Originally Posted on The Search Herald by Search Engine Land
Google Search now has made it harder to find the number of search results for a search query. Instead of it being displayed under the search bar, at the top of the search results, now you need to click on the “tools” button to reveal the results count number.
What it looks like. Here is a screenshot of the top of the search results page:
To see the results, you need to click on “Tools” at the top right of the bar and then below that you will see Google show you the estimated results count:
Here is what it looked like before:
Previous testing. Google has been testing removing the results count for years, as early as 2016 and maybe before. Google also removed them from the SGE results a year ago.
So, this seems to be on Google’s roadmap to remove the feature.
In fact, Google has said numerous times that the results count is just an estimate and not a good figure to base any real research and SEO audits on.
Why we care. Many SEOs still use the results count to estimate keyword competitiveness, audit indexation, and many other purposes. If this fully goes away, many SEOs won’t be happy. Although, I doubt Google cares too much if SEOs are happy.
If the results count is not accurate, Google may decide to do away with it anyway.
