach drops right along with them.

But after years of watching businesses succeed and fail online, I can tell you this: The fundamentals never change.

Good content wins. Great service wins. Businesses that genuinely help their customers win.

This Google change? It’s a blip. A footnote. Five years from now, you won’t even remember it happened.

What you will remember is whether you used this moment to panic and make reactive decisions, or whether you used it to refocus on what actually builds a successful business.

If you take nothing else from this article, remember this:

The internet didn’t get smaller. Your opportunities didn’t disappear. Google didn’t declare war on small businesses.

A tracking tool got more expensive to run. That’s it. That’s the story.

Everything else? That’s just noise from people who needed something to write about.

Focus on your customers. Create great content. Build a business that deserves to rank on page 1.

Do that, and you’ll be just fine no matter what Google does next.