Top 10 SERP Scrapers & API for Search Engine Scraping (2023)

Justin Shin

Are you looking for the best SERP Scraper orSERP API to collect structured data from Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) without getting blocked? Then you are on the right page as the article below recommends some of the best out there.

Table Of Contents

Overview of Best SERP Scraper

10 Best SERP Scraper (Performance Compared)

Scraper Success Rate on Google Search Proxy Server Response Time Webpage Load Time Pricing Free Trials Data Output Format Supported Platform
Nimbleway SERP API 99.8% 196 ms 1.88 seconds Starts from $300 for 300 Credits 3K Free Credits HTML, JSON API​​
Smartproxy SERP API 99.5% 189 ms 1.96 seconds Starts from $50 for 13K requests 3K Free Credits HTML, JSON API​​
Bright Data SERP API 99.4% 193 ms 1.98 seconds Starts from $3 per CPM Available HTML, JSON API​​
Apify Google Scraper 98.8% 219 ms 2.15 seconds Starts at $49 per month for 100 Actor compute units Starter plan comes with 10 Actor compute units JSON cloud-based – accessed via API​​
Shifter SERP API 98.74% 211 ms 2.25 seconds Starts from $45 for 5K Credits Available HTML, JSON API​​
ScraperAPI 98.73% 197 ms 2.09 seconds Starts from $49 for 100K Credits 5K Free Credits HTML and JSON API​​
ScrapingBee 98.69% 209 ms 2.12 seconds Starts from $49 for 100K Credits 5K Free Credits HTML, JSON API​​
SERPHouse 98.06% 237 ms 2.43 seconds Starts from $30 for 20K Requests Free Plan Available HTML, JSON API​​
ScrapeBox 97.46% 258 ms 2.96 seconds $97 for lifetime license No trial available CSV Desktop​​
Google SERP Scraper 92.73% 237 ms 2.29 seconds Free tool Free tool no need for trial HTML, JSON API

If you had wanted to rank a site in the past, you will know how observed SEOs are with data on the Search Engine Result Pages (SERP). Some go there to get keywords while others are there to either monitor their ranking or that of their competitors. Whichever it is for you, you can tell collecting data from SERP at any reasonable scale can’t be done manually. You need a web scraper to get this done.

However, scraping search engines like Google and Bing can be difficult. The page layout change often and you also have to deal with the anti-spam systems of these websites. If you do not want to deal with any of these two issues and even the process of parsing out data, then your best bet is to make use of a SERP scraper.

These are web scrapers that have been made specifically for scraping SERP data into structured JSON format. In this article, I will recommend some of the best SERP scrapers in the market for you. The scrapers are SERP APIs that you access via API endpoints.

1. Nimbleway SERP API — Overall Best SERP Scraper

The Nimbleway service is a web data collection service with Nimble API, Nimble Browser, and Nimble IP. The Nimble API is the web scraper among the 3. It is in it that you get the SERP API. This SERP API is one of the best you will get in the market. With just a simple API, you get back as a response, the JSON of the data found on a SERP.

One thing you will come to enjoy from my experience is how fast the results are returned when you send the result — usually under a second. Nimble API never fails to return results for the search engines it supports — Google, Bing, and Yahoo. You can not only use it to get keyword data but can also use it to monitor ranking changes and get notified if a change occurs.

Another feature I find impressive is that I do not have to build a data pipeline as I was able to integrate it to Amazon S3 effortlessly all done from their end. Aside from Amazon S3, it also works with Google Cloud Storage, among others.

2. Smartproxy SERP API — Best for Scraping Localised SERP Data

The Smartproxy SERP API is the first search engine scraping API I used from a proxy provider and the performance was superb. Smartproxy is one of the leading proxy providers with IPs from over 195 countries across the world. This proxy network it has already built for itself is what supports the SERP API. With this, you can collect localized SERP data from any region of the world as if you are in that region.

I didn’t have to deal with blocks when using their API for scraping Google since I only get to pay for successful requests. Google is not the only supported API, the service also supports Yandex, Bing, and Baidu. Smartproxy uses its proxies, solves captchas, and avoids all forms of blocks so you focus on the data and not blocks.

The data is returned as a JSON object in real-time. Some of the data you can scrape with this includes organic and paid searches, ads, related questions and searches, featured snippets, and images, among others.

3. Bright Data SERP API —Best for All Search Engines and Data

If you need data across all major search engines and need one scraper to scrape them all, then Bright Data is the service you should use. This web scraper has proven to be one of the best for scraping search engines. It has got support for Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Yandex, Baidu, and Naver SERP.

With this, you can scrape all kinds of structured data from the supported search engines such as search, map, shopping, review, images, videos, trends, news, and hotels. As with Smartproxy, you can also scrape localized data using the Bright Data SERP API. All you need to do is send a simple web request with the ISO code of the region and you are all set.

Bright Data handles your requests with its 72 million residential IPs infrastructures. It bypasses captchas, and even automatically retries requests if they fail on the first try. This service is built for enterprises and built to scale and you only get to pay for successful requests.

4. Apify Google Scraper — Best for NodeJS and Python Developers

All of the above-mentioned scrapers are available as API endpoints which makes them programming language non-specific. For the Apify Google Scraper, it is not accessed as a web endpoint; you will need to install the Apify SDK to access it and the SDK is available for only NodeJS and Python. Also, this comes not come with its own proxies as the others above — you will have to use your own proxies and I suggest you use the Apify Proxy as it integrates perfectly with this scraper.

Some of the data you can collect using the Apify Google Scraper includes organic and paid results, product ads, people also asked, related queries, review ratings and review counts, and even additional custom attributes. While Apify looks more complicated than the regular SERP API, you get more advanced features and it offers you more customization options. Aside from Google Scraper, Apify also provides other scrapers.

5. Shifter SERP API — Best SERP API with SDKs

Shifter is another proxy service like Bright Data and Smartproxy that offers a scraping API for collecting data from Google and other major search engines. As in the case with the other SERP APIs, Shifter does provide a REST endpoint through which you can collect data in structured JSON format. Interestingly, it also offers a library of SDKs for popular programming languages. The SDKs add additional functionality to the APIs.

Some of the popular languages Shifter Scraping APIs have SDKs for include Python, Go, PHP, and Ruby. I have used this API for scraping Google in the past for a medium-scale SEO project and the speed performance was excellent with only a few blocks. While the default data format is JSON for their SERP data, you can also collect the same data in CSV or even in raw HTML format if you wish. Aside from choosing the geo-location for the SERP you need to collect, Shifter also allows you to choose the specific device you want to mimic so it is rendered in it.

6. ScraperAPI —Most Reliable Google Scraper

If you have been using scraping APIs for long, there is every chance you already know of ScraperAPI. I did a performance test involving over 20 scraping APIs sometime back and ScraperAPI comes first when it comes to avoiding blocks. It was even lethal against anti-spam systems like Cloudflare, PerimeterX, and Datadome. When it comes to scraping Google Search, ScraperAPI is one of the best. Unlike the other services that need a different API for scraping search engines, ScraperAPI only provides you with one API.

All you need to do is add the auto_parse parameter to the URL and set it to true and it will automatically detect a Google Search Page and parse for you, the details in JSON. It does have support for over 40 countries from which you can scrape localized Google Search data from. Usually, scraping Google will cost you more API credits than other regular pages since it makes use of residential proxies to avoid getting detected and blocked.

7. ScrapingBee — Best for Custom Data Extraction from SERP

ScrapingBee is seen as one of the best alternatives to the ScraperAPI before proxy providers started offering their own scraping APIs. Even now, ScrapingBee is one of the leading scrapers for search engines. One feature you will come to like about ScrapingBee that is missing in the other tools is its ability to scrape custom data. It does come what a feature known as Extraction Rules.

Using this, you are able to scrape data into JSON but using CSS selectors. With this, you do not need to download all of the data you do not need and can specify only the important data thereby ensuring faster scraping. If you are a non-coder looking for a no-code tool to scrape Google and other search engines, you will also find ScrapingBee helpful.

This is because it comes with support for sending scraped data to popular data storage services like Google Sheets, Amazon S3, and many others. Its pricing is at the same price point as ScraperAPI and it does come with SDKs too.

8. SERPHouse — Specialized SERP Scraper with Customization Options

SERPHouse is the only provider on this list that is meant only for scraping Search Engine Result Pages (SERP). And this comes with some pecks you do not find in the other aforementioned SERP scrapers. With SERPHouse, you can customize the rendering option so you get the data as you want not as the scraper dime fit. Some of the customization options available to you include geolocation, multiple search type, and even device type.

SERPHouse does only support Google. It also does have APIs for popular search engines including Bing and Yahoo Search. If you visit the homepage of this provider, you will even see an API playground for you to see the kind of data you get for each request you send. You can make use of this to learn how to make use of it and get the most out of it. But in general, SERHouse is as easy to use as the other scraping APIs mentioned. As with the others too, you only get to pay for successful requests.

9. ScrapeBox — Best for Good Old Days SEOs

With all of the new tools popping out every now and then, it is easier to think the ScrapeBox era is long gone. But the reality is, ScrapeBox is still much relevant for those ready to get their hands dirty and do the work. ScrapeBox is dubbed the Swiss army knife of SEOs. It comes with a good number of scrapers of which Google Scrapers and other search engines are available.

The interface looks outdated — but it is still as efficient as it use to be. ScrapeBox is actually a collection of tools. It does have a keyword scraper that accesses a SERP and collects all of the keywords and their related keywords for you. You can also use it for scraping search engine listings which is good for scraping prospects or even monitoring your ranking and that of your competitors.

The difference between ScrapeBox and the other tools mentioned above is that ScrapeBox is bare metal and tailored towards SEOs. You will need to add proxies to use but you can use their free proxy scraper if you don’t mind scraping at a slow speed. For ScrapeBox, you only pay once and use it forever.

10. Google SERP Scraper — Best Free Google SERP Scraper

If you do not have a budget to spend on paying for any of the scrapers above but have the time and are ready to put in the effort, there are free scrapers you can use to scrape search engines for free. There are a good number of them on the Internet with this particular one available on GitHub. It is a NodeJS Google SERP Scraper that you can use to scrape data from only Google.

One thing you will come to like about this scraper is that it is customizable and you can decide to use it with either proxies or a scraping API. You can also choose the number of searches you wish you get or even retry unsuccessful requests. However, while it is free, you will need to invest in proxies. With proxies, this scraper won’t help you as Google will detect and block you in no time.

Oxylabs SERP Scraper API - #1 on Google is Good?

The Oxylabs SERP Scraper API is designed for real-time search data extraction. Its main features include:

  1. Pay only for successfully delivered results: Users are charged only for the results that are successfully delivered to them​1​.

  2. Coordinate-level precision data: This means the data provided is very precise, accurate to the level of specific geographical coordinates​2​.

  3. Superior ad scraping rate: The API boasts a high ad scraping rate, which is 2.7 times higher than the industry average. It also claims a 100% Google success rate and an average response time of 6.04 seconds​3​.

  4. Free trial: Oxylabs offers a one-week free trial that includes 5,000 results. No credit card is required for this trial​4​.

  5. Real-time data from major search engines: The API collects timely and reliable search results data from the most popular search engines, providing raw HTML or structured data in JSON format with both organic and paid results​5​.

  6. Access search results from almost any location: The API allows users to gather localized search results from 195 countries with coordinate-level precision. It supports country, state, city, or coordinate-level targeting​6​.

  7. Maintenance-free scraping infrastructure: Oxylabs provides a ready-to-use data collection infrastructure, eliminating the need for users to develop their own scrapers or parsers. The infrastructure includes an auto-retry system for failed scraping attempts and a built-in patented proxy rotator for block management​7​.

Despite these features, we have found the performance of the Oxylabs SERP Scraper API to be less than satisfactory in our testing. Therefore, after careful consideration, we have decided not to include it in our top 10 list, Hope Oxylabs will win the next test.

FAQs

Q. What is a SERP Scraper?

SERP Scrapers are web scrapers that have been developed to download and parse out data from the Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) into a structured JSON or any other format. They are specialized web scrapers for search engines. Some of them can be tailored toward a specific search engine such as Google or even Amazon while some can be general for all search engines. Usually, the most specific a SERP API is, the more customizable options you get. The SERP scrapers mentioned in the article above are mostly SERP APIs with only a few non-REST API scrapers for SERP.

Q. Do SERP Scrapers Require Proxies?

SERP scrapers under the hood work as regular scrapers do. This means they send requests too quickly enough to warrant getting blocked too soon. And as such, the use of proxies becomes a must for not SERP scrapers. However, for some SERP Scrapers like in the case of the SERP APIs mentioned above, you do not need to provide proxies as the tools use proxies under the hood. The ones you need to add proxies from your end are Apify, ScrapeBox, and the Google SERP Scraper on GitHub. But for the SERP scrapers, you do not need to worry about using your own proxies.

Q. Is Scraping Google Illegal?

Google and other search engines do not provide an official API for scraping them. And they also frown at scraping data from their platform using automated tools. However, this does not make it illegal. You can scrape Google provided the data being scraped is publicly available and you didn’t cause any harm to their server while scraping your data of interest. Google is a prime target for SEOs from around the world and as such, it invests in its anti-spam system. It is for this reason you need to use SERP scrapers that help you deal with all forms of blocks so you can focus on the data.

Conclusion

Search Engine Result Pages and the data on them are highly important to SEOs and even Internet marketers as a whole. SERP scrapers make the process of collecting the data so easy that marketers can focus on using the data collected for making the right business decision rather than the data collection process itself. The above are some of the best SERP scrapers that have been tested and proven to work.

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