What does SERP Scraper do?
SEO and content teams live inside Google results, but copying them by hand does not scale, and many SERP APIs feel priced and packaged for engineering teams first. ScrapeHub’s SERP Scraper is for people who need a keyword’s page-one reality in a spreadsheet today — organic positions, titles, URLs, snippets, and the SERP features that actually influence clicks.
A single dashboard job can:
- Snapshot organic rankings for a keyword list — Record position, title, URL, and snippet for each result so you can compare week over week or competitor vs competitor.
- Pull People Also Ask for content planning — Turn PAA questions into an outline backlog without clicking through every accordion in the browser.
- See paid presence when ads matter — Optionally include sponsored titles and landing URLs to understand who is buying the SERP in your niche.
- Capture local packs for service keywords — When Google shows a map pack, extract those businesses for local SEO and citation research.
- Localize by country, language, and device — US desktop and DE mobile are different SERPs. Set those controls in the form so your snapshot matches the market you sell into.
- Stay on the same credit wallet as other scrapers — SERP jobs, Maps leads, and social scrapes share one balance — useful when SEO and sales research live in the same company.
What data can I extract from Google SERPs?
| Organic result |
|---|
| Position |
| Title |
| URL |
| Displayed URL |
| Snippet |
| Keyword |
| Ads |
|---|
| Ad title |
| Landing URL |
| Description |
| Position (top/bottom) |
| SERP features |
|---|
| People Also Ask questions |
| Related searches |
| Local pack businesses |
| Featured snippet (when present) |
| Query metadata |
|---|
| Keyword |
| Country / locale |
| Language |
| Device (desktop/mobile) |
| Timestamp |
How much will it cost?
Plan around ~$1.20 per 1,000 delivered SERP rows on pay-as-you-go — a focused rank-tracking batch is usually inexpensive to validate.
Unlike many SERP products that meter “searches” in opaque credit bundles, you can see the output rows and only pay for what lands in your export.
How to scrape Google search results
If your keyword list already lives in a sheet, you are halfway done. The rest is a dashboard form.
- Create a free ScrapeHub account.
- Open SERP Scraper from your scrapers library.
- Paste one keyword or a whole list, then pick country, language, and device.
- Toggle ads, People Also Ask, or local pack only if that run needs them.
- Start the job and download CSV/JSON when it finishes — or schedule repeats once the sample looks right.
How teams use SERP data
- In-house SEO tracks priority keywords weekly and flags position drops before traffic tanks.
- Content teams mine People Also Ask to brief writers with questions people already ask Google.
- Agencies show clients who owns page one — organic and paid — with exports instead of screenshots.
- Local SEO reviews map-pack competitors for service-area keywords.
- Product marketers watch whether comparison and alternative queries still feature their domain.
- Analysts archive SERP snapshots for later modeling instead of trusting a single manual check.
What you configure in the dashboard
Think in keywords and markets, not API clients. These fields are exactly what you fill before clicking Start.
One query per line or a comma-separated list. Use the phrases your buyers type — “best crm for startups”, not internal product codes.
The market whose Google index you want. Rankings in the United States and Germany rarely match, even for the same English keyword.
Interface and result language preference. Pair it with country when you research multilingual sites.
Desktop and mobile layouts differ — especially for local and packed SERPs. Pick the device your traffic actually uses.
How deep to go. Page one is enough for most monitoring; deeper pages cost more and matter mainly for aggressive competitive sweeps.
Turn on when paid competitors are part of the story. Leave off for cheaper organic-only tracking.
Extract PAA questions for content and FAQ ideation. One of the highest-ROI toggles for editorial teams.
Capture the map pack when Google shows local businesses for the query — essential for service-area SEO.
Example setups from real workflows
Weekly rank check for two money keywords
Keep the job lean: US desktop, page one only, no extras. Export positions every Monday and chart them in your sheet.
- Keywords
- web scraping api, serp api alternative
- Country
- United States
- Device
- Desktop
- Pages per keyword
- 1
Local service keyword with full SERP context
For “near me” queries you usually want ads, PAA, and the local pack together — that is the page a homeowner actually sees.
- Keywords
- emergency plumber near me
- Country
- United States
- People Also Ask
- On
- Local pack
- On
- Include ads
- On
What the results look like
Organic results, PAA questions, ads, and local-pack items export as separate rows tied back to the source keyword. Preview the shape here, then grab the full file from the run page.
{
"keyword": "serp api",
"position": 1,
"title": "SerpApi: Google Search API",
"url": "https://serpapi.com/",
"snippet": "Scrape Google and other search engines from our easy...",
"country": "us",
"device": "desktop"
}Tips for trustworthy SERP snapshots
Results move — treat exports as timestamps
Google personalizes and experiments constantly. A single pull is a snapshot, not a law of nature. For monitoring, rerun the same keyword set on a schedule and compare by date.
Do not enable every toggle on day one
Ads + PAA + local pack + deep pages multiplies rows quickly. Validate organic rankings first, then add features when you know you will use them in the report.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | Included |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Trial credits to inspect a sample SERP export |
| Pay-as-you-go | from ~$1.20 / 1,000 results | No seat licenses; API and webhooks available |
| Business | Custom | Volume pricing, SLA, priority support |
Dedicated SERP APIs vs ScrapeHub
| Typical SERP API | ScrapeHub | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary user | Engineers integrating search data into products | SEO/ops teams who need exports and occasional API hooks |
| Billing feel | Plan tiers and search credits that are easy to overbuy | Credits for delivered rows, shared with other scrapers |
| Getting started | API key, client library, pagination code | Dashboard form first; API when you automate |
| Beyond Google SERPs | Often a search-only product | Same account for Maps, Reddit, TikTok, and more |
FAQ
- What is a SERP scraper?
- It collects what Google shows for a query — rankings, titles, links, snippets, and features like People Also Ask — so you can analyze the page without copying it by hand.
- Is this a SerpAPI alternative?
- For many SEO and research workflows, yes: localized organic results, optional SERP features, and structured export. If you are building a consumer product that needs hard search SLAs at huge QPS, compare vendors carefully. If you need weekly keyword snapshots and PAA mining, ScrapeHub is usually simpler.
- Is scraping Google search results legal?
- Using publicly shown SERP data for SEO tools and research is widespread. You remain responsible for Google’s terms and for compliant storage/use of the data.
- Can I try it free?
- Yes. Trial credits on free accounts are enough to run a small keyword sample and inspect the CSV before buying a pack.
- Can I scrape mobile SERPs?
- Yes. Set Device to mobile when mobile rankings are what your traffic report cares about.
- How should I track rankings over time?
- Save each run with its timestamp, keep the keyword list and localization identical, and compare positions across exports — weekly is a common cadence.